Can anyone help me to solve a problem with my hardy geraniums?

Posts

• Ann Folkard Posts: 3

  May 2018

  Every spring after a good start they grow well and then late May the holes start to appear - both black and white and the buds become deformed. It started on my Ann Folkard geranium but is spreading to others now. I have sprayed with an insecticide ut I can't see any insects on the plants. 

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• Topbird Posts: 8,355

  May 2018 edited May 2018

  Have a look at this link to Helen Yemm's article (from years ago) about capsid bugs and then maybe have a Google about these bugs and the affect on hardy geraniums, to see if the symptoms are the same as yours.
  
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/3349947/Gardening-advice-Thorny-problems.html
  
  Failing that I'd look for fungal problems for geraniums (watch out that articles are not talking about pelargoniums though!).
  
  Personally I think capsid bugs are the more likely problem. Helen Y's article gives you a break down of the life cycle of the bug so you can start a properly targeted and timed approach to spraying if that's the route you want to go down.
  
  

  Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  

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• Topbird Posts: 8,355

  May 2018 edited May 2018

  Sorry, that link doesn't seem to be working for some reason - try again
  
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/3349947/Gardening-advice-Thorny-problems.html
  

  Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  

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• Topbird Posts: 8,355

  May 2018

  For some reason the link isn't working but if you Google the following words exactly:- 
  
  helen yemm telegraph capsid bug hardy geranium
  
   - then the article from 2008 is at the top of the results

  Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  

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• Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

  May 2018

  Thanks Topbird - that article has solved a problem that has been a mystery to me for years.

  
  Billericay - Essex
  
  Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
  Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

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• Ann Folkard Posts: 3

  May 2018

  Thanks, I read the same article and came to a similar conclusion. I don't really want to spray, but the problem has spread so viciously throughout the garden I may have to. Thanks for your comments.

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• Topbird Posts: 8,355

  May 2018

  Pete8 said:

  Thanks Topbird - that article has solved a problem that has been a mystery to me for years.

  👍

  Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  

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