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Three (unrelated) queries...
1. My viburnum tinus plants (quite a few dotted about the garden, all pretty mature) were all badly damaged by viburnum beetle a month or so ago, so I cut them all down a few weeks ago and sprayed with bug killer. They immediately put out a few nice green leaves, but HELP! The beetle has attacked them all again! Should I just get rid of the plants and give up on VT or is there a better way to manage the bleeding beetles?
2. I planted several geraniums (kashmir white) this spring in a new mixed flower bed, which has been watered regularly. Although the plants look very healthy (lots of green leaves), there have been very few flowers. Any ideas as to how to promote more flowers? Or should I just wait and hope that they'll be more floriferous next year?
3. I have two good sized healthy looking fuchsias (Delta Sarah) in pots on my patio. They have always flowered well and are quite old, but this year I changed their position. I keep noticing that the buds they have just disappear! Could it be the pigeons eating them? (Other smaller fuchsias on the same patio seem to flower ok).
TIA, Janie
2. I planted several geraniums (kashmir white) this spring in a new mixed flower bed, which has been watered regularly. Although the plants look very healthy (lots of green leaves), there have been very few flowers. Any ideas as to how to promote more flowers? Or should I just wait and hope that they'll be more floriferous next year?
3. I have two good sized healthy looking fuchsias (Delta Sarah) in pots on my patio. They have always flowered well and are quite old, but this year I changed their position. I keep noticing that the buds they have just disappear! Could it be the pigeons eating them? (Other smaller fuchsias on the same patio seem to flower ok).
TIA, Janie
Lincolnshire
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3. Put a bit of crumpled chicken wire or similar over them for a few days and see if things get better. Or get a wildlife camera...
If the geraniums are small, they possibly just need to mature a bit. Again, they don't need much cossetting - Kashmir white [and the whites in general] tend to be less floriferous anyway. I wouldn't worry too much about them, a general feed next spring should help, but they don't need much help apart from that in my experience.
I don't grow fuchsias, so can't really help with those, but have you refreshed the soil/compost they're in each year? Potted plants , especially heavy flowering ones, will use up nutrients very quickly, so it may be that they're suffering a bit from lack of moisture and nutrition.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I didn't realise that the whites were less floriferous, first time I've grown them... should maybe have stuck to Rozanne which thrives and flowers profusely on very little care. Let's hope they put on a better show later this year/next year.
Not sure about the viburnum... they had all been fine for 10+ years (one is about 12ft high, part of a mixed hedge), and had always thrived before this infestation. They never had any feed, water or other tlc, just seemed to do their own thing. Maybe it's the weird weather that has brought out the pests. May just take them out completely and plant with other more resistant shrubs (the Telegraph link suggests a couple of more resistant species, so thanks for that). It's not just the damage they cause the plants, but also the horrid smell that comes with them I dislike!