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Aphids and Whiteflies in the garden

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Each garden and therefore each gardener is faced with pests that plague their plants from time to time. It’s something that we have to learn how to deal with, and when possible learn to control those pesky pests.

Some plants such as honeysuckle, citrus trees and other flowering shrubs and vines are infested each year with aphids and whiteflies. How can you control some of these pests naturally?

Well, whiteflies can be a real challenge. Planting marigolds near or around plants that frequently get infestations of whiteflies might help. Marigolds secrete a substance around their roots that is absorbed by nearby plants and this helps to repel the insects. This might now work for large shrubs and trees though.

Whiteflies have several natural enemies. Get to know the bugs in your garden. Some of them are beneficial. Insects such as lacewings, big-eyed bugs, minute pirate bugs and a tiny wasp called Encarsia are natural predators of whiteflies. Avoid using pesticides in the area as that will kill off these beneficial bugs that otherwise would find and attack the whiteflies.

Aphids are a big problem in my garden each year. They love my honeysuckle – particularly my Harlequin Honeysuckle for some reason. They also thrive on the newly developing leaves and flower buds of my roses.

When an aphid infestation is really bad I get one of my spray bottles and add a couple of drops of dish washing liquid to the water in the bottle. I then go out and spray the affected areas of each plant with this mixture. By selectively spraying the affected areas of the plants I don’t bother the many other insects that are in my garden- many of which are beneficial. I find that for really bad infestations I have to spray the affected plants with this soapy mixture two or three times in one week. After that the aphids are usually gone.

Like the whitefly, aphids have many natural enemies as well. One of the most important enemies of the aphid are the various species of parasitic wasp that lay their eggs inside aphids. Other predators that feed on aphids are lady bugs or the lady beetle as it’s known in some parts, lacewing and syrphid fly.

There are a number of mail order companies, and some nurseries, that sell a huge variety of beneficial insects for the garden. You might think about purchasing some of these insects to help control your whitefly or aphid problems.

I’ve purchased ladybugs in the past. 2000 I believe! I tried to put them on the plants that I knew the aphids and other pests enjoyed bothering. The lady bugs stayed in my garden for the most part for a day or two but then dispersed throughout the neighborhood. I do think that at the time they stayed long enough to control my pest problem.

If anyone has any other suggestions for controlling whiteflies or aphids in the garden I’d love to hear your suggestions. Please leave a comment.






Sunny days are on the way

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Day light savings took me by surprise. I had forgotten that we were going to jump an hour ahead so early this year. At least this means that we’ll have a few weeks more of extra day light than we normally do.

An increase in day light hours got me thinking about the sun. As in sunny days, and how much I’m longing for it to warm up outside so that my plants can begin to come out of dormancy and I can get outside and work in my garden once more.

To brighten my day while I pine for summer days I thought I’d post a lovely sunflower photo today. You can’t help but look at a beautiful sunflower and think of summer. Looking at a sunflower just evokes good memories of hot summer days.

I guess I’ve grown sunflowers since I was a child. We used to grow them at our cottage in our country garden. They were “My” flowers. Now I grow a mix of medium to tall, hybrid and normal, multi and single flowered sunflowers in my front boulevard garden bed. I grow them there so that my neighbors can enjoy them as well. I’m amazed at how many people stop to gaze at them or make a comment about them if they see my husband or I outdoors.

That’s why, to me, the sunflower is a happy flower.

What flower or plant makes you feel the way sunflowers make me feel?

* I’m talking about another sunny yellow flower on my other site today too! Have a peek.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Perennials that tolerate dry partly sunny conditions

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Looking for a perennial that’s fairly easy to care for, can grow in a dry area, partly sunny and that grows tall?

There are many plants that suit this description.

I find that the description “Part Sun” can be confusing. It’s very subjective as to what “Part Sun” is after all isn’t it? In my garden I have several areas that I could call part sun, but some are brighter than others, while some have more shade than sun. This means that when you are picking a plant that has a description of “part sun” in it’s care guidelines you might have to experiment a bit and see what does well and where.

In that vein – if the area that you’d like to plant your new perennial in has about six hours of sun that includes some noon hour sun, or if it’s sunny all afternoon you’d want to chose plants that take full sun. Some plants that fit this description would be the purple coneflower, caryopteris, hyssop or baptisia.

If the area only gets sun part of the morning, or early morning and late afternoon, or gets dappled sunlight throughout the day you’ll need to pick out a more shade tolerant plant.

Old fashioned bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis), large hostas, or Aruncus would work well in a shaded area.

All of the suggested plants should tolerate drier soil. However, you should pay attention to soil preparation prior to planting. Adding organic materials such as compost, or rotted leaves will help the soil stay moist longer. An organic mulch around the plants that is several inches deep, such as shredded cedar or orchid bark, will also help keep the soil moist.

Your local garden nursery or county extension should be able to suggest specific plants that should do well in your garden based on local conditions.

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