Last night I noticed that one of my favorite butterfly bushes is in bloom. The butterflies seem to love it... and in turn, the bluebirds view it as a virtual smorgasbord of winged meals.
This "Black Knight" (Buddleia davidii) reaches approximately 6 ft. high/wide. It blooms well into the fall, but seems to be a bit ahead of schedule this year; probably due to our jump from winter into summer without the pleasures of spring.
I'm a bit disheartened to find that scale has attacked the Manhattan (Euonymus) shrubs that run the length of the front sidewalk and house foundation. We plan to attack this problem tomorrow to see if they can be saved. Unfortunately it went undetected until tonight when I noticed a huge bare spot in the middle of the hedge row. I am suspicious that this is also trying to attack the Royal Crape Myrtle in the back yard - so we'll do an application on it; just for good measure.
I am also concerned that the Cicadas may have been a bit too aggressive when laying eggs on the young Mandi Crape Myrtles along the west side of the yard. At a distance I noticed a limb broken and hanging and upon closer examination saw something that looked at first glance like thorns on a rosebush. There were four small limbs that were broken, wilted and hanging from these trees.
It seems as if my gardening skills are really being tested this week. I may not know much about gardening; but I can't stand to be whipped by something! Wish me luck!
Until tomorrow - rest well and sweet dreams!
We noticed those broken limbs on the Rose of Sharons, and several trees yesterday, and wondered what had happened.
ReplyDeleteI discovered it is from the cicadas, even though they don't eat leaves, they lay their eggs in the branches and the weakest limbs of a tree are often temporarily damaged or killed off, the result of which is called flagging, as the leaves of the branch will turn brown and look like a flag. They are doing the trees a favor by pruning their weakest branches.
A beautiful Butterfly Bush !
~Jo