Hi Mad, great to hear from you . . .

" I read a disturbing article yesterday in the newly arrived Horticulture
Magazine and it gave me the shudders. There is a lily beetle that has
been
here for just past a decade

These beetles SUCK! I have been in an ongoing battle w/them for years, but
the lilies keep coming back, which is great. You have to pick the
fire-engine red beetles off the plant and drown them in soapy water (my
method anyway) and you have to inspect the undersides of the leaves as
that's where the 'slugs' are - the babies covered in poop - oh yuck, I
didn't know it was poop, how gross (but an impressive mechanism devised by
Ma Nature!). I squish them and I scrape eggs. I think it's the larvae that
do the most damage by, what appears to be, sucking the life out of the leaf
they reside on. This is the only area of my yard that I've actually
resorted to poison in - we'll see if the stuff works - I hate having to use
it.


First year successes for some yarrows, but they're flopping about like
tantrum children so I know the soil is still too rich for their toes.

I have a plant that is popping up all over my yard and I believe it is a
yarrow of sorts, something like achillea milleflora (sp?!?!?), very
invasive -- so be careful what you plant, lol.

LeeAnne,
zone 5, north of Boston, MA


madgardener up on the humid ridge, back in Fairy Holler overlooking
English
Mountain in EAstern Tennessee zone 7, Sunset zone 36