A lone ant gave the game away
 

Last evening whilst on my haunches examining the lines of sweet pea
for gaps I was suddenly distracted by a movement to my left where a
large blue-glazed pot supports a rather nice red jap. maple
(bloodgood).

It was a solitary ant. But there was determination in its movement and
so I wondered what could he be after and more to the point why weren't
his buddies scoffing the aphids on the rose to my right like they did
last year after I crushed up the majority of their little 'honey'
producing hosts.

And then I noticed that I had never noticed how knobbly the plants
stem is. But then I realised those weren't nodular growths, but reddy-
brown aphids entirely blending in to the stem. Further inspection
revealed the entire plant , every little stem, new and old was covered
2 to 3 thick in them; It took a while, but I got through the lot.

For 2 years I had tried to grow such a plant in just that place, but
both died (££) for no really determinable reason other then possible
run-off from the patio, but that seemed unlikely because it is so worn
and clapped out and ant riddled that the underlying material has
turned to sand, so there wouldn't be much by way of run-off. That
said, growing the maple in the pot seemed to have done the trick. This
is it's second year.