I thought with a mild winter the violas would do well. Now I see a few
of them are smothered in aphids, and the small leaf size makes it
difficult to treat them in any way. Surprised to see them this early,
but this winter has been full of surprises.

On 30/01/2012 13:29, Jake wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:36:18 +0100, wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:38:13 +0000, stuart noble
wrote:

I thought with a mild winter the violas would do well. Now I see a few
of them are smothered in aphids, and the small leaf size makes it
difficult to treat them in any way. Surprised to see them this early,
but this winter has been full of surprises.

We saw tits picking insects off trees and plants at the weekend.
Midges are out and about.

And lily beetle here!

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay where
the four seasons are salt,pepper,mustard and vinegar.

But, for the first time this winter, blackbirds are now gobbling the
pyracantha berries. Ominous

On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:38:13 +0000, stuart noble
wrote:

I thought with a mild winter the violas would do well. Now I see a few
of them are smothered in aphids, and the small leaf size makes it
difficult to treat them in any way. Surprised to see them this early,
but this winter has been full of surprises.


I fetched some leaves in to look at under a microscope yesterday. Was
a minute or three into looking at them when I realised I'd got a
greenfly mooching about on my desk.
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

My blackbirds have changed behaviour - for the first time ever, they are eating the yellow holly berries. And the pink/white pernettya berries. But they're still ignoring the cotoneaster, which they always have regarded as inedible, along with Skimmia.

"kay" wrote in message
...

stuart noble;948774 Wrote:


But, for the first time this winter, blackbirds are now gobbling the
pyracantha berries. Ominous

My blackbirds have changed behaviour - for the first time ever, they are
eating the yellow holly berries. And the pink/white pernettya berries.
But they're still ignoring the cotoneaster, which they always have
regarded as inedible, along with Skimmia.


In my garden the cotoneaster are always left until last. The rowan (Joseph
Rock) are always the first and are gone by early December.
R.

Joseph Rock is yellow, isn't it? Maybe I've got an intelligent blackbird who has extrapolated from my yellow rowan berries (gone much earlier than December!) that yellow holly berries would also be good.

My first is always the redcurrants. Then cherries, amelanchier, and then the early Worcester apples. Then they take in the Rowans before returning to the rest of the apples.