delurk
Hello there.

From coupla days persusal of this group I have learned much of interest -
not least I have found the answer to a question that had been forming in my
mind everytime I looked at my lillies in the garden - what was it that red
thing that was eating the hell out of them ? I now discover it is the
dreaded lily beetle. Sigh. Best kiss goodbye to my lillies then.

I see it says on the RHS site that a couple of wasps eat them - any ideas
which ones ? I had a hornet fly down my chimney the other night, and
although I was wary of it (actually I was terrified - an allergic reaction
exists in the family to stings) and had my brave fella trap it in a jar and
take it off down the road to the woods (hopefully if it was a queen looking
to nest she'd prefer it there) - perhaps she might have taken care of the
problem for me. ;-)

I have not as yet used any pesticides in my garden (which I have been
building and tending for the last year and a half) and I'm not nuts about
starting it now.

Also - my fella bought me lots and lots of bulbs for my birthday last year
(October) and we planted them all in the garden (a nice way to spend your
birthday ). All the spring ones have come up (they were my responsibilty
so I'm quite pleased) - both in pots and in the ground, but as yet nothing
at all - as in, it looks like a bare bit of ground - is showing of the
summer ones (they were bf's charges). My bf fears the frost may have done
for 'em but wouldn't that have got the spring ones too ? The only difference
that I can tell in the method of planting is that I didn't put mine in so
deep (for which I got frowned at - but I wasn't to know at the time, and
they've showed up fine anyway, so -).
How late can they start showing their faces before we assume something
untoward has happened ? I'm a total newbie to many aspects of gardening so
excuse the ignorance. I don't exactly remember what there is in there but it
was one of these big job lots from a magazine - I got irises, daffs, grape
hyacinth, tulips, anenomes, aliums and so forth in my lot of spring stuff so
I assume the equivalent more common sort of summer bulbs would be in his lot
(if anyone would know what that sort of thing was).

Any pointers would be much appreciated.


Rachael