My roses had about 1/3 of the beetles on them tonight as compared with last night. It looks like cutting off some of the blooms infested with beetles worked well. I only found one in my back flower garden so hopefully yesterday was the worst it will be.
The Japanese Beetles are taking over my roses. I literally pulled at least 100 of three bushes this evening, with some help from a kind neighbor. There were so many clustered on the new blooms we just cut them off because the blooms were already so damaged. We just pruned the worst spots and dropped the whole flower in the bucket because some blooms had 6 or 7 beetles on them. Those flowers were never coming back anyhow. The silver lining is that I found a few roses on the inside of the bush that were unharmed. This is the worst year I have seen with these beetles.
I took some of this to a 4th of July party and everyone loved it. And it was a great way to use up some of our bing cherries. You should make this, your friends will love it. You might even want to try it with blueberries or raspberries since they will be in season soon.
This recipe for Cherry Cinnamon Schnapps is from MarthaStewart.com
Link to the rest of the recipe:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cherry-cinnamon-schnapps
This is a photo of our Bing Cherries when they were not quite ripe. They look stunning in a simple bowl as a centerpiece until you have a chance to use them. We made cherry vodka and a fabulous homemade vanilla ice cream with homemade hot fudge and fresh cherries. It was our best crop to date.
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I bought my first day lily 4 years ago. I planted them in the back of my garden and they have made a lovely backdrop for everything else. The ones in the back are a pale yellow that bloom for about a month in July, but the foliage is there from May to November. I also have a couple of day lilies in the front of my garden that bloom all season long. They are drought tolerant and require very little maintenance. I enjoy growing them and there are more varieties now than I can list.
Lavender has a lovely scent and attracts bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. It is very easy to care for, basically make sure you water it if it hasn’t rained for 10 days to 14 days. Lavender is drought tolerant and some say it does not even need fertilizer. It is a great companion plant for black eyed susans, day lilies, and cone flowers. I use lavender in cut flower arrangements with roses and in sachets. I also dry lavender in bunches for decoration. It is like having a little piece of Provence in your yard.
This is my butterfly bush, which is appropriately named because I see butterflies near it quite frequently. It also attracts hummingbirds and bees of course. I usually see Monarchs. The butterfly bush requires little maintenance. It loves water so you should water it if you have not had rain in the last week or so. In the spring I cut it back to a foot or two from the ground and it springs back in late May. I was worried that it was dead the first year, but they are a bit behind the rest of the perennial in the spring. I plant late blooming tulips around it to have some early season color in that part of the garden.
Zinnias are one of my favorite annuals to grow. They are low maintenance and are very easy to grow. They require dead-heading about every two weeks and flourish with some pellet fertilizer when planting them. Zinnias grow best in full s
un. I love them and they also make lovely cut flowers that last about a week. My favorite variety is the Magellan which I use for a mass planting and for a border around a perennial garden.
Petunias are easy to grow annual – basically just some watering and dead heading. They can take full sun and wave petunias in particular can add a great deal of color to your garden.
This is what damage from a Japanese Beetle looks like. They do the same thing to flowers and many leaves. It almost looks like lace within the leaf. If left alone they can do this to an entire tree or bush. I have seen them on butterfly bushes, roses, zinnias, cherry trees, burning bushes, and geraniums. See my post on getting rid of Japanese beetles for more information.
