Pesky pests
What a quiet spring we had pest-wise here at VP Gardens , apart from hordes of aphids which obviously like the dry sunny weather we've had. Thank goodness I've learned patience over the years to leave them and sure enough the small garden birds targeted the roses and carried off beak fulls to feed their young voraciously calling for attention at the bottom of the garden. Elsewhere, plentiful ladybird larvae cleared the blackfly from my dahlias in a matter of days. The one pictured above has grown large and fat on what was on offer and is ready to pupate and transform itself into the adults we love to see. Now we're in June - and with a fairly reasonable rainfall - other pests have arrived in droves to be dealt with. For some strange reason I only ever find rose sawfly caterpillars on my 'Kew Gardens' rose, perhaps its position in the middle of the garden is a favourable to the unseen incoming adults? Luckily, they readily show themselves (as shown above) when I do a...