Re: Potatoes, ladybugs & deer

Sandy,

You might remember that I've been collecting tips and suggestions from people
about growing plants, and I've received some interesting submissions:


An old fashioned technique they used to root hard-to-root cuttings was to
bore a small hole into a small new potato.  The hole to be just as big as the
stem of your cutting.  Then, tuck the cutting into the potato and it would root.
They said there was something in the potato that would help keep bacteria etc
from infesting the cutting and give the cutting a chance to root.

They had some other interesting advice, like only using a brown glass
container to root your cuttings in.

And to see when cuttings had rooted, you could suspend the container with the
cuttings in it just above a shallow container of water; that the roots would
grow out the bottom of the container to get to the water.

This one really made me blink:  You know how when you buy ladybugs to release
in your garden, a lot of them walk to the top of the nearest plant and then
fly away?  This person said to dump the packet of ladybugs into a glass of
cola, and that they wouldn't fly away as quickly.  If I were a ladybug and someone
tried to drown me in a glass of cola, I would fly away as fast as my wings
would take me!  My strategy has always been to release them at dusk below the
aphid infestation on my roses and by the time they eat their way to the top,
they are too full to fly off into the dark.

What do you think?

When I visited Harriet Foster's nursery some years ago, she was telling me
how the deer would wander down and eat her pelargoniums and assorted other
"greens".  Have you had any problems with deer and your pelargoniums?

Cindi
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