Re: eating my hollyhocks
- Subject: Re: eating my hollyhocks
- From: b* s*
- Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 11:34:30 -0700
>Up here near Tilden Park the leaves of my Callas have notches cut out all
>along the edges, something that I don't remember ever seeing before.
>However, something else I've never seen in the garden before --small bright
>green grasshoppers--have also turned up this year. So far I haven't seen one
>actually eating a leaf, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that there's a
>correlation.
>
>Anyone else having problems?
>
>Cecile -also in Berkeley
>
>barbara sargent wrote:
>
>> My wonderful yellow perennial hollyhock has finally bloomed after three
>> years; but the flowers are being chewed around the edges. I thought the
>> culprit might be some kind of butterfly larvae so I sprayed with BT. This
>> *seemed* to slow it down a bit but I'm not really sure.
>>
>> Does anyone have an idea of what other pest might be doing the damage?
>>
>> Barbara - in Berkeley
Cecile,
I saw the culprit in the act. It's a bee--perhaps a leafcutter bee. I saw
it actually cutting a round notch on the edge of a hollyhock petal. Then it
held it in it's mouth (?) and flew away with it.
Now the question is--how to repel these bees? I like to encourage bees in
general but the hollyhocks really look awful with notches cut out around
the edges of every last one. And, interestingly, it's only the yellow
hollyhock which they seem to like.
Barbara - in the Berkeley flatlands
