| I have purchased my first home and in the front of there is a flower bed that has shrubs linging the length of the front. My wife and I would like to add colorful perenials in between the shrubs and as borders. Are there any you recommend that would survive the heat in texas and are colorful and easy to maintain and when is a good time to plant them. Also on a few the shrubs whci are shiny leave and have sahrp pointyedges,there are these white specs (doesn't look like aphids and no sticky residue)that dont seem to move but when you rub the leaf bewteen your thumbs there is a yellowish tint. Leaves have fallen off half of one shrub and am afraid its going to die and noticed that on the leaves are black specs in the veins ofthe leaves. IS this thrips and what could I do to fix this and stop it from spreading to the other shrubs? |
| Nick, I would consider perennials such as New Gold Lantana, Mystic Spires Salvia and Bulbine if the area is very sunny. The white things on your shrubs are most likely scale insects. Take a sample to your County Extension Office to confirm this. Control for scale includes products with imidocloprid applied as a drench to the soil and summer oil sprays applied as a complete coverage spray to the foliage. Thanks for the question. Please stop in again soon! |
