Just when I thought all was fine and everything has finally settled down and was going to grow for Spring, I noticed the camellia I have in the one room has some scale of some sort. Not the regular scale, looks like tiny sand and you can scrape it off with fingernail. I wash it off with Alcohol pads but it is a big job since the plant is almost 5 ft. tall. Guess I will begin and hopefully finish before lunch time.
Also, the African Gardenia I was bragging about is now full of something that leaves a sticky substance on the leaves and there are some webs. So, that has to be attacked too.
I know for sure both are going to be attended to today.
Have a good day and especially a good weekend.

Sounds like spider mites and perhaps aphids on the gardenia. I told you that my gardenia have always been magnets for insects. Spraying the leaves, top and bottom, with a strong blast of water will get rid of a lot of those insects. You should do this every 3-4 days for a couple of weeks if possible. Don't forget, these are completely different insects. If you are going to spray to control them, an insecticide is used to kill aphids and a miticide to kill the spider mites.

We recently got in all the bagged Grape. Blueberry, Raspberry etc plants in. Of course--they are in the warm GH.
I was keeping an eye on them because, last spring, when we got all these in the same thing happened
as is now happening to the new shipment.
Out of nowhere--the stems are getting these tiny droplets of some kind of clear, gel-like beads on them all
up and down. I believe they are eggs of some sort that are now appearing because of the warm GH.
What else would look like clear, minute droplets on all the stems?

Las year--all the stems were coverd with these things as well and,eventually, ended up having Aphids
all up and down the stems and new growths --and the plants died and were discarded,
None of them were purchased. Now I am seeing the same thing.

I marked down (store use) a spray bottle of Sevin fruit and veg. spray and sprayed all the stems with it
a couple of days ago. Hope it helps.
If no "higher authority" gets uppity about me doing this--I will try to do it once a week.

I will try to take my camera with me Sunday and see if I can get a macro of these clear, gel-like beads
on the stems. Maybe someone will chime in on what these are.
Does anyone know if there is an Aphid--or other sucking insect, that would have these kind of things
up and down woody stems--like Grapes, Raspberries, Blueberries, and such???????
I can just wipe the gel-thingies off if I just run my fingers up and down the stems.

Sorry--I do not have a picture. Opinions welcome! Gita

Got pictures of the little brown critters on the camellia. What are they and after two soap solution baths there are still a few here but I do not know if they are alive. I wonder if they are in the soil. They seem to appear each each year and I have changed the soil, so I am at a loss to figure out where they hide from one year to the next.

Ahhhh--I finally found (again) the post I didon the mystery gel-specks on the grape vines we got in
at the HD. See post above. re the specks I thought were Aphid eggs.

I consulted with another garden associate and he was sure they were Aphid eggs.
So--my guess was right. SO--I took a sanitizer-wipe and wiped down the fragile stems as gently
as I could. Wanted to get most of them .
Yesterday, I checked again--and now there seemed to be some on the undersides of the leaves.
Will stay with it....FYI--these are ONLY on the Grape plant stems. None on the Blueberries, or Raspberries.

I took some macro pictures of the gel-eggs covered stems to show you. Sorry that they are a
a bit out of focus. I think I got too close. I plan to continye spraying the plants with the Sevin
I marked down. It was the only spray that listed it as used on veg. and fruits and berries.
Do you think Horticultural Oil would be better?

Does anyone have any opinions on these? Thanks, Gita

It would seem to me that you should go back to the wholesaler and tell him and make sure there are no more surprises that arrive at your garden store. I heard not too long ago that almost all the tropical plants we are getting here in the US are coming from out of the country and that the inspections at the postal or border is being done box by box and many are not passing inspection. I have no idea where you guys get yours but this should not be your problem, it is theirs. I would send the entire lot back and tell them to replace them without bugs. I would never sell those plants to the public because there is no way you will be able to guarantee you are not sending bugs home with them. Just my opinion Gita and I know you are not the buyer for that department, but someone needs to know there is a problem with the product that obviously did not start at HD.

JB -

It sounds like you may have more than one kind of insect pest on your Carmelia and Gardenia. Their presence may be an indication that the plants are under stress for other reasons - improper light or watering, for example. Both are difficult plants to manage indoors.

Using alcohol swabs and wipes is not only exceedingly tedious, it is also ineffective. The juvenile forms of scale, mealybugs, aphids and spider mites are virtually invisible to the naked eye and they tend to hide in crevices where you cannot see or reach them with swabs. Hence, a very through spraying - drenching, really - is essential to effectively eradicate these pests. I recommend a solution of 5 parts water, 1 part alcohol and a squirt of liquid soap. But the key is to drench all leaf and stem surfaces until they are dripping wet. Yes, it is a messy task, but if you are really thorough, one treatment may be all that is necessary.

I have tried all kinds of sprays and such over the years. The single best spray now available is: Azamax. Does not smell up the house (when used indoors.) Safe to spray on almost everything. Effective! Safe around fish and children. Not too expensive. The only other spray I need is: Garden Safe Fungicide 3. Azamax is refined down to be very effective on bugs but at the loss of it's ability to handle mildew, rust, etc. Garden Safe takes care of those. I am over wintering about 2000 house plants in my small house. Needless to say they are close together and the #1 problem (in the past) was always pests. No more. I cannot tell you what a difference Azamax has made to my life. Gene

That's great information, Gene. Until I built my solarium (winter, 2015), I never really dealt with insects or fungi. I do have two greenhouses (and a third, temporary one), but what few insects in those structures were typically controlled with yellow/blue sticky cards. I do use those cards in the solarium and boy, do they load up with aphids/fungus gnats/white flies rapidly. I will have to look into Azamax as an addendum to those cards.

By the way, the homemade insecticide that I occasionally use on my orchids (1 pint alcohol + 1 pint 409 + 3 quarts water) is not well-tolerated by my Plumeria leaves. I have had to quit using it on the Plumeria. I even tried using it at 1/2 strength, but the leaves still would not tolerate it.

WillC said:JB -

It sounds like you may have more than one kind of insect pest on your Carmelia and Gardenia. Their presence may be an indication that the plants are under stress for other reasons - improper light or watering, for example. Both are difficult plants to manage indoors.

Using alcohol swabs and wipes is not only exceedingly tedious, it is also ineffective. The juvenile forms of scale, mealybugs, aphids and spider mites are virtually invisible to the naked eye and they tend to hide in crevices where you cannot see or reach them with swabs. Hence, a very through spraying - drenching, really - is essential to effectively eradicate these pests. I recommend a solution of 5 parts water, 1 part alcohol and a squirt of liquid soap. But the key is to drench all leaf and stem surfaces until they are dripping wet. Yes, it is a messy task, but if you are really thorough, one treatment may be all that is necessary.

Great advice, thank you. I have given up with the alcohol swabs since as you said it seemed endless. I am using a soap base spray and am drenching it. Have done that two days in a row and I am still finding a few of them, not sure if they are alive or not. That is the camellia. The African Gardenia (not really a gardenia) was much easier. I did a good drenching on that because I was not sure what I was fighting on that one since I only saw a small web and it could have been a spider, so that one seems to be under control. Nothing showing at all.
I moved those plants but the camellia gets these the same each year and i think they are in the soil. I need to really clean up that soil next.

JB--
I hear you! I hear you!
I have NO idea where these grape and berry plants come from! It is, most likely, an vendor
that just delivers the rack-full and then is gone.
I doubt if Home Depot is interested to call and find out. I will ask my supervisor.

As it is--most of the plants we sell are "Pay by scan". That means--they are all "on consignment".
We don't own any of them--until we sell them. Then we get the $$.
The vendors take "the hit".
I am trying to eliminate these Aphids as best I can b/c I work in Garden and I love plants.
It is my own decision. I bet someone will tell me to stop doing it if they find out.

Bracing for all the annuals that will soon be coming in. You know what that means!

PS, Wanna see something sad? Here is a section of the SALMON CC that has just died.
I showed you a while ago how these kind of things happen--that was on the white CC.
Do you have a wise words of advice? Is it a fungus? A rot of some kind? Should I re-pot?

Maybe I am watering them too often? Winter is supposed to be their "rest" time.

1st pic.--Salmon one
2nd pic--The white one Both have always been very strong growers. You know that !!

BTW, dear JB--My name is spelled...Gita--NOT Geta. Take care! Gita

Gita, I'm all as I have a few that have been doing that and I'm not sure what to do. I had a huge white one a few years back that just completely collapsed on me before I realized what was happening. I was pretty upset about it for a while. Do I recall that someone on another thread recently said that it could be old age, and that the plant needs to be restarted with cuttings? Did you see that Gita? It might have been on the C&S forum. I'll have to look again in the morning (or maybe not tomorrow morning), when my mind is more alert.

@Gitagal...........I mean GETA.... you know I know how to spell your name but Gita, I am getting older and more careless in my typing due to the arthritis in the hands, so you will have to put up with my lack of proof reading and my poor spelling. Please don't stop loving me.......

Now, back to the plants. This was the first year I lost plants to the exact same thing you are showing. I lost the big Petra's Pink, I almost lost the Petra's Salmon, but fortunately I caught that in time and I cut it back and put it in the greenhouse and ignored it for weeks. It lived. I lost my one old fuchsia and it is now in the greenhouse waiting to see if it will survive. I also lost your salmon and my White Christmas....I can't tell you what it is except over watering and the fact that our weather was so different this summer, in the shade these babies got burnt from the sun. I was laid up all summer and have no idea what happened for the month I was unable to walk, but when I found the scale in the greenhouse is when I noticed some of the Holiday Cactus outside were unhappy and I doubted they would survive. A few did, but I lost most of the others. I gave dozens away to a young man who works in a nursery and his mother just told me today they bloomed at Christmas and most of them survived. Your Gita's Red survived and looks good. I really feel it is over watering and humidity and well as the light in the house during these winter months. These plants are almost impossible to kill, and for people like us who have raised hundreds of them to have this happen now is absolutely crazy. We are not alone, I am in a group where they had the same problem and these people are from all over the USA and other countries. The one thing we all have in common is "watering"....so, I am still going with that. I also am watering mine from the bottom now. I can not tell how wet they are by just sticking my finger in the top because this rot seems to be coming up from the bottom. I let them get really dry and then I water them from the saucer and watch them suck it up. They have the little bulbs on the roots that hold water, so it is difficult to know when they are really thirsty by touch. I have not used anything to stop it other than let them dry out on their own. Some people are using alcohol and all sorts of mixtures thinking it may be an insect of some sort. I am not convinced of that since the ones I lost were in the house and in the greenhouse and outside. None were near each other to spread any disease. This is long, I apologize.

As for the HD fruit trees, all I can say is it is not good PR to sell buggy fruit trees and heaven help those poor souls who take those diseased trees into their house with clean other plants. That is one reason I stopped buying from HD and L because every time I did I got mealy bug or white fly, etc. Not worth it since they don't even have name tags on their plants either. I like to know what I am buying.

If you buy from Whittons they are opening for the season March 12th and beginning to ship March 14th. Got an email from Randy and their website has it on now.

Azamax has killed every noxious pest I've had. Not harmful to honey bees either. Gene

Dear, Dear JB! I will NEVER stop loving you! Even when you act like an onry, stubborn Broad.
You are--and have always been a source of so much information to us all on how to take care of CC's.

(for those not familiar with this acronym--(CC=Christmas cactus). Shorter to write "CC".
And--this description is used loosely by most people--as there really is a REAL Christmas Cactus.
There is a difference in the "leaves" and blooms.
The other ones we all call" Christmas Cactus" are actually the Holiday Cactus aka as Thanksgiving Cactus.

OK! To proceed...On DG we had a Thread going for several years on all kinds of information, education
and teaching going on by JB. She is a Gem! One of a kind! Her knowledge was amazing!
ATP-you should be proud to have her over here now!

JB--My CC's all spend the summers out under my roofed over patio--on a rack right up against my house wall.
The light is ~bright shade. NO rain ever falls on these--so i do have to hose-sprinkle them.
There is also NO total darkness at night--as I have a big, round light on a pole (I call "The Moon"
that is on 24/7 in a far corner of the patio.

They ALL come inside in mid-late October. I DO leave them out to get a cold nip and when I bring them in-
there are tiny bloom buds on each CC. It has been like this "forever"....
Inside--I try to give them some "presentable" light--but that would only be right on sunny days.

I try my best to give them a "rest" period after they bloom--but when I see them dry as caked clay--I just have to
water them a bit. They, actually, perk up after some watering.
Guilty as charged!!!! I tend to water EVERYTHING as long as i am watering. This may be the problem.
But--I do not go hog-crazy watering the CC's. Just 1/2 cup or so....JB--I like the idea of watering from the bottom!
Thank you for that suggestion.
I am trying to think of some reasons why the CC's are rotting, dropping whole section, getting
desiccated-looking section, etc....When they get like this--they won't root either. The fresh. plump sections all root well.

Besides the issue with watering--could it also be the KIND of water I use? Our water is highly Chlorinated.
You can smell it! Most of the time--I have water bottles sitting ll around so the gasses can evaporate.
I have many, many Spider plants as well--and this helps to keep the tips going brown if i do this.

JB--Should I make an effort NOW to take tip-sections of the White one as well as the salmon one?
You said you cut yours back and "ignored it" and it lived. Mine are still living....just some of them get
this lower stem rot/fungus/ whatever it is....
Do you think sprinkling Cinnamon powder on top of the soil would help? Lot of people talk about this
too use when growing seedlings. Any ideas out there, Folks???

JB-re the Aphid eggs all over the grape stems--there are NOT fruit trees. They are small, roots packaged, new plants.
I will attach a picture of the rack. There are also Blueberries, Strawberries and raspberry plants on the same rack,
but none of them have this Aphid egg problem. ONLY the grapes.

I already explained this either here--or on another Thread---ALL plants that HD carries are on consignment
with the HD. This is called "Pay by Scan". When the plant is scanned (bought)--we get the $$$.
IF plants are sick or infested, or any other reason not suitable to be displayed--the vencor culls them out.

HD does not cull or throw out any plants. That is the Vendor's job. BUT!! We have to water & maintain them all.
MOI--that is what i do all summer long. Just me and the hose--and wet feet....

If this rack of grapes and all the other berries were to die--the vendor "should" come and take care of this.
BUT--I don't think the garden people have any idea WHO the vendor is. So--the rack will sit there with dead plants.
Also NOT the best idea. Usually--these individual racks are located away from any other living plants.
In this case--the rack sits by the big exit doors at the end of the Greenhouse.

I have been wiping the stems and leaves down as best I can with sanitary wipes. It is helping--but I am not
there every day to follow up. No one else does these kind of things except me. They are All my "babies"....
JB--I never buy plants from a Nursery. I have plenty of my own. SO? They are not rare on the latest...

Sorry this is so long--But I just cannot write 3 lines and call it quits. Now--Pictures.

1--JB--This is where my older CC's spend the winter. By my LR window, in a corner on a big plant stand.
So-So- light....unfortunately. It it is really gloomy--I turn on the big light over the sofa.

2--The not-so-old CC's usually sit on this rack by my unused kitchen side door. E. facing window in the door.
OK light---but it does not reach all the plants equally well.

3--My tiny, newly rooting CC's and Easter cactus in small cups under my light set-up.
They do really well here. Will need the lights soon for my seeds. I am late as it is...

4--Here is a "infant", new baby plant of my Beefsteak Begonia. Rooting it from a leaf.
They really grow large, with big leaves. Very pretty!

Here is my OLD, OLD Amaryllis doing it's thing again. These bulbs are about 25 years old. Bloom every year.
OH, yeah! I uproot them and clean up the roots a bit, and re-pot them in fresh soil--but they are the same old bulbs.

5--This is my TRUE Christnas cactus--blooming a bit on my LR window shelf.

6--Last picture- JB--here is the rack of Grape plants as well as all the other berries bt the baack GH door.
Now you know they are NOT fruit trees.....

Gene, where can I get Azamax and Garden Safe Fungicide 3? Going to Madison today and could look for it. Got some livestock in the greenhouse that needs to be exterminated. I was thinking of spraying this week (if we EVER get some sun during the day to wake up the beasts) but haven't done it yet. This would be just peachy if it would work out.

You are too kind Gita....the old girl just ain't what she used to be. I sit back now and listen to others give the suggestions.
Those plants of yours always look so well kept. Great job on your part. You know, that light at night will confuse those plants especially when it is time for them to bud. They should have 12 hours of dark if you remember prior to their budding time and during the time they begin to set buds. Of course, knowing you, you will get them to bloom no matter what. I just do not know how you do it.
Here is a picture of my sick Orange. There are no healthy ones to cut off. Same with the white that died.. When they first started to fall off I kept them in water to see if they would root and they all rotted. This is an amazing thing that is happening to these plants and I am not sure what to do about it except as I said, stop watering and see what happens.

I use cinnamon in the GH for ants. I have not used it in plants in the house because I thought it was just for insects, not fungus or whatever we have on ours. I still think it is overwatering.
Before




After


Just makes you sick to see them not responding and dying. I could cry. If only they could talk.

JB--

I feel your pain! Plants are our "babies"--and we have to sit and watch them wither.

I suppose the "Moon" light on the pole is far enough away that my CC's experience some dark.
I have kept them this way forever--and when I bring them in, there are bloom buds on most stems.
I have to say that this winter's blooms were pretty sparse. I did notice that.
However--I was thinking I could drape a black weed-block fabric over the racks that hold my CC's
and see if that helps.

Would it hurt if I re-potted them all in fresh soil mix? Maybe try to make it more fast-draining?
I know it would be touch-and-go as they are kind of fragile to mess with. At
least--maybe I could top dress them with fresh soil?
I don't like to see the mess in the lower stems some of them live in.

This is not the best picture of my Patio--but try to envision the layout.
You can see the light on the post just above the clumps of bushes on the left. I think it has a
60W light in it.
The rack of CC's usually sits near where you can see the last window on the right.
Quite a distance away. The light ay night would be minimal--but, yes--it would be there.

Oh that light is not a that close. I seldom repot once they are adult plants and in at least a 8 inch pot. Many times only 6 inch.
I know a woman who plants one single plant in a mason jar so she can see if it is dry. No drainage. I had an old one in a container with no drainage and it lived for over 10 years in the same pot, but this year I over watered and it is now in the GH waiting to see if it is going to die or survive. Did not remove it from the pot.
Honestly Gita, these plants are so hard to kill, you can put them almost in any container as long as you do not over fertilize or water.
I do add new soil to the top at times if they begin to look scraggly. This year has been a nasty year for plants of all kinds.
Do you remember me selling black pussy willow? I bought two plants many years ago and must have sold dozens of cuttings and plants over the years. I had my SIL dig out five of the oldest ones this year. I kept two of the black ones and I now only have one white, one pink and of course the two black. I saw this year that Logees was selling the three as a group or individually for something like $14 for a 4" pot. Amazing it took them so long to find them. They were good sellers. I didn't know if I had ever sent you any of those or not. Gotta go. Nite.

JB--
Holly is the one who used to share cuttings ofher black Pussy Willows .
One would need to have space to grow a Pussy Willow--and a source of water.

I would never have space for a shrub of any kind in my small garden.

Stay well---Gita