blue23rose and Kousa . Yes it is a conundrum. I do not use chemicals here either . I figure the farmer out back/and to both sides of us and even across the road is putting enough poison in the ground without me adding to it.
What I dislike most though is being sold a bill of goods. I would still grow daylilies as I love them and the variety they offer but dont understand why people insist on the fairy tale that they are labour free plants. If I have to sit and pick aphids off my plants and peel back leaves to remove rust and now have to worry about bringing in gall midge and remove ruined blooms if I import daylilies and need to learn how to eradicate them ......how does that fit into the " labour free plants" myth.
I discovered much to my chagrin that a daylily trade with a local guy about 20 minutes away from me ..... that he obviously brought japanese beetles into my garden on his plants . H e has them in his garden he later told me ( and is not worried about it ! his words ) which I did not know till I told him I found some on the plants he traded me . I have never had Japanese beetles here so was shocked to see 2 on one of his plants he traded me . I made sure I did not use the dirt he potted any of the plants up in disposed of the dirt on the burning pile and set fire to it , hosed the plants down over the burning pit and I killed the japanese beetles i discovered ( gross) and hope that no japanese beetles escaped here .
It does disturb me that these pests seem to make it into the country somehow. Obiously someone is not having them inspected and skipping the phyto requirements and that makes me want to scream . This is just one more problem and I wonder why this is not being caught at our borders. Who knows I suppose it is possible they came in on other plants that dont need to be inspected or not inspected for gall midge. I would think there would be some kind of quarantine for plants before they are released into the country though .
We have just lost all our Ash trees thanks to an insect that came into the country after arriving on some boatload of imported wood packaging . 1 whole acre of trees lost some as old as 100 years and 90 feet tall. So distressing .
But back to daylilies......I would just like people to be honest when talking about daylilies . Just the facts Ma'am , Just the facts.
