Gardening

Think I have fuchsia gall mite affecting one of them planted in a pot. Not flowering, distorted tips.

Hmmm.

1st pic mites I suspect. 2nd rust maybe?


Done a quick check and I think your garden has every disease and pest available. I think you should wear a mask when you go out for your morning stroll.

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Seems pretty crazy currently.

Slugs/snails are bonkers and now even eat tomato plants.

20 years ago I doubt we had any significant plant pests.

Where did it all come from? Imported or UK produced plants, other local gardens or critters?

I really do not know.

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The odd thing is that this was a huge fuchsia we had many years ago which eventually died. My mother had taken cuttings and had a good crop at her house. After my parents passed I took cuttings from their house garden which are now in containers and seem affected.

Saw a catnip plant in a garden centre and as Mo loves catnip toys, I thought I’d give it a go. Got it home and hurredly brought Mo out to show him his new plant to look after. He immediately sniffed it, rubbed and then rolled around on the floor. He loves his new plant.


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If it’s anything like the catnip plant i took home for my cats many years ago, it will get smashed to bits in no time.

But will be fantastic while it lasts!

:joy_cat: :smiling_cat_with_heart_eyes:

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I’m just glad it’s not in @Alley_Cat garden :rofl:

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I have some catnip seeds somewhere, probably out of date by now.

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Today was the first mow on the Green in 12 months. I managed to beg the local authority to come around for an annual mow (it’s their land). For the last decade they’ve left the neighbours free to plant wildflowers and bulbs, which is fabulous in the Spring but it’s been a jungle out there since late May. The chaps from the grounds team were unfailingly polite and cooperative, which really impressed me. And they left a patch where the Verbascum are flowering.

The ground is as hard as iron after the May and June heatwaves. Looks like we’ll have a July heatwave next week too. At least I can access the main bed now to attempt some watering.

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Just planted a couple of ferns in a spot of native woodland. A struggling lavender plant also resited and pruned back. Time now to plant some herbs and stick a couple of bird feeders on the pergola.

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We have the same thing with 2 large hardy fuchsia’s in the garden. Every start of year they grow well and start flowering and then become distorted.

Your post has prompted me to investigate and try to do something about it so I’ve ordered 10 sachets of Fuchsia Gall Mite Sachets from Green Gardener to try to get rid of it. You have to cut back the distorted growth and then hang the sachets in the plant. They don’t keep as they contain a colony of Amblyseius Andersonii which will hopefully feed on the mites and erradicate them so I’ll put 5 on the largest plant, 3 on the smaller one and the other 2 in hanging baskets.

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We’re really pleased with our Pelargoniums this year.

Whilst very common ours have grown into lovely mature plants now and are on their 3rd year of flowering.

It shows you how climate change is affecting our gardens, we’re in the south of England (Dorset) and all our Pelargoniums have overwintered outside with no care or protection.

This is just 1 plant.

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Thanks I was wondering where to buy a biological control. Will take a look. :+1:

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Interestingly nipped down to my late parents’ house today thinking I might get some fuchsia cuttings from the plants they got from us - unfortunately these are also affected by the gall mites which they weren’t around 6 weeks ago or last year. Looked into a neighbours garden close to them and fuchsias also affected there.

I think they are coming from the garden centres with the gall mite already there.

We’ve avoided having too many in recent years but this year bought a couple of plants for some hanging baskets. We have one in our porch, well away from any other fuchsias and the back garden where our affected plants are and its been affected.

The biological control arrived yesterday so we’ll cut them back today and pop them out to work their magic. Good service from Green Gardener.

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Great if it’s sunflower seeds, if it is hemp seeds a different story altogether.

Officer :police_officer:

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It feels like we’ve butchered the fuschia to cut back all the disfigured foliage but it doesn’t look too bad. The instructions say to cut it all out before placing the sachets on the plant, cutting 10cm below the last distorted leaves/flowers. We’ve now lost all the flowers but they will soon reappear, especially if the foliage isn’t affected.

We’ve now hung 6 of the little packets of the sachets on the plant. They say they work really well in temperatures of 30c or above which is handy given the current weather but also say to avoid drying them out in direct sunshine! It’s east facing so hopefully a variety of branches used including some at the back will mean that they will be effective.

Touching 33c here today. The hot temps we’ve had for the past month actually slow down tomato ripening. Not what you’d naturally think.


Here’s my Black Moon from June 6th to today. Frustratingly they still haven’t ripened and they’re outdoors.

This year is about fruit for me. The end of 2025 I researched the best tasting figs (for UK outdoors) and apples. I have 9 fig trees (8 different varieties). The spring was cold, so the figs were slow to get going. However, contrary to the tomatoes, they love 30c plus.

Luckily the one I’m most interested in, Little Miss Figgy, is producing little figs, so I should get some this year. This variety is a dwarf version of Violette de Bordeaux, which is regarded as one of the finest figs.

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The latest hot weather has sent the courgettes crazy.

We were getting a couple of 4” courgettes per day from my 2m x 2m bed, but in the last 48 hours there are huge courgettes all over the bed, will have to give them away - we just love ‘em but it’s too much :slightly_smiling_face:

A few below.



Tony

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Picked a few courgettes for dinner tonight (veggie/courgette curry) and sent message out to friends to take some :rofl:

Anyone know if they can be kept/preserved as they won’t stop coming now. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

The usual subjects :grin:

Tony

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