Hibiscus....and sawflys

A couple of posts ago I was bemoaning my end of summer garden. It is true I look forward to the flush of fall, the color, and the cooler temperatures.

And, if it hadn't been for a pesky little bug, I would be enjoying the tropical beauty of hibiscus right now, just when my garden needs swaths of those blowsy blooms. I always marveled at how easy it was to grow those show-stopping, exotic flowers that can grow as large as dinner plates and make others marvel.

But, like many other gardeners, I abandoned growing hibiscus because I didn't have the patience to control the hibiscus sawfly larvae.

Trust me, once sawfly find your hibiscus, they will return every year, and since they can hatch six generations in one season, if you don't attack them at the get-go, before you know it, your hibiscus leaves are stripped to a skeleton shape.

And they are hard to see - the green worms hide on the underside of leaves, and once you spot them you will also notice the sawflies buzzing about. They resemble black flies with a dash of orange on their head area - does a fly have a head?

I did wage a war on my potted hibiscus for a while, smushing the bugs by hand because I loath to use insecticides.

Such a natural approach is good if you are not squeamish and have all the time in the world. Some gardeners make the mistake of using BT for caterpillars, but these are not caterpillars.

Instead, it is recommended to use an insecticidal soap, or spinosad. Be sure to spray when it is below 85 degrees.

I found an excellent break-down on the sawfly problem by googling the bug and University of Connecticut, and a pdf popped up. Here is how to get at it: www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/.../fact.../hibiscussawfly.pdf.

There are some hibiscus, thankfully, which are being bred to be more resistant to the sawfly: H.acetosella, H. aculeateus and H. grandiflora.

I adore hibiscus, and I miss the flowers so much I might just do another round with the plant - although I admit one thing that kept me from putting out a pot this year was my excuse that they lack fragrance and do not benefit any wildlife - aside sawflies, of course. Now I'm kicking myself for being such a snob.

Meanwhile, I have to determine what type of caterpillar is attacking my petunias. And flowering tobacco.