Why It's Time To Be On Pest Watch, According To The Grumpy Gardener

About This Episode

What to do when you’ve over trimmed a hedge. Plus The Grumpy Gardener shares some of the top plant problems.

Question Of The Week

"I over trimmed our Loropetalum hedge. I'm afraid I killed it. My wife is going to kill me. What can I do?" - Allen

Grumpy's Answer: Do you have a Kevlar vest, Allen? No? Then what about booking a one-way trip to Bhutan and renting space in a cliffside monastery? I doubt your wife will follow you there. Fortunately, I jest, neither option is necessary. Loropetalum is a tough plant and it takes pruning very well. Even if you hacked it back to bare stubs, it's going to re-sprout. Just don't do it again because the flight to Bhutan is very long and you have to sit in the lotus position the whole way.

Tip Of The Week

Pest Watch

The idea here is this is the time of year when you really want to start looking for any kind of problems that are starting on your plants, whether you get some kind of fungus on your plant, or you get some insect problems. To keep those from getting serious, you have to pay attention to them right away. It's much, much easier to control them at the start than it is at the middle or the end. Okay? So, some of the things you're going to start seeing now are there's a fungus called a powdery mildew, which looks like somebody just powdered all of your plants and it spreads all over the leaves and it keeps the plant from turning sunlight into food for the plant.

Powdery Mildew

The powdery mildew is generally on the top surface.

And it can also affect things like flower buds and ruin them. And it's very widespread, especially when you have a lot of rainy weather. But if you catch it early and treat it with a good fungicide that's labeled for mildew, you can control that. Or, if it's just appeared, you can simply pick off the leaf that you see the mildew on and throw it in the trash so that the spores don't spread to the rest of the plant. But, you need to try to get that early.

Another thing you need to watch out for, if you have roses, and you start seeing all these dark spots with like yellow halos around them. That is a fungal disease called blackspot, and that is spread from leaf to leaf, through splashing water. And, so, as soon as you see that, you need to treat with a fungicide, again, that's labeled for black spot. Neem oil will also work for powdery mildew. And, if you just get out there early and put down these sprays you can control it and it won't spread that much.

Neem Oil

I should also add that Neem oil is a natural fungicide. So, it's one that's safe to use, just don't get it on the flowers. And then also look out for these little bumps that you'll see on the leaves or on the stems of the plants. These could be scales, and what scales do is they attach themselves to the plant and they suck out the juices from the leaves or the stems. I would get some sort of horticultural oil, and spray, and that's, again, is a very safe product to use. It works for a lot of insects. It coats them. It stops them from breathing, but it doesn't hurt the plant at all, and it's very safe to use around your pets and everything else like that.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 30 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.