Garden Talk: Solutions for all your lily problems

Jill and Rick Van Duyvendyk answer all your gardening questions in Garden Talk on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Here are some questions and answers from the June 15 show:

Read more:

• Garden Talk: Save money by being water wise in your yard this summer
• Garden Talk: Can fruit be affected by wildfire smoke?
• Garden Talk: What are those white fuzzy spots on my plant?

These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: What are the red-orange bugs that ate holes in the leaves of my lily plants?

A: That’s the lily beetle. They leave pods on the back side of the leaves that look like lines of black. You need to remove both. Sometimes a lint roller works really well. If you do want to spray, you can use a spray like Bug-X Out or End All. When your plants are in full bloom cover the top of the lily and spray the bottom part of the plant. Make sure to spray the tops and the underside of the leaves. Inspect the leaves every 7 to 10 days.

Find Dutch Grower’s guide to dealing with lily beetles here.

Q: What are the slimy worms with a black head on my lilies?

A: It’s a type of caterpillar. You can use BTK because it doesn’t affect any beneficial insects, only caterpillars. BTK works by spraying it onto the leaf and when the insects eats it they get a stomach ache, quit eating and die.

Q: What should I do with the seeds on my lilac bushes?

A: Flowers are pretty much done on most of the lilacs right now so deadhead them. You can take some of the green as well as the seeds, give them some fertilizer for new growth and you’ll get a lot more flowers next year. Don’t trim them until after they finish blooming.

Q: What cause the leaves on my hydrangea to curl up and look deformed?

A: Check for aphids on the underside of the leaves. You can just use some End All or insecticidal soap to get rid of those.

Q: What’s the ratio of alfalfa pellets to water when you’re making alfalfa tea?

A: Use two cups in a five gallon pail. Stir and let it sit overnight and in the morning stirit again. You don’t have to strain it, you can just pour whatever is left onto the ground, but you can strain it and then make more tea with the pellets again.

Q: What is causing the bottom leaves to go yellow and wilt on my tomatoes?

A: Those first couple leaves at the bottom are ones that you should be pruning off when the plants are starting to get more flowers. They turn colour because they’ve done their job to prepare the plant for the next set of branches where the fruiting will happen.

Q: Do praying mantis sometimes not hatch?

A: Sometimes you might get some that are not viable. Give them more time  and make sure you have them in a warm spot. Even nighttime temperatures have to be warm. If you’re hatching inside in and the air conditioning isturned up a bit right now, move them to a warmer spot.

Q: What causes blades of grass to turn white?

A: Sometimes they get a almost like a sunscald on them. Make sure you’re watering the equivalent of one inch of water per week. Figure that out by putting a dish out there  measure the water in the dish per week. Make sure it is not too dry.

Q: Will the roots of Parkland Pillar birch trees planted six feet from a pool deck cause any problems?

A: Parkland pillar birches only going to grow to a maximum six feet wide, so they don’t have a massive root system like a regular birch.

What you can do if you want is dig down 12 to 16 inches and put a barrier there, like plywood or a heavy-duty landscape fabric like Pro 5 double layered. Put it vertical into the  trench and that’ll stop the roots from penetrating through.

Q: Can African violets be transplanted while flowering?

A: It’s best to wait until they’re not in flower. Most like the African violets are going to be in a four or six-inch pot, so when you pull them out of the pot, you’re not going to disturb the root system. Make sure you get an African violet soil mix.

Q: Will my apple tree set fruit even if it didn’t flower?

A: No, it has to flower to set fruit. Sometimes a tree takes a year off if it has a really heavy crop the year before and sometimes frost gets the flowers or wind. Sometimes you don’t have as many bees out that early in the spring, so it doesn’t get pollinated.

There’s lots of little things that can happen, but keep your tree healthy using a fruit and berry fertilizer and don’t feed it too much nitrogen.

New growth dying on a plum tree. (Submitted)

Q: What would cause the leaves and new growths of a plum tree start curling?

A: There’s two things that could be happening: The tree might have got a drift of a herbicide or a drought has affected it.

Stick a probe like a piece of rebar into the root ball or even use your finger to feel whether there’s moisture there. When you use a piece of rebar, go down to the bottom of the planting hole because the same symptoms can appear if you’ve over watered as well.

If you find that the root ball is dry, slowly rehydrate it at the trunk of the tree until you hydrate the root system, then you can just do your normal watering again.

Q: How do I get rid of an infestation of potato bugs?

A: Many people use companion planting — planting other plants among them, like basil,  onions or marigolds.

You can try some diatomaceous earth around the area but the bugs have to crawl through it and so when they’re on the leaves it’s hard them. You could try BTK, it’s formulated for caterpillars but you can try.

Q: Can I move a five-foot oak tree at this time of year?

A: It’s not a good time, move it first thing in the spring, around April 15 is the best time to move it. You can move it after the leaves fall off in the fall as well.

Q: My ever-bearing strawberry patch hasn’t produced many berries and a few berries are deformed. What is the cause?

A: You need some bone meal or compost and work it into the soil around in your strawberry patch. That will help to revive it and get it going again.

Q: Can I pinch the buds off my tomatoes yet?

A: You could start, it’s not really that early.

Q: Do bees dig holes in the garden and the grass?

A: Ground wasps will do that, but bumblebees go the ground as well. You want those bees around because they’re great pollinators.

Wasps can be a problem  but bees don’t really bother us much unless we’re bothering them. Wasps will come after you and your food, but wasps will still pollinate. They’re not great pollinators because they’re smooth-bodied rather than have hairs like bees which trap the pollen.

Q: What would cause my bougainvillea to not have many blooms?

A: They like to be on the drier side. They grow in Mexico where it’s hot and dry. They like the top hot so that make sure that you you if you got mulch around, pull it away from the base of the plant and keep it in a little bit moist.

Q: Can I use 12-0-44 fertilizer on apple trees and raspberries?

A: That’s pretty high in the potassium, so be careful because it might make the plant want to defoliate. Don’t use much.

Read more:

• Garden Talk: Save money by being water wise in your yard this summer
• Garden Talk: Can fruit be affected by wildfire smoke?
• Garden Talk: What are those white fuzzy spots on my plant?