Well here is a first. Some evil birdie snatched a nearly open bloom and snacked on it this afternoon! I know they smell like candy, but isn't this a bit much? The remains of the rose were crumpled up in a neighboring pot... Now that is sneaky!
I love evolution and phylogeny. With animals, you can see how similar traits were adapted over time given different environmental pressures or happenstances. Now that we know T-rex was feathered and mitochondrial DNA has suggested its closest living relatives include the common chicken, that trip to KFC has new meaning. With plants, it's especially interesting because closely related groups often, as with animmals, retain the genes responsible for the production of certain chemicals. This is the reason many roses have scents with fruity undertones -- just examine the leaflets of a rose and compare with those of a blackberry, and you'll see how close these cousins really are. This is also why rose hips are so high in Vitamin C. And again for the same reasons, it turns out that…
The best way to keep insect pests at bay: foul the area with something so noxious they'll never know what hit them. Enter the cayenne pepper. In this case, you're looking at ground Ristra Cayenne pepper from my 2015 crop. Unfortunately this particular batch happened to be so delicious to me that I chose to keep it for my[caption id="attachment_2450" align="alignright" width="350"] Ristra Cayenne pepper, about as potent as non-chemical pest control gets. [/caption]self, but the concept is sound. Aphids, whiteflies, rose slugs, and a variety of other insect pests will absolutely hate it when you dust your plants with hot pepper. Just fill a spray bottle with water, mist the plants so the pepper flakes will stick, and sprinkle them onto the leaves. At the risk of having the…
