Dear Helen: Leaf-rolling caterpillars have ruined the leaves on fruit trees and other plants in my garden. What can I do to help the plants recover and prevent further damage?
S.B.
There are several species of leaf-rolling caterpillars that feed inside rolled-up leaves, mainly on fruit trees. Most have just one generation each year, and over-winter as eggs laid on trees.
On dwarf trees, rolled-up leaves can be picked off and disposed of. Or, open the leaves and remove the caterpillars. Where an infestation is too heavy and/or the trees large, spray with BTK (Bacillus thuringiensis Kurstaki, a naturally occurring soil bacteria) after the fruit has set.
Where infestations have been serious, spray with dormant oil during a period of dry weather in late winter to kill over-wintering eggs. Check labels first for plants that do not tolerate oil sprays.
Planting flowers rich in pollen and nectar has been found to increase the numbers of beneficial insects that help to control caterpillar populations. Some of the best flowers for attracting and feeding beneficials are cilantro, dill, sweet alyssum, calendula, thyme and rosemary.
听
Dear Helen: What vegetables can I seed now and later in the summer for fall and winter use?
B.E.
You can sow kale, chard, cabbage, winter cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli directly in the garden now. If there鈥檚 no room, start the seeds indoors and transplant when a space is freed up after a crop has been harvested. I seed radicchio indoors in late June or early July and transplant in August into the space occupied earlier by two double rows of peas.
Sow carrots and beets for fall and winter on July 1. Sow lettuce indoors every few weeks for transplanting through the summer. For fall and winter lettuces, seed hardy varieties such as Winter Density and Rouge d鈥橦iver around Aug. 10. Keep in mind, too, that most garden centres will have fall and winter vegetable transplants for sale during the latter half of August.
听
Dear Helen: I would love to have a rambler rose in my garden. I remember these imposing plants blooming in the English gardens of my childhood in late spring and early summer.
I fear, though, that the giant plants I recall would be out of place in the small garden I have now.
Can you think of a way to accommodate one of these roses in a garden of limited size?
N.B.
Most ramblers are not suitable for small gardens, though the most tame among them could probably be trained along a fence, as I have done over a considerable length of my front fence with Albertine, whose strong growth is not as wildly aggressive as other popular ramblers such as Kiftsgate and Climbing C茅cile Br眉nner 鈥� giants that can be used to cover sheds and grow up old trees.
A neighbour鈥檚 well-established Kiftsgate clambers over our mutual high side fence to form an early summer cloud of small white flowers over a series of five compost enclosures in my garden.
My Climbing C茅cile Br眉nner has grown into an adjacent forest as it fills an entire corner of the back garden. In June, it鈥檚 a gigantic cascade of small, shell pink blooms on a plant that currently takes up a space about five metres high and 12 metres across. The plant is a beauty in bloom and a beast to cut back.
The outrageously vigorous climbing form that I have is, oddly enough, a sport (spontaneous variation) of the short and dainty original bush version of C茅cile Br眉nner, well known as The Sweetheart Rose or Mignon.
If your desire for a rambler is strong, look for one of the tamer ones such as Albertine, a famous old rambler with richly fragrant, double lobster pink blooms in June.
It grows in poor soils and I鈥檝e seen it recommended for use trained as a specimen shrub.