It might be coincidence, but the collection of tender plants by the formal pond seems to be growing and flowering better since I went around the pots and dosed them all with a systemic insecticidal drench. I worked out a method of keeping track of which I'd done, after a false start where I rapidly lost count, which was to put a small pebble on the surface of the compost as I treated each pot. So many had root aphid when I investigated that I decided I'd better assume that everything that had overwintered in the greenhouse might be infected. Pelargoniums, Geranium maderense, the dwarf pomegranates, some pale yellow marguerites I took as cuttings from last year's plant, a dwarf leafed grey helichrysum also from cuttings, Tulbaghia, Agapanthus, the lot. Since the dose they seem to making more leaves, throwing out more flowers, and generally looking healthier. It could be the weather, but I think it is the liberating effect of not having their root systems preyed on by sap sucking insects.
I spent today mostly in the greenhouse, continuing the process of working my way from one end to the other and treating or throwing away everything. Again, it seems to me that pots of seedlings I treated, not without misgivings since the drench was strong stuff to give to tiny plants, have turned a better colour and are growing more vigorously, as are the larger seed raised plants I pricked out into modules a while ago.
Root aphid, it seems, will go for almost anything. I first saw it when I was working at the plant centre, on conifers and bamboo, though it certainly wasn't widespread. As I now know, the only way to prevent it from becoming widespread if growing in containers under glass is to take prompt action at the first signs of trouble. I've found it on herbaceous plants, shrubs and succulents. The visible signs above ground are that the plant lacks vigour, and the foliage can turn dull or unhealthily bronzed or yellow.
Looking to the future, and hoping the root aphid will be relegated to history, a learning experience, before they have time to grow any roots, I've also been taking cuttings. Sedum 'Abbeydore' and a prostrate form whose name I've lost but which makes great generous red leaved potfuls on the terrace (or patio), a small leaved form of myrtle, Santolina, Fuchsia 'Lottie Hobby' (a sweetie with tiny, vivid pink flowers), Eucomis (putting into practice what I was taught at the Plant Heritage propagation morning), Teucrium fruticans 'Azureum' (needs bottom heat according to consensus of opinion on the internet), Salvia lavandulifolia (worked last year) and a variegated leaf geranium with enormously cheerful cherry red flowers (salvaging the last shoots before consigning the very shabby parent plant to the compost heap). I already have some cuttings from the geranium coming along, so if this lot strike I'll have more than I need. Gardening friends, be warned.
Addendum I gave the swarm another two pounds of sugar made into syrup this morning, and as of this evening they were still in residence. We were left with rather a lot of bees buzzing around outside the garage where the swarm had been, so I put a nucleus hive there for them, and they mostly went in, especially once it started raining. Come early evening I took it up to the apiary and put it down by the big hive with the swarm, hoping that the stragglers would recognise the smell of their own colony and return to the fold. Then I put the rest of the equipment away in the garage, so that come tomorrow if any bees are still hanging around it will be a case of move along now, nothing to see here.
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