Bulb Pests

[Maggi Young]

But Hans, after a only a short time with the teeth in England you will have money for a large conservatory... or a house in the south of France!

[Paul T]

or maybe .... AND a house in the south of France? 

Here in Aus you can buy plants for a price (around $100 each, although less for seedlings a few years old) plus there is seed about to buy as well.  Apparently we have quite a few growers of them, and we produce a lot of the seed that goes to other countries too. 

Worsleyas can start producing offsets while still small, but apparently they can take a long time to actually produce roots on those offsets.

[Hans J]

Maggi - I always prefer more swap ...like such nice plants as "South Hayes" and some other ....

as you know we goes near every year to south of France - until today we prefer "camping" !

Paul - yes I know in Australia are now a lot of growers for Worsleya -I know it from yahoo Worsleya group .
I hope that this nice plants are more multiplicatet so the prices go down and more people can grow this plants .....for you is this all not a problem you are so much younger than I .....

[Brian Ellis]

I regret to say that yesterday, while showing visitors round the garden I found a lily beetle on my fritillaria imperialis   .  Said beetle was duly despatched, but be warned!!

[Maggi Young]

Yikes! And with the weather we've been having lately, I thought/hoped that such critters would all be frozen or blown  out to sea! 

[mark smyth]

I'm very unhappy to find so many Narcissus fly grubs today in G. fosteri, N. 'Bowles Early Sulphur' and N. asturiensis 'Wavertree'. Removing leaves early obviously isnt a deterrant

[Armin]

Hi Mark,
the big maggots in your hand are excellent for trout fishing
(I'm not sure this really helps you to overcome your sadness.)

[Anthony Darby]

I sure Mark has introduced them to some of his feathered friends?

[mark smyth]

They were fed to the Robin that lives in the back garden who sang "more, more, more!"

Mentioning the Robin reminds me that last winter the Slovaks at work had never seen a Robin. Are they not common in Europe?

[Martin Baxendale]

Mentioning the Robin reminds me that last winter the Slovaks at work had never seen a Robin. Are they not common in Europe?

Mark, my wife Ivi says she never saw a robin in Slovakia in her entire life and was totally bemused by the plethora of Xmas cards sold in the UK with robins on them. Her Slovak bird field guidebook says that they do have robins living in woods and parks  during Summer, but that they migrate to the Mediterranean for the (usualy very cold) Winter. I guess in Summer, without bright red breasts, they tend to be pretty inconspicuous little brown jobs, and aren't around in Winter to be more easily spotted with their characteristic male bright red breasts. 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Plenty of robins out here Mark ! 

[mark smyth]

Thanks Martin. Luc are they shy or do they become tame?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

They look shy to me, not that I've tried to feed it or so, but we have one in the garden every Winter.
I've been told that it's the same one every time and that they stick to their territory.

[mark smyth]

Luc is is very unlikely to be the same bird every year. Sorry to burst your bubble! Small birds dont live more than a year or two.

[Lvandelft]

We had a robin every year in winter in our working shed.
In the morning they were waiting till we opened the door and then came in.
When we were dividing perennial plants on a table, one or two came always sitting
on the edge looking for some worms, so we could easily feed them.
They were sitting at about 1 m. away from our hands.