Autumn Blooming Daffodils, Daffodil Types, Diseases and Pests, Hybridizing, Seedling, Snails, Deer and other Pests

December flowers 3

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This actually carries 2 flowers on the stem but an earwig ate most of one. Seed was given to me by Manuel Lima marked [N. viridiflorus x Ace of Spades] x N. viridiflorus or [N. viridiflorus x Eastermoon]. I believe the latter was one of his seedlings bred from N. viridiflorus but he did not register it. This is not the ‘Ace of Spades’ registered by John Reed in 2000, I wish I knew what it was? The flower measures 55 mm accross.

7 comments for “December flowers 3”

  1. Hello All

     

    Interested in Harold’s comment on earwig damage.  These little beasts were a major problem with this year’s crop.  Does anyone have any remedies?

     

    Peter

     


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  2. For what ever it is worth.
     
    On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 4:18 PM, plramsay < title=> wrote:

    Hello All

     

    Interested in Harold’s comment on earwig damage.  These little beasts were a major problem with this year’s crop.  Does anyone have any remedies?

     

    Peter

     


  3. Dear Peter

     

    My father was a keen chrysanthemum grower and I remember as a lad 60 years ago accompanying him at dusk with a torch to his allotments. There he had among the chrysanthemums a number of canes pushed in the ground each of which had an inverted jam jar on top. The earwigs collected in the jam jars overnight and we disposed of them, humanely of course. I assume that it worked as he won lots of prizes. However as we seemed to go every night during the flowering season it probably wasn’t too effective. Another reason might have been that as we didn’t have a television in those days, or  even electricity in the house, there wasn’t anything else to do in the evening.

     

    Regards

     

    James Akers  

     


  4. James,
     
    Did you miss out the bit which usually sees the jar or plant pot stuffed with a handful of straw for the earwigs to hide in?
    Another method, if canes are being used to support the plants, is to go around during the day and with an oil can and put a drop of oil in the top of the canes which are usually hollow and are used by the earwigs as a hiding place. If you don’t like using oil then a sharp spike will do the trick.
     
    Tony
     
     
  6. Hi All
     
    As an old experienced Early Flowering Chrysanthemum grower, besides paraffin down the canes and the upturned pot which I found worked in a fashion, the most effective method I used was Jeyes Fluid (a strong disinfectant made from chemicals extracted from coal). I used to water it around the peripherals of the plot and on the paths between the beds. I can say over the 30 years I exhibited chrysanthemums I never had any damage caused by earwigs – aphids and slugs well that’s another story!
     
    Like James and his father I always did the midnight patrol with a torch for two reasons, firstly to catch the slugs and caterpillars, most varieties of caterpillars tend to reflect from torch light and can easily be picked off the plant and a quick squeeze gets rid of them; same with slugs the foot and a rough surfaced block does the trick, although Draza G slug pellets should get rid of most of them. Secondly I like to see the plants growing and all plants grow at night even now I can spend anything up to one hour and half per night watching the daffodils grow and weighing up the progress they are making. 
     
    Roger


  7. Earwigs and slugs are our main pests. Fortunately we seem to have gotten rid of the shelled snails.
    I once tried sinking margarine tubs filled with a half inch of olive oil on the bottom and a hole in the lid. It was buried in the bed with the lid level with the soil surface. This was somewhat effective but we needed hundreds of tubs so in the end I went back to using poison baits. We get a commercial snail bait that also has insecticides that is effective if one is diligent in applying it.
    Harold

    At 04:44 AM 12/12/2009, James Akers wrote:

    Tony
     
    Yes I forgot the straw
     
    James
     

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