Here's a grab bag of pictures from Brueckner Rhododendron Gardens in Port Credit Ontario today, including one from David Culham: Tiger lilies, lady bugs (good) and red weevils (bad), and a note about Mississauga's naturalization policy.
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Dwarf irises ring the four-branch lily garden in this picture taken from the Lakeshore Road edge of the bed. See close up photos of the lilies on this page.
This tall rose-pink tiger lily has a brown or beige cast most noticeable on the buds, and on the underside of the petals, and is growing in a bed outside the main lily garden.
These tiger lilies are blooming in a woodland setting, in the bed closest to Godfrey's Lane and Lakeshore (Port Credit village sign).
A closer look at the six petals (one with a with ladybug) and the stem and leaf shape of this tiger lily. Lady bugs (also called lady birds) are a good bug and a gardener's friend, who will take care of aphids easily.
Unlike lady bugs, red weevils are NOT a good bug and this one shown above can suck the life out of lilies in fairly short order. One way to control weevils is by hand picking; large infestations may need to be controlled with an insecticidal soap or Neem Oil.
Update: May 26, 2011:Red weevils overwintered in the soil and are actively eating the leaves of lily plants. We hope to be able to use natural source Neem Oil to try to control them at this early stage.
The weevils are doing what weevils do -- sucking the life out of the lilies in the garden.
And another view of the damage caused by lily weevils.
David Culham sends along this picture showing two of the volunteer gardeners hard at work in the lily garden at BRG. David himself devotes countless hours to making the BRG one of the loveliest of Mississauga public gardens.
It's a City of Mississauga policy to work with nature, not against it, so as much as possible, you'll find native species in a natural setting.
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