Bad news, Bad News, Good news

Well, first the bad news. My two loropetalum that were struggling to make it last week appear to be toast. It's positively baffling because all the other loropetalum plants are doing fine. I really don't know what went wrong with those two plants, but we're heading into summer soon, so I'd rather wait and replace the two that died this fall. I just hate that I lost two plants though. Here's one of them, in all it's misery... :(








The other bad news was the discovery that I had not bought inert bird food and the seeds that have fallen to the ground have sprouted in my mulch in one of my landscape beds. Ugh. I can't believe I bought the birdfood I bought wasn't labeled as non-germinating. I even knew better! I'm almost out of food anyway, so I think I may just put up a bluebird house in the place of the feeder. Less messy! Less weeding. Look at this disaster under the feeder - I'm going to have to shovel it all out and put down new mulch. D'oh!













The good news was that in examining my magnolias it appears they are doing just fine. A week or so ago, I had some spider mites on them. I postponed treating them and examined them carefully today. There wasn't a significant increase in destroyed/eaten leaves. And in checking the leaves, I discovered ladybugs were between the leaves - some even resting in old web of the spiders. Ladybugs to the rescue - hurray for natural enemies of those pests! I wasn't sure there were enough ladybugs around to find my spider mites, but it appears they found them just fine. (of course - why do I doubt nature?!) My trees are young and short - just six foot or so - so I believe the ladybugs will get the job done. I also had been noticing that the leaves looked rather tired and gradually they were turning yellow and falling off. It's rather hard to miss the giant leaves when they fall off the tree. After some quick research and inspecting my trees, it appears the buds of new leaves are coming in above the old leaves and are pushing off the old leaves. Since they are evergreen in the winter, the tree starts to look a bit worse for the wear as spring comes around. But soon those new leaf buds will push out some fresh leaves and the beautiful white blossoms will appear. I see evidence of both new leaves and blossoms on each of my trees, so I feel very optimistic that the trees will be just fine. That's a welcome relief!

Look just above the existing leaves and you'll see the new leaf buds. As they grow in, the leaves below them will yellow and fall off. The second picture is a magnolia flower bud. The whole tree should be covered with gorgeous white blossoms soon!