I spent part of my morning hard pruning more roses, cutting off the low hanging branches of Desert Willow trees growing along my fence and relocating some bricks for a future project. Everything was going well until I took a closer look at the last of my Crimson Glory Tea Tree. I knew I had lost it and I knew the cause: Curl Grubs, around fifteen to twenty of them! I pulled out the dried up shrub and made sure I removed every single larvae I could find from the hole and to my surprise, I found an adult. I read that as the Scarab Beetle emerges from the ground, it lays more eggs in the soil. It sounds to me that there is little to no hope to the plant since it’s a never ending cycle until the plant itself is destroyed and the main source of food is gone.
Crimson Glory Tea Tree is a plant I really like. I lost the first two after four years and decided to give it another try. Now I know that the plant is also a favorite of Scarab Beetles; therefore, I will not purchase another plant. At least not until I find a way to protect it from Beetles and other insects. It’s just unfortunate.
On a much happier note, my Pendula Yucca has been propagating like crazy from rhizomes. Just last month, I noticed three more sprouts and they are growing fast. I seems that for every plant I loose around the garden, I gain two from my Pendula Yucca. Like the saying goes, you lose some and you win some.
We finally dug out the last Oleanders along one side of the backyard fence (Whoo-hoo!). It would be awesome to get rid of the ones on the other side by the end of the year; though it can wait.
By JM Perez
