70 Basic Perennial Garden PlantinG & Maintenance
Fourlined plant bug
Fourlined plant bugs leave small, round, sunken tan spots on the leaves and
sometimes cause stunted growth of my veronica, boltonia, and foxglove.
Fourlined plant bugs are also particularly fond of members of the mint family
(Lamiaceae). The nymphs are bright red and appear in May or June. The adults
are greenish yellow and, as the name implies, have four black lines down the
wings. There is only a single generation of fourlined plant bugs per year. I control
them by smashing nymphs and adults, when I can catch them. Sometimes plants
seem to grow out of the damage. Other times, if the damage is too severe, I prune
off the damaged sections. Some gardeners control nymphs with insecticidal
soaps. The bugs lay their eggs in the stems of host perennials to overwinter, so it
is important to cut these plants to the ground in the autumn and clean up the
debris. Do not compost the autumn debris.Grasshoppers
Walking down my back garden path on a summer’s day is like being in an Alfred
Hitchcock movie, with scads of grasshoppers flying up at you. It truly adds
another dimension to perennial gardening. On top of form, texture, color,
movement, sound, and time, we have bombardment, and I could certainly do
without it. Grasshoppers seem to like to eat just about everything. They likely are
prevalent only in country gardens.
I have had some success with a garlic-based product to fight the grasshoppers.
It curbs them a bit, but I have a hard time keeping up with all the repeat applica-
tions this method requires. I start spraying the first week of July and then seem to
need to do it weekly through August and into September. Most recommenda-
tions for controlling grasshoppers suggest also controlling or spraying adjacent
weeds, which can be the original source of the problem, but when you have over
30 some acres of weeds around your gardens, that’s not a very practical approach.Black blister beetles
One year I found, much to my horror, black beetles covering my Japanese
anemones (Anemone ×hybrida) and ground clematis (Clematis recta). It was
mid-July and they were doing a good job of completely decimating both species. I
looked up the pests, only to discover that they were black blister beetles, which,(left) Digitalis grandiflora
damaged by fourlined plant bug
in the nymph stage
(right) An adult fourlined
plant bug.