My Florida Tropical Garden

The first day of September is welcoming after enduring two of the warmest months of the year. July and August have an average daily high of 92°F in Orlando. Even though it's still very hot and wet for weeks ahead, this day marks the beginning of a seasonal change. It means the beginning of Fall-Autumn on September 23, 2011. As days move on we can expect a slow transition of color and weather.

Gall Midge Treatment Update
Only a couple days after my gall midge treatment and the hibiscus look like they are pest free right now, not even an aphid was found last time I checked. I'm pretty sure it's killing the gall midge larvae too since I've noticed a few more healthy blooms on the white hibiscus.

Upcoming First Blooms
I have 2 more hibiscus plants that are blooming for the first time which means sometime this month I'll have a few new hybrids to show off. These hybrids were grown from seed for the last 2 years.
Also my Becky's Blue/White passion flower is blooming well, another first flower on this one too. I purchased this plant on eBay this year.

Milkweed Bug Control
Another pest this summer is the Milkweed bug. Once established, they do alot of cosmetic damage to your milkweed. They don't actually kill the plant as milkweed just grows back when it's cut down, but the Monarchs need healthy leaves in order to grow properly. Getting rid of an established milkweed bug colony means cutting back my plants, throwing away the stems with the bugs still on the cuttings. The cuttings go into a trashbag that is sealed leaving the bugs trapped. I absolutely don't use pesticides on my milkweed plants as I don't want to harm the baby caterpillars or poison the leaves. It doesn't take long for milkweed to grow back, in fact they actually look better when you do occassionally cut them back.

Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been busy maintaining the garden with the lack of rain, controlling a wild rat problem, and my grandparents came to visit Florida for a couple weeks. I've also been doing some bass and catfishing, see my fishing blog at http://average-fisherman.blogspot.com

Milkweed Bugs, I wrote about these bugs a couple months ago. The tropical milkweed planted next to the bird bath was infested with these suckers for awhile. The plant was showing alot of damage, so much the butterflies wouldn't even touch it. Using insecticidal soap did little to nothing, there were just too many milkweed bugs ranging from baby nymphs to adults. Fortunately milkweed is a resilient plant and grows back very fast. So I just chopped off all the stems and bagged them in a ziploc bag. The milkweed bugs tend to cluster around the very tops of the stems where new growth would occur. Once all the stems were cut and bagged, there were no more milkweed bugs on the plant. Within weeks, the milkweed bounced back and now it looks great.

Gulf Fritillary butterflies are very popular here and almost always sighted when I walk outside in the garden. They love the Candy Cane Zinnias, Yellow Lantana, Marigolds, and of course the Passiflora (gulf frit host plant). I only have one potted passiflora, and it's loaded with caterpillars and eggs. In fact, as I'm looking outside now I can see two Gulf Frit butterflies flirting with each other in the air. The Monarchs are still hanging around, about 1 or 2 a day seems to be the average. There was a Giant Swallowtail visiting a Yellow Lantana for awhile but I haven't seen any swallowtails in the last couple of weeks. I even planted some dill and parsley to attract Black Swallowtail caterpillars but no luck so far.

I found these red/orange and black colored insects gathered on some milkweed plants. In fact, they have established a large population on one plant to the point where some leaves are growing deformed and some leaves have been sucked dry of plant tissue. These insects are called the Milkweed Bug, and are more of a nuisance than a threat to the milkweed plant. They are commonly found in small groups on stems, leaves, and seed pods sucking the juices from plant tissue. Controlling these bugs can be tricky because you don't want to spray the Monarch larvae with harmful chemicals. So you can either live with the damage, squish the bugs, or spray with a low dose of insecticidal soap.

Pictured below is the Milkweed Bug life cycle.