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drclaireoncall

Listed below are comments made by drclaireoncall between Tuesday, 10th June 2008 and Tuesday, 7th October 2008.

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Hydrangea heaven 2:50pm on 07 Oct 2008 Hello Tonyavanti

It's perfectly possible to get your mophead hydrangea under control without killing it. Either prune it back to the required height or chop it down to ground level. It will reshoot without any difficulty, but may not produce many flowers, if any, next year.
Cosmic Rain 6:40pm on 02 Oct 2008 Hello Barbara from Barnsley

Thanks so much for getting in touch. We'd love to hear more about your wonderful cosmos trial here at Gardeners' World, so if you could drop me a line at claire.johnson@bbc.co.uk that would be fab! If you have any photos, I'd love to see these too!
Plant swap 8:13pm on 17 Jun 2008 Hello Hampshireweed

Bad news, I'm afraid. These little blighters won't stop at V. tinus. They will go for our native guelder rose (V. opulus) and wayfaring tree (V. lantana). So if you have either of these two deciduous specimens in your garden, watch out!
Plant swap 9:40pm on 10 Jun 2008 Hello Hampshireweed

Dr Claire here. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Ran into a slight technical hitch on Friday afternoon and have not been near a computer since.

Anyway, as Alys says, I'm pretty certain that viburnum beetle is the cause of your problem. This pest is definitely active at the moment as I saw same cracking examples on my way back to the car park last night at Gardeners' World Live! If your viburnum looks as though it's been reduced to lace, this is your culprit!

Most of the damage is done in May and June, so it's worth removing any grubs you find on the underside of the foliage. They're creamy-yellow with black spots. If they've been and gone, check your plant again in about a month's time for greyish-brown beetles about 5-6mm long. They will have a nibble too, but won't do nearly as much damage as the larvae.

Picking off the grubs and adults one by one is the best method of control. The alternative is to cut your plant right back to the ground in the autumn to remove the overwintering eggs. These are laid in the bark of the stems and so by doing this, you would be breaking the beetle's life cycle. Burn or bin your infested prunings.

Good luck!

Dr Claire

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