Diminuendo
At the Start
Currently flourishing in the garden............
What A Beauty!
- Thread starter Diminuendo
- Start date
Shadow Leader
At the Start
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2003
- Messages
- 9,884
I'm guessing at a flower, Grey!! :lol:
Diminuendo
At the Start
It's a primula....vialli [littoniana], otherwise known as Chinese Pagoda Primrose. Fabulous.
K
Kathy
Guest
I thought it was colourful bog brush. :blink:
The colours are amazing! Lovely photo.
The colours are amazing! Lovely photo.
:lol: :lol: Two postings, and the tone goes right down the pan!
I am sure that gardeners on here will be delighted to know that our rooftop cordyline is in full flower, as is the neighbouring yard's specimen. I'm not sure if it's cordyline or cordilyne, but they're looking good!
I am sure that gardeners on here will be delighted to know that our rooftop cordyline is in full flower, as is the neighbouring yard's specimen. I'm not sure if it's cordyline or cordilyne, but they're looking good!
Isty
At the Start
Yep garden looks lovely and I will continue to enjoy it until August and bloody wasp time, then its the wasp dance everytime I step outside or more usually not stepping outside. Think I need a hypnotist.
Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 13,884
Buy one of these tennis racket things Sandra, which gives them an electric shock as you swat them. The dive to the ground sounding like a messerschmit is most satisfying. There is a warning which says do not touch strings or you will receive a shock. Well..you just have to once don't you ?
Ouch !! Bloody hell !!
Ouch !! Bloody hell !!
Diminuendo
At the Start
Yep, I have made it look more like a red hot poker, but its actually about a foot high and the flower head is about the size of a wine gum.
Isty
At the Start
A bit dangerous whilst still doing the wasp dance (cant help it). I hate killing anything even insects, but might just fork out for one of these (I take it it does kill them and not just annoy them into planning a full scale attack next time).
Muttley
At the Start
Even better photo than I had thought, then ...
It's no good, you know, Dims, it really is about time you started flogging those piccies ...
Diminuendo
At the Start
Here's another one including greenfly, which i have now removed!!!!
Beautiful - look at those gorgeous aphids crawling up the stem! :lol:
MarkEE, I can take some photos if you like? But I don't have a scanner, so I'll just send you the prints. The two of them are really in great shape. The one in the small yard outside my bedroom window has been quite seriously neglected, too, as the shop owner let the yard down a bit before he left. The new people are doing a great job of growing flowers and grooming the plants. The one on our roof garden is in a tiny section directly above my own flat, where the spot is privately-owned by one of the women here. She's turned it into 'Wild Kingdom' with God-knows-what growing in huge planters. It's looking fantastic, though she has hardly anywhere left to sit. One of these days, I expect to hear an earsplitting CRACK! and have the lot come crashing through the ceiling!
Isty: a humane and harmless way to repel wasps, if you want to use it, is to accompany your forays into the garden armed with a plastic spray bottle full of water. Just spritz them as they fly at you. They won't like it, and will zip off to dry out somewhere else. Otherwise, you can kill them by letting themselves drink themselves to death by setting a beer (or wine or cider) trap. Just leave a half bottle or half can of beer out, not near to where you want to be. The wasps are attracted to it, fly in for a couple of swift halves, get snockered, fly wonkily around inside, then fall into the beer, where they drown in a second or two, but nicely woozy. I prefer not to kill insects, either, so perhaps you can try the 'deluge' system first!
MarkEE, I can take some photos if you like? But I don't have a scanner, so I'll just send you the prints. The two of them are really in great shape. The one in the small yard outside my bedroom window has been quite seriously neglected, too, as the shop owner let the yard down a bit before he left. The new people are doing a great job of growing flowers and grooming the plants. The one on our roof garden is in a tiny section directly above my own flat, where the spot is privately-owned by one of the women here. She's turned it into 'Wild Kingdom' with God-knows-what growing in huge planters. It's looking fantastic, though she has hardly anywhere left to sit. One of these days, I expect to hear an earsplitting CRACK! and have the lot come crashing through the ceiling!
Isty: a humane and harmless way to repel wasps, if you want to use it, is to accompany your forays into the garden armed with a plastic spray bottle full of water. Just spritz them as they fly at you. They won't like it, and will zip off to dry out somewhere else. Otherwise, you can kill them by letting themselves drink themselves to death by setting a beer (or wine or cider) trap. Just leave a half bottle or half can of beer out, not near to where you want to be. The wasps are attracted to it, fly in for a couple of swift halves, get snockered, fly wonkily around inside, then fall into the beer, where they drown in a second or two, but nicely woozy. I prefer not to kill insects, either, so perhaps you can try the 'deluge' system first!
Isty
At the Start
Actually, I'm thinking I should drink the wine and the beer, at least that way I wont care about the little buzzing ........
Am I the only one in the world with a wasp phobia or is it common, I've asked and either nobody will admit it or I'm a big wuss.
17h ton of horse easy, tiny little bitty wasp, big quivering girly heap.
Krizon thanks for the advice I might put the beer in next doors garden instead though, dont actually want to encourage the little blighters, word might get out about a free bar.
Am I the only one in the world with a wasp phobia or is it common, I've asked and either nobody will admit it or I'm a big wuss.
17h ton of horse easy, tiny little bitty wasp, big quivering girly heap.
Krizon thanks for the advice I might put the beer in next doors garden instead though, dont actually want to encourage the little blighters, word might get out about a free bar.
Ha - you wouldn't have liked to have been in my office then this morning, Isty!!
Usually only happens once but already this year I have been visited twicw by an extremely large hornet - I didn't hang around to ask if it was the same one....
They always gob-smack me as to just how big they are but, as long as they leave quite sharpish, I don't wish them any harm and they probably do a good job around the farm/garden.
Usually only happens once but already this year I have been visited twicw by an extremely large hornet - I didn't hang around to ask if it was the same one....
They always gob-smack me as to just how big they are but, as long as they leave quite sharpish, I don't wish them any harm and they probably do a good job around the farm/garden.
Tout Seul
Senior Jockey
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 2,628
Quite possible that the hornet was a wasp Queen.
Unfortunately and somewhat belatedly I have had to become pretty knowledgeable about wasps and would guess that what you saw was about 1.5-2in. long and as wide as one's finger.Of course it may have been a hornet but since we have had 5 of the buggers that I used to call hornets in the house in the the last few weeks it would appear to be the start of their season.
For several years our house has become the nesting place of choice for wasps in the locality. After a few years I got fed up with continually calling out the council control people, especially when they implemented a policy of charging, so set about dealing with them myself. My first plan was the macho action man decision to attack their nests in late summer when they had become particularly bothersome ,stinging people in the garden, and at times swarming.
Dressed appropriately in thick ski jacket ,two pairs of gloves on,a motorbike helmet and umpteen scarves, I crawled through the first trapdoor into the area above the soffits on one side of the house.The space I entered runs the width of the house,say 60 feet, and is roughly triangular with a maximum height and width of 3.5 feet and is criss-crossed by various joists and roof support beams.Armed with a range of implements such as long canes,water sprays,insect sprays,a torch , and several large empty plastic paint tubs ( to knock the nests into and then put a lid on), progress was slow on account of the equipment ,and my being 6 feet tall as well as being dressed like Michelin man.
It seemed that all the wasps had buggered off to one of their beer and wine orgies and I found several small nests the size of a tennis ball and dark grey in colour.I dealt with them and thought this is easy. I then entered the parallel area on the other side of the house and clambering halfway though a small gap between some beams lifted the torch and saw a beige-grey coloured nest that was about 2.5 ft long and almost the same in width. Nightmare come true and despite determining not to panic and to withdraw slowly I got stuckfor several minutes. End of the macho campaign!
I then searched the net for a couple of days and learnt that the grey nest were built by quueens who had died before they had completed building and that I had chosen the worst possible time of day and year to begin my assault. I also found out that the big nest was that of a previous year,they don't re-occupy. I got a guy in to deal with the active nests who told me that the unusually big nest could have housed tens of thousands of wasps which given that it filled a binliner seems scaringly possible.
Apparently the maturing fruit on the apple trees which we rarely gather because of wasps is what sends them crazy.Nowadays I kill any queens (wasps) I see and regularly check their nesting places at this time of year. As for bees they are welcome and strangely this year some have built a nest in a hole in the ground at the edge of the lawn which simply means less lawn to cut.
Unfortunately and somewhat belatedly I have had to become pretty knowledgeable about wasps and would guess that what you saw was about 1.5-2in. long and as wide as one's finger.Of course it may have been a hornet but since we have had 5 of the buggers that I used to call hornets in the house in the the last few weeks it would appear to be the start of their season.
For several years our house has become the nesting place of choice for wasps in the locality. After a few years I got fed up with continually calling out the council control people, especially when they implemented a policy of charging, so set about dealing with them myself. My first plan was the macho action man decision to attack their nests in late summer when they had become particularly bothersome ,stinging people in the garden, and at times swarming.
Dressed appropriately in thick ski jacket ,two pairs of gloves on,a motorbike helmet and umpteen scarves, I crawled through the first trapdoor into the area above the soffits on one side of the house.The space I entered runs the width of the house,say 60 feet, and is roughly triangular with a maximum height and width of 3.5 feet and is criss-crossed by various joists and roof support beams.Armed with a range of implements such as long canes,water sprays,insect sprays,a torch , and several large empty plastic paint tubs ( to knock the nests into and then put a lid on), progress was slow on account of the equipment ,and my being 6 feet tall as well as being dressed like Michelin man.
It seemed that all the wasps had buggered off to one of their beer and wine orgies and I found several small nests the size of a tennis ball and dark grey in colour.I dealt with them and thought this is easy. I then entered the parallel area on the other side of the house and clambering halfway though a small gap between some beams lifted the torch and saw a beige-grey coloured nest that was about 2.5 ft long and almost the same in width. Nightmare come true and despite determining not to panic and to withdraw slowly I got stuckfor several minutes. End of the macho campaign!
I then searched the net for a couple of days and learnt that the grey nest were built by quueens who had died before they had completed building and that I had chosen the worst possible time of day and year to begin my assault. I also found out that the big nest was that of a previous year,they don't re-occupy. I got a guy in to deal with the active nests who told me that the unusually big nest could have housed tens of thousands of wasps which given that it filled a binliner seems scaringly possible.
Apparently the maturing fruit on the apple trees which we rarely gather because of wasps is what sends them crazy.Nowadays I kill any queens (wasps) I see and regularly check their nesting places at this time of year. As for bees they are welcome and strangely this year some have built a nest in a hole in the ground at the edge of the lawn which simply means less lawn to cut.
A
Ardross
Guest
Hornets are darker in colour orangey as well as enormous - we get them in France laste August September on the figs - horrible
BrianH
At the Start
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Nearly spilt my breakfast cereal thinking of it
:lol: :lol: Omigod, TS! The horror... the horror...
No, Isty, like you, I'm not a wasp fan. I love and adore beetles (Jools, the monster beetle you found when I was there was a maybug - now becoming quite rare, and a real treat), spiders, bees, hoverflies, etc., but I tend to walk very briskly away from waspies. I think what I dislike the most is their 'in yer face' attitude of flying straight at your face and staring you down. (I think they're Glaswegian in origin.)
Good idea about putting the beercans in the neighbour's bushes! Of course, they're also crazy for soft fruits like plums and apricots, so if you get a ripe one or two, chuck those in as well!
No, Isty, like you, I'm not a wasp fan. I love and adore beetles (Jools, the monster beetle you found when I was there was a maybug - now becoming quite rare, and a real treat), spiders, bees, hoverflies, etc., but I tend to walk very briskly away from waspies. I think what I dislike the most is their 'in yer face' attitude of flying straight at your face and staring you down. (I think they're Glaswegian in origin.)
Good idea about putting the beercans in the neighbour's bushes!
Of course, they're also crazy for soft fruits like plums and apricots, so if you get a ripe one or two, chuck those in as well!Isty
At the Start
Tout Seul, you are now my hero and probably the bravest person on the planet (or mental).
Thanks for all the help guys, I have noticed over the ahem lots of years on this earth that wasps have a different drone to any other buzzing insect (maybe I'm just tuned into it) so I can recognise its a wasp from way off, that and as Kri says they have a really, really bad attitude. BTW just as an aside what purpose do they have and could the world surivive without them?
Dim sorry I seem to have hijacked your thread, but starting one would be just too out there for me. Your photos are fantastic though, I have a whole load of blood red lilleys (not the most exciting I know) about the burst into bloom and I cant wait, although they better hurry up or I might be on my wasp enforced lock in.
Thanks for all the help guys, I have noticed over the ahem lots of years on this earth that wasps have a different drone to any other buzzing insect (maybe I'm just tuned into it) so I can recognise its a wasp from way off, that and as Kri says they have a really, really bad attitude. BTW just as an aside what purpose do they have and could the world surivive without them?
Dim sorry I seem to have hijacked your thread, but starting one would be just too out there for me. Your photos are fantastic though, I have a whole load of blood red lilleys (not the most exciting I know) about the burst into bloom and I cant wait, although they better hurry up or I might be on my wasp enforced lock in.
K
Kathy
Guest
OK, i admit I am getting addicted to this photo posting...but I am really bored at work! 
