Mailbox Your letters, photos, questions
QMy peach tree is suffering with leaf curl. Last year I got to it early and pulled off affected leaves, and it had a terrific crop. This year, even with early spraying, it’s really bad. I’ve removed a lot of leaves and sprayed it again. Will the leaf curl and spraying affect the peaches? Karen Whitehead, Mount Crawford, SA
SOPHIE THOMSON SAYS
Leaf curl is a common fungal disease that affects peaches and nectarines. It infects young leaves in early spring, causing severe puckering, thickening and curling, sometimes with a pinkish colouring. These distorted leaves drop off the tree. If the tree is healthy and happy, it will simply produce a new crop of leaves. If, however, the tree is weakened due to being hungry or in poor health, the fruit crop may suffer. Spraying with a preventative fungicide is only effective if applied at early pink bud, when the flower buds swell and you first see some colour. The window to spray is often only a week, and it may not be possible in wet weather. Once flowers are in full bloom, the fungus will already have entered the leaves, and fungicide spray will not work. At Sophie’s Patch my plan is to not spray for leaf curl, but instead keep my trees in optimal health so if it does affect them, they will simply shed these leaves and get a new crop of leaves without harming my fruit crop.
QI HAVE A DWARF FLOWERING GUM. LAST YEAR IT WAS FULL OF FLOWERS BUT THERE HAVE BEEN VERY FEW THIS YEAR. ALSO, SHOULD I REMOVE THE SEED PODS EVERY YEAR OR WILL THEY DROP OFF? Vince Brignoni, Lake Bunga, Vic
MARIANNE CANNON SAYS
Your dwarf flowering gum sounds like one of the many grafted varieties that are available now. You don’t mention the age, but if it’s a young tree, it may be that it’s still developing its root system at the expense of the flowers. There could also be a variation in flowering from year to year because of environmental conditions, combined with the location of the tree. They will cope with semi-shade but flower best in a full sun position. Also, if there was any pruning done over the past 12 months, the timing of the pruning could have adversely affected the flowering. You could try applying some native fertiliser in spring and late summer. This may improve flowering performance. It’s not necessary to prune off the seed heads or gumnuts. They do eventually drop off, and in the meantime offer additional ornamental value. Older gumnuts that have lost their decorative charm can be knocked off with a stick or pruned using a pole pruner.
QA few years ago, my mother rescued some bulbs at our green-waste tip. They now have a new life in our garden but we have no idea what they are. Louise Munk Klint, Dartmouth, Vic
JENNIFER STACKHOUSE SAYS These are watsonias, probably Watsonia borbonica. They grow readily from corms and have tall spires of pretty flowers in late spring, before the plants then die back in summer. Watsonias can become weedy, and several of the species are an environmental weed in many parts of Australia, including Victoria.
QI brought this tough plant from my old home in the country, and for 20 years it has covered the pavement cracks at my Melbourne home. Could you please tell me its name? My gardener sneers at it and exclaims, “a b ..... weed”. Vivien de Cann, Brunswick, Vic
MARIANNE CANNON SAYS Your gardener is correct in calling this plant a weed, and it is listed as a noxious weed in Victoria. Its name is persicaria (Persicaria capitata), but it’s also known as Japanese knotweed or pink-headed knotweed. Try pulling it up or spraying it with one of the organic herbicides on the market.
Q WHY DO MY MINIATURE DAHLIAS PRODUCE BUDS THAT GO BROWN AND DROP OFF? I FEED THEM WITH LIQUID SEAWEED AND SLOW-RELEASE FERTILISER. Joan Ladewig, Tin Can Bay, Qld PHIL DUDMAN SAYS Your dahlias may have botrytis (shown here on a rose). This fungal disease commonly occurs in humid and wet conditions. It can be difficult to control with bushy plants that are low to the ground, such as your miniature dahlia, as the humidity is even greater, but these ideas will help you manage it. Hygiene is important, so give plants a regular clean-up, removing and disposing of any affected material. Also, avoid wetting the plant when watering as this splashes fungal spores and creates ideal conditions for the disease to flourish. It helps to increase the airflow around the plant, so thin out surrounding plants where possible and always give plants a little space of their own when planting. Finally, container growing might be a good option as you can move plants under cover when rain is forecast.
QI have for many years grown a lovely old rose which I’ve known as the apothecary’s rose (Rosa gallica var. o cinalis).
It owers once a year with delightfully scented, semi-double, cerise owers. It is tough and needs hardly any care to ower well. It slowly spreads by runners and I have it in several areas of my garden. is year, one of the plants has owers that are single and more red in colour. Why would one plant suddenly change its owers like this?
I’m delighted with the new
owers but a little bemused and interested to see if next year it remains in the new form. Helene Fabb, Apollo Bay, Vic ELIZABETH SWANE SAYS The single red rose that has appeared in your garden is most likely ‘Dr Huey’, the rose used as the vigorous understock (or rootstock) on many commercially grown roses. ‘Dr Huey’ produces a single flush of smallish single red flowers with prominent yellow stamens in late spring to early summer. Unlike your lovely apothecary rose, it has only a mild scent. The foliage is also different, and the plant’s growth is more vigorous and upright. It will eventually sucker and take over. My advice is, don’t give this sucker an even break! Remove it by digging it and all its roots out now, and watch for a reappearance of further suckers.