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Gardening for Amateurs 



greenfly. As a rule, however, the cuckoo- 

 spit is with us, and a terrible nuisance it 

 becomes. Nicotine and other washes are 

 sometimes recommended, also forcible syring- 

 ing with plain water, but I have always found 

 that there is no other remedy so trustworthy 

 and effectual as dealing with the pest by 



Pillars of Rose Dorothy Perkin: 



hand. When the froth has been removed 

 note at once if there be only one insect or 

 several. They hide in the most artful 

 manner, and are aided by their colour. A 

 favourite hiding place is in the axil of a leaf, 

 that is to say, right down in the little angle 

 made by the stalk of a leaf and the stem of 

 the plant. In this position they are difficult 

 to see and still more difficult to dislodge 

 alive, but pressure with the point of a knife, 



a lead pencil, or a piece of pointed wood is 

 sufficient to destroy them. Even then one 

 must look very carefully underneath and all 

 around to make quite sure that there are no 

 more of the enemy in hiding. Those that 

 escape death become eventually frog-hoppers, 

 brown or yellowish insects often seen later 

 on in the year. The 

 frog-hopper is a most 

 amazing jumper, hence 

 its name. The mature 

 insect does a good deal 

 of harm, but it is so 

 quick in action that it 

 is difficult to capture or 

 IdU it. 



If it is noticed that the 

 tips of some of the Rose 

 shoots look limp and are 

 fading, hanging or dying 

 back without apparent 

 cause, be sure that that 

 most annoying insect the 

 stem-boring sawfly has 

 been depositing its eggs 

 in the pith of the shoot, 

 and that the hatched out 

 larvae are eating their 

 way down the centre of 

 the branch. If it be an 

 early stage, the shoot, if 

 pinched gently near the 

 tip. will feel soft, and this 

 softness can be felt for 

 some distance down ; 

 when you reach a point 

 where the wood feels hard 

 again, cut or nip the 

 whole spray off above 

 this point, burn it if 

 possible, but at least 

 grind it hard under the 

 heel, so that there is no 

 chance of the survival of any of the pests. 

 If the damaged part of the stem be cut open 

 lengthways through the middle the larvae 

 will be seen in the shape of yellowish-white 

 maggots. 



Small black beetles, about one-tenth of an 

 inch long, are sometimes very troublesome 

 and annoying to the Rose lover. They 

 gather in numbers in the flowers, particularly 

 in fully blown ones. What remedies there 



