Yuk - Who ordered that?

Yuk. As the physicist Isidor I. Rabi said when they discovered the muon - who ordered that?

The ancient Greeks called it hubris. Overweening pride and arrogance. The sort of arrogance you display by crowing in your last post about how the cool wet spring has kept the pests and diseases at bay. So that even when you go out and find a nasty attack of aphids, you’re not phased. The plant’s in a small container, so it’s easy enough to bring it in and stick it under the tap. No problem.

But then you look at your pelargoniums and find this. Bleah. Where did that come from? And what is it? Rust? Doesn’t look quite like the photos on the net. Oh well, not too many leaves affected. Cut them off and see what happens.



And then you walk on and find this. Some sort of leaf miner. They’re all over the nasturtiums, and the mallow too. But easy enough to deal with - they’re quite visible and you can just scrape them out with your fingernail.

But erm - hold on. What’s that sort of yellow mottling on the other leaves of the mallow? They weren’t like that yesterday - no way. In fact I was just thinking how green and lush the plant was looking. And what a wonderful shape it was since I cut it back. And how stupendous it was going to look when it bloomed. Hubris. Oh, what hubris.

And at that point you start to panic and look carefully. And in the next container you notice there’s a grey webbing all over the hollyhocks …

And then you panic. Because you know what it is.


Red spider mite.


They’ve done it again. Two days ago there was no sign. And now half your plants are almost dead. And now you really crack, and start rooting in the cupboard to see if you’ve got anything foul and chemical left over from last year. Nothing. So you rush out and cut off all the affected leaves, leaving the plants looking shorn and gawky. And spray with garlic solution and cayenne pepper - anything to keep them at bay.

But you know it won’t work. Not when they’ve got to that point.

So the next day you’re at the garden centre. You’ve done your best, but it hasn’t worked. You’ve lasted a few weeks more than last year, but in the end you’ve cracked again.

And you spray. Again.