Another week and we continue to plod along, crossing jobs off our never-ending gardening To Do list.
Early last week, the hedgeman finally arrived to cut our monster maleuca boundary hedge. Phew! It is a mammoth task, and one Mr P, after years of self-maintenance, was relieved to outsource.
We enjoyed a brief spot of rain as a seagull flew overhead, and temperatures reached 30C on Thursday.
Pruning the Oleander
After some arm-twisting, Mr. P finally agreed to lop about five feet off the height of the oleander hedge by the rear patio. It had grown SO tall over the summer, it was impeding light to my office-come-studio. A 1000 words later, Mr P conceded defeat.
Plumbago? UPDATE: it’s a Duranta
Many years ago I took a couple of cuttings of this plant. I was told it was a type of Plumbago, but I’m not so sure. Whatever it is, I am surprised it’s held its own against the malaleuca and survived the drought this summer. UPDATE: Duranta
Yucca
While the yuccas continue to flower and thrive, we do find the constant stripping of dead leaves a pain.
Dragon Tree – WHY THE HOLE?
I have no idea when and why it happened. But I am concerned rainwater will collect in there and rot the plant from the inside.
Is this normal?
Why Does My Dracaena Plant Smell?
Our Dracaena plant (now more of a tree than a plant) stands around 14ft tall. Yep it is a whopper. A plant we have nurtured since it was about 18 inches. A baby. It outgrew one room so several years ago we moved it to the lounge, which has a vaulted ceiling and it continued to thrive… recently Mr P noticed a musty smell in the lounge which he tracked down to the plant. I initially dismissed his claims but now the smell is getting stronger.
We have no idea what is causing the smell, so I have decided the only option is to carefully remove the tree from the huge terracotta pot, which will be a three-man job, and see what’s going on at the root level.
Has anyone else experienced a ‘musty smell’ problem with one of their plants, and if so, what caused it?
How Not to Make a Wasp Trap
We had some friends over for supper this week, and as it was a balmy evening, we decided to eat the aperitif starter (pate and poppers) outside. Within minutes, we were plagued by two persistent wasps. Our friend then informed us he is highly allergic to wasp stings and carries an EPIPen, so we retreated inside.
The following day, I tried making a couple of wasp traps, one with jam and the other with orange juice. Nope, it seems our wasps are ‘picky’. Not a wasp in sight.
How do you deter wasps?
That’s it for my gardening six for this week. Any tips on the above would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Do check out other Six on Saturday bloggers over at Jim’s.
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Piglet in Portugal 
The Duranta flowers are beautiful! I love the Yucca bloom, so pretty. Wasps here are always attracted to meat, like tuna? That would be my only trapping advice.
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Hi Tracy, I think you are right about meat attracting the wasps. I’ve not managed to track down the fake wasp nests here as yet. We will see.
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That plumbago is a beauty. I’ve seen some cafes with outdoor areas use pretend wasp nests to deter them as allegedly they avoid areas with another wasps nest in it.
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Hi Trowel, yes the pretend wasp nests seems a popular suggestion and the way forward.
I’ve since learned the purple plant is not a Plubago but a Duranta.
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I have some of the same plants here in SoCal. My yucca plants are too gigantic for me to deal with, so I’ll have to have someone come in who knows what they’re doing. My corn plant/dracena isn’t as big as yours only about 5ft, but it’s growing. I keep moving it because I can’t figure out what kind of light makes it happy. Could the hole in your dragon belong to a burrowing owl?
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Mr P has to take a ladder to some of the yucca plants because like yours some are gigantic. They thrive well here.
My dracena grows in indirect sunlight and is happy.
I doubt it is an owl as I’ve never seen them here but something else might be burrowing. Good suggestion
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Interesting information about the Dracaena. I hope it’s just a minor item that can be remedied easily. Many tasks and challenges–you have been busy!
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Thanks BEth, fingers crossed.
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Your place is a beautiful paradise, Carole. I can’t begin to imagine the heartbreak after you’ve cared for a plant so well and then it has problems. Wasps are wicked here too at this time of year. We don’t use traps because I always think that even though they’re effective, they attract more of those evil beasts. I concur with the fake nest. We bought one at a hardware store and hang it in our balcony each late summer and have found it very effective. Good luck!
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Thanks, Terry. Ha paradise has warts LoL. Now you mention you can buy fake nests maybe I will see if our hardware store sells these. I can already imagine the challenge of trying to translate this request into Portuguese.
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Google it and then screen shot a photo, Carole. A picture is worth a thousand words 😊
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Lots of plant problems to puzzle over, sorry I can’t help with them.
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Hi Rosie, gardening for me is always a challenge 🙂
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Have no clue on musty plants. I am wondering what a popper is too now?
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Hi Lana, as for poppers. You take small peppers. STuff with cream cheese. Wrapp with bacon or presunto and cook in the oven. You can use the hot peppers (hence poppers) I just used normal small peppers.
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Ooh sounds good 🙂
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Google lens agrees with Fred that your plant is Duranta erecta. It is very pretty.
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Jude… I never thought to use Google lens! I am now off to experiment with some of my succulents!
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It can be very useful, though sometimes picks up things that have been inaccurately labelled.
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I have just downloaded the APP…going to have fun! At least it’s a start
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I am also highly allergic to wasp stings, to do point that I’ve had to get an ambulance ride to the emergency room three times…well, what works best in my experience is to put up a fake wasp nest. If you google how to make them there’s many ideas of how to. I make it simple. I take a smaller sized, brown paper bag and fill it with other paper bags, and then shape it to look like a huge nest. I hang them in places where I do not want wasps. Do not hang too many, it seems like they stop caring then, but if you only hang a few, with some space in between (3-5 metres at least) the wasps do not want to mess in another wasps territory.. that would be your territory 😉
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Hi Maria, the paperbag wasp nest decoy sounds and interesting idea. I will see if I can get hold of some paper bags.
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Hello, for your wasp trap, an unbeatable mix: 1/3 of beer, 1/3 of white wine and 1/3 of blackcurrant syrup. Otherwise, it’s not a Plumbago, it’s a Duranta. I have one in my greenhouse with a paler beautiful bloom. Yours is Very pretty.
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Hi Fred, thanks for the tip re the wasp trap ingredients. Do you use the inverted bottle top method as the trap?
Also thanks for identifying the plant as a Duranta. I will update the fotos on the post.
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Exactly the same method. Holes of 10mm for hornets and 8mm for wasps.
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I would guess that the musty smell is the roots rotting, only a guess mind you. I’m glad you won the battle of the oleander, sounds like you are getting a lot more light all round. I don’t know if your plumbago is plumbago but I do know it is very pretty!
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Hi, yep rotting roots is my best guess unless something has died and is rotting …. we tackle the beast on Tuesday when I bring in reinfrcements to help. Pruning the oleander right back has provided a lot more light to the NE facing room.
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