AN UNWELCOME VISITOR

For years I've read horror story about Japanese beetles invading gardens. I'd even talked to local gardeners who have been plagued by the irridescent buggers. But until this year I'd never even laid eyes on one.

I read an article that suggested that our springs are too cold here (and particularly at my house near Lake Michigan) for them to get comfortable and take up residence and that seems like a logical explanation. Given the warm spring and very mild winter we had and the fact that I'm seeing them now for the first time also supports this theory.

This little bugger was just one of the little guys hiding in the blooms of my containerized rose. On the right you can see some of the damage they caused in the flower.

I first noticed them a couple weeks ago when I returned from being gone for 10 days. I was admiring the new blooms in my potted rose (developing because I was diligent about deadheading before I left), and noticed something black in the middle. When I pulled it out, there was no doubt: This was the dreaded Japanese beetle I'd heard so much about. I promptly crushed it and then found two more in other flowers that met similar fates.

I've only found them in flowers so far but I'll bet my total number of kills is up to 15 or so. And I'm not naive enough to think I've found all there are to find.

So far I've only found them in that particular rose, but I'm keeping an eye out for them elsewhere. They made a real mess of the flowers, chewing big holes in them, and I'm certain they are doing other damage that I've yet to discover. I've not noticed any leaf damage yet.

I'm concerned because some of their other favorite plants to munch on are viburnums, which I have at least a dozen of, zinnias and apples. I've checked the apple tree but I need to give the rest of the plants a close inspection.

I've also started doing some research on them, and it's not hard to find. Here's one good paper with some information from which I've just learned that squishing them is a bad idea because they release a pheromone that attracts others of their ilk. Turns out I should be drowning the little buggers in soapy water.

I'm not sure if Japanese beetles will be an ongoing problem after this year at my house. If we get a typical Wisconsin winter and spring, that may solve the problem (and cause others including making the gardener crabby), at least temporarily. Still, I'd have been plenty happy to remain one of the few who was blissfully unaware of this invader.

THE EARLIEST BLOOMS

So many things have been happening in the garden and I've not had to time to show you any of them, so I thought it was high time to take a few peeks at what's happening. Not much is blooming yet, but in a matter of weeks I expect the yard to be a riot of color.

There are moments of brilliance.

The 'Rimpo' tree peony I bought on sale from Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery a couple years ago is blooming. The first magenta bloom, which is now fading all too soon, must have been a good 9 or 10 inches across with a beautiful golden center. A second flower opened this morning.

The 'Guernsey Cream' clematis, which was divided and moved last year is looking as good as it ever has. Although my collection of clematis now numbers more than 20, this is my favorite.

Although I know the hostas will soon be ravaged by sun and slugs, this one ('June' I think) is looking so beautiful in the terraced bed off the deck. I like it with the striped hakenachloa next to it.

 This photo makes it look a little messier than it is, but I don't think the circle garden has ever looked better. I'm loving the 'Redbor' kale in there and I expect it to pretty much take over during the course of the summer.

 That bright orange pop you see in the circle garden is 'Geisha Girl' calendula. It is darn near neon orange

I'm happy with how the "main garden" is looking now that it's one of the few that has been weeded and mulched. I used 'Morning Glory Charm' supertunias in the urn and around it. I'm really loving this new variety. I really hope the urn grows in well this year. I have a 'Cafe au Lait' dahlia in the center with the supertunias and 'Kent Beauty' ornamental oregano. A 'Princess Diana' clematis climbs up the front.

Speaking of containers, the big container by the door was planted similarly to last year with the addition of verbena bonariensis.

I planted the garden alongside the patio with almost all annuals this year. Hopefully they will fill in and be a lush riot of color.

 The front steps are currently serving as a staging area. Please, god of gardening, let me get everything in the ground the coming weekend.

The 'Prairie Snowdrift' rose that I'm growing in a container has been looking good until the last two days when I noticed a familiar problem: telltale signs of sawfly larvae. Of all jobs in the garden, anything that involves picking creepy crawlies off of plants is among my most hated, but that's what I did. You can see the sneaky bugger on the underside of a leave. Hopefully I caught them early enough to avoid any further damage.

 That's what's happening in my garden? What's the report from yours?

HOMICIDE IN THE GARDEN

Creepy crawlies are as much as part of gardening as soil and sun. Gardeners tend to have different views on such things, some taking as much interest in the bugs as the flowers and heralding the sight of a helpful critter as much as prize-winning tomato. Others abhor the little buggers.

I remember reading a gardening forum post once in which the poster was petrified of worms. The poor woman was lambasted in the follow-up comments and I felt horrible for her. I happen to be quite proud of my worms, but I can understand how someone might not be fond of them. So I try to take an open-minded view of gardeners' reactions to the creatures that share our yards.

As I mentioned, I love my worms. I actually count them when I dig a hole. When I removed all the sod for the new garden area it took me longer because I picked out all the worms out of the sod and put them back in the garden. I also love seeing bees, butterflies, moths and birds in my garden. And I always talk to the toads when they show up.

But really, that's about where it ends for me. I find everything else to be pretty disgusting. Snakes are a complete deal-breaker for me. To my knowledge, we have no poisonous snakes in Wisconsin, but it really doesn't matter. The garter snakes that tend to show up in gardens might as well be rattlesnakes or boa constrictors as far as I'm concerned. My reaction to them is no different than if they were planning to turn me into dinner: I scream (like horror movie kind of scream) and run faster than I ever have before. And then about three weeks later I realize I will have to go back into the garden at some point. I dislike snakes so much that if someone posts a picture of one on Facebook, I immediately hide the post.

But I don't most bugs either. That presents a problem because in most cases, the best way to deal with bugs in the garden is to physically remove them from a plant. And that involves a lot of bug touching, usually followed by bug homicide.

I'm OK with the latter. Maybe it makes me an awful person, but killing a bug that is not beneficial to my garden is not a problem for me. I'm not sure at what size I draw the line on critter homicide, but I think it's safe to say I couldn't kill anything with fur or anything bigger than, say, the end of my thumb. I offer as proof the fact that the other day there was a baby bunny in front of my car as I turned down the driveway. I suspect this bunny (or his brothers, sisters, mother, father or cousins) is responsible for mowing down my Sweet Summer Love clematis and a few other things, and for one brief second, as that little brown puffball looked me in the eyes, I realized I could prevent a lot of future garden damage with one tap of the gas pedal. But of course I couldn't bring myself to do that. Just as I cannot bring myself to do anything but set up a relocation program for the red squirrels eating our garage (literally).

All of this brings me to my point: Sometimes, as a gardener, you have to kill a bug or two, even if you really don't want to.

The climbing rose 'CanCan' that I have on the front of the house has performed so well for me, but the past two years it has had horrible aphid infestations. My goal for this year has bend to keep it healthy enough to ward off the little buggers (I have a theory that healthier plants will not attract bugs the way stressed plants will). I've been patting myself on the back that despite a lot of lush new growth, so far CanCan has not gotten any aphids. But then I noticed some leaves were looking a bit lacelike. Something was eating them.

My climbing rose looks pretty good from a distance, but get a little closer and you'll see the damage.

Damage caused by sawfly larvae.

When I turned over the leaves I found a tiny green caterpillar looking bug. It didn't take long for the Internet to show me that it was sawfly larvae. The solution: get rid of them as quickly as possible.

Sawfly larva on the backside of a rose leaf.

I don't know if I have a "soft" nozzle on my hose, but blasting bugs off with water has never worked for me. Then I tried insecticidal soap, but the next day the larvae were still there and growing. There was only one icky way to get rid of them: Squish 'em.

So I put on my gloves (this is the main reason I wear gloves when I garden, by the way, in case I come in contact with a creepy crawly), sucked it up, and started scraping the little buggers off those leaves. They are so small and soft that that action alone ended their time in my garden.

It was gross and hated it, but a gardener's got to do what a gardener's got to do. Unless it involves snakes. Then all bets are off.