Fools Gold Beetle

There’s gold on them there plants !

We have been very busy this week potting up plants and selling them. This means I have been turning in early and that is not common but necessary if I am to make it to the end of the day!
The weather has been cooperative temperature wise and we have been able to move almost everything out of the greenhouse.

While some large growers leave everything in we prefer to get the plants out where they can breath. Moving them out allows the plants to harden off and makes a better start for the customer.
Not to mention we simply run out of space in the greenhouse. We could stack shelves but this causes the plants to be crowded with low light and poor air circulation.

So we have made the decision to add another greenhouse this season to have ready for next spring. The size will be 20’ by 32’ and will allow us to grow a wider variety of flowers.
We would go bigger but we do not have the space. Which means the next step is to secure a second location with more space.

The most interesting thing to happen the past few days is the discovery of the fools gold beetle.
We grew bush morning glories, convolvulus cneorum , and this shinny little beetle eats only morning glories !

We were really happy with the blossoms and the way the plants filled out baskets but we also have a problem with bugs in plants we are selling.

Anyway we dumped the plants into the compost and hopefully that will be the end of the critters as well.
It is ironic that this spring voles were attacking the morning glory seedlings in the greenhouses. We dealt with the voles and allotted precious bench space to these plants and only to find out they are the favorite food of the fool’s gold beetle.

We should have researched this species before we grew them and so we will chalk this up to stupid tax and remember to do the research when ever trying a new plant.