I’m clearly asking for trouble in the garden this summer. Last year the Japanese Beetle population leveled off. I’m not sure if that was a natural occurrence or the result of the cool temperatures we experienced, but it’s caused me to become reckless with my plant purchases this spring.
I dove in headfirst with a new coneflower. That’s merely a Japanese Beetle appetizer. The main course will be served when they spy my new butterfly bushes. No, I didn’t stop there. My longing for the smell of roses overtook any common sense and I purchased 5—3 shrub roses, a grandiflora and a hybrid tea. Roses are crack to Japanese Beetles. They can mangle a bush in an afternoon. I knew I’d completely lost control when I topped it all off with several dinner-plate dahlia tubers. A bug’s gotta have some dessert, right?
I may as well have stocked the liquor cabinet for a recovering alcoholic. What was I thinking?!
Well at least fellow gardeners in my neighborhood can relax this summer knowing that all the beetles will be in my yard.