Sheesh, is that ever a bad case of euonymus scale! I have never used a HOMEMADE recipe for horticultural oil, nor would I ever endorse a recipe. I've seen the results, however. The commercially manufactured products are safe, effective, come equipped with directions. It is almost impossible to come up with your own recipe of oil/soap/water that will not separate and coat your plant with gooky gook. There are many organic options for horticultural oils, including those that are totally vegetable based. The commercial products are formulated to form a solution that will cover your plant with a very fine coating of the soil that won't be harmful to your plant yet still smother the insect. I gotta tell you, my friend...this looks like a very bad infestation of euonymous scale. Many would remove the plants entirely and replace with something else entirely. Others would prune their plants to the ground so that they could start all over again, making sure to begin a spraying routine from the get-go. Whatever you decide to use as your oil, know that you will have to use it judiciously on all of the plants, a few times a year, from now on. If you decide to go with a commercial product, be sure to read and follow the directions. You should never apply an oil based product in the harsh sunlight, or in very high or low temperatures. This species of scale goes hand in hand with your plant, sorry to say. Great pictures!

There is no way to tell you without complete info. First, most builders don't know plants. Second, if your irrigation company won't answer your questions you need to find a new company. Third, plants die. I don't know why but it seems atleast 10% of nursery sold plants just die, improper handling, etc. Another issue is that many plants must be planted at different depths to survive, and builders, and many landscapers, scary as it is, don't know this. Step one is find someone with references to take a look. Next, how many gallons per minute does your system flow? Most drip emitters yield 0.6 or 1.1 gphour. Actual sprinkler heads come in nozzle sizes of 0.5 gp minute to 10 gpm So 5 minutes may yield 2.5 gallons or 50 gallons. So how could we tell you a specific schedule? Next, what is your coverage? It should be uniform overlapping coverage. many builders space out the heads to save money and you wind up with dry spots. Also, every house is different, from soil mixture to contaminants, to plant types, layout, sun exposure, wind exposure, flow rates, spacing. and the big killer, since you rent, is animal urine possibly from the previous tenants pet. As far as different water needs per plant...If you have a drip aka micro-irrigation line, you can easily set the watering time based on gpm and plants most fragile in regards to frequency. Then, for the plants requiring larger amounts of water, add, or switch out the emitter to a higher flow one. Which would water like this...Once a week(drought tolerant yard with established plants) for one hour. Say you have 1 gallon per hour emitters. if placed properly each plant is getting one gallon, If you have 2 emitters near a plant it's getting 2 gallons, etc. Now, If you have sandy soil that water just goes straight into the ground. as an example, if i'm running and you throw a glass of water at me, i may catch a mouthful. If i sit at a table with that glass of water i can drink the whole thing. sorry for a bad analogy. I will also put the drip pipe in rows so that 1 emitter lines up on each side of the plant. this is important or half of the plant will brown out. spacing should be 1 foot with drip since a single emitter in avg conditions will spread 6 inches each way in a circle, hence 6 plus 6 is 1 foot, and they meet in the middle. additionally if the drip pipe emitters are spaced 1 foot apart on the actually pipe you will have 2 rows of 1 foot apart emitters, 1 foot from the other pipe, giving you a 1 foot wide path of irrigated soil as long as your rows. Ideally, with your plants smack in the middle. Find out the actual gallon needs for the plants. looking at the soil is pointless, except in placement of heads. you want to be just outside of the root to promote growth outward. You may check the soil and find it to be damp, but then an hour later because of climate the top inch or two evaporates from wind or heat. Then what you thought was a correct schedule is still leading to dead plants. Now, many drought tolerant plants are damn near impossible to kill, after all they live in the wild. But you have an established issue of dead plants. And yes less often, deeper waterings are better to prevent plants becoming dependent on constant waterings due to shallow roots. however some plants will always have shallow roots naturally, and need less water more often.(again factor in soil drainage rate) So, if you feel confident enough to find out what you have, what you need, and the smartest way to get there, then go for it. But if you take advice and try one thing at a time, maybe you will fix the problem on the first try, maybe you will spend money on 10 different suggestions and still kill your plants. I HIGHLY suggest finding an irrigation guy with recommendations, and if he sounds like he knows what he's doing, and you trust him to do it right, just have him fix it. saving a buck on a guy who doesn't speak english and kills plants isn't saving a buck. And make sure your landlord is reimbursing you for repairs before you waste your money on a rental. Additionally, Hunter makes a weather station based on your specific micro climate. it's about $600 retail and puts a value on every variable possible. you tell it the soil type, amount of wind, plant type and age, angle of slope of hills, amount of shade, etc. and it reads rainfall, temp, evaporation rates,and can calculate the amount of water on your plants vs. the amount needed. It knows that you got an inch of rain but 1/4 evaporated in the sunny spots and decide if more water is needed. It has wiltguard that knows if the temp is too hot for the plants, and will turn on the heads to water down the leaves and give them a break from the heat. You will never underwater a plant, and you will never over water, saving money on your water-bill.

This freeze has separated the hardy from the tender of the Southern Hemisphere stuff as well. I'm looking mostly at my container stock that didn't make it into the greenhouse, whose damage to their upper parts is still instructive regardless of the state of the root system. My best Callistemon by far is C. viridiflorus (that's the real C. viridiflorus, not the Youngblood Nursery mislabeled one showing up in Seattle area retail nurseries lately).... easily hardier than others including 'Woodlanders Hardy'. Corokias are all pretty much tender.... none really did that great but C. cotoneaster was the best. Cassinia x Ozothamnus is impressively hardy, as is Brachyglottis monroi, Olearia x haastii and O. paniculata. Pittosporum colensoi is my best NZ Pittosporum. Araucaria angustifolia (100+ of them) has burned leaf tips but growing points are still fine. Astelia... forget it, dead. Eucalyptus are mostly dead but I'm really impressed with a couple forms of E. rubida and E. camphora which I'm surprised to see unharmed. I'll do a full report later but I want to wait just a little bit longer so that my information will be as accurate as possible. The lowest temperature here was 13F, which was reached in both the morning and the evening of the coldest day. I'm planning a better organized eucalyptus test garden to trial some of the best provenances of the hardiest species. With good documentation this time and a more limited, deliberate selection of plants, I hope it will prove to be an instructive test. I'll probably skip E. scoparia; I just don't think it is that hardy although it continues to persist in Olympia. I hope I can get this project underway this year.

Virginia, drainage is one of my big problems: I've lost some beautiful Teas to root rot. Still mourning 'Anna Jung'. I've tried a camelia or two in the ground, but they're just not suited here no matter how much I amend. The rainfall distribution is part of the problem, as winter is our rainy season and summer is dry, the Mediterranean pattern. You've told me some things about camelias I didn't know, thanks for the info. I know there are places in Italy where they're magnificent, but those are pockets where conditions are suitable, I believe, and not very common. Our local woods, in our arid gray clay (there are areas locally where the still-clay soil is much better) are deciduous oak, flowering ash, and field maple, with willows and poplars down in the drainage bottoms, and colonies of black hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia) and the hated Ulmus minor scattered here and there. Elderberry, hawthorn, Cornus sanguinea, hazelnut, blackthorn, honeysuckle, wild clematis, brambles, Viburnum lantana, Euonymus europeus, fly honeysuckle, Cornus mas. The number of native woody species is not that large. It's like anywhere else: the limitations of our growing conditions determine the character of our garden, making it different from all other gardens. As I said, I can't grow azaleas, but then the few daphnes I've been able to lay my hands on have done fine. Not everyone can grow daphnes. I've never had any luck with hollies, and have found osmanthus iffy, but sarcococcas are happy here. This is great country for the temperate climate fruit trees and for the European once-blooming old roses, for lilacs, mock orange, honeysuckle. I think what we can grow much of it you would also find in the milder parts of England, mixed with a good population of Mediterranean climate plants. Nik, I don't consider all magnolias impossible here, but their placement is very difficult. With us it's either bake, or drown in the low spots, and we must choose between woods, with their web of roots, rocks, and shade, and open fields of pure gray clay, blasted by sun and wind. None of the in-between, moderate conditions I believe they like. The amendment you're talking about is pretty formidable, too. People grow M. soulangeana locally and I've seen M. denudata as well, though those were down in the valley bottoms. We have a magnolia of our own. I suspect that what the nurseryman got for us wasn't what I asked for and it will turn out to be a Soulangeana, but it has been growing satisfactorily for two or three years, and should bloom soon. What I would like would be a M. x loebneri: they're supposed to be easy, beautiful, fragrant, and able to grow in clay. I have a spot in mind. If I had the conditions for them I would have a garden full of deciduous magnolias. Full. I think they're the most beautiful flowering trees there are. P.S. Another cross post. Grazie a te, mustbenuts! In italiano un "ornamental garden" si chiama "giardino" ("vegetable garden" invece è "orto"), quindi "bellissimo" è corretto. Sono contenta che ti sia piaciuto. Anche per me è un posto molto tranquilizzante.