I'd take them back and get my money back. Once a plant is so infected with spider mites that you can see webs it's a goner. Spider mites hatch out every 3 to 5 days. If you have a mild infection you may be able to control it with daily sprays with the hose and treating with insecticidal soap later on in the day but you can never get rid of them. I'd keep them far, far away from other plants until you can return them.

You were sold plants that were on there death bed

You can also just cut them back hard, rinse and plant. Nothing left to feast on. Make sure to keep them watered....Problem solved!

GardenHo- my panic matched your thoughts.....i'm a little nervous to publicly admit I did this, esp since I'm a newbie and I'm not sure what I'm doing is even close to what is recommended, but here we go....

Before webs (one of dozens per plant):

Before clump:

After: cut and soaped

Please feel free to say if what I did was 100% wrong- I just panicked.... And have seen a lot of nice roots put up new growth after trauma to the tops this year so I thought it may be worth trying... (see my other dicentra topic, also columbine and maidenhair ferns have died from the top after being tranplanted/gifted and then put up new growth later)....

Not sure if these will regenerate, but if they do- soap once a day and after a couple of weeks if I don't see webs and pass the paper test is it safe to plant?

Or maybe now someone will tell me this wasn't spide mites, haha...

Overly "dense" foliage with lower dieback doesn't sound a whole lot like spider mite infestation.

Spider mites cause subtle speckling/tiny light-colored spots on foliage (especially newer, more succulent growth) and plants look unhealthy long before webbing appears (by the time you see webs the plant is usually pretty far gone).

If your plants are markedly sickly-looking it may be time to toss them. If not, I'd take GardenHo's advice and cut back any infested foliage while hitting the remainder with a strong spray of water (whatever bug seems to be causing the problem will be washed off), and do the water spray every few days until healthy new foliage emerges. Spider mites are typically a problem in hot dry weather and do not appreciate damp foliage.

Note: just missed the above post. The photos don't show typical spider mite damage (actually the foliage looks/looked pretty healthy). Not to worry - new growth should emerge.

Just tip and rinse...they should be fine :) I wouldn't keep soaping. You may do more harm than good. Keep them watered after planting..not too much just when they start to dry out, until they get established.

I agree that probably wasn't spider mite. Too bad you didn't post pictures with the original post. It may have been a garden spider looking for a meal. I too wouldn't keep soaping. I'd rinse them off and plant. The next time you see a web look at the foliage. It would have white speckles from where spider mite were sucking the sap. Before the webs appear almost all the leaves would be falling off and the plant looks very unhealthy.

Thank you all for the feedback - I should have held off on the panic and asked for help first. I guess I'm glad to hear it may not have been spider mites so I can be less worried about them marching across my driveway into my good gardens. For the $1.48 my "panic experiment" will be interesting tuition to see if these plants can come back....

at a 1.48 each.. its probably not worth the gas back to return them ...

back in the day .. i learned more winging it.. like you did ... than i ever did from a book ... no WWW to chicken little me into action ... lol ...

they are perennials ... there is no reason they should not come back ...

its also hail storm season .. and if you read forums.. you will find many peeps moaning that mother nature did the same as you did ...

it might not be a bad idea.. to isolate them somewhere ... treat them ... and plant in fall ..

as a newb.. lets be clear... just about everywhere.. but maybe the PNW ... july/august is not a great time to be planting ... yes it can be done ... but dont be surprised if they struggle or fail ..

it took me about 20 years in the garden to realize... just because i bought it.. doesnt mean its the right planting season ... and if you dont have 20 to 100 pots for fall planting.. you arent trying very hard... lol ...

moving and planting perennials... is done in spring and fall .. for the EASIEST time ... as your experience grows ... you can wing it more... mostly because if you lose them. you shrug and say oh well ... live and learn ...

try not to panic in the garden.. it kinda defeats the whole purpose of meditating in the garden ....

ken

There is nothing on your "before" photos to lead me to think spider mites are a problem. And they are relatively easy to control in the garden should they appear. As noted previously, spider mites like it hot and dry. Just spraying down your plants daily (or every other day) should keep the little critters at bay. And even if present, they won't necessarily march off to infect your entire garden :-) There are some plants they prefer and many they do not. And the presence of spider mites is by no means a death sentence for your plants! Just keep up the water spray.

Should you choose to try something stronger than just water, get some Neem oil. It is a natural miticide and is far more effective in controlling these guys than insecticidal soap (which has minimal effectiveness against mites).

As to Ken's suggestions, I'd consider delaying planting if it was a woody plant we were discussing but for already stressed perennials in a small nursery pot, they will be much happier in the ground than if left in the container. That is a far more difficult situation to attempt to hold them successfully through the summer than the attention they would need if in the ground.

It looks to me like the typical fuzzy, cottony stems and buds Achillea have, not spider mites. You can see spider mites crawling on plants by close observation. If you cut them back unnecessarily out of panic, they will probably come back fine from the roots, anyway the native kinds do.

Webby or cottony is what they are supposed to look like. Its not uncommon for a purchased plant in a pot to look a bit scraggly in spots due to confinement in the pot especially if its root bound which is common, thats not necessarily a sign of disease or infestations especially late in the season when they are marked down as low as what you paid which sounds like a markdown price.

Yes, your plants had simply been covered with natural occurring fine hairs produced by the plants themselves and likely had few if any spider mites upon them to begin with. Good new is that within the next short while they'll resprout and grow.

I agree, the plants looked very healthy. At that price I'd be tempted to buy new ones for the blooms but I would definitely get them out of the pots & planted. Don't drown them with soapy water again. Next time you suspect insects take the plant out of the pot, hold it upside down by the soil ball, dunk and swish them real good in a bucket of soapy water, no need to be drastic.

And try to stop feeling guilty over plants that cost $1.48 each. Don't feel bad over plants that cost 5 x that much! If you spent $50 on a double trillium and your children had no food to eat...then you never watered it and it died....guilt might be an appropriate reaction!

I am positive if we who have gardened for 20 years or more added up our plant losses from neglect and stupidity it would come to at least a couple of thousand of dollars worth of plants....at the minimum. I'm not counting weather, disease, woodchucks or 4 year old humans who like to "help" in the garden.

Laugh. Should you feel guilty over plants found in the alley in the trash? I've stooped that low before but it was many many years ago. Perfectly salvageable plants just sitting there when all they needed was a bit of trimming and TLC, I couldn't resist. Dumpster diving at its best but seems I heard its illegal now.

Thank you all for the comments, and especially texasrangers photos- that looks exactly like what I saw. I think the fact that some areas were more "webby" than others made me think it wasn't just the way the plan grows, but maybe it was different stages of development. And I swear, when I did the paper test there were two different type of crawling bug-dots.... Wonder what they were? In any case, thank you all and I'll ask before panic next time. Hopefully these plants come back, but if not the $4.50 tuition isn't too bad. :-)