I am with GG48. Fungi around plants are to be appreciated rather than feared. The organic material simply breeds bacteria, fungi and other critters. There are good and bad of everything. The good guys eat either decaying matter or other "bugs". The bad guys eat plants. Using organic matter results in a high population of non harmful worms, bacteria, fungi etc. This population helps to naturally control the plant pathogenic version. Fungi in particular are mean, territorial, violent organisms. They do not take kindly to competition and will go to war over territory. Even the various 'good' fungi will go to war where their territory overlaps with other good fungi. What will not happen is a pathogenic fungi spore falls into the middle of this and be able to grow. It will become food.

evonne, now we're back to where we were before. And your link is very specific about papaver rhoeas, what I read in two different sources pertained to field poppies but assumed it would apply to mine as well, same as what you're saying. But stage found differently. Maybe sometimes they do self pollinate. I doubt we can resolve the discrepancy unless I just try it and see what happens. Not good to keep crossing them to the same genotype though which I would have to do to keep these going if it even succeeds. Today I went out, and two are blooming simultaneously. So it isn't clear if it applies to a single bloom or all blooms on the same plant. Do you think because of the two going now (and hopefully for the rest of the buds), they will swap pollen? No, I read it again, and it says same plant or another plant of the same genotype. My you've got your terminology down better than I do. I wonder what they do to select what I would call a sport but may not be the right term for poppies. At some point in the evolution of any plant with self-incompatibiity, it must have worked or we wouldn't have so many poppies that come true from seed. It appears many don't as they are sold as mixtures such as Angels Choir. In the above photo from WA state, they must cross pollinate, self sow, and produce uniform flowers the following year or they're perennials. This is all new to me, in the dim recesses of my memory, I knew that corn self pollinates, but the link covers that, too. Some plants don't have the inhibiting factor. Others do in certain families. Must be a reason for it going one way for some and the other way for other types, suppose the experts can only speculate about that. I'm guessing for our now infamous Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia, they must have gotten a new bloom and used seeds from that for multiple generations. Where it is now, it reverts to all sorts of things. I wonder how they do select out poppies then or if they can. What about that unique grape poppy? I think it might be a rhoeas, too, but am not sure.

Thanks grumpy, I think the oil was added to this recipe for insects...like scale and such. Sometimes I add it and sometimes I don't. I can't tell a difference either way. I do use ivory liquid dish detergent (not the bar soap). Someone told me that Dawn dish liquid was too strong and would kill my plants. So I bought the Ivory. But now I've read other people who say they only use Dawn. So I'm not sure which is best. I've been spraying and nothing seems to be getting worse. I didn't have this problem last year. And this year we are in the middle of a drought. I can't remember the last time we had rain...months and months ago. I don't know if there's any correlation? Keeping my fingers crossed, here. I may get blooms despite it all!

I think you might have mealybugs. You can take rubbing alcohol and water-equal parts and spray the bugs. Do this every few days as the new ones hatch. I would take regular water and rinse the leaves a day after spraying. I was going to tell you as well, that Osmocote doesn't release under 70 degrees soil temp, and not sure what your soil temp is- if it is under 70 degrees then you might still have some of it in there in the spring-when you normally fert. So be careful about adding more fert then or you might burn the palm. I use a sulfur coated slow release that releases at about 45 degree soil temp. For palms, I use a 20-6-12