I agree with Ken. I have bought beautiful large hanging mini petunia baskets from the same place several years, but this is the first year I noticed they just did not take off and thrive as my porch is usually the perfect mix of moisture/sun and with regular feeding they just take off and stay happy! I will never again walk out of the nursery without checking because they are rather pricey, so it isn't just the "bargain" baskets we need to check. Unfortunately also, I had to go out of town shortly after bringing them home and my neighbor who watered for me now says she saw them but didn't think to say anything to me. I called the nursery to confirm my memory that dish soap and water was still a good treatment, but had not heard the mouthwash ingredient. Mine are pretty sick puppies right now, but after treating 2 days in a row, I may need to add the mouthwash because the little suckers seems to be just hanging on. Thanks for the info everyone!

Hello ninecrow: This hybrid looks similar to Minerva, but in this case is prefer to identify it as the far more recent hybrid "Mambo" and its color reveals a good quantity of "Minerva" parentage. Minerva itself is, like Red Lion and Orange Sovereign, as well a good pollen donor as a diligent seed producer, either on self pollination or with pollen from other tetraploids. Hans-Werner

I found a velvet ant once here (but only once). They are really pretty in person- startlingly colorful. I only found out after the fact that they were wasps and their stings were supposed to be bad, but the one i found wasn't aggressive at all and as i recall we picked it up and moved it (in some sort of container) to get a better picture. Mickey, know what else squeaks? Tomato hornworms squeak and click if you pick them up to startle you into dropping them. Bess bugs aka patent leather beetles aka betsy beetles (large, shiney black and harmless) will squeak up a storm if you pick them up- almost like they're crying. They never bite, though. My kids have grown up playing with them. The larva (big grubs like JB juvvies) feed on rotting wood, and the adults tend them. Since we are in a woodsy area with lots of downed wood, we see them all the time.

Actually, the Bayer Advanced Systemic Tree & Shrub (active indredient is the synthetic nicotine based compound Imadichlorprid or something spelled along those lines) will do a bang-up job on all kinds of nasty sucking insects, scales, mites, aphids, you name it. I had an infestation of really large, juicy scales on my ornamental peach trees last year. I used this on those, and about 3 weeks later, I could go out there and shake the branch and have dead scales fall off like snow. I also use this stuff on all of my houseplants every year, once in the spring when they go out, once in the fall when they come in. Keeps all of the various things at bay. Used to have whitefly and aphid problems on some things, especially my hibiscus. No longer. I only wish mites were affected by this product, but they aren't. However, if your pindo is outside, this product won't really work until next spring, because the plant probably isn't physiologically active enough to take it up through the roots. You might want to use a more conventional treatment as suggested above, then use this stuff next spring once the weather begins to warm (when the daffodils bloom).