systemic should kill the scale, but it will remain dead on the leaves: so it will be hard to say if it's gone or not. so cleaning them off helps to monitor for appearance of new ones. if it's just a few you can rub them off with a soft toothbrush or tissue. you can make a solution of 1:1 water rubbing alcohol and soak the paper towel with that and wipe them off. but you have a large plant :) - it'll take while... it's prudent to check after 1 week of spraying if you still see any thrips crawling and if so then spray again. if your scale infestation is bad you might need to reapply systemic say after 1 month. also make sure to apply full dosage based on the size of your pot and try to dig it in with a spoon to mix with soil: moisture activates it. if it is dry on the surface it won't be working, only when you water the plant. since it's a large plant once a week watering might be expected, but it's better in this case to water lightly twice a week to make sure plant is absorbing systemic continually.

Yeah, my brother in law has a nice fig tree, but it died back quite a bit two winters ago. This winter he wrapped it and, as you know, the weather wasn't too rough, and it came out pretty healthy in the spring. I know a few people who do outdoor figs and they all ways they get a lot of die-back. One person offered me a potted fig tree, but I didn't take him up on it at the time. I'm completely new to bonsai, so I hadn't heard of clip and grow, but I just read a bit about it and that makes sense. I have a medium size jade I'm giving to my father and law, and I've sort of been using that method. It works a bit different with jade though: I always pull off the bud at the end of the branch, and about 50% of the time, the brand will bud again close to the trunk (sometimes it just re-grows a bud where you pulled one off). When it regrows a bud, it might be in a random place, but sometimes you can control (or guess) where it will bud because it most often pops up were a leaf was recently removed. So if I want the branch to move leftward, I might remove an old, oversized leaf and pinch the end of the branch hoping the growth comes out where the leaf was removed. Of course jade often buds laterally (on both sides), and that isn't appealing to the eye, so similar to the clip and grown method, I remove whichever new growth is not in the correct direction. Nice to hear about the peppers - I will have to try!

If it were my hydrangea, I would cut at least 10 branches with 10 or 12 nodes each. Pop off the lower 3 or 4 depending on the distance between buds or if no buds, then the bud scars from last bloom. Punch 12 or so holes in the bottom of a five gallon bucket or pot. Fill the bucket with packaged garden soil - not organic. Soak the soil and let drain completely - no water running out the bottom and soil evenly moist. Pull off the bottom buds - 4 to 6 - leaving at least 4 buds at the top of the branch. Make a hole in the soil for each branch using a dibble, long screwdriver, long chop-stick or tree branch. Push the cutting into the hole in the soil, covering the bottom 4 - 6 bud scars, pat soil around the base of the cutting and place bucket in garage or where it will not freeze but get some daylight. When last freeze is over, the bucket can be moved outside in partial shade. The buds should start to swell in a couple of months or sooner depending on the type of hydrangea. Once the buds swell and then open up you can either check to see if you have roots and re-pot if you do or, just leave them to root and grow right in the bucket. I have some that are happy being together for almost two years. Make sure that the soil stays moist - water, let drain, dump excess water and check at least once a week. Don't use anything at the bottom of the bucket like rocks or gravel or pot shards - just the same soil from top to bottom! If your hydrangea is as old as you say, then there should be many branches from the root ball and you can cut off a few of those with roots attached and plant them in pots. You only need two or three branches cut from the sides of the root ball with small roots and they will also grow. Cut these rooted branches leaving 4 or 6 buds on the branch and put in garage until threat of freeze is over. Put the buckets or pots on trivets in a big pot saucer to make sure the bucket is not sitting in standing water and is able to drain off excess water completely. Trivets are easy to find in thrift stores and garage sales and most of us have several that we haven't used in years. Just be careful that you don't wind up collecting more trivets than plants! lol

Oli, I bring and grow many of my orchids inside my screened lanai. I don't worry about the ants. I have never had ants inside my house. My guess is those small ants are enjoying the honey dew the orchid makes when budding. I think they go away after. Not positive, but I've never had a problem and they don't seem to hang around. I've even brought some inside when I was worried about a cold night and never got an ant indoors. I only see them on orchids in bud. If you want to use something with insecticide you can also use a timed release. I have used Bayer Rose and Flower for scale when I couldn't control it with alcohol. It is systemic and lasts a few months. For fertilizer, I use Dynamite or Oscomote. I look for fertilizers that contain micro- nutrients. Tap water is not the best for orchids mounted or growing in rock. I use rain water and have rain barrels attached to my downspouts. I do have a filter on the water coming into the house, but still notice how certain species do not like tap water. But, the bottom line is how much time do you have to spend on all this. I don't and this time of the year, we get plenty of rain which is good water. I use time release to save me time however I do use liquid fertilizer at various times especially when new growth on plants is occurring. I'll post a few pics to better show what I do. This shows how I use a knee high, cut off a small piece, put in the timed release fertilizer and tie it with a string. The photo shows one hanging on a Vanda. You can do the same with any granular time release. Hope this helps explain what I was talking about. Jane