My dahlias, petunias and roses seem to be snacking ground for all types of stuff, besides the slugs and snails that love eating anything I plant. I have the slugs sort of under control at this point using sluggo, but what I believe are aphids started to make fast work of my petunias. I considered getting ladybugs, as that seemed much more eco-friendly, but in the end, I was scared by the dire warnings I read on the internet about how if you wait a few days (which I had already done) you will get a huge horrible infestation that is very difficult to get rid of. I bought some pest spray, which seems to have done the trick, but yesterday I saw what looked like a tiny grasshopper and an ant chomping away on my gorgeous dahlias. How long should I wait after having sprayed my flowers with the pest killer before trying to put ladybugs in the yard for a more comprehensive and less yucky solution? Is it already too late for this year?

What do you recommend for slugs? They love a lot of my plants. I have great results using Cory's (I may have mispelled that) but I'm afraid of inhaling it and hate wearing a mask, and I worry about our local cat. I recently tried Sluggo, but I'm not sure if I am getting results that are as dramatic. I don't want to put beer in cups in the ground, my garden areas are not huge and very visible, so something less obvious looking would be the best. Also do slugs eat roses? I've noticed some new holes on some newly planted rose bushes near some petunias which are some of my slugs favorites. Or should I be looking for another problem with the roses.

Cool thanks. And I bet that if I had done an additional reading right at the Hydrangea maybe I would have gotten a different result. I did it about 4 feet away on the other side of the tree, not thinking that such small differences would show up.

I may well be in some kind of an edge zone, I believe I have heard that there are a bunch of "microclimates" in the Bay Area where I live. I live in San Jose, are code 95125. I have been trying to figure out what zone I am in using the "Sunset Zone" system because I was using the Sunset Western Garden Book, and I get the magazine. According to them, I think I am zone 15. I believe according to the regular zoning system I am zone 9. I pruned the roses today, and am glad that I pretty much instinctively did what you suggested. They are watered by sprinkler, maybe I'll bite the bullet and put a drip system in there eventually too, but I'm having enough trouble setting one up in the back yard for now, lol. I cleared out a ton of dead stuff at the base of the plants, and hacked off anything that looked iffy. I did that a few weeks ago too, and the bushes are looking a lot better. As for the Japanese plant issue, I actually planted a japanese aralia when directed to plant a japanese painted fern. I think that might actually be a bit better than an Acacia. You can see why I need to actually check my iPhone when at the nursery, I am somewhat hopeless with these plant names, lol. The hydrangeas were there when we moved in, they are doing fabulously well. They are in the same area where Easybloom suggested I plant the japanese painted fern, wishbone flowers, and lobelia as its top three suggestions. I ended up with Coleus, Violet/Pansies/whatever, and an Iris (all recommended by EasyBloom but not Top Recommendations) and the infamous Japanese Aralia. They are all planted under a beautiful huge persimmon tree, so they get a fair amount of shade, but some sort of dappled sunlight.

Nice! Thanks. : )

Yikes, wall of text. I would love a preview post feature. : )

I have a lot of questions, ha ha. I am a totally inexperienced gardener and newish home owner in the San Jose area. I live in what seems to be an eden, so I haven't killed that many plants yet, and my 60 year old house has many beautifully established plants, thank goodness. First of all, rose pruning. I'm trying, I really am. But how bad is it if I don't get there super often, and end up pruning maybe once a month instead of as soon as flowers wilt? And how worried should I be and what should I do about the little black dotty stuff on my roses? The guys who come to cut our grass and do big stuff said, "meh, they're fine," which is part of the reason I love them, but should I be slightly more vigilant? Also, petunias. Do I really need to "deadhead" them? The guy at the nursery said I did, but again, my gardening guys said, "meh, the heads will fall off, they'll be fine." Because I don't have tons of time, I like my gardening guys approach, and I'm trying to reach a happy medium. Lastly for now, I planted pansies instead of violets (which was what EasyBloom recommended for me), I think they said viola or something on the box, lol. I also planted a japanese acacia instead of a japanese fern. Should I just leave them in the ground and see what happens? I've got hydrangea growing in the same area and it does fantastically, even though EasyBloom didn't recommend it for me, so I'm assuming that things other than the recommendations might work considering the "I live in Eden" factor. I have questions about almost every plant in my garden, since as I said, I know next to nothing. But I'll start with these, and thank you in advance for your help!

I would love an iPhone Ap to make it easier to access my EasyBloom info on my phone!

I would love an iPhone Ap to make it easier to access my EasyBloom info on my phone!

Yikes, lol, I actually planted a type of pansy instead of a violet, which wasn't recommended at all. Oh well, it still asks for partial shade and pretty moist soil, so maybe it will be sort of OK. At least I figured out how to bookmark it EasyBloom on my iPhone, so I won't make the same mistake again.