Tuesday, March 25, 2014

We Went A Little Nuts Here for The Herbal Husband's Favorite and A Death in the Herbal Family!

My Favorite Going a Bit Crazy!
The Herbal Husband Got Carried Away!
Well, once again, we were given the dilemma of what to do with the lemon verbena.  You know instead of clipping leaves throughout the winter which is what should have been done, we wait until now!  The favorite insects of lemon verbena indoors are spider mites and white flies.  We had one of the two, the white flies!  Spraying the plant with insecticidal soap would take care of the bad guys.  We have just chosen to freeze the heck of them to banish them as described below.  So we got it out of the windowsill and went to town.  Probably not a good thing, but The Herbal Husband is having his favorite lemon verbena bread  (The reference to going nuts in the post title.) and I'm getting several cups of lemon verbena tea!  A couple of good things!  I put a couple of Chinese takeout soup containers full of lemon verbena leaves in the freezer to kill any hangers on.  A couple of hours should do the trick.  As we like to say, we get a little more protein some times!  So giving a trim to an indoor herb is not always the best plan. 
The Tender Lavender Was Overwatered and Over Trimmed!
When The Herbal Husband went to Peru in November last year, I took VERY good care of this tender lavender!  I say this all of the time.  When two gardeners have two different styles, it can be a problem when it comes time to watering.  When he came back, he overwatered it and to compensate, he drastically cut it back to try and save it and it died!  I don't have a photo of the end result because it was too heartbreaking.  I was so proud of myself that I didn't kill it and then this happens.  So clip along the way and don't get into a situation that you have to cut it way back and hope it will come back.  Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't!  Hopefully the lemon verbena will raise to the occasion and start producing new leaves!

We are still cold here in the 'Burgh and that four letter word that I've come to hate, SNOW is coming later.  Not much, but just enough to whiten the ground and make the commute home tricky!  Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you soon!

2 comments:

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Sorry for your herbal loss, and that you are getting more 'snow'. It is supposed to go down into the low 50's tonight down here, it is raining right now. Has been raining off and on since yesterday.

Have a great week and enjoy your L.V. tea and bread. I need to see if I can find lemon verbena down here. I'll check the Botanical gardens plant sales that they have twice a week, maybe they'll have some or know where I can get some herbs for growing and using fresh.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

Lemon Verbena Lady said...

Thanks FL! The Herbal Husband can end things in an instant! He can also resurrect plants that I think are long gone! We cut the bread too early and it fell apart! Not our day! Hope you can find a couple of lemon verbenas. They would grow into small trees for you! xo Love and hugs to you dear lady! LVL and The Herbal Husband