Please post images

Sounds like snails/slugs. Go out at night with a strong flashlight and see whats up.

These are the knockout rose leaves. They began as rather uniform circles (which is why the Home Depot rep was certain they were burn marks due to watering during the day - which I never do anyway)

The bleeding heart (the larger one on the other side of the house is untouched)

The hollyhocks. They're so far gone I'll probably just cut them down and pray them come back next year - does that sound like a good plan? Or should I dig them out completely? And then what do I do next year to prevent whatever this is?

The cauliflower - and I'm beginning to believe this one is the work of slugs. I saw one on the leaves this morning bright and early. Last night they (or some other pest) also invaded the peppers, broccoli and zinnias. Do they eat all these things?

I've read here how to get rid of slugs, so if I follow some of those tips will my plants bounce back? Is this all the work of slugs, or do I have more pests to battle?

Thank you so much for any tips or thoughts! It's so discouraging to see all this destruction. Only the evergreen bushes, tomatoes and hydrangeas are currently untouched.

Tonight I hit the garden with a flashlight and discovered snails on the zinnias and slugs on the geraniums. Then there was a long skinny brown beetle eating the banana peppers, but i have no idea what kind it was (I killed it - but it was the only one I could find).

Any thoughts for my roses or bleeding heart in particular? I'm thinking at worst I'l just pull out my cauliflower and hollyhocks. I'd rather do that than spread whatever else is killing these plants.

The rose holes and "windows" are made by the rose slug. Not a true slug, though. Instead a sawfly. Even so, the youngsters look like small pale green caterpillars. Need to look closely to see them, then either squish or flick into soapy water.

At this time, they're probably done with eating. Seldom do serious damage.

As for the silvery trails -- figure they're slugs and dispatch them on nightly search-and-destroy treks through the garden.

Hi hlphillips,

I am also in indiana. This year has been very bad with slugs because of the endless rain we received. Most of your problems will probably go away with sluggo on the soil and sevin dust on the plants.

However, the hollyhocks are in trouble, mine bloomed wonderfully this year, but they hate getting wet, so i got that brown rust (which is a bacteria) all over mine too. Because of the endless rain, I could not keep a bacterial killer on them long enough to help. The problem is that the bacteria is probably in the soil now, as well as all over the plant. If you choose to dig it out, take the soil out too and on any series of dry days you can get, spray the surface with a bacteria treatment.

Because I have black hollyhocks that took me a long time to grow, I cant bring myself to dig them out. So I waited until they were pretty well done blooming and cut them down to only a few less rusty leaves then i sprayed the leaves (top and bottoms), the soil, the stems, etc. Wait until after the sun is off them and the day cools off!

Good Luck to us both!

Thank you so much for the wonderful advice! That's good news about the roses - I'll just keep a closer eye on them next year and keep spraying them.

My young kids have loved eating directly from the veggie garden, so it sounds like I'll just need to keep up my night patrol. I guess it's the irony of Indiana - last year we were so desperate for rain, and this year I haven't had to water until this week!

A shame about the hollyhocks - but that's certainly good to know. These weren't part of my original garden plan, so the only loss to removing them completely is emotional - they were seeds from my deceased grandmother's garden.

hiphillips. You asked if there were more than just the slugs doing the damage. Maybe. Do you have little white butterflies flying around the garden in the day. Particularly, the cauliflower. If so, cabbage loopers. BT will take care of those.

Also, I'd try to stay away from Sevin. It causes more harm than good. If it means trying to save some seed from the hollyhocks, then, by all means, do what you have to do. But, Sevin is bad stuff. And do you really want to poison your kids?

Kevin

Hip...hollyhock rust is not caused by a bacterium but a host specific fungus named Puccinia malvacearrum. The fungal spores are harbored in fallen diseased leaves and stems, not the soil. Management of this fungus includes cutting off and disposing of all infected foliage and even cutting the plant back to the ground after flowering. Remember to dispose of everything!

Management also includes avoiding overhead watering or evening watering, both of which can spread and foster PM. There are also fungicides that can be used to help control this disease at that local big box store....just read the label before buying. It is never recommended that you use the chemicals and forget about the housekeeping. It won't work.

Tossing out your plants should not be necessary.

Getting advice from the Home Depot about plants is probably not a good idea. :-) Water droplets and sunlight do not cause burning of the foliage. As a matter of fact, the droplets disperse the light rays rather than focus it. It's a matter of physics.

One final thing, as Kevin says....please don't use Sevin. This particular chemical causes far more problems than it fixes. For every pest that Sevin kills it also kills any number of beneficials....It is infamous for causing a boomerang effect as pest populations soar not too long after its use. The reason for this is because it wipes out the beneficials!

This post was edited by rhizo_1 on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 18:02

Thank you woohooman and rhizo! I'm planning to avoid Sevin & all chemicals in the veggie garden and would prefer to limit their use elsewhere - I'll try and focus just on treating the hollyhocks & roses next year, and keep a close eye on everything else. (and obviously avoid Home Depot! That's where my mother insisted we buy the roses so I was hoping they'd be willing to replace the affected ones. They weren't)

White butterflies are all over my garden but my tomatoes are fine and the peppers and cucumbers are now flourishing despite some leaves being eaten, so hopefully I can let them be for now.