Thanks!
I may have to look into this plant, my regular basil doesnt do any such a thing! LOL Did you order any of these? If you do keep us posted on how they do! I have aphids in abundance and only one lady bug that I have seen and a bunch of grand daddy long legs....but they are not sufficient to get rid of the aphids at present!

Kelley

Do GD Longlegs eat aphids? I've seen them in my garden but assumed they were just passing through.

Average Daddy Longlegs eat a wide variety of foods, including: aphids, caterpillars, beetles, flies, mites, small slugs, snails, earthworms, spiders, other harvestmen, decaying plant and animal matter, bird droppings and fungi. One in a terrarium will survive on tidbits of bread, butter and fatty meat as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Where I got that

Thank YOU, habman I was looking for a plant that attract bees and this one is perrrrfect! It has some other pluses that don't seem too shabby either, again thanks :)

shelly_and_roy Quote:
"Daddy Longlegs"

I never kill those little guys and your info provides me with new reason never to start and they always let you know when it's going to rain or is that a tall tale, lol

Does strong Thai Basil keep unbeneficial bugs away from tomats?

My guess is you need to plant lots of basil for it to work.
I think all basil repel these bugs but this one appears to also be a magnet for bees.
I did order the seeds so I will see next year.
Nothing better then tomatoes with fresh basil.

I've been spending over an hour looking for an online source for a plant of this wonderful basil but no luck had fun window shopping though.

If anyone knows of a online store that sells "plants" who you please post here I appreciate your time, thanks :)

Here's a place that sells the seeds cheaply.

Seeds...

From what I read on other sites, Magic Michael has a lot of flowers, but it doesn't have the same strong aroma as the other basils, so it isn't useful for cooking.

There are a lot of nice flowering herbs in the basil/mint family. I'm fond of Yerba Buena. Yerba Buena, unlike most basil/mints, will grow as a perrenial and spreads very quickly. It has an attractive but different aroma, a little bit between spearmint and basil.

The top 3 beneficials in my tomato garden are Bee Balm, Borage and Datura. Bee Balm is a perennial, it's also a hummingbird favorite, and can be used to make tea. Borage is conidered an annual but self-seeds easily. Its leaves taste/smell like cucumbers.

Datura, an Angel Trumpet, is related to jimson weed. It's highly toxic though, and often mis-used as a hallucinogenic. It's also an annual that reseeds easily--the trumpet flowers, which point up unlike Brugmansia which hang down, form a spiny seed ball similar to an unopened chestnut pod that splits when dry and scatters seeds that usually sprout the next season. They are available in yellow and double purple too, the purple usually has a smooth seed pod.

Since I've had Datura & Borage, I coincidentally haven't had any hornworms. I think it may be the Datura since I've removed most of the Borage in the last couple years.

Bee Balm:

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Bumblebee visiting a rare purple bee balm:

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Borage:

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Borage amongst tomato plants:

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Datura:

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Korney,

Thanks A LOT for that!

I'll be sure to add a few next year.

korney19, what a fantastic looking garden! Thanks for suggesting those excellent plants. I use to grow Bee Balm also but had forgotten about it. I think that was the one that attracted Hummingbird Moths to my garden too.

doof Quote:
There are a lot of nice flowering herbs in the basil/mint family. I'm fond of Yerba Buena. Yerba Buena, unlike most basil/mints, will grow as a perrenial and spreads very quickly.

I not familiar with this plant but I like that it spreads quickly. I have areas in my yard with weeds and hope to find something beneficial that will be more invasive to take over this area, thanks.

You might also want to look into any of the mints. They are wonderfully invasive.

I, too, love invasive plants. It appeals to a certain morbid streak in me. I often think to myself, if I die and somebody else moves into the house, they can paint the house, tear down the walls, down the trees and yank out the roses, but they'll never be able to completely eradicate those blackberry and raspberry and yerba buena plants.

I have been trying for years to eliminate some thorny blackberries that always seem to pop up somewhere like a bad penny. Nowadays, I kinda like the thornless kind. Less bloodletting involved. But I know, if I were to die, which berry would win-out in the survival of the fittest. Ouch!

Speaking of ouch, I do kind of miss the thorny blackberries. I got into berries as a kind of nostalgia thing, remembering the joy I had as a kid stealing blackberries off the wild bushes in the parks. Thornless blackberries are easier, but they aren't as precious when there is no risk involved. I remember, as a little kid, the best blackberries that everybody else had overlooked were always way in the back, behind the sharpest, meanest looking thorns, and usually behind some nasty, hairy looking spiders (gulp!) Getting those berries was like tomb-raiding! But thornless blackberries... They just taste good. If I was growing them for kids, I'd grow nothing but the thorny blackberries.