The "Ziplocks" arrive

Last week marked the beginning of "Ziploc" time at the garden center. Every year sometime in late spring, early summer we start to see the arrival of Ziploc bags or mason jars filled with leaves and bugs. The gardener exits their car and we may be standing out front, and Marlea, Michelle or I exclaim, "Whoops, here comes another one." Detection time!!! We watch them approach, hoping that it isn't a large grub worm inside, none of us like grub worms, and then give a gentle sigh when we see it is filled with leaves instead. Opening the Ziploc bag we take a look, working the leaf in our fingers, turning it over to peak at the underside, asking our diagnostic questions, "How often do you water?", "Have you seen any signs of ?? ", "When did you first notice it, after the rain we had etc?" "Have you sprayed any chemicals lately anywhere near it?" and on and on we go. Most days................there are at least 2 if not all 3 of us at the garden center that are pretty good diagnosticians. Between all of us we have a 95% chance of figuring out either what the problem is, what bug is bugging you, how you might have hurt your plant with chemical overkill, or just identify that pretty purple flower growing in your neighbors yard. It's Ziploc season, and we actually like the challenge of helping you. Just please don't bring in any grub worms.............we are pretty good at identifying those just by the description. See you soon, Susan.