Peonies and Cuckoo Spit...

 Paeonia lactiflora

I pass a garden full of peonies on my way to the shops.  Most of the year my eyes would be fixed on the pavement, the road or phone depending on traffic conditions, but in these few short weeks the beautiful display of large pink and cream flowers shout at me from over their garden wall.

These particular plants are called Paeonia lactiflora ‘Bowl of Beauty’ and fall into the category of herbaceous peony. These are the most well-known type of peony. They are disease resistant perennial plants that enhance the structure and beauty of any garden and produce some of the best cut flowers available. They bloom during the transition from spring into summer, with each individual cultivar blooming only around 7-10 days. The foliage of shining green leaves remains throughout the summer, dies back to the ground in winter and re-emerges early each spring.

Herbaceous peonies require very little care and live for generations. 

There are other less known type of peonies.

We have the Tree Peonies, which are woody perennial shrubs.

Woodland Herbaceous Peonies that are worth noting individually due to their preference for shade. Intersectional Peonies, also known as Itoh which are a hybrid created by crossing a tree peony with an herbaceous peony and are quite rare. There are also peonies that grow well in containers called Patio peonies.

You can buy the plants now from garden centres and it’s a good time to see the real flowers and if they appeal to you, alternatively you can buy bare-rooted plants in autumn. They do need quite a bit of space to flourish, enjoy full sun and mulch in spring.  They can be propagated by division too in autumn which also helps to rejuvenate the parent plant.

Cuckoo spit (spittlebugs)

Gardeners are being urged to report sightings of spittle on their plants in a bid to stop the insects inside spreading a deadly disease through the UK and Ireland.  

The disease is called Xylella fastidiosa bacteria, which prevents water travelling from roots to leaves. It can cause symptoms including leaf scorch, wilt, dieback and plant death. The disease is spread by insects that feed on the xylem of plants. This includes froghoppers which live in the spittle.

While the disease has not yet been spotted here, it has already taken hold in France, Spain and Italy, where it has killed millions of olive trees.

Cuckoo spit which surrounds the insect begins to appear in late spring at a time when the familiar call of cuckoos can be heard, but otherwise has no connection with the bird.

If Xylella is discovered, all host plants within 100 metres would need to be destroyed. The RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) also say there would also be an immediate restriction of movement for some plants within a five kilometre radius, so it’s being taken pretty seriously.

More than 500 plants are at risk, including lavender, oleander, rose, rosemary, chrysanthemum, dahlia, fuchsia, willow and flowering cherry.

Any sightings can be reported online at xylem feeding insects.co.uk who will redirect you to the survey. The survey will help to gather data to inform a response should Xylella reach the UK.

Spittlebugs are not a pest, so please don't remove them, but they are an innocent carrier of Xylella.

Biology

This froth has no connection with cuckoos

It is secreted by the immature stages of sap-sucking insects known as froghoppers, presumably as a means of protecting themselves against predators

The adult insects are present during mid-late summer and live openly on  plants. They do not produce cuckoo spit or cause any noticeable damage

Overwintering eggs are deposited in plant stems in late summer.

Can be found in UK gardens, meadows, grasslands and woodlands from April to late June

The most common species here is the meadow spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius). Adults are 0.5cm long and vary in pattern and colour from pale brown to black and can jump many times their body length

The red-and-black spittlebug hatches out on the roots of plants, rather than in blobs of spittle on plant stems

There are ten species of spittlebug in the UK and Ireland and the young - called nymphs - all produce whitish, frothy blobs of spittle on leaves and branches.

Control

• Apart from producing the 'spit' these insects have little detrimental effect on plants.
• If considered unsightly, they can be wiped off by hand or dislodged with a jet of water from a garden hose.
• There is no need to use an insecticide against froghoppers.