Beetle drive: the grubs of Lilioceris lilii, or the scarlet lily beetle, wreak havoc on lilies. Photograph: Gilles Gonthier/Flickr/Some rights reserved
I threw away a lily yesterday, roots and all. I chopped off the burgeoning flowers to put in a vase, and saved the pot, but everything else, including big, fat bulbs that I not long ago spent good money on, went in the bin.
Can you guess why? If you grow lilies then you most probably can.
I had relaxed for a couple of weeks, stopped checking the undersides of the leaves every other day, let down my guard, and in had crept that most gruesome of pests, the lily beetle. This one particular plant was smothered, almost entirely defoliated with grubs at various stages of disgustingness.
Lily beetles themselves are kind of pretty, but their babies are foul little grubs that cover themselves in a faeces-like brown, slimy substance that makes even the most voracious of predators back off going: "Not especially hungry, thanks. No, really."
I have had a love affair with lilies, buying armfuls of bulbs every time I saw them, filling the deck with pots of them so that I could capture that quintessential summer-night scent, heavy, spicy and sexy. It used to be so simple, but I feel it has now come down to one question: how much grub squidging am I prepared to do to get a few pretty, if beautifully scented, flowers.
And as I found myself squashing my 28th or so yesterday I suddenly thought "You know what? This is not worth it" and into the bin it went. It is an overlooked part of organic gardening that sometimes you just have to give up. There isn't an organic answer to every problem, and if it becomes this hard, I think the truly green way is to admit defeat and move on. I still have plenty of lilies, but although it breaks my heart to say it, I think this may well prove to be the beginning of the end of the affair.
How are you coping with the lily beetle this year? Have I given up too easily? And are there any plants you have given up on? Do let me know, below.
