A CPN of last year lists this book as going for $150. Not what I call bargain-
priced! The college library has this book. I think it's fairly interesting,
Barry doesn't like it at all - he said in a previous message that it contains
a lot of wrong information. It looks like the authors took the CP literature
of the last 200+ years and re-hashed it into this book.
D. falconeri:
This species is part of the D. petiolaris complex. It grows around the Finniss
River in the Northern Territories (wherever that is). The Sept./Dec. CPN
has a nice picture of D. falconeri on the cover, along with an article on the
D. petiolaris "complex". An old article in CPN says the plant is found in
soils with an alkaline pH of 8. This species may go dormant in the dry
season.
Pyrethrum:
I have a catalog from a place that sells Pyrethrum insecticide. They
also have a gizmo, price of $43, that automatically dispenses the spray
every 15 minutes. A month supply of Pyrethrum goes for $10. Look
locally first from greenhouse suppliers or from places that sell organic
gardening supplies. Also, check the labels, "Red Arrow" is the brand
name of one insecticide that contains pyrethrum. I've been just using
Safer Insecticide Soap myself although it doesn't seem to kill scale.
Also from the catalog, you can get "beneficial insects". They list such
things as "scale predators", lady bugs, mantis egg cases, "mealybug
predators", "beneficial nematodes", green lacewings etc. A recent
rec.gardens messages stated that a spray containing Ivory soap + water
was just as effective as the Safer insecticide. The phone #'s for
getting free catalogs are 274-9676 and 331-3994 (both 1-800).
D. collinsiae:
My plant is in flower. Nice lavender flowers. To the person who said the
plant went "dormant", try looking for beasties first. I had two plants, but
one of them was eaten down to the ground by a slug.