Dear Helen: On a recent visit up-Island, my wife and I discovered a wonderful tree called Lavatera. We would like to add these plants to our garden. Can you help us locate them?

A. These are very popular plants, flowering from midsummer to frost with bright, hollyhock-style flowers in white and shades of pink and lavender. For a descriptive list and photos of available varieties visit www.perennials.com and type "Lavatera" into the Search box.

I'm surprised that you have had difficulty finding plants. I made just one phone call, to Russell Nursery in North Saanich. At the time of my call they had two forms of the plant (Lavatera maritima and L. 'Barnsley Baby'), though they did say these plants come and go with some frequency. I'd make a few more phone calls of your own to find further sources. Planting before midsummer is recommended.

Lavatera (tree mallow) is actually a woody shrub, but the plants are best cut back hard in early spring, to 15 cm (six inches). This forces fresh, bushy, flower-bearing growth from the base. The plants are good companions for both shrubs and perennials. They are not long-lived though. Expect three to five years of robust, flower-filled growth.

Dear Helen: We have replanted peas five times this spring. The result? One lone plant. We dug into the site of the last sowing two weeks following the seeding and could not find any of the seeds. My wife has seen birds pulling up small plants in the garden. What to do?

A. Why not try suspending light bird netting over seeded rows to protect seeds and seedlings until the planting is established and growing well? It is not too late to seed again.

A friend in Duncan has a plot in a community garden where crows pull up everything, even sticks attached to pieces of buried potato used as bait to trap wireworms. Her crow stories, and your letter, remind me of a cartoon I once saw. Two crows are perched on a fence overlooking a vegetable plot where peas have just been seeded. One crow turns to the other and says, "Shall we eat the seeds now or wait for the seedlings?"

Dear Helen: The leaves on my snowball bush (Viburnum opulus 'Sterile') are skeletonized every spring by something. Any suggestions?

A. The lacework leaves in the photo you included in your e-mail look like the handiwork of the viburnum leaf beetle. This pest occurs on Southern Vancouver Island and in the Fraser Valley. Both the adult beetles and larvae feed exclusively on viburnum plants.

Viburnum leaf beetles overwinter as eggs inserted into branches that are one or two years old. The larvae hatch in spring and feed on the shrubs during June. They become adult beetles, which feed on the leaves in July. In late summer and through the fall, the beetles lay eggs under bark, in noticeable rows.

Watch for twigs and stems infested with eggs and prune out and destroy them before they can hatch in spring. In July, placing a ground sheet under the plant and shaking it to dislodge beetles will allow you to collect and destroy them. Pyrethrin sprays help to control both larvae and adults.

GARDEN EVENTS

VHS meeting. The Victoria Horticultural Society will meet tonight at 7:30 in the Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. Paul Allison will present an illustrated talk on the history of Japanese gardens at Gorge Park, Hatley Park and Butchart Gardens. A pre-meeting workshop at 6:30 will feature Carolyn Herriot on growing vegetables year-round.

Bard to Broadway tour. The Bard to Broadway theatre company is hosting its fifth annual Garden and Home Tour in the Qualicum Beach, Parksville and Nanoose areas on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. In this fundraiser in support of local theatre, 13 prominent homes and stunning gardens will be featured, including heritage homes and cottages, woodland and waterfront gardens and an energy-efficient home. Tickets with maps, at $30, are available from the visitors' centres and Coast Realty offices in Parksville and Qualicum, and at the B2B Box Office at 132 Jensen Ave. East in Parksville. More details at www.b2btheatre.com.

hchesnut@bcsupernet.com