Hi all, Many thanks to the whole of you whom answered to my question... I shall take a few picture of the damages on the flowers and will post them so each and everyone of you can see... Well we do have sparrows, slugs and cutworm !!!... Damage seems to occur only at night so I would rather rule out sparrows... Slug are not numerous in this rather dry part of SE France, and I am using slug killer as soon as the bulb buds show off. I never had any damage on the stems or leaves (neither on Iris or surrounding plants such as Arums and Anemone) I would therefore rather suspect cutworm that often see when digging new beds... Adults are very common here in summer time as well... I am happy to be back and more talkative to the list to which I contributed quite a lot a few years ago... I had to live without garden between 2009 and 2012 which explain why I went silent for so long... By the way... I can't remember if the list accepts attachment to mails... Can you please let me know... I had the pleasure to see today that two I. reticulata (or hybrid involving reticulata) bloomed among the I. danfordiae (and fortunately not being eaten)... I would appreciate to confirm the identification... Best regards, Luc Le 2014-02-17 19:28, Jude Haverington a écrit : > Wow - never knew that - or witnessed that - interesting. Thanks! > > > On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 1:26 PM, Jim McKenney > <jamesamckenney@verizon.net>wrote: > >> Jude, sparrows are little devils during the late winter when the first >> tender, tasty new flowers pop up. They really go for crocuses, and >> Iris >> danfordiae probably looks and tastes to them like a crocus. >> Jim McKenney >> >> >> >> On Monday, February 17, 2014 12:09 PM, Jude Haverington < >> tylus.seklos@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Sparrows ? I've never seen them feed upon flowers. If this is a >> possibility, then I learned something new! >> >> >> On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 12:06 PM, Jim McKenney >> <jamesamckenney@verizon.net>wrote: >> >> > Sparrows would be my guess. >> > The commonest sparrow here is the so-called English or House Sparrow >> > which, as it turns out, is technically a Weaver Finch and not closely >> > related to the other birds native here which are called sparrows. >> > >> > Jim McKenney >> > Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where Song Sparrows >> > and White-throated Sparrows are daily visitors to the crumb table at this >> > time of year. >> > >> > >> > >> > On Monday, February 17, 2014 11:48 AM, Jude Haverington < >> > tylus.seklos@gmail.com> wrote: >> > >> > Hi, >> > I'm not sure about your part of the country, but insects often eat plant >> > leaves and flowers, and it could be a lot of different things. >> > Additionally, it could even be something like rabbits, snails or slugs. >> > You haven't included any details on the type of damage you are seeing. >> That >> > would be helpful. >> > >> > >> > On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 5:04 AM, Luc Bulot <bulot@cerege.fr> wrote: >> > >> > > Hi all, >> > > >> > > My recently planted Iris danfordiae went real fine and the flowers buds >> > > started to bloom about a week ago... >> > > >> > > Unfortunately some pest seems to eat the flowers as soon as they start >> > > to open... >> > > >> > > Did anybody experienced that ? >> > > Any idea what kind of pest it can be ? >> > > >> > > Forgot to say that I am living in SE France... >> > > >> > > Best regards, >> > > >> > > Luc >> > > _______________________________________________ >> > > pbs mailing list >> > > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >> > >> > > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > pbs mailing list >> > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >> >> > _______________________________________________ >> > pbs mailing list >> > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> pbs mailing list >> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >> _______________________________________________ >> pbs mailing list >> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >> > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/