Plumbago Pest!

I love my Plumbago - which is a good thing as it's spent flower-heads are a right pain! They're ultra sticky as like the Teasel I wrote about a while ago, they are protocarnivorous - on the evolutionary path to being carnivorous but not having reached full carnivore status! Anyway, every few days I have to pick off all the spent flower heads from the racemes as they form an unsightly mess on the racemes, sticking and drying to the still blooming flowers.  If they fall they then stick to anything they touch as they fall. I  have to pick them off everything that lies beneath the plant, which is 2m tall and a metre in width and breadth! Also as I walk under the plant my head brushes my hair and I get sticky bits in my hair, and the cats get sticky bits in their fur! I even get sticky bits in my clothes. I put on a pair of knickers once and felt a prickling, on investigation I found a dried flower head! Must have fallen in my laundry basket as I brought them in from drying outside! By the time I have finished I have this sticky ball and very sticky hands!  I try to see it as a meditative, calming practise, spotting and picking off the spent flowers, but it doesn't always work, particularly when I have disposed of the ball in my compost bucket and washed my hands, only to look at the plant and spot more spent flower heads revealed or missed in my first clean up! But it is such a pretty plant when it is all picked clean, so I continue to love it! 

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