Trimming the Talls, Ladybugs

I have a lot of tall plants, marsh mallow and purple asters come to mind, but there are many more. Instead of buying a cultivar, I am cutting them off 1/3 at a time with the mums. This treatment makes them grow bushier, as the side shoots come out.

I have an infestation of some kind of bug on the green gage plum tree, I will probably look up just what the blighter is. Removing infested leaves was thankless, it is a huge infestation and I was daunted. I relaxed when I saw a few lady bugs, thinking they will call in the troops.