September 24, 2019 moonflowers and mosquitoes

Hi Gardeners

My moonflowers are finally blooming, in the third week of September.  But I keep forgetting to go out after dark to see them.  I love the smell and look of moonflowers but because they are an evening bloomer, I don’t get to see much of them.  So late in the season dark comes early, but with the mosquito/EEE scare it’s not the time to linger outside after dark.  I get to see the wilting flower in the morning.

I bought well started plants to plant this spring, and they have covered a large section of the ramp railing, they just took forever to bloom. (This is the vine called moonflower not datura.) Maybe I’ll remember tonight to get out there and get a picture of them.  It looks like there will be several flowers in bloom.  If I get out there at the right time, I’ll actually be able to watch them unfold.

We’ve had some good rain.  I only had to water once last week.  That was a good thing because I had cataract surgery and I have been fighting with my vision.  One eye no longer needs glasses, the other still does.  It makes my depth perception bad, sight blurry at times and tasks are a bit difficult to accomplish.  Plus, I am not supposed to bend over or lift things.  Next week they operate on the other eye and eventually things will be better. I have to fit moving my houseplants inside between surgeries. But I was able to write this blog!

Besides moonflowers there are many things still blooming in the garden.  Anemones, toad lilies, colchicum, mums, roses, black eyed Susan’s, hardy hibiscus, ligularia, even one persistent daylily.  Jerusalem artichokes are blooming. I can’t get rid of those things and every year they pop up somewhere new.  The golden glow that was cut down has shot up again and has a few flowers. The Japanese spikenard, which I grow for its golden foliage, is sporting a few of it’s odd ball shaped flowers too.

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The wild asters are spreading a froth of white in the fields and paired with blue chicory and yellow goldenrod the fields are colorful.  Bees are busy out there and I am still seeing a few monarchs and other butterflies.  

Yesterday we officially began astronomical fall, with the fall equinox.  After the equinox the days begin to shorten quickly.  The sun’s orbit declines in the sky toward the south and you’ll probably notice a difference in the light. Since the suns light comes at an angle instead of directly down on us it doesn’t feel as warm.  Start paying close attention to the weather because those in zones 5 and below will soon have frost, if you haven’t already.  You need to finish the harvests and move the tender plants inside soon.

I think the hummingbirds have left for the season. But it’s time to fill up those seed and suet feeders and get ready for a new season of birds.  If you don’t feed the birds all summer, starting now with feeding will help some species fuel up for the long flight south and attract those arriving from the north.  You may get to see some unusual species as they migrate through at your feeders.

Birds that use the northern US as their winter-feeding grounds will be showing up at bird feeders soon. This includes white throated and tree sparrows, junco’s, chickadees, Northern goshawk, snowy owls, red breasted nuthatch, brown creepers, golden crowned kinglets, snow buntings, purple finches, and pine siskins.  While a few of these species may have been around all summer most fly north to northern Canada and the artic for the summer.

Gardeners beware of EEE

Eastern Equine Encephalitis or EEE is a mosquito transmitted disease that is for some reason, experiencing an uptick in cases this fall. This disease can be deadly and since gardeners are often exposed to mosquito bites, they need to know what EEE is and how to avoid getting it. From now until a hard frost kills the mosquitoes in your area gardeners need to be very careful of exposure to mosquitoes.    

Seven human deaths have been confirmed from EEE this year.  In 2018 only 6 cases of EEE and no deaths were reported to the CDC. The latest figures for 2019 are 20 cases reported in 6 states, with Michigan (7) and Massachusetts (9) in the lead.  Other states with cases are New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.  While EEE is generally a disease found east of the Mississippi, it has cropped up occasionally in some western states.

The cases reported to the CDC are probably only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Many people infected by the virus have no symptoms or mild symptoms. Only about 20% of people infected will develop serious illness.  About half of those will have serious brain injury or die. People under 15 and over 50 are more prone to serious illness and death. Immune compromised people are also at higher risk.

In some people the disease presents as a flulike illness, with high fever, chills, headache, joint pain, and vomiting. This can progress to seizures, disorientation and encephalitis (brain swelling).  About 1/3 of the cases that progress to encephalitis will die. There is no cure, just treatment of symptoms.

People almost always get the virus from a mosquito bite.  It is not transmitted from human to human or from other animals to humans, with one exception. Emus, who get bloody diarrhea with EEE, can infect humans and other animals that come in contact with the bloody feces.

Besides humans, birds, horses, deer, llamas, alpacas, cats and dogs are known to get the virus. 10 cases of EEE in horses and 5 in wild deer have been reported in Michigan as of September 19.  Other states also report animal cases. When large animals get EEE death is common. Cats and dogs rarely experience serious illness from EE. Many animal deaths go unrecorded, however.

EEE has been around a long time and it’s not known why there are more cases in horses and humans in some years than in other years. The virus requires mosquitoes and birds in its life cycle.  A mosquito species called Culiseta melanura, that carries the virus infects songbirds when it feeds on them. It feeds on birds almost exclusively.  But other more generalized feeding species of mosquitoes, such as Culex species, then feed on the infected birds and can transmit the virus to humans and other animals when feeding on them.

Gardeners should empty all standing water around the home, especially as we enter a wetter time of the year. If you can’t empty water, treat it with Bt products designed to kill mosquito larvae. Mosquitoes need water to lay their eggs in and under the right conditions it takes just a few days for the eggs to hatch, and the larvae to turn into mosquitoes.

Being outside at dawn and dusk and on cloudy days when mosquitoes are more active should be avoided. Wear mosquito repellant containing DEET when outside. DO NOT rely on homemade and herbal mosquito remedies for protection. Wear long sleeves and pants when working in the garden or sitting outside. It is especially important to protect children playing outside. 

There is an EEE vaccine for horses that every horse owner with an unvaccinated horse should get immediately. Horses are very susceptible to EEE and almost always die from it. There are no vaccines for humans yet, although some are being tested.

In Michigan and some other states health officials are urging that school sporting events and other activities scheduled for evenings be cancelled or rescheduled for daytime. Gardeners should consider rescheduling outside work to the middle of the day also but do wear mosquito repellant as a backup.

Bottom line; consider mosquitoes a deadly predator.  Afterall mosquitoes have killed more people than all other animals combined.

More reading

https://cvm.msu.edu/vdl/news/2019/eee-activity-in-michigan-for-2019-confirmed-cases

https://www.cdc.gov/easternequineencephalitis/tech/epi.html

https://www.mass.gov/service-details/wnv-and-eee-in-animals

Should you divide perennials in the fall?

As it gets cooler and gardeners head back out into the garden ready to tackle garden chores they often encounter full, mature perennials.  It may look like these plants could be divided into several plants.  Sometimes gardeners want to divide plants to swap with others, gift to others or repopulate other parts of the garden. But not all plants can be successfully divided, and fall is not the best time for many perennials to be divided.  

Despite many misconceptions most perennials do not need dividing to remain healthy. Many perennials will do great if never divided and some plants will actually die if they are divided. There are very few garden plants that need frequent dividing to remain healthy and blooming. If you feel the plant has become too large and is crowding out other plants or if you want to make many plants from one for any reason, some plants can be divided.  But division often isn’t necessary, and it should be carried out at the optimal time and manner when at all possible.

Gardeners should be aware that when they divide plants it can take years before the plants recover and look mature and lush again.  Some gardeners never know what mature, fully flowering plants can look like because they are constantly setting them back to that “first year they creep” stage by dividing them. And gardeners should also realize that some attempts at division will result in all of the plant (s) dying.  If you have a really beautiful large perennial you should really think hard about whether you want to divide it and take the risk of losing it.

Often gardeners will be coerced into dividing a perennial by another gardener who covets the plant. Gardeners in general like to share and be shared with but sometimes sharing is not in your best interest. There are some hardy, common garden plants that can be divided and shared easily but when you have rare and expensive plants or plants with great sentimental value to you, you shouldn’t be afraid to say no to dividing them.

And when you do decide to divide a plant make sure it’s at the best time for dividing it and that the divider knows the right way to divide it.  Not every perennial can be divided and the best way to make divisions and when to make them, varies by species.

Most perennials plants do best when divided in the spring, just as they begin growing. This is the time when plant growth hormones are high and primed to push out new roots and foliage. The foliage is small and doesn’t take as much energy away from new root development.  And usually spring is damp and cool which aids re-establishment.  Some vigorous plant species could be divided almost anytime and reestablish themselves and there are a few plants that actually prefer to be divided in fall if they are to be divided at all.

Here are some plants that can be divided in the late summer or fall.  Bearded iris, every 3 -4 years, Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium), every 3-4 years, creeping phlox 3-4 years, and Siberian iris- infrequently, as needed.

Peonies can be divided in the fall but only after many years, when they have formed large clumps and it’s necessary only if you want to propagate them. Dig the clumps up carefully and divide them so that each section has several “eyes” or growing points. Be aware that peonies will often stop blooming for 2-3 years after division.

Bulbs including tulips, daffodils, hyacinth and so on are “divided” in the fall. In this case the original bulb isn’t cut up, (if you cut them up, they won’t grow), instead the original bulb will probably have produced small “bulblets”.  Sometimes they will still be attached to the bottom of the parent bulb. Other times the new bulbs will even be fairly good sized and no longer attached to the parent bulb. These bulbs can be dug in fall, carefully separated from the parent bulb if still attached and replanted. Not all bulbs will have produced the bulblets.  The small bulbs can take years to bloom.

Daffodils usually reproduce quickly and easily.  When they are dug you may see bulbs that appear to be 2 or 3 bulbs fused together at the bottom.  These are called double or triple nosed bulbs and they produce the best flower show. You can carefully separate the bulbs if you want, but you’ll reduce flowering. Over several years a bed of daffodils will generally have produced many new bulbs that you can dig and replant elsewhere.

Lily bulbs consist of several segments all joined together at the bottom with a basal root plate. These can be divided but it’s a tricky maneuver.  Each bulb scale (segment) must have a piece of the basal root plate attached. This is done by carefully cutting through the basal plate. You cannot just cut a lily bulb in pieces or break off scales for new plants. These divided bulb scales can take a year or more to bloom. Since lilies can take years from planting to reach their full glory, it’s probably best to leave them alone and not attempt division.  Leave that to expert bulb growers.

Some lilies send out horizontal roots which then develop new bulbs along them. When those bulbs produce their own shoots above ground, you could dig down and remove the new lily bulbs to plant elsewhere.  It can be difficult to dig up lily bulbs without damaging them and even those independent bulbs can take several years to reach full size and bloom.

Plants that can’t be divided or that resent division

Plants that can’t be divided include anything with a single, woody stem. That includes most trees and shrubs. I looked out one day to see a woman approaching my front flower bed with a shovel.  I didn’t know her. When I went out to ask her what she wanted, she pointed to a caryopteris, (a shrub with blue flowers), growing in the bed and said she wanted to just “get a little piece of it”.

 

Caryopteris

Leaving out the fact that she didn’t ask permission, this was a shrub with a single main stem that just can’t be divided. Had I not seen her with the shovel my plant probably would have died, or she would have disappeared with the whole thing.  Needless to say, I made it plain to her that if she wanted something, she needed to ask first or there would be consequences.

There are ways you can reproduce trees and shrubs that don’t include division. You can layer some trees and shrubs, which involves bending a branch down, covering it with soil and hoping it roots there, you can start cuttings or start seeds.  If you want to reproduce any plant, research the right ways to do it.

If a tree or shrub produces suckers those new plants can be dug in either the spring or fall and transplanted.  Suckers are little shoots that pop up a short distance from a parent plant from a root that the plant sends out horizontally. These plants tend to form thickets if left alone. Some common shrubs that sucker include lilac, trumpet vine, elderberry and forsythia.

Sever the suckers connecting root to the parent plant and move the young plant either when the leaves are still small in the spring or after it goes dormant in the fall.  This doesn’t hurt the parent plant.  Be aware that there are some grafted trees that sucker, such as apples.  In this case the suckers come from the hardy rootstock that was used in the grafted plant.  They won’t produce fruit like the top part of the tree.  Suckers from grafted plants should be cut off at ground level – unless you want to grow them to create your own grafted trees.

Most modern roses are grafted, have a single main stem and cannot be divided. Dividing a rose that isn’t grafted also doesn’t work in most cases, but there are a few older roses that grow on their own roots that produce suckers that can be removed and grown as new plants.  I have a Harrisons Yellow rose that suckers a bit too freely and I have dug up numerous new plants to give away.

If a grafted rose produces suckers those suckers will be from rootstock, and the flowers will not be like the parent plant.  You’ll want to simply cut them to the ground.

There are also perennial plants do not care for division and probably won’t survive it.  Baby's Breath (Gypsophila), Balloon Flower (Platycodon), Butterfly Weed (Asclepias), Cimicifuga, Clematis, Evening Primrose (Oenothera missourienis), False Indigo (Baptisia), Flax (Linum), Gentian, Lavender, Lupine, Monkshood (Aconitum),roses, rosemary, Russian Sage (Perovskia), garden sage and yucca are some of them.  These plants can be reproduced by other means.

Focus on climate change, not on invasive species

Who really knows what an invasive species is?  Long before Europeans set foot on North America people from Siberia- North East Asia migrated here.  Whether they crossed a land bridge on foot or paddled along the coast to get here they undoubtably brought some form of plants with them, and probably animals too.  It may have been intentional, as in stored seeds and fruits to eat on the journey or unintentional as in seeds stuck to clothing and tiny insects in the stored food. With thousands of years before Europeans began cataloging the flora and fauna of the new world, there’s little chance we would know what was here before human habitation and what was not.

Animals and plants are capable of moving great distances on their own also.  Spores and seeds float on the waves and sail through the skies.  Birds and insects migrate great distances. They may carry other seeds and bits of plants with them. Animals swim vast distances and explore coastlines.  They arrive on distance shores clinging to storm debris.  Nature has always moved things around.

As our climate gets hotter and drier in some places and desperately flooded in others, the flora and fauna in this world is going to shift.  There is no stopping this.  There is no holding on to once was here and keeping all else at bay.  Survival of all the species on earth depends on allowing them to adapt to changing conditions even if that means vacating their “space” and allowing a more suitable species to thrive there.  A healthy ecosystem depends on species that can populate new areas.

We need to stop allocating time and money fighting what we consider invasive species and spend time and money making sure a diversity of species exists in all environments, whether they are “native” or not.    We need to make sure there are trees, whether they are trees that once grew in that location or not.  We need to make sure there are plants filtering flood sediment and protecting coastlands, whether they are native or not.  We need to make sure there are plants holding the soil in dry areas, so it doesn’t blow away, whether they are native or not. We need to make sure there are plants providing nectar and pollen and fruit and seeds for animals, whether they are native or not.   

We may need to control a plant or animal that threatens our food supply or health. New species, as well as native species, of mosquitoes need to be controlled, for example. But those invasive species battles should be few and targeted. And we should be very careful we know what we are doing before we engage in those battles. There is never a need to spend millions of dollars on pesticides to kill a species that we humans decide shouldn’t be there, just because it displaces other species that no longer thrive in that environment. There are far greater and urgent needs to spend money on if we are to survive climate change.

If every dollar and every hour of human labor spent battling garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed was instead spent on planting any kind of trees in the Amazon and other deforested areas the world would be better off. Instead of spending money on eliminating phragmites let it grow to help stabilize coastlines ravaged by rising oceans. If it works who cares if displaces less effective plants. Crabgrass and dandelions - if we spent what we spend to eliminate lawn “weeds” on building more solar panels and windmills our air would be cleaner and our time left on earth longer.

What should be welcome in every environment is plants and animals that can survive and thrive in the current conditions.  While that could be natives it may not be.  Some natives will go extinct, that is a given.  While it may not be a happy ending, we need to accept that we are not going to be able to preserve all native species in environments that are no longer suitable for them due to a changing climate. If we believe certain species should be preserved, then we need to move them to an environment more suited to their needs rather than eliminating competitors more suited to the environment they are now in.

Nature creates new ecosystems with invaders and survivors. Plant and animal communities adapt when they are left alone or helped in the right way. And the right way is not to fight for what once was, but to allow change. Humans are arrogant and ignorant when they believe it is they who should control what life lives where.

Humans, the ultimate invasive species, are also going to have change how and where they live. Like plants and animals, we are going to need to move to more suitable environments. We need to move away from the coast instead of fighting the rising oceans. All the money wasted rebuilding homes and businesses after every flood could be much better spent. We need to shift crop growing areas north instead of trying to fight the growing heat and drought. We may need to adapt to a different diet.  We need to use less fossil fuel and stop cutting down trees.  We need to learn to fully utilize the sun and wind that climate change is producing an abundance of. 

If we don’t adapt, if we don’t allow change, if we continue to waste money protecting species that are no longer suitable for the environment, and continue to live where we shouldn’t, we make the coming battle for survival much, much harder.

 “How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.”– John Burrows

Kim Willis

And So On….

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September 17, 2019

Hi Gardeners

As the fog burns off it’s turning into a pretty fall day here.  After some good rains last week, the plants are perky and fresh looking.  Goldenrod is lighting up the fields. Heath asters are pushing out white clouds of flowers. The maples are starting to show some good reds and oranges.  Pesky Virginia creeper is turning purple-red.

In the garden the last plants to bloom, toad lilies and colchicum are blooming.  Mums are at full bloom. Anemone, hardy hibiscus, rose of Sharon, sedum, snakeroot, black eyed Susan, coneflowers, and buddleia are still blooming.  We’ve had no frost, so the annuals are still going strong, but starting to look a little tired.  Roses have a new flush of bloom, although I’m aggravated, they are being chewed up by Japanese beetles.  Those buggers should be gone by now.  They are worse than they were earlier in the season.  The drought earlier must have delayed some of them emerging.

Grapes and apples are ripening.  Deer are coming up to snatch apples.  The veggie garden is done for the year, I dug the rest of the potatoes and the tomatoes have pretty much succumbed to blight.  Now I just need to clean it all up.

I’m seeing lots of monarchs right now.  I don’t know if they are migrating through or not.  I saw hummingbirds two days ago, so I refilled the feeders, getting stung by a hornet in the process.  It’s odd but I’ve noticed far fewer ants at the hummingbird feeders this year.  Maybe it’s a bad year for ants.  I think the red winged blackbirds and orioles have already left.  Killdeer and buzzards are still around though.

The tree frogs and crickets are really calling at night now.  The frogs sound close to the house and I am worried they are crawling into the houseplants.  I am starting to move some of my houseplants back inside this week.  I am going to have cataract surgery on one eye this week and won’t be able to bend and lift for a few days.  Then I am having surgery on the other eye in early October, so I have to get those plants moved inside within a tight schedule.  I’m hoping the weather cooperates.

Speaking of my eye surgery, I don’t know if I will be putting out a blog next week or not.  I guess it depends on how I see after the surgery with one eye fixed and the other not. I’m worried it may be hard to use the computer, but we’ll see.  If you don’t see a blog next week, you’ll know why.

 

Japanese beetles on rose

It’s National Houseplant week

September 16-22 is National Indoor Plant week.  You do have houseplants, don’t you?  If you don’t, shame on you.  Every home needs houseplants, and I mean needs. Every classroom needs them too.  Houseplants make people calmer and happier; research has proven this.  While the air cleaning aspect of houseplants is somewhat exaggerated, they do provide us with improved air quality.

In one study children were asked to choose between two classrooms, exactly alike except one had lots of plants.  Every child chose the room with plants.  Teachers- you need plants in your classroom!  There are plants that can survive colder nights when the heat is turned down and even school year vacation breaks.  And plants are cheap- often free. Heck, if you are a teacher near me, I’ll give you a houseplant for your classroom.

If you don’t have houseplants, it’s a great time to buy them.  Since they are popular once again many stores are carrying them.  Do some research and find plants that match your lighting conditions and your likelihood of caring for them.  But you are gardeners after all – so no excuses that you can’t grow houseplants.  You can, you should.

Kalanchoe synsepala Gremlin 

There are some houseplants I don’t recommend for most homes.  These are Boston ferns, and most other ferns, crotons, gardenias, and azaleas.  Fiddleleaf figs, while popular, are also difficult.  Carnivorous plants are fun for a while but rarely last long. That still leaves hundreds of plants to chose from.

Do you give your houseplants a summer vacation outside?  I do. It’s too early to frost here- probably- but it is time to start thinking about moving the house plants inside.  When nights fall below 50 degrees on a regular basis most tropicals should be brought inside. Even if you don’t turn on the furnace the house will be 10-20 degrees warmer than outside if the windows are closed. 

If you need grow lights now is the time to order or shop for them.  The new energy efficient grow lights make it easy to grow plants even when window light is poor. They are safe, and inexpensive to operate. There’s a plant for every room if you use grow lights and almost every room if you don’t.

I don’t like the work involved in moving them in and out, but the house does seem cozier filled with plants in the fall and winter.  Usually I bring mine into the porch first as I check them for bugs and look for mice and frogs hiding in the pots and then decide where to put them. 

I learned a lesson one year when several tree frogs hitched a ride inside on my plants.  In the middle of the night they called and sang to each other.  I couldn’t find some of them though, which bothered me. I’d see one and then it would vanish. The poor things voices gradually faded away through the winter.  I was providing little dishes of water among the plants but there was no way to feed them.

Getting a Poinsettia to rebloom

My mom has had her poinsettia plant outside all summer. It grew large and lush.  She told me she had brought it inside and stuck it in the closet behind her steps because she heard it needed darkness to get colorful again.  (The leaf bracts turn red, it’s not a flower, although the plants are flowering at the time.)  I asked mom if she was bringing the plant to the window in the day and she said no. 

I explained to her that although poinsettias need complete darkness at night- for at least 12 hours each night- they do need sunlight in the daytime.  If you want a poinsettia to turn red again near Christmas it needs to be in the natural light cycle for fall, days getting shorter until darkness is about 10-12 hours long.  Any artificial light during what should be night will delay or prevent that red color you want.

Most poinsettias will never be as pretty as when they came from the greenhouse but if they were given good care through spring and summer, preferably a summer outside in the sun, and the right light conditions are met in the fall, they can look pretty nice near Christmas the second or following years.

Poinsettias should also get a gradual cooling down in fall, although they should never be exposed to frost.  The chilling makes the coloring of the bracts more brilliant. If you leave them outside until just before the first frost this usually does the trick.  Of course, once inside they still need those long dark nights.

If you are keeping the poinsettia plant inside all year round you should put it in the window of a room that doesn’t get used at night and remains dark, starting in late August.  If you can’t do that try slipping a box over the plant as nightfall comes outside and removing it when the sun is up. It’s best to mimic the gradual shortening of the day in the fall, so use the light conditions outside to guide you.  Lower the room temperature at night to 55 degrees if possible. 

Once the poinsettia leaves have turned red again the plant can be moved to a location where it can be seen better if needed.  You don’t have to worry that light at night will change the color of the leaves anymore.  They will often stay red for months once they color up.

The poinsettia makes a pretty good houseplant if it has a sunny window and regular watering and with a little care can “bloom” for many years.  It will get larger; they are shrubs in Mexico.  My mom has agreed to move hers back to a windowsill, I don’t know if she’ll remember to keep up the light schedule but since she goes to bed fairly early it may work out.

Blending spring blooming bulbs into perennial beds

Many people don’t plant bulbs like tulips and daffodils in their perennial beds because they have read that the bulbs must be dry in the summer or because they think the dying bulb foliage will be too ugly.  But many gardeners successfully blend bulbs into their perennial beds and those are the gardens which look so pretty in early spring.

While it is true that most spring blooming bulbs like a period of dryness after the foliage disappears, almost all types of bulbs will successfully adapt to the normal perennial bed.  You don’t have to skip watering your perennials to keep bulbs happy.  Unless you have poor drainage and are growing wetland perennials many types of bulbs will thrive.

Some gardeners think they must dig up the bulbs after they bloom and store them somewhere until next fall.  You can do this if you like, but it’s a lot of work and really isn’t necessary.  Each type of bulb needs a certain length of time to go dormant.  And then after digging they need a period of time to cure spread out somewhere in a dark spot.  After curing they need the proper storage conditions until fall.  All of this can be hard for the average gardener to do.

Some bulbs, particularly tulips, do tend to fade out after a year or two in the garden.  Summer moisture is only part of the problem though, some hybrid, cultivated tulips are just naturally short lived.  Many species type tulips have longer lifespans.  I always plant more tulips every fall to ensure a good show in spring. Renewing most bulbs every few years is wise, with maybe the exception of daffodils, which often multiply tremendously and aren’t bothered by bulb eating animals.

Other things that cause bulbs to disappear after a year or two are disturbing the bulbs when planting other things, cutting off dying foliage too soon, and animals digging out the bulbs either for a snack or just tunneling or digging in the garden.  Moles don’t eat bulbs, but if they tunnel beneath them the bulbs can either fall down into the tunnel and be buried too deeply or the bulbs are damaged in the tunneling process.

Cats, dogs and skunks sometimes throw bulbs out of the ground when digging.  Frost can heave bulbs out of the ground as the ground freezes and thaws. Heavy rain can wash them out.  If the bulbs are exposed on top of the ground for long, they will probably die.  When there are thaws and the ground is visible in winter check your flower beds for bulbs that have been pushed out of the ground and replant them.

The foliage of bulbs should be left to mature and die naturally so that the plant makes food to produce a new flower.  Flower buds are being made for next year soon after this year’s flower fades. Bulbs also need energy to produce new bulbs.  If your concern is that the bulb foliage will look ugly after the flowers fade in the spring, there are ways to minimize the mess. 

The best way to hide bulb foliage until it dies, and the bulb goes dormant, is to plant your bulbs among perennial plants that are slow to emerge in spring but then rapidly disguise the bulb foliage beneath and among their foliage.  In the fall plant your bulbs carefully under these plants, making sure not to cut into the perennial’s roots.

I like to plant bulbs under hosta and among daylilies and ferns. Early blooming bulbs can be planted under roses, especially landscape type roses. In the spring the bulbs grow and bloom before the perennials get very large.  By the time the bulb foliage is yellowing the perennials should be large enough to hide them.

Other perennials that can hide bulb foliage are ornamental grasses, true lilies, cannas if hardy in your zone, poppies, bleeding hearts, brunnera and astilbe. Small, early flowering bulbs like winter aconite, crocus and snowdrops can be planted under groundcovers like thyme, sweet woodruff, and various sedums.  By the time the groundcovers are actively growing the bulbs should have bloomed.

 

Bulbs with hosta and Jacobs ladder

If you plant your bulbs in the fall before you have cleaned up the foliage of perennials- if you are a fall clean up gardener- you’ll know what area of ground around the perennial will be hidden by its foliage next year. (Pictures taken when the perennials were mature for the year can also help you decide where to plant bulbs.) Just carefully tuck the bulbs in that area.  This may take more work than digging up a large area just for bulbs and plopping them in, but it will be worth it next spring. 

Another way to use bulbs in perennial beds is to reserve a strip for them behind perennial plants.  If your flower bed is in front of a wall or fence, the spot for the bulbs should be back against the wall or fence.  The bulbs should bloom before the plants in front of them leaf out and hide them.  If your flower bed can be observed from all sides plant bulbs in the middle.

You can also reserve space in the front of a perennial bed for smaller bulbs like crocus, miniature daffodils, grape hyacinth and so on.  Then as soon as possible in spring plant annuals like pansies, petunias and marigolds among the bulbs.  As they grow the annuals hide the bulb foliage while providing color to the flower bed.  If you plant annuals and tropicals in large containers every year, bulbs can also be planted in them for early color.

You could plan a bed that’s all bulbs.  Carefully planned you could have something in bloom all season.  Start the season with small early bloomers, snowdrops, crocus, iris reticulata, add early season tulips and daffodils, then mid spring and late spring bloomers like fritillaria, alliums and late tulips. 

Next add summer blooming bulbs like Asiatic and oriental lilies, and things like dahlias, canna, rain lilies, glads, crocosemia, tuberose and others to bloom all the way to fall.  (Some of these may not be winter hardy in your zone.)  There are fall blooming crocus and colchicums.

If you can’t hide it, the foliage of spring blooming plants can be cut back when the leaves have yellowed completely.  The “ugly” period is usually short if you can tolerate it. In some bulbs like crocus and corydalis (sold with bulbs but not a real bulb) the foliage isn’t that bad looking.

The beautiful blooms of bulbs in early spring before all else blooms are well worth tolerating some yellow foliage.  Go with bold and beautiful and plant some bulbs.  There’s room in every garden.

Gather your herbs while ye may

If you haven’t harvested herbs such as lavender, sage, rosemary, oregano and thyme now is the time to do so.  Cut young stems after the dew has dried in the morning or they have dried after a rain.  Bundle 6-10 stems with a rubber band or string and hang the bundles in a warm dark area.  Rubber bands contract as the stems dry and keep the bundles together. 

You can also place stems or bundles of herbs in brown paper bags and put them in your car to dry.  A car sitting in the sun dries herbs quickly but beware, your car will smell like what you dry in it.

I now place dried herb bundles in plastic bags and put them in the freezer.  This keeps the flavor strong. You can also crumble the dried herbs into clean dry jars with tight fitting lids.  Place a teaspoon of dried milk in a piece of tissue paper and twist it closed.  Place that in each jar to absorb any moisture.  You can also put some dry white rice in each jar to keep the herbs dry.  You can also buy or save those little deoxidizer -drying packets to put in jars. Use ones labeled food safe or that came in food.

Dill seeds just about ready for harvest

Collect the seeds of dill, fennel and caraway now or they will be lost on the ground. Put something like a bowl or bucket under the seed head as you snap it off to collect loose seeds.  Then shake or scrape out the remaining seeds from the dried flower. Spread the seeds out in a dry warm place for a few days to continue drying before storing in clean dry jars with tight lids.  If you have a food dehydrator or your oven can be set on low heat of about 150 degrees, you can use that to speed up the drying process.  Be careful not to scorch or over dry the seeds. 

Don’t try to dry herbs with powdery mildew or other fungal diseases.  Discard any herbs that mold during the drying process.  Dried herbs can last a year or longer if properly stored.  Label your packages or jars so you know when the herbs were collected and what they are.

Blinding the queen bee

Think of spending your life studying the seminal fluid of honeybees. That’s the job of UC Riverside's Boris Baer, an entomologist who has been studying bee sperm for 10 years. Your tax dollars at work.

It turns out bee seminal fluid is full of chemicals – bee manufactured ones not environmental toxins.  One of the things bee seminal fluid can do is kill the sperm of rival bees.  But a recent finding pointed out another thing the fluid can do- make the queen blind. 

When male bees mate with a queen early in her life the sperm they pump into her blinds her.  Within a short time after mating the queens start becoming blind and have difficulty finding their way back to the hive. Since blind bees can’t fly, the queen stays home to produce babies. This also ensures the queen isn’t flying around mating with other males.  Maybe the queen isn’t the ruler of the hive after all.

The blindness does fade after a while because later in life queens often leave the hive in a “swarm” and create a new hive.  (Or maybe they are fleeing from captivity.) They do see then, researchers found.  But most queens mate only once in their lifetime, with the sperm they received at that first blinding event becoming the father of their babies for a lifetime.

But life isn’t all kingly fun and games for the male honeybees since they die shortly after mating. Did they die happy?  No one has studied that yet.

More reading;

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190910080019.htm.

“But now in September the garden has cooled, and with it my possessiveness. The sun warms my back instead of beating on my head ... The harvest has dwindled, and I have grown apart from the intense midsummer relationship that brought it on. “    

-       Robert Finch

Kim Willis

And So On….

Find Michigan garden events/classes here:

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(This is the Lapeer County Gardeners facebook page)

Newsletter/blog information

If you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to me or you can comment directly on the blog. Please state that you want to have the item published in my weekly blog if you email me. You must give your full name and what you say must be polite and not attack any individual. I am very open to ideas and opinions that don’t match mine, but I do reserve the right to publish what I want. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com

I write this because I love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my research each week. It keeps me engaged with people and horticulture. It’s a hobby, basically. I hope you enjoy it. If you are on my mailing list and at any time you don’t wish to receive these emails just let me know. If you know anyone who would like to receive a notification by email when a new blog is published have them send their email address to me.  KimWillis151@gmail.com

September 10, 2019 beware of fuzzy caterpillars

Hi gardeners

Black snakeroot

It’s a weird weather day here.  It looked like it was going to storm, but it went below and above us.  We had dibs and dabs of rain last week, not enough to do much good, so a good rain would be welcome.  I was digging potatoes this week and the top inch of soil was moist but under that it was powder dry.  Our county is considered to be in moderate drought.

I got busy this week and dug up some of the long bed I am going to abandon back to lawn.  The lilies in it had been chewed to about half height by deer and didn’t bloom this year.  They have been there a while and the bulbs I dug out were enormous.   They are orienpets and tree lilies, hybrid lilies that get very tall.  I also dug out some sedum and daylilies to transplant.  Everything went to the front flower beds.  One of my favorite lilies ‘Silk Road’ had about 6 large bulbs to one stalk.  I am hoping to see it bloom again next year.

In the garden the toad lilies are starting to bloom.  The hardy hibiscus and anemone are blooming as well as mums. I still have black eyed Susan’s and coneflowers blooming as well as ligularia.  The black snakeroot, Cimicifuga, is outstanding this year. I love the soft pink plumes of flower.  I’m also pleased with the new quill mum I planted this spring.  It’s gotten quite large for it’s first year.   

The new buddleia is also huge for a first-year plant.  Too bad it turned out to be white instead of the dark purple it was supposed to be.  I don’t think they attract as many butterflies when they are white.  It was a bargain plant though so I should be happy I guess, that it grew so well.  I am also happy with the Verbena bonariensis I planted this year.  But it’s only hardy to zone 7.  I don’t know whether to just save seed or try to dig it and overwinter the plant.

I harvested one of my “special medicine” plants this week.  It was huge.  I am learning to trim buds and working on it a little at a time.  You are supposed to take off all the large leaves and trim back the smaller ones that surround the buds. You just keep those buds for drying. It’s nothing like the pot of the 70’s I was used to, when you smoked the leaves instead of throwing them out.

I don’t like it that the whole house now stinks though.  That resin on the plants is very sticky and gets all over your hands and is hard to wash off. That’s the good stuff I’m told.  I am going to be experimenting with various ways to use those buds soon.  I have another huge plant of a different variety to harvest still.  I should have plenty to experiment with.

All of these Silk Road lily bulbs came from one stalk.

Tips on buying bulbs

It is getting close to the time when most gardeners should be planting bulbs for those spring blooms.  Before you can plant bulbs, you have to buy them.  If you buy good quality bulbs, you’ll have a better chance to have a gorgeous display of flowers next spring and summer. 

I highly recommend that you buy your bulbs from a mail order catalog- online source and here’s why.  Retail stores must purchase bulbs early and have them on display in late summer -early fall.  I have heard from industry insiders that these early shipped bulbs often have their curing time after harvest shortened so they can meet the early order deadlines of retail stores.  This can impact the quality and growing ability of those bulbs.

Bulbs in retail stores usually sit in the store for weeks and those storage conditions are certainly not ideal.  They may be left on outside garden center racks in sun and rain.  They may sit in boxes in hot stockrooms or be inside on brightly lit racks in warm stores.  Bulbs may rot, mold, shrivel up or start growing, all things which don’t predict good results in your garden.  Retail stores have even been known to put out bulbs that were left over from last year and stored in a stockroom somewhere.

 

Anemone and species tulips

The bulbs in retail stores are often not as large as bulbs purchased directly from bulb companies on-line or from catalogs and are often a lower “grade.”  Larger bulbs give you a better show in spring. The selection of varieties is limited.  Even with shipping costs from catalog and web sellers included, the bulbs in retail stores often cost the same or more than bulbs purchased online or from catalogs.

There are some high-end garden stores who deal exclusively in plants and garden products who do a good job of displaying and storing quality fall bulbs.  These are different from big box retailers and grocery stores offering bulbs for sale and you will probably be fine buying bulbs from them. But not everyone has access to such stores.    

Not every online or catalog bulb seller has the best quality bulbs either.  Cheaper bulbs and all those great bargain deals usually feature smaller, lower grade bulbs.  But overall, you get better quality bulbs when you purchase them from online/catalog sources.  They are generally stored properly until they are shipped to you at the right time for planting in your area. And you have a far greater selection of bulbs to buy, including rare and heirloom bulbs.

You can buy the bulbs anytime after they go on sale.  In fact, shop early for the best selection. But you want to plant your bulbs after the temperature of the air and soil has cooled, yet before the ground freezes. Usually this is after a hard frost.  In zones 6 and lower this is usually in October.  In zone 7 it’s a bit later, maybe November.  In zones higher than 7 you may need to purchase pre-chilled bulbs.  Good mail order-catalog sellers generally monitor the weather and ship bulbs to you when the time is right for planting.  If you are allowed to pick a date to receive bulbs keep your weather in mind.

Do some research before ordering bulbs for fall planting.  Check the hardiness zones of bulb and make sure they will thrive in your planting zone.  Even some varieties of the same species may not grow well in all planting zones.  There are some bulb varieties that grow better in warm climates or that can stand colder winters than others of their species.

Make sure the bulbs you want will grow in your light and soil conditions. Don’t hesitate to plant sun loving early flowering bulbs under deciduous trees.  By the time the trees leaf out the bulbs will have bloomed and completed most of their growth cycle.  But for later flowering bulbs and for bulbs that will grow in the shade of evergreens or buildings make sure the bulb species can perform in your lighting conditions.

Soil moisture and fertility can also be factors in bulb selection.  Most bulbs prefer to grow in well-drained soil of average fertility.  There are only a few bulb species that grow well in damp areas.

Fritillaria Crown Imperial

Bulb size

When ordering bulbs and comparing prices look at the size of the bulbs listed. Smaller bulbs of the same variety cost less.  These can be a bargain in bulbs that usually naturalize and then get bigger each year, like daffodils and lilies. But for bulbs like tulips, always buy the largest size offered for a good first year display. Many of these won’t be back for a second year and if they do come back, often have smaller flowers the second year.  For a great spring display from them buy large top-grade bulbs.

What is considered top size varies from species to species and even by variety.  Good sellers list bulb size minimums. That means the bulb will be at least that size.  Sellers may also list the grade – top grade or bedding grade, which are slightly smaller bulbs, are the terms often used.  In daffodils double or triple nosed bulbs are higher quality than single nose and sell for more. This means the bulb looks like two or three fused bulbs and will put up two or three bloom stalks. 

In standard tulips 12 cm and up is top quality.  Species tulips range from 5 cm up, depending on the species.  In daffodils 16 cm, preferably double nosed is top quality for large flowered types.  Some of the smaller flowered daffodils and narcissus have top quality bulbs of about 10 cm.  Hyacinths should be 16 cm, grape hyacinths 6 cm and up.  Top quality crocus range from about 9 cm for very large flowered hybrid types to 5 cm for small flowered early crocus or species crocus.

Snowdrops and squill should be about 8 cm. Fritillaria imperialis (Crown Imperials) should be 20 cm or more for top quality. Large globe allium bulbs should be 20-24 cm for top quality.  The small alliums range from 5-14 cm depending on species.  There are many other types of bulbs sold and if there are no common standards for top size you’ll just find them listed as top size or under other terms.

Lily bulbs show some variation by both species and variety. Asiatic top size is 14 cm and up and oriental lily bulbs should range from 16/18 cm, but some varieties of both may have naturally smaller bulbs.  Lily bulbs can also be much, much larger when premium size bulbs are sold. Martagon and species lilies have smaller bulbs, 10 cm up depending on species.

 

Top size lily bulb

CM refers to centimeters and is measured around the bulb, (circumference).  Each centimeter equals 2.54 inches. For a visual comparison think of a 16/18 cm bulb as about the size of a tennis ball.

It can be a red flag when bulb grade and size aren’t listed, and the prices seem lower than other places. This often means you’ll receive small, misshaped or damaged bulbs.  If you are willing to give them a year or two before the best show this can be a decent deal.  I would not choose tulips this way.

Bulb appearance

If you are picking out bulbs in a store, make sure you can actually see the bulbs.  It’s risky to buy bulbs in packages you can’t see through.  Some garden stores have bins of loose bulbs, from which you pick your selection.  This is a better way to choose than picking packaged bulbs.  One drawback is that when customers handle bulbs, they don’t always get the right bulbs back in the right bin.  I watched a child once having a great time moving bulbs from bin to bin.  People buying after he left may not have gotten the varieties they expected.

Bulbs of different species are shaped a bit differently.  Tulips are usually tear drop shaped.  Daffodils have longer “necks” and sometimes look like two bulbs fused at the bottom (double nosed). Lily bulbs are composed of “scales” that overlap.  Crocus bulbs are flattened circles.

But all bulbs should feel firm, not soft.  They should look plump, not shriveled.  (There are a few exceptions to the shriveled look, some less common bulbs may appear wrinkled.) A little mold isn’t harmful but a blackened moldy, shriveled looking or mushy bulb should not be purchased.  Many bulbs have a loose skin or papery shell.  Don’t remove this but don’t be worried if some falls off. 

Bulbs should not be sprouting.  They shouldn’t have cuts from shovels or gnawed areas from pests. They shouldn’t look smashed. Some bulbs may have tiny “bulblets” attached at the bottom, which is fine, but don’t worry if these fall off.  These eventually grow into new bulbs.

Bulb color varies.  In some species such as tulips and hyacinths, you can see some color in the flesh of the bulb that may correspond to flower color.  A purple fleshed hyacinth bulb produces a purple flower. But don’t rely on bulb color to accurately predict all flower colors.  In many species the bulbs have white or tan flesh color regardless of what the flower color will be.

If you are tempted to buy pre-packaged bulbs in a store check the label carefully.  Look for the words “packed in or for” the current year.  If you see any signs that the package was a holdover from another year don’t buy it.  Almost all bulbs come from the Netherlands so don’t worry if you see that on the label.  Some companies buy bulbs in bulk from the Netherlands and repackage them so they can label them as packed in the USA but only a few rare and heirloom species and some lilies are actually grown here for commercial sale.

If you are ordering bulbs from a website or catalog you won’t be able to see what you are getting.  But make sure you open and examine the bulbs as soon as you get them and report any damaged or unhealthy looking bulbs right away.  Good companies guarantee quality and will refund your money if you aren’t satisfied.

Other considerations

When ordering also check the blooming times of bulbs, usually listed as early, mid spring- and late spring.  Make sure you have something blooming all through spring.  Keep early blooming bulbs close to the house and paths so you get to see them. 

There are bulbs that you plant in the fall that bloom in the summer too. Lilies are a good example; you can have lilies in bloom much of the summer if you choose varieties carefully.  Lilies often do best when planted in the fall, but some can be spring planted also.  You can even get bulbs that bloom in the fall like saffron crocus and colchicums.

Colchicum bloom in fall

How many to buy

There is a disease in gardeners called “buying too many bulbs”. (I have it.)  You may get better prices if you buy larger quantities, but can you really find places for those bulbs and the time to plant them?  Remember fall weather may make some days unsuitable for planting.  You can plant until the ground freezes but its better to get bulbs planted a few weeks before that so they can better establish themselves.

But don’t buy too few bulbs either. As you look at your flower beds this fall you may think there is no room for bulbs but remember in the spring when the bulbs bloom most perennials are still quite small.  If you took pictures of your garden in early spring, you’ll know where the bare spots are.  This also helps you avoid planting this fall’s new bulbs over bulbs from last year that are dormant.

You can lift the leaves of hosta and other perennials and plant bulbs under them.  After the bulbs bloom and die down in early summer the emerging leaves of the perennials will cover the dying foliage.  Ferns, daylilies and other plants can also hide dying bulb foliage as they grow; you just have to squeeze the bulbs in under them this fall.

Most good bulb catalogs will list how many bulbs per square foot is ideal, but these figures are generally for beds that don’t have other plants in them.  When you are planting in beds with perennials or previously planted bulbs you’ll need less.  If you do need a lot of bulbs, a 100 or so of the same species, look at wholesale and landscaper catalogs or websites.  These may have minimum purchases.  Look for wholesale catalogs that sell top quality bulbs, not small or low-grade bulbs.  There are some companies that specialize in the very largest, top quality bulbs for landscapers who service very fussy clients or for exhibition gardens.

If you do buy too many bulbs you can either give them away, sneak a few into a neighbor’s yard for a surprise or pot them in containers.  The containers must drain well.  Leave them outside in the cold until spring or a time near spring when you bring the inside for forcing bloom. Either bury the pots in the ground or compost pile or mulch them heavily through the winter.  In spring you can then move the sprouting bulbs in pots to porches and patios or bare spots in the garden.

Every gardener should consider adding bulbs to the garden for early spring blooms. You need to plant them this fall.  There’s still plenty of time to order those bulbs so get to work. There’s a list of catalogs and on line sites below. Next week I’ll talk about planting tips for bulbs and how to integrate them into perennial beds.

http://www.colorblends.com/  

www.brecks.com

https://brentandbeckysbulbs.com/

www.johnscheepers.com

http://www.mzbulb.com

www.OldHouseGardens.com  

www.dutchbulbs.com 

www.vanengelen.com 

Prostrate knotweed, Polygonum aviculare

Prostrate knotweed

My grandmother called it poverty grass, but years ago when I tried to look up the plant under that name, I couldn’t find it.  This plant forms a low, wiry groundcover that stays green in all but the worse droughts and can be walked on. It covers hard worn paths by midsummer and will grow almost anywhere in full sun.  You can mow it without much harm, but it stays low enough you usually don’t have to. It has tiny almost invisible flowers that some pollinators do find, and birds love the seeds it makes.

This plant sounds like the ideal lawn replacement doesn’t it?  I think it could be, although there are some drawbacks. I eventually found the name of the plant, it’s officially Polygonum aviculare.  The plant is said to be polymorphic, that is there are slight regional differences in the shape of the plants leaves and its growth habits.  That has led to several subspecies being named and some disagreements among botanists in whether there are actually different species or subspecies.  Anyway, you may sometimes find the poverty grass of the Eastern US being referred to as Polygonum arenastrum.

Some of the other common names this plant has are door weed, mat grass and goose grass.  It’s a plant native to Eurasia, but it’s been in this country since the earliest arrival of Europeans and can be found in all 50 states and in most of the other countries in the world. 

Poverty grass- that’s the name I know it by, isn’t in the grass family.  It’s a dicot related to buckwheat and other familiar knotweeds. From a distance it may look like grass but if you examine it up close, you’ll see the wiry stems have tiny oval leaves with a short petiole arranged alternately on the stems. The color is a dark blue-green.  The leaf joints or nodes are slightly swollen and its at the leaf junction that tiny greenish white flowers develop.

The flowers each produce one dark brown cone shaped seed with 3 sides. Poverty grass flowers all summer and produces prodigious amounts of seeds. Most will stay in the soil until the next spring to germinate.  The tough seeds can survive many years, perhaps decades in the soil if conditions aren’t right for germination.  They need a period of cold, moist stratification followed by warm soil conditions for best germination.  That translates to a winter outside with late spring germination.

Polygonum aviculare is an annual plant although some do argue it’s a short-lived perennial in the right conditions. It will grow almost anywhere there’s enough sun, in almost any soil.  It grows in hard packed soil, sandy nutrient poor soil, salty soil and soil contaminated with oil and other chemicals.  It will grow in wet or dry soil.  It’s drought resistant, staying green when lawn grass has gone brown. It will inhibit the growth of some other weeds and chokes out lawn grasses growing where conditions are wrong for grass. It doesn’t grow well in shade.

This hardy survivor is eaten by deer and rabbits and will be eaten by livestock to some extent.  There have been reports that it can accumulate nitrates in some cases and harm horses that eat it but is not considered to be poisonous in most cases. Birds like pheasants, quail and doves seek out the seeds of the plant.

Not only do animals eat the plant, people do too.  The seeds have been ground into a flour.  Young plants are eaten as a salad green.  Leaves have been used for tea.  There are a number of minor herbal remedies for the plant.  The seeds are an emetic and mild diuretic.  The plant is used to treat asthma, diarrhea, gingivitis and cardiovascular issues. And the plant is used to kill and expel worms.  Parts of the plant are even used for dye, said to produce blue, green, and yellow dyes.

Some people consider poverty grass a noxious weed.  It can reduce yields in some crop fields and is said to carry some plant diseases.  But it seems to have some good uses too.  I don’t mind when it covers the hard-packed soil on the path to the barn and areas in the back yard where the dogs have worn trails.  It keeps those areas from being muddy in rainy periods and makes them look nicer.

 

Close up of prostrate knotweed

If you want to get rid of poverty grass, you’ll find it is resistant to many herbicides. A county Extension agent can tell you what pesticide is effective for it in your area.  It has a short taproot and can be pulled out easily when the soil is wet.

Since many people are looking for alternatives to grass it seems like Polygonum aviculare should be studied and maybe bred into a better grass substitute. There are some drawbacks.  The plant is not native, but then neither is Kentucky Bluegrass.  It is an annual, which is one drawback.  When it gets established though, it pretty much reseeds itself consistently.  The biggest drawback is that it is slow to get growing in spring, leaving bare areas for a longer time than grass.  When its dry though, it stays green while grass turns brown.  It dies at the first hard freeze.  It doesn’t grow in shady areas very well.

This could be an answer to many problem areas where grass and other ground covers won’t grow. It will grow in contaminated soil and can help clean up toxins.  It grows in soil that is salty from winter snow removal or salty irrigation water. It grows in densely packed soil and helps improve it. It can help prevent erosion in areas where other plants don’t grow well.

One of you readers should consider working with poverty grass to see if it could be turned into the next miracle plant by selective breeding.  A good lawn substitute that’s ecologically friendly is needed.  A weed could make you rich!

Fuzzy and painful caterpillars

It’s the time of year when a lot of people are noticing caterpillars but if you see any that look fuzzy, hairy or woolly don’t pick them up.  I learned this lesson early when I picked up a cute, white fuzzy caterpillar as a child and I still remember the pain and itching that followed.

On many species of caterpillars (butterfly or moth larvae) which look fuzzy or woolly those hairs contain a tiny bit of poison. If handled the hollow hairs break and the poison can get into your skin or in the mouth if a predator bites them. They can leave you with a very painful stringing or itching sensation if you handle them.  It usually doesn’t require medical attention and will fade in a day or so.  But you will have a crying child if they aren’t warned about the danger of cute fuzzy caterpillars.

The Puss caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis), is very fuzzy or furry with golden blond-reddish brown coloring.  It looks soft and cuddly.  Its not.  Handling this caterpillar will probably result in an extremely painful “sting” that will radiate pain to distant areas. In some people there is also nausea and vomiting, headache, swollen lymph glands and even breathing difficulty.  This is one pussy you don’t want to pet.

This caterpillar feeds on apple, elm, maple, hackberry, oak, sycamore and other trees.  It is often found feeding in groups and the larger the caterpillar the worst the reaction will be.

 

Puss caterpillar
entomology.ca.uky.edu

The White Flannel Moth Caterpillar (Norape ovina) is related to the Puss caterpillar but it’s not as hairy.  It’s interesting enough it might get picked up though.  It has a bright yellow body with a wide black stripe down the center.  At each end is a red area. In the stripe are tufts of yellow hairs with scattered longer black hairs. It’s the short yellow hairs that sting.

This caterpillar feeds on redbud, honey locust, hackberry, mimosa and beech. They are usually seen in late summer.

 

White flannel back moth
Wikipedia

Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea) is quite interesting.  It looks like it is wearing a greenish saddle blanket on its back with a brown or purple brown saddle outlined in white on top of that.  On the rest of its orange body are clumps of red and white bristles with two big horns at the front and back.  Those bristles pack a punch. The stings are very painful and can leave a rash that lasts for days.

This caterpillar feeds on basswood, chestnut, cherry, oak, and plum.  In some years they also feed on corn plants.

Saddleback moth
https://ugaurbanag.com

Hickory tussock caterpillar (Lophocampa caryae) is a beautiful caterpillar that recently has become more common.  It’s the silky demon from my childhood. These caterpillars are covered in soft velvety white hairs with a line of black spots down their back.  This one’s sting isn’t even as bad as some of the others but still leaves a stinging, painful rash.

Hickory Tussock moth
Maine.gov

The pine processionary caterpillar (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) has a brown head, and alternating dark and light gray bands on its body.  It’s also covered with long white bristles.  It’s not so tempting to pick up this one since it looks prickly but beware, this caterpillar can project or shoot its hairs if you get too close.  The sting is quite painful.  It’s been known to cause sores in dog’s mouths.

The caterpillars form webs like fall webworms to shelter in.  They also make weird “trains” of caterpillars with one caterpillars head touching the rear of another.  They eat pine needles.

 

Pine processionary
web.cortland.edu

The io moth caterpillar (Automeris io) looks like some kind of plastic toy.  It’s a western US species with a blue green body and clusters of  yellow hairs all over it. Each hair has a black tip. There’s a red and a white line on each side. Some people experience extreme reactions from the sting of this one, but some only have a mild reaction.  It feeds on corn, roses, willow, linden, elm, oak, locust, apple, beech, ash, currant, and clover and sometimes other plants.

Io moth
Wildreturn at https://flickr.com/photos/80270393@N06/42669236010

The white cedar moth caterpillar (Leptocneria reducta) is covered with what looks like a coat of long blond and brown hairs.  It travels in large groups in the evenings.  The hairs can cause a painful rash.

White cedar moth
wikimedia commons

Hag moth caterpillar (Phobetron pithecium) looks enough like a spider that many people wouldn’t touch it.  It has 6-9 pairs of what appear to be legs sticking out of its back and the whole caterpillar is covered in a light brown velvety plush coat.  That plush coat makes a miserable painful rash if someone is brave enough to touch this weirdo. This caterpillar feeds on oak, chestnut, dogwood, sassafras and ash. It is sometimes mistaken for a piece of brown leaf.

 

Hag moth
wikimedia

How about the common and fuzzy Woolly Bear caterpillar (Pyrrharctia Isabella) of weather forecasting fame?  Well this one won’t harm you even though it is fuzzy. (Some people report mild dermatitis.) It’s black and orange with varying amounts of both. It’s a very common garden caterpillar that overwinters in leaf litter. They eat many types of plants but aren’t considered to be a serious pest.

Folklore says if the orange band is wide it’s going to be a mild winter.  But in reality, one can find Woolly bear caterpillars in the same garden with different amounts of orange.  The caterpillars molt their skins several times and each time they may have a different amount of orange.  I saw one in my garden yesterday with a lot of orange so I wish the folklore saying was true but science says otherwise.

Woolly Bear caterpillar

“We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost.”

Heny Rollins

 Kim Willis

And So On….

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