Students at Perry High School in the group, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) installed the Good Decision Garden at the entrance of the school. Students walk past the planting as they arrive and leave school each day, enjoying the flowering display all spring.

It may be wise to be skeptical when hearing news that a native bio-ally is coming to our rescue in dealing with a non-native insect pest. Disappointments abound. Non-native juggernauts may steamroll because our native predators, parasitoids, and pathogens (the 3-Ps) just don't recognize them as a food source.

Pine Needle Scale was once a common and troubling pest back when Mugo pines rivaled yews and junipers as one of the most common landscape plants in Ohio and Scotch pine was THE Christmas tree grown in our plantations. However, that's changed over the years. As mugos and Scotch have become less common in our landscapes and Christmas tree plantations, so has the occurrence of pine needle scale.

What are those Helicopters spraying? Helicopters were flying over Perry, Ohio on May 25, 2018 last year spraying tree lines and nursery stock. What were they spraying? Why from a helicopter? Lake County is one of 51 counties in Ohio that fall under the European Gypsy Moth Quarantine. Currently 51 counties in Ohio are regulated under the Gypsy Moth quarantine. One main requirement for the compliance agreement is that nurseries must apply a USDA-approved insecticide to the entire growing area in mid to late May.

Frost cracks occur on susceptible plants such as crabapple during rapid temperature fluctuations. This describes such a case.

It all happened at once this year. Forsythias, Magnolias, Dogwoods, Serviceberry are all blooming near the same time.

Colorful displays of three types of rust fungi are appearing on junipers in Ohio. The fungi belong to the genus Gymnosporangium and they complete part of their life-cycle on members of the plant genus Juniperus and the other part of their life-cycle on members of the family Rosaceae. In biological terms, this type of life-cycle is known as "heteroecious."

Several national news networks reported yesterday that a kissing bug had been found in Delaware.  The story was echoed today by a number of print and online news outlets.  Frankly, the story is much ado about nothing.

Grafted ornamentals are trickier than you may think. Learn the story of one mysterious Cherry tree! Check it out!

Last Wednesday, Jerry Frankenhoff (Urban Forester, Great Parks of Hamilton County) sent an e-mail message asking about red staining on the bark of sycamore trees. He wrote that he'd never seen anything like this before. I was shocked when I looked at his attached image. Likewise, I had never before seen the unusual reddening symptoms on sycamore or any other tree.