The anticipated magical appearance of Brood X (10) of the 17-year periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) is getting closer with each day. On one hand, the cicadas are providing clear evidence they are nearly reading take the stage en masse. On the other hand, progress has slowed to glacial speed owing to continual dips in springtime temperatures.

How many of us have gone outside to smugly look at our gardens that looked pristine and in excellent shape heading into the winter?  Then in the Spring, as we emerge from our winter hibernation to survey our domain… We are shocked!  What the heck happened out there because there are tufts of green weeds everywhere!  A gardening friend asked me what this green thing was, because he had already pulled or dug up two wheelbarrow loads of them!  The prolific green demon belongs to the mustard family (Brassicaceae) and is known as Hairy Bittercress (HB) or Cardamine hirsuta...

Round one turned beautiful magnolia blooms into brown mush in southwest Ohio. Impacts from this second round are yet to be determined but it’s likely some trees and shrubs suffered frost/freeze damage that will eventually be revealed with symptoms ranging from blasted flowers to wilted, blackened leaves, to twig dieback. However, wilted buckeye leaves may not be related to low temperatures.

During the recent snowstorm that hit Northeastern Ohio, some trees and property owners suffered serious damage. But not all.

The non-native boxwood leafminer (Monarthropalpus flavus) was accidentally introduced into North America from Europe in the early 1900s. It is now common on its namesake host throughout Ohio producing symptoms at this time of the year that may be mistaken for winter injury.

Hawthorn pod galls are fully expanded and very evident on hawthorns in southwest Ohio. As with the vast majority of leaf galls, hawthorn pod galls appear to cause little to no harm to the overall health of their tree host.

A little bit of a delay from the original video post of last week's Turfgrass Times, but wanted to be sure each of you can tune into the recording. The recording was made on Friday, April 9th and includes a lot of great information from the turf experts.

So what is your GDD - or growing degree day? Before you reach for a piece a paper, a pencil and a calculator to figure out what your number is, check out the OSU's Growing Degree Day website. This website does the 'math' or the calculations to determine your GDD for you. All you need is an Ohio zipcode. The website uses weather stations across Ohio to determine what the accumulations, and provides visitors their GDD and where they are in a biological calendar of certain plant blooms and insect activity. 

The weather this week has been amazingly warm and wonderful. However don't let it trick you into planting annuals and warm season vegetables prematurely.

Poison hemlock and wild parsnip are currently in a growth stage that makes them susceptible to several management options. Targeting this stage for control will prevent flowering and seed production.