Last week the Nursery Growers of Lake County Ohio (NGLCO) put on their 50th Summer Field Day at the lovely Chalet Debonne Winery. This event is always a great time to network, rediscover old friends and make new friends. And to see plants – and even owls.  Here are a few visual highlights.

 

  In addition to the hibiscus above there is the always colorful Garden Guru Charles Behnke, former and ever OSU Extension Agent.  Charles was chatting with Bob Froelich, Ornamental Specialist, newly with BayerCrop Science. Bob noted that Bayer and the aspirin-ish logo is the second...

Fall Webworm has two generations per season in Ohio. The "fall" in the webworm's common name is based on the appearance of second generation nests late in the season. First generation nests began to appear in southern Ohio in late May and second generation caterpillars are now on the scene. Localized fall webworm populations are high throughout the state with nests becoming more evident as they undergo late-season expansion.

There is a lot of "buzz" on bees and other pollinators in the news. People are interested and want to know what they can do to help the cause. 

  Yesterday, I visited Lee Beers, the OSU Extension Agriculture and Natural Resource educator in Trumbull County, and as plant lovers (Lee is finishing his PhD on lowbush blueberry physiology and genetics), we had to take a walk. Adjacent to the OSU, Trumbull County office is county land and the Mosquito Lake State Park. So, in this 48-hour flash quiz, a prize awaits for the person with the most correct answers in that time to the plant and pest photo questions from our walk. If ties; the very first top score shall prevail.  

 

  Let us begin with pictures of fruits,...

Last weekend, at a lovely wedding weekend for my wife’s cousin’s daughter and beau in the Leelanau peninsula area of west-central Michigan, some of us took a pre-wedding walk to Pyramid Point near Lake Michigan. The views up the short trail to the summit were spectacular. Descending to the trailhead, off to the side of the trail in a meadow area was a – very cool herbaceous flower.

 

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If you are seeing gypsy moth egg masses and are interested in learning if the area could qualify to be part of the ODA Gypsy Moth Suppression Program, here are some details.

Treatment criteria:

• Proposed block must be located in a county that has been designated quarantine for gypsy moth by ODA. See map below.  Counties in red are in the quarantine.

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Cultivate your own garden, said Voltaire at the end of Candide.  Looking homeward, I note that peony measles, first seen in mid-July has continued to develop.  Measles, or red spot or leaf blotch or Cladosporium leaf blotch disease are alternative names for this fungal disease. It is caused by, you guessed it, Cladosporium paeoniae or, who knew, with its new moniker, Dicholocladosporium chlorocephalum. 

 

  On the upper leaf surface, reddish and brownish “measles”-like spots develop earlier in summer, now coalescing into purple blotches...

I admit that in the old days I thought of hackberry (Celtis) mostly as a common mid-sized native woodland tree, adaptable to variable soil types, but not so much as a landscape plant. Counter to this, Davis Sydnor always extolled hackberries, especially Celtis laevigata (sugarberry), but also common hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). I am now becoming educated, Davis.  

 

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I was amazed last week at the cloud of mosquitoes buzzing in my wake as I hiked in a wooded park in southwest Ohio. Studies have shown that the relative attractiveness of individuals to mosquitoes varies and I've never been very attractive to mosquitoes. However, the enormous swarm following me through the woods could have been organizing an airlift operation!

In the ChatScape there is a lovely little flower, the Asiatic dayflower, Commelina communis, which has taken advantage of our travels this summer, invading any number of garden sites. It is well-known to move into “disturbed” sites, which may say something of this laissez-faire gardener, if not my wife. This herbaceous wanderer has quite a storied profile, from its two sky-blue petals subtended by one small white petal to the use of its blue pigments in Japanese dyes for woodcuts.

 

  Dayflower is studied for possible bioremediation for removing toxic levels of...