Sunflower Helianthus annuus ‘Birds & Bees’

 

While at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there was a sunflower in their vegetable garden that caught my attention. ‘Birds & Bees’ is a 6 – 8’ tall sunflower that has golden-yellow petals and chocolate discs.

 

While flowering, sunflowers offer a pollen and nectar source for foraging honey bees, native bees and many other garden pollinators. At maturity, these black seeded sunflowers of ‘Birds & Bees’ provide oil-rich kernels. The shells...

When a plant has “weed” as part of its name, it could cause a little bit of confusion. As a gardener, would you feel as you could really brag and be proud of a plant in the landscape that is called a weed? Well of course the answer is yes, especially if it is Joe pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum).  Brag away!  

 

While Joe pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) can be observed growing along roadsides, some have never taken in to consideration its outstanding ornamental characteristics. It is a large plant which needs space, but when planted in mass it can provide...

Our continual wet weather over much of Ohio this season has been a two-edged sword. On one hand, we haven't had to drag hoses to water our landscapes. On the other hand, a number of fungal plant pathogens that require wet conditions to infect and produce their associated diseases are running rampant. Such is obviously the case for Guignardia aesculi; the fungus responsible for Guignardia Leaf Blotch of Aesculus.

I checked out the jumbled, zigzagging  branches of my Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica) planting the other day, and to my surprise a few random blooms of bright yellow had emerged. Kerria puts its best bloom show forward in late April in northeast Ohio, just after the forsythia fades. But, July, who knew?

This past week I was in the Beehive State, Utah, first speaking at a conference and then for a bit of vacation. My wife and I visited both the red rock and desert areas in southern Utah and then in the north, the more verdant areas of the Uinta and Wasatch mountain ranges. Utah, which became the 45th state in 1896, was named the Beehive State for the hard-working, industrious inhabitants.

Jim Chatfield called me from the road this morning to report seeing "flamed" black locusts along a highway in northeast Ohio. The captivating reddish-brown leaf coloration caused by the native Locust Leafminer Beetle is often a familiar sight to travelers motoring on Ohio's interstate highways. Indeed, when beetle populations are high during "outbreak years," black locust trees are able to be identified at highway speeds because of their blow-torched appearance.

What are those hordes of yellow aphids sucking juices from common milkweed "reserved" for monarch butterfly caterpillars? They are Oleander Aphids and their appearance on milkweeds reminds us that nature makes no food reservations. This non-native aphid may be found sucking juices from over 50 hosts belonging to 16 plant families.

David Gressley (Director of Horticulture, Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum) sent me a video yesterday morning of a chorus line of Beech Blight Aphids (Grylloprociphilus imbricator) shaking their woolly derrieres in a synchronous samba. Frankly, I believe no other insect upstages this aphid in entertainment value.

The improbable looking but appropriately named Willow Pinecone Galls are now large enough to be very noticeable on their namesake host. As the common name suggests, the galls closely resemble pine cones with closed seed scales. They are produced on willow by a gall-midge but cause little damage to the overall health of their namesake host.