Take note! Every few years it seems that there are high populations of spotted cucumber beetles that have moved from vegetable gardens into the flower beds. They love to feed on the supple, tender sweet petals of dahlia, mum, petunia, portulaca, sunflower and many others. Joe Boggs did a quick check in his area and found them feeding on Jerusalum artichokes. Joe also noted that this is his "go-to indicator plant" when inspecting for this pest in his area. They seemed to be working the salvia but not actually feeding on it.
Scratch and sniff horticulture - there is nothing better. How many remember the stickers that you had when you were younger? The ones that with a scratch of your nail, the smell radiated from the paper. This should have been a sticker to enjoy year round, not just during the growing season! And then of course the plant should be enjoyed during the late spring, summer and into early fall.
This week, I had a backyard hobby orchard grower stop in the office. Extension has always been a resource for his father when he was growing, and now the son. While we discussed common pest problems of apples and pear this growing season, the grower also shared a "lesson learned" last winter.
I'm an unabashed fan of common goldenrod (a.k.a. Canada goldenrod). Its flowers are an important late-season food source for pollinators drawing in a wide range of insects and their yellowish to gold-tone makes a nice photo backdrop. In fact, this native perennial offers a pollinator photo op paradise.
The Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative (OPHI) is encouraging all Ohioans who have grown common milkweed this season to harvest seed pods and take them to a participating Soil and Water Conservation Office. The Annual Milkweed Pollination Collection is in its third year in Ohio. In 2015, 7 counties piloted the milkweed seed pod collection. The project has grown and it is estimated that over 22 million seeds have been collected by volunteers across the buckeye state over the 3 years.
I had never seen or heard of the poplar tentmaker until we ran into this unusual caterpillar on its namesake host during the Greater Cincinnati Diagnostic Walk-About last Monday at the Boone County Arboretum. In fact, it took me awhile to identify this seldom-seen defoliator.
Jewelweeds or touch-me-nots are common in eastern woodlands, as two species, the yellow Impatiens pallida and the orange Impatiens capensis. There are more jewelweeds than meet the eye, however. Read on.
Blue-winged wasps are continuing to make low-level flights over lawns in southwest Ohio. As their common name implies, the wasps have dark blue wings. Their legs and thorax are also dark blue. However, their most distinguishing features are two light-yellow spots at the top of their orange-tipped abdomens.
If you're ever visiting Cincinnati during the dog days of summer, keep your eyes peeled for a fascinating non-native lizard scurrying over rock walls, darting across sidewalks, and lurking in landscaping. These lizards are intriguing because the story of how they got to Cincinnati and their ascent to equal treatment amongst native reptiles is almost unprecedented for reptiles in Ohio.
