Orange Dogs and Family Matters

I recently came across a bizarre looking caterpillar - it looked like bird poo - while looking on a wafer ash (Ptelea trifoliate) for the white, frothy "egg plugs" of the two-marked treehopper (Enchenopa binotata) and admiring some heavy potato leafhopper (Empoasca fabae) damage.  I learned the bizarre looking caterpillar has an appropriately bizarre sounding common name:  the orange dog.

 

The orange dog (sometimes called orange puppy) caterpillar is the larval stage of the eastern giant swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes).  As...

Published on
Authors
Joe Boggs

Shrub of the Week: Rhus

    When considering adding a touch of fall color to your landscape, don’t forget the sumacs.  Belonging to the family Anacardiaceae, some of their notable relatives include cashew, pistachio, mango, smokebush, and even poison ivy and poison sumac.  The genus Rhus, consists of around 35 species and grows in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, especially in East Asia, Africa, and North America.
Published on
Authors
Jim Chatfield

Goldenrod is Glorious in Geauga!

It is a weed of waste places, which turns wherever it grows into a yellow-gold slice of sunshine on the ground, is Solidago spp. or more commonly known to many as the annoying weed, Goldenrod.  While it is known as a weed, it also provides a vibrant splash of color to the edges of fields, in ditches and other abandoned or disturbed sites.
Published on
Authors
Erik Draper

Root of the Matter

  Tonight I am doing a program at Secrest Arboretum in the Ohio Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture series for arborist certification. We will be learning together about “Tree Biology”, so let’s remind ourselves – and teach others – about “the root of the matter.”  Here are four maxims about the critical, but often overlooked by many, key to plant health: roots.
Published on
Authors
Jim Chatfield
Joe Boggs
Erik Draper
Flowerosophy chatfield.1@osu.edu Wed, 09/21/2016 - 10:07
  Flowers are, of course, wondrous, the birds and the bees and all that, the pollen grain germinating on the receptive stigma with the pollen tube then delivering sperm nuclei to the ovules below, with the thus fertilized eggs becoming seeds surrounded by the ovary ripening into the fruit. Flowers may be inconspicuous, but they may also may be beauteous; here are a few captured by camera this past week
Published on
Authors
Jim Chatfield

Perennial of the Week: Ironweed

Here at the Medina Extension Office, we have Ironweed (Vernonia spp.) planted among other native and annual flowers outside.  And every year people visit our office just to ask, "What is that giant purple flower!?"  Its purple flowers are quite an eye catcher and, despite having "weed" in its name, ironweed's late blooms in summer to fall and brilliant color make it an attractive native wildflower for many gardeners.

...

Published on
Authors
Ashley Kulhanek