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.

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna (previously Ranunculus ficaria)) is now very evident in southern Ohio. Plants are in full bloom, or nearly so, meaning effective control options are becoming limited.

Earlier this week, I came across a large collection of soil "mining bees" while on a hike in a park in southwest Ohio. Surprisingly, the "colony" was located right on and along a park trail with numerous males making their low-level flights in search of females.