This interesting annual caught my attention earlier in the season, and it just kept getting better and better.  As the cotton plant grows, it can be quite the conversation piece. It can be planted in the ground or in containers. It prefers poor and dry soil conditions. The planting at Toledo Botanical Garden (TBG) is a mass planting in the Artist Village where the cotton will be harvested and utilized by local artists. The plants are approximately 4 feet tall.

Most of the Common Bagworms I looked at yesterday in southern Ohio and central Indiana had initiated their annual "tie-off" in preparation for pupation. Bags are tightly closed and tied with silk to a twig or other anchorage point. This means the damage caused by these caterpillars wrapped in silk bags festooned with host plant debris is drawing to a close.

Plant Problem Diagnostics is ever a challenge, a delightful challenge that encompasses a vast array of the diversity of nature. Let us look at some of the colorful examples seen this past week as we lead up to the 85th Ohio Plant Diagnostic Workshop on September 7.

Have you been thinking about renovating your flower garden?  Trying to decide which perennial and annual flowers would grow best in your garden?   Well, guess no longer!  Come spend a day with Pam Bennett, OSU Extension Horticulture Educator, and find out for yourself.  In Clark County, Pam and her volunteers specialize in herbaceous ornamental plant trials and evaluate more than 200 varieties of annuals and two genera of ornamental grasses yearly!

 

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Slime molds can be found on all types of turfgrasses – from cultivars chosen for lawns to weedy grasses that pop up in places were regular maintenance just isn’t regular. Slime molds are usually more noticeable following extended periods of leaf wetness. With recent rains experienced in NW Ohio, people have been asking "what is going on in my lawn?"

In 1927 Edmund Secrest encouraged each child within us to learnabout our common trees. The message stands for us still today.

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. The first generation began to appear in southern Ohio in late May (see, "Spring, Summer, Fall Webworms," June 13, 2018) and second generation caterpillars are now on the scene.

I'm seeing damage on ripening tomatoes in southwest Ohio caused by Brown Marmorated Stink Bug nymphs. I first saw damage from both the adults and nymphs on my own tomatoes in 2015. At that time, we didn't know which direction BMSB populations would take in the southwest part of the state.

This is the time of the year in Ohio when female spiders of many web spinning species reach maturity. They become most evident when their gossamer creations are illuminated by early morning sunlight reflecting off a heavy dew. I was lucky to experience this magical but fleeting light effect during an early morning hike around my neighborhood a few days ago.

I was asked to help a vegetable grower figure out what was going on with something wreaking havoc and eating his ripening sweet corn.  Typically, when someone mentions sweet corn and problems, the first demon that comes to mind are those little masked, sweet-toothed bandits, known as raccoons!   When I arrived out in the field, I was surprised to see the corn stalks standing tall in nice rows.  The masked marauders climb up the cornstalk to the get to the ripest, uppermost ear of corn; consequently, the corn stalks are most often snapped off or pushed over down to the...