We’re beginning to see signs that we may be getting a lot of calls on spruces this year similar ones we experienced a couple of years ago. Homeowners and landscapers are calling in with reports of brown ‘growths’ on spruces – particularly white spruce and some on Colorado blue spruce. The growths can be quite noticeable, even from a distance and cause trees to take on a brownish cast; usually most prevalent on the lower 2/3rds or so of the crown. … Continue reading this article “Friday Quiz: Spruce brown-out?”
Month: April 2010
Some Super-Cool Stuff
For the past ten years or so I’ve worked to try to transfer information about horticulture to people. It sounds simple, but it actually took a lot of time and effort to figure out the best way to do it, and I’m still not there yet — and probably never will be. The reason that I mention this is because I appreciate it when another horticulturist, such as my fellow garden professors, work to get information about horticulture out to the public. … Continue reading this article “Some Super-Cool Stuff”
Permaculture – beginning a discussion
Among other things, part of my job involves reviewing educational materials for use in WSU’s Extension programs related to urban horticulture. One of the books is “Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture” (T. Hemenway). It occurred to me that my review might also be of interest to our GP readers.
I’ve created a fairly extensive review and I will break it into separate posts over the next few weeks. So let’s start the discussion off with a topic we already know is inflammatory: invasive species. … Continue reading this article “Permaculture – beginning a discussion”
Call for “visiting professors”
I’ll be posting my usual blog later today…but in the meantime we’ve got an invitation for you.
Are you, or someone else you know, a "Garden Professor?" In other words, do you use current, relevant plant and soil sciences to inform yourself and others? If so, we invite you to submit a guest posting to our blog.
We’ll post your article without editing, though we may make comments.
If you’d like, send a photograph of yourself and any other illustrations you want posted along with your blog. … Continue reading this article “Call for “visiting professors””
End of the Semester Evaluations
It’s that time of the semester to hand out the lovely SPOT evaluation forms (Student Perceptions Of Teaching) here at Virginia Tech. Students fill in the circles (number 2 pencil of course) as to how you rate as teacher, your knowledge of the field, the value of the textbook, etc. A box is available, though seldom used, for students to hand-write comments – to many of us, the most valuable part of the evaluation process. So as I was distributing the scan forms, I was thinking about feedback. … Continue reading this article “End of the Semester Evaluations”
Killing with Kindness
With the advent of Spring comes a myriad of calls on distressed plants from homeowners, nurseries and landscapers. One of our better tree service companies (I’ll call the owner/operator ‘Mark’ to protect his clients’ identities) in southeastern Michigan called with a series of problems this spring so I decided to take drive over and get a first hand look. We looked at several problems on plants ranging from trees to ground covers but there soon emerged an consistent thread: overwatering. … Continue reading this article “Killing with Kindness”
Friday puzzle untangled
A few of you bravely hazarded guesses about this plant, and while it is a contorted specimen, it’s actually Ulmus glabra ‘Camperdownii’, otherwise known as Camperdown elm. Here’s a photo of a lovely example at Marymoor Park near Seattle:
As plant geeks already know, this odd tree was propagated from a mutant branch discovered on the Earl of Camperdown’s estate in Scotland in the 1800s. All Camperdown elms are grown from cuttings originating from this single tree grafted onto a Ulmus spp.… Continue reading this article “Friday puzzle untangled”
Friday puzzlement
On a recent spring day, I photographed this Medusa-like structure:
But rather than snakes, these are branches – and they are typical of a particular type of tree commonly used in landscapes. What is it?
Answer and fun facts on Monday!
A Dangerous Game
Every once in awhile I become infatuated with some idea and can’t stop for looking for information on it. It usually starts when I want to find a good quote for a particular article or column that I’m writing and then ends up swallowing two or three days. Well, it happened to me again yesterday and spilled over into today. I’m currently finishing up a project with an old friend of mine from college who happens to be a political science professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. … Continue reading this article “A Dangerous Game”
Lunar control? Or lunacy?
Yesterday one of my dear skeptical colleagues sent me a link to a new article on lunar influences on plants (you can find it here). Briefly, the authors argue that scientific evidence supports the concept of a lunar cycle influence on plants. Interspersed within the discussion are references to seasonal and daily plant cycles, along with legitimate references to these verifiable phenomena. (Had these references to circadian and diurnal rhythms been left out, the literature citations would have been rather paltry.) … Continue reading this article “Lunar control? Or lunacy?”