Quiz Plant!

Ooooh, this is a good one. 

Factoids:
– Tropical, but doing well in our campus garden (Blacksburg, VA).
– Succulent stems; alternate, lima bean-shaped leaves.
– Rampant scampering.
– Very cute yellow flowers. (Hee hee, that really won’t help.)
– I hesitate to say this, ’cause it may just give it away: a couple of other members of this genus are common as mud.

Guesses, anyone? Or maybe this one’s already common as mud for you Pacific Northwesterners…
(and P-Dub, do refrain until others have had a chance 😉

I’ll post the "D’oh!"… Continue reading this article “Quiz Plant!”

Is brown the new green?

An acquaintance of mine (not coincidentally, an irrigation supplier) brought to my attention a recent editorial from USA today by Laura Vanderkam, entitled ‘’Out of Fashion: Green Lawns.” http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-08-17-column17_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip#uslPageReturn  The basic premise of the editorial is that we Americans are ruining the environment by maintaining lawns.  Now, to be sure, there is plenty of room for improvement in lawn and landscape maintenance, particularly in terms of water management and pesticide use.  But, for better or worse, Americans love their lawns. … Continue reading this article “Is brown the new green?”

Dying dogwood diagnosis

Lots of good, thoughtful answers from you over the weekend about these trees.  Here’s another photo from a bit farther away:

As Laura pointed out, there’s a relatively new parking lot here.  The creation of the parking lot both compacted the surrounding root zone, then covered it with impermeable surface.  The dogwoods are huddled on their little island, which is unirrigated, unmulched, and indeed hot in the summer as Daniel said.  All of these environmental insults, in addition to the mature age of these trees, have led to what we call a “mortality spiral”:  trees are environmentally stressed and then become more susceptible to opportunistic pests and diseases. … Continue reading this article “Dying dogwood diagnosis”

The dilemma of the dying dogwood

Here’s a photo of two mature dogwood trees that are obviously on their way out:

What happened? There’s been no construction in the area since the parking lot was paved several years ago.

Answer on Monday!

Lungs and Plants

As a third grader I distinctly remember my teacher telling our class about how it was bad to smoke because the smoke would make your lungs filthy.  She used her aunt as an example.  It seems that this aunt was a heavy smoker.  One day this aunt was eating popcorn and accidently inhaled a piece.  About 6 months or so after she inhaled it she coughed it up and it looked like a little piece of tar. … Continue reading this article “Lungs and Plants”

A ground cover I just love

I’m a particular fan of ground covers, especially those that replace bare soil or synthetic mulches (plastics, fabrics, and the sciency-sounding “geotextiles”).  That enthusiasm is tempered, however, by those invasive species, like members of Hedera, that seem to take over the world (or at least my little corner of it).  So while logic might dictate a preference for native species, I can’t help but love Rubus hayata-koidzumii (often mislabeled as Rubus calycinoides), and commonly called creeping raspberry.… Continue reading this article “A ground cover I just love”

Pigmented Mulch in Paradise

Just back from a quick vacation to Little Cayman island.  Truly a dot on the map – the whole island is about 7 miles long and a mile wide. Only 150 locals and a couple hundred tourists are on island at any one time.  It’s beyond laid back, with few attractions other than the resident iguanas and red-footed boobies (booby jokes abound).

Airport terminal/post office/fire station.

The big draw is diving – LC is the home to Bloody Bay Wall, one of the most famous dives in the Caribbean. … Continue reading this article “Pigmented Mulch in Paradise”

Need a lift?

One of the topic groupings for our posts is titled ‘Cool research’.  The subject of today’s post has actually been around for a few years but I still think it’s pretty cool.

 

When we think of interactions between plants we usual think of negative interactions such as competition for water and nutrients or maybe allelopathy.  But there are cases where plants can benefit each other.  One of these is a phenomenon known as hydraulic lift.   … Continue reading this article “Need a lift?”

Crazy Tree Revealed

Matt had it right — the tree was indeed an ash — and did not die of its exposure to herbicides — but it did look pretty bad for a year!

Why bother having trees?

Sorry to be late with my post this week – I was away reviewing grant proposals.  It was interesting and useful work, but really drains your brain.  So with that being said, my post is long on pictures and short on words.

One of the things that bugs us GP types is poor plant placement.  Why bother planting a tree if you’re not going to allow it to grow naturally?  Here are some photos to mull over the weekend. … Continue reading this article “Why bother having trees?”