Search Results for “normal” – Page 14

Friday puzzle answers!

Good speculation on the rhododendron leaf damage! Jim in Wisconsin zoomed right in on the causes: the first photo was taken on a year where we had an unseasonable freeze right as leaves were expanding, and the second was taken on a year where we had unseasonably hot weather as leaves were expanding.

In both cases, the ultimate cause of damage is lack of water in rapidly expanding tissues. Once dormancy is broken, leaf and flower buds are highly sensitive to environmental extremes – they are expanding and are most sensitive to anything that interferes with water content.… Continue reading this article “Friday puzzle answers!”

Friday Can O’ Worms

I was pleased to see that at least two of you dug into the literature over the weekend to read these papers! (I can still remember the first time as a Master’s student when I was assigned a journal paper to review. I had NO idea what, exactly, I was supposed to be doing. It took a long time to figure it out.)

In any case, kudos to Jimbo and Diana for their thoughtful comments – and for zooming in on the problems. … Continue reading this article “Friday Can O’ Worms”

Building a better tree? Not in the long run!

One of the landscape tree production practices that drives me absolutely nuts is heading back trees in the nursery to create “columnar” specimens. It’s easy to find examples of these in Washington state nurseries, like the pathetic oak shown below:

Aesthetics aside, let’s focus on how the tree responds to heading back. The removal of the dominant leader encourages lateral branches below to become more upright; from these laterals, a new leader is selected. This new upright growth habit is highly prized by many landscape architects and urban planners, as such trees fit more neatly into small urban spaces without interfering with vehicle and pedestrian traffic. … Continue reading this article “Building a better tree? Not in the long run!”

As Bad As It Gets?

Last week I took a look at old, out of print books that are worth finding and reading. This week I think I’ll take a slightly different track and instead turn my attention to a book that is currently in print, but which shouldn’t be. In fact, 1001 All-Natural Secrets to a Pest-Free Property by Myles H. Bader can be found in many bookstores, was actually one of the best selling garden books of 2006, and is still selling today. … Continue reading this article “As Bad As It Gets?”

Support your local arborist

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for the local paper about this year’s fall color. It’s pretty standard fare around these parts; newspapers, AAA, and so on want to know if we’re going to have good fall color, will it be early, will it last long. I mentioned to the reporter that we’re seeing a lot of early fall color in the maples around mid-Michigan, in contrast to the northern part of the state, which appears to be running a little late. … Continue reading this article “Support your local arborist”

Eat your veggies! (But not the arsenic, or the chromium, or the lead…)

The last few years have been a perfect storm for the resurgence of home vegetable (and fruit) gardens. Grapevines are trellised along sidewalks, herbs replace the grass in parking strips, and tiny gardens of carrots and lettuce are shoehorned into any available spot. It’s all good – but we need to be particularly careful about what those plant roots might be taking up along with nutrients and water.

1) Contaminated soil. Many urban (and suburban, and even rural) soils are contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides, and/or industrial wastes. … Continue reading this article “Eat your veggies! (But not the arsenic, or the chromium, or the lead…)”

Buddleia or Buddleja?

I recently heard that Mike Dirr has come out with the next edition of his book on woody landscape plants. Dr. Dirr (I can’t seem to bring myself to call him Mike, even after all these years) was my major advisor in graduate school, so I’m really looking forward to getting it. In the meantime I heard that he included a section on my thoughts about how to spell the scientific name of the butterflybush, a plant that I worked on to get my Ph.D.. … Continue reading this article “Buddleia or Buddleja?”

Bags and Apples

One of my favorite garden “cures” is placing a clear plastic sandwich bag around apples when they are young to protect them from insects and disease. It usually works great and impresses the heck out of people who see and eat the apples which are normally tough to grow without using bunches of organic or synthetic pesticides.

Unfortunately this year was different. Rebecca Koetter, the person who planted these trees and put the bags on the apples (on the University of Minnesota campus) discovered that birds may choose to ignore the bags. … Continue reading this article “Bags and Apples”

Modern day torture stakes

Torture stakes were used centuries ago as a slow means of executing prisoners. Unfortunately, the practice lives on every time someone incorrectly stakes a newly planted tree. Though I’ve written about tree staking before (click here to read more), I’ll use today’s blog to demonstrate another unintended result of improper staking – decapitation. A normal tree develops taper as it grows. At eye level, a tree trunk is narrower than it is at ground level: that’s taper. … Continue reading this article “Modern day torture stakes”

Fabulous Sporobolus!

“Where have you been all my life?!!”

Every once and a while, I come across a plant and simply fall in love.

I am not alone on this particular species, and the bandwagon is getting mighty crowded. Sporobolus heterolepis is the object of my affections…it even has an intriguing common name – Prairie Dropseed. It’s native to much of North America, short of the West Coast. Though most widespread in the Midwest, there are isolated populations in Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.… Continue reading this article “Fabulous Sporobolus!”