Memorial and Peace Gardens are Healing Places

When I am feeling distraught I seek solace outside, in nature or in the garden. Sometimes alone, sometimes with another, sometimes in a crowd. Nature has a calming effect on the troubled heart. Having a special place to go aids in the mindful process of healing and meditation.

Memorial Gardens and Peace Gardens were and are created to provide just such a place for folks to visit and reflect. Memorial Gardens are designed to honor a departed person or group of people. Peace Gardens are meant to foster peace between different peoples, groups or countries. “A symbol of hope for peace and renewal in our lives, our community, and the world.” (from The Garden of Peace in Boston Massachusetts).

During this darkest of Decembers, I offer you the opportunity to visit the places, click on the links, or just view the photos below.

Peace,

Carol Quish

http://gardenofpeacememorial.org/

Harkness Memorial Park

International Peace Garden, http://www.peacegarden.com/maps.htm
Latitude: 48° 59′ 57″

Olive and George Lee Memorial Garden, New Caanan, CT Credit Molly Shaker

Zion Memorial Garden, North Branford, CT

Indoor Peace Garden

 

Woolly Beech Aphid and Cynipid Wasp Galls

Woolly beech aphids, udel.edu

Cynipid Wasp galls, uwex.edu

Two interesting samples came into the office this week. The first was a beech twig with white, fuzzy ‘stuff’ moving on it. The second was a round tan and maroon mottled one-inch round ball. Of course, the respective clients want to know the identity of  both ‘things’. Both clients spend ample time outdoors observing nature. They recognized something new, something that didn’t normally appear there. We are here to provide them with the answers.

After placing the beech twig under the microscope, it was pretty easy to see individual insects, aphids, waving their curled-up butt ends in the air. Covering the aphid’s back, was white thread like pieces of waxy filaments. The insects are Woolly Beech Aphids, Phyllaphis fagi. This aphid feeds on a single host species, beech. Aphids have a piercing/sucking mouth part they inject into the leaf tissue to suck up the plant juices. These aphids are  gregarious, tending to cling together on the undersides of the leaves. Even though they may be numerous in population, their damage does not cause much injury to the plant. The leaves will be falling within the next month and have done their job for the tree. Aphid feeding at this time of year will not stress the beech tree, therefore no control measures are needed. But aren’t they cool to watch?

woolly beech aphid, Hannah Nendick-Mason photo

Oak Gall

The next client’s object looked it should be fruit. Round and firm but fleshy with a spotted or marbled skin. I usually cut open fruits to examine their seeds to identify the family to which they belong. Apples have five seeds, stone fruits have single pits. After cutting through the center of this supposed fruit, I found no seed or pit but a hollow area containing more than ten tiny wiggling larvae. It was not a fruit. It was a gall; malformed plant tissue formed to encase and house the egg and subsequent larvae of a very small cynipid wasp. The larvae produce hormones that cause the leaf tissue to grow into the ball shape. The galls do not harm the tree but can be unsightly. Our gall was found on the ground, after it fell from the tree or leaf, probably an oak. Again, no control measures are needed as the galls are only cosmetic and not causing damage to the tree.

I am thankful to these observant nature watchers for sharing their oddities with me and the UConn Home and Garden Education Center.

-Carol Quish

 

The Wasp Watchers and EAB in Connecticut~ Using a native wasp to find Emerald Ash Borer

On July 20^th a press release was issued by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) announcing that the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) was found in Prospect and Naugatuck, Connecticut by staff members at CAES.

Cerceris fumipennis -left              Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) -right
Photo-Philip Careless

Emerald Ash Borer

The emerald ash borer (“EAB”) has been responsible for the death and decline of tens of millions of ash trees, from the mid-west to New York State and south to Tennessee.  Connecticut now becomes the 16th state known to have EAB within its borders.

Cerceris with EAB
Photo Phillip Careless

The Connecticut discovery was made as part of a program that closely monitors a native, ground-nesting, and non-aggressive wasp (Cerceris fumipennis) that hunts the emerald ash borer as well as other beetles in the Buprestidae family. The wasp catches beetles in often inconspicuous locations such as tree canopies and brings the paralyzed beetle back to its ground nest to feed to its larva.   “Wasp Watchers” is a biosurveillance program made up of trained observers (many of them volunteers from the UConn Master Gardener Program) who watch over these native wasps and collect the prey they bring back to their ground nests. Cerceris caught the emerald ash borer in New Haven County and a Wasp Watcher found the EAB as it was brought back to the wasp’s nest.

The nests are often found in large colonies of independent burrows, the active wasps are capable of presenting the human observer with many buprestid beetles in a single day. These colonies are frequently found in areas disturbed by human activity and are easily accessed for surveys. Sandy soil along the edges of playgrounds and baseball fields located near forested land often shelter the wasps’ nests. Fortunately, Cerceris fumipennis is an easy going wasp and it appears that association with the Wasp Watchers is not detrimental to the wasp.  Cerceris fumipennis show no inclination to sting humans even when their just caught prey is taken.

Cerceris nest entrance
Photo-Philip Careless

 

Harvesting beetle from Cerceris

No one is sure how EAB entered Prospect or Naugatuck, but the movement of infested firewood has been previously linked to the spread of this invasive pest into other states. To prevent further spread of this and other invasive species, do not move firewood long distances, find local suppliers or purchase kiln-dried wood that is certified to have been treated to destroy insects and pathogens.

Comprehensive information on the beetle, its life cycle, what to do if you think you found an EAB and what can be done to prevent further infestations and more can be found at:

http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=2697&Q=464598#Connecticut

L Alexander

 

Revenge of the Weed Wacker

My LEAST favorite yard and garden tool is the weed wacker. They cause much damage in the landscape when not properly used.I have seen many wonderful trees and shrubs killed a slow death by repeated weed wacker injury to the bark at base level. Often times, the operator of the weed wacker is only focused on cutting the grass to be even with the lawn and not about the bark of the tree. Granted it is sometimes difficult to see the exact stretch of the string circling around and where it is hitting, but the damage inflicted is easily visible and long-lasting.

Weed wacker injury.
Photo by Theodor D. Leininger, USDA Forest Service

Just under the outer bark of trees and shrubs is the vascular system. This is like veins carrying the nutrients and water from the roots up to all portions of the tree. Making a cut in the bark disconnects the transport, effectively creating a roadblock at the cut area. If a cut is made completely around the circumference of the trunk, the tree will die by the next year. No water will be carried up to the branches and leaves. Making small cuts that can and do happen with weed wackers leads to a slowly dyeing tree. The ‘veins’ do not reconnect.

Prevention of weed wacker damage begins with physical barriers to keep the wacker away from the bark. Mulch is good solution. Remove all the grass and plants growing around the tree and replace with a two to three-inch layer of mulch. You decide how wide to make the circle of mulch, however at least twelve inches will be sure to provide protection. When applying mulch, it should not touch the bark. Mulch burying the bark will leave keep the bark moist and rot the bark, causing much the same results as weed wacker injury.

-Carol Quish

Properly mulched tree base.
clemson.edu

 

Winter Color

In Connecticut, deciduous trees and shrubs leaf out in late April and lose their foliage in October, which means that for half of the year we’ve got naked gardens. We could turn a blind eye to our landscape for six months, but what a waste of potential! Why not incorporate a little of what the nursery catalogs call “winter interest”? Now is a good time to observe where our gardens are weak in both structure and variety. Usually when we imagine gardens in winter, the picture is nearly monochromatic: black branches set against a gloomy gray sky and more dark branches jutting from a uniform layer of snow. This year, the lack of snow offers us bland, broad expanses of straw-colored lawn to greet us at every turn. If we look a little closer we will find color; not the rich palette of summer, but the muted tones of the season, with occasional bright spots.

Pieris in bud Photo: J. McInnis

The spruces and firs are exquisite in the winter, pure Currier & Ives when their boughs are weighed down with snow. Most evergreen foliage tends to darken at this time of year, with tints of yellow or rust. Siberian Cypress (Microbiota decussata), fresh and ferny in the warm months, goes a dull root-beer brown with the cold weather, often with a purplish cast to it. Blue junipers, such as Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’ also acquire rich purple tones. Look for wine coloration in the foliage of broadleaf evergreens and in the flower buds of winter-blooming Pieris. On the other hand, there’s the sore thumb of the landscape: Gold Thread False Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera filifera ‘Aurea’), garish enough in the warm months, the color intensifies to a lurid yellow in the winter. Set against the ubiquitous dyed-red mulch of commercial plantings it can make your eyes water.

Winterberry 'Red Sprite' Photo: University of Tennessee

Many deciduous shrubs and trees, such as the aptly-named native Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) have red fruits that persist into winter, a bonus to birds.  Malus ‘Molten Lava’, a crabapple with spectacular white flowers in spring, can hold its startling yellow-orange fruit into the early winter. The bark of some trees is shown off to its best advantage this time of the year, without the distraction of foliage. The mottled creams, greens and grays of a fat Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) really pop, especially when the bark is wet. White birch (Betula papyrifera) is dramatic against a dark background; Heritage Birch (Betula nigra ‘Heritage’) has interesting pinkish-buff peeling bark and better disease resistance than its cousin. The Red- or Yellow-twig dogwoods (Cornus) are superb choices for a bright punch of color, blended into a naturalistic setting.  Coral-bark Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’) is simply a show-stopper.

Coralbark Japanese Maple Photo:NYU

Seize the opportunity to enjoy your garden for the other half of the year by including elements of color in the design, along with form and texture. Including a variety of evergreens will soften the starkness of winter, while accents of subtle color that would be overwhelmed by a summer landscape will now have more impact. Pour yourself a mug of hot cocoa, look out over the interplay of tones and think about all the garden maintenance that you’re not doing.

J. McInnis

 

Owls in January

Great Horned Owl HopiakCLO photo

Recently while visiting my daughter in Massachusetts, I heard the hooting of an owl breaking the silence of the night inside the house. Out on the deck, his call could be heard much more clearly. Her house abuts a large wetland filled with tall pines and maples. I looked up owl calls on the internet and identified the call as coming from a Great Horned Owl. Listen to several different owl calls at this link. owl calls

Great Horned Owls are plentiful in New England. They are known to eat around 250 different species of mammals , fish and reptiles. Lizards, frogs, fish and salamanders are wetland prey the owl I heard was probably seeking. Raccoons, squirrels and rodents are not safe from Great Horned Owls during their nocturnal hunts either. Other foods sources are large insects, crayfish, scorpions, centipedes,  worms, spiders, and road killed animals. The Great Horned Owl will regurgitate pellets of indigestible parts of animal six to ten hours after eating. Naturalists and scientists look for the pellets to dissect giving them clues to the owls’ diet.  I remember doing just that in an elementary school science class many years ago, and sparked my curiosity of owls.

The most recognizable feature of the Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus, is the tufts of feathers looking like horns or ears, called plumicorns. They are neither ears nor horns just longer feathers. The name plumicorn comes from the Latin pluma meaning feather and cornu meaning horn. The Great Horned Owl is a large bird 18 to 24 inches tall and can weigh over 5 pounds. They nest in hollow trees and cliffs or the abandoned nests of other large birds, preferring not to make their own. Mating season for an owl couple is January and February annually. The female will two or three eggs that will hatch in about four weeks. Both the mother and father will sit on the eggs and feed the owlets. Baby owls will venture out of the nest by hopping between one and two months old. They learn to fly around 10 weeks old. There is only one generation each year.

-Carol Quish

Owl Pellets, sfjc.edu

 

Home Heating With Wood

wood-chemwiki-ucdavis-edu.gif

Heating your home with wood is a practical alternative to high oil and electricity prices. Some people heat completely with wood and some burn wood in addition to their conventional heating system.  Either way, knowledge of different woods or how they burn will make the whole process more economical and cost efficient. Different ways to burn wood affect the efficiency as well. Indoor wood stoves, fireplaces and outdoor wood fired furnaces provide varying levels of heat.

A roaring fire in the fireplace gives a beautiful site but not much in the way of heat. Most heat goes up the chimney with only an average of 10% of the available heat making its way into your home. More heat is lost through the open flue after the fire burns down but is not cool enough to handle the damper. The newer generation of wood stoves claim efficiency of 50 to 75% or higher. Outdoor wood fired furnaces are located outside of the home in a contained shed. Water is heated in pipes by the outdoor furnace then pumped back into the home via underground piping. The hot water is circulated through the home heating pipe system. When the water cools down it is pumped back into the outdoor furnace pipes to be heated again. Efficiency levels are low, in the 25 to 50% range. They burn a large amount of wood at a low temperature creating a lot of smoke. State and local regulations restrict use and placement of wood burning appliances. Check with your town’s building or fire marshal for any restrictions and requirements.

The type of wood burned and level of moisture of the wood effect the heat produced. Freshly cut wood contains high levels of moisture. Wood must “season” or dry out for several dry months until the cells release the moisture before burning. The nature of wood combustion is such that the moisture within the wood must be released as steam then the volatile portion of the wood can burn releasing heat. So wet or “green” wood spends too much energy on releasing moisture to make it worth while.

Wood is normally measured and sold in cords. A cord is a pile of wood, bark and air spaces equal to the measurements of four feet high, four feet wide and 8 feet long, or 128 cubic feet. A tightly packed cord of wood will contain more pieces of wood than a loosely pack one. The actual weight of the wood will vary with the moisture content and the type of tree.

Heat is measured in British Thermal Units or BTUs. One BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree F. One pound of any type of wood dried to equal levels will produce the same amount of heat when burned, 8,600 BTUs. The heavier or denser the wood is, the better the heat value. Hard woods like maple and oak will be heavier than soft woods such as pine and fir. Likewise, a cord of hard wood will weigh more than a cord of soft wood. It will take larger amounts of soft wood than hard wood to produce the same amount of BTUs.

Hardwoods are beech, some maples, hickory, locust, ash and oak. Softwoods are pine, spruce, cedar and willow. The soft woods contain more resin which will catch fire faster. These are ideal for kindling.

Store all firewood outdoors a few inches off the ground to prevent moisture from wicking up. Keep the top of the pile dry with the sides open for good air circulation. Fire wood stored inside can bring unwanted insects into your home. Some insects find the split wood a great place to spend the winter until they experience the unexpected warmth of your home and decide it is spring, ending their winter sleep.

-Carol Quish

 

Last Rose of Autumn?

What a glorious weekend in southern New England! Temperatures climbed into the 60’s on Saturday and although Sunday was a tad cooler, it was quite a boon to us gardeners who lost previous weekend days to snow, rain, work, and other commitments. Much of the storm damage has been taken care of including splitting the old apple tree logs. The debate has started about what to plant in its place. I’m thinking along the lines of an American elm – something to provide high shade and a future nesting site for orioles.

Butterfly garden after the snowstorm

The butterfly garden needed a severe cut back as that foot of snow Mother Nature so kindly provided us with late last month really trounced the butterfly bushes since they still had all their leaves. They, in turn, crushed the coneflowers, echinops and grasses. I have heard that butterfly bushes (Buddleia Davidii) can be invasive on some sites but so far have not found any seedlings in my beds. All plants in this garden, except the Buddleia, were cut back to a few inches and I even removed a few lingering weeds. Normally, the coneflower seed heads are left for winter interest and the birds but since they were all flattened, I figured it was just as well to pick them up.

Back to my pitiful white garden. All that remains of my beautiful 25 foot high and wide star magnolia is a bunch of stumps! Looks like an art project gone awry. Much as I hate to do so, I am just going to dig it up come spring (or maybe next weekend if this warm weather continues!) and replace it with something else. The two remaining stems of a clump of grey birch are also coming down and being replaced with a species of tree that does not bend as much. Plus the path to the patio needs to be relined too. It will probably take a couple of growing seasons to give this garden a complete makeover. One white garden discovery that did put a smile on my face was a couple of rose blossoms on the miniature ‘Green Ice’.  In a normal year, most woody plants would be going dormant by now, not blooming. Hopefully this valiant act of winter denial will not jeopardize its survival when the cold arctic temperatures finally do arrive.

Propped up magnolia

Green Ice rose blooming 11-28-11

I have noticed a few other deviations of natural growth cycles as well this year. First of all, I have been seeing some lovely, small, lemon-yellow butterflies. They are very quick and active so I have not been able to get a good look at them for identification purposes. Also, as I was cutting down some of my grasses and perennials, there seemed to be considerably more new growth present at the base of the plants than I see most years. With some plants, this is worrisome; with others it might be a way to decrease their population or eliminate it.

A few years back I innocently purchased a plant labeled, doronicum, at a local garden club plant sale. Also known as Leopard’s Bane, doronicum produces bright golden, daisy-like flowers in early spring. I had grown it at another location in the past and was quite happy with this clump-forming early bloomer. Imagine my surprise when the spring following its planting, I noticed it popping up amid cotoneasters, rhododendrons, ferns and other plants in my woodland walk garden. That little devil was moving a lot faster than I could pull it up. I do have a nice spot for it down by the pond, but I was looking for well-mannered plants for the area that I planted it in.

This doronicum spreads by underground roots.

This flush of spring-like growth might just prove its demise. As I let the senescing leaves from overhead sassafras and maples form a mulch in this area, the planting beds are fairly loose and friable. This makes pulling up the running roots of the doronicum a fairly easy task. I do wonder about more substantial rootstocks deeper in the soil, however. I pulled for about a half hour last Sunday and hope to finish this weekend. I’ll plant a few of these by the pond. The rest will get chopped up and the leaves will go in the compost pile and the roots in the trash. I am not 100 percent positive on the species of doronicum but I do believe it is Doronicum cordatum. If someone can positively identify it, please let me know so I can put it on my top 10 least wanted list!

Doronicum leaves appearing in late November - awaiting pulling!

As far as our plants go, we will have to see how they adapt (or don’t) to climate change. Extended warm weather in the fall or earlier warmer weather in the spring sounds delightful to us humans but when coupled with drastic fluctuations in temperatures and precipitation events (like our October foot of heavy, wet snow or our April warm up and freeze of 2009) it can be devastating to our plants. Gardeners, as a whole, are a pretty observant lot. It is clear to many of us that – the times they are a-changin!

Horticulturally yours,

Dawn

 

Burning Bush Alternatives

Euonymus atlatus-Oregonstate.edu

Looking around the fall landscape in my drives around Connecticut, I see lots of fiery-red Burning Bush ( Euonymus atlatus), not only in people’s yards but also in the understory of the woods. The ones in the yards were purposely planted, but the ones in the woods were inadvertently planted by birds and animals that eat the seeds of the plants in the yards, then pooped out in the woods where they grew  vigorously. Very many seeds are produced each year with the seed having a very high viability rate. As a result, many new plants are growing and spreading, displacing the native plants that should be growing in the forests. Deer will not eat Euonymus atlatus as a food source nor will many other native foraging animals that would normally keep a plant’s growth under control. Breeders are working  to develop varieties that produce sterile seed or no seed at all.

Burning Bush is also commonly called Winged Euonymus because its stem grows  prominent corky lateral “wings” of tissue on sides twigs.  Euonymus atlatus has been around the United Stated since 1860, brought from its native growing region of Asia and China, for its vibrant-red fall leaf color. We do have native plants that will provide a similar red fall color without the invasive tendencies.

Corky wings on stem. oregonstate.edu

Below are listed a few native alternatives to the troublesome Burning Bush.

Highbush Blueberry – Vaccinium corymbosum – develops a wonderful red color in the fall and has the added benefit of giving delicious fruit during the summer. Netting may be needed to keep the birds from taking your crop of berries.

Highbush Blueberry in fall, fcps.edu

blueberries from a distance, rutgers.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fothergilla, Fothergilla gardenii, F. major – has white flowers in April to May and wonderful scarlet, orange and yellowy fall color. Great in mass plantings or as a foundation planting.

fothergilla, oregonstate.edu

fothergilla flowers uvawise.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summersweet, Clethra alnifolia- Pale yellow to golden brown describes the fall color, not red but a striking plant instead of burning bush. July and August will give white sweet-scented flowers.

fall Clethra alnifolia, Brand

fall Clethra alnifolia, Brand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Carol Quish

 

Galls & Burls Explained…Sort of

Trees and other woody plants often have large or interesting swellings on their trunks or branches.   The cause is often difficult or impossible to determine.  Possible causes include fungi, bacteria, insects, mechanical or environmental injury, or genetic mutation.  The terms gall, tumor and burl are commonly applied to describe these abnormal swellings. 

Galls and tumors can be any size or shape and may occur on both woody and herbaceous plants and plant parts.  The swelling occurs as cells divide more rapidly than normal (hyperplasia) and/or due to excessive cell enlargement (hypertrophy).  Burls are generally considered to be large woody swellings that are basically hemispherical in shape.  They often bear many buds and sometimes sprouts.   The burls of black walnut, coast redwood, sugar maple and black cherry are highly prized by woodworkers for their beautiful swirling or ‘bird’s eye’ grain.   This relatively small burl from an apple tree (cause unknown) has an interesting surface pattern and interior grain showing bud traces.

Burl from an apple tree trunk.

 

Tiny brown lines are bud traces.

An individual tree may have one or many swellings.  On this maple tree, the many swellings are of unknown origin.  Often, a tree with large or numerous galls will decline earlier than a tree without them. 

The most common bacterial gall disease is crown gall caused by the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens.   This soil-borne bacterium enters the roots of the host plant through wounds caused by planting, cultivation, frost heaving, insects or nematodes.  The bacteria, upon attaching to the plant cell walls, send DNA that causes production of plant growth hormones into the plant cell where it is incorporated into the plant cell chromosome.  Affected cells begin to multiply at an uncontrolled rate, resulting in visible tumors within 2-4 weeks.   More than 600 plants are susceptible to crown gall.  One of the most common, where galls occur on both roots and stems, is Euonymus, shown in the photo. 

Crown gall of Euonymus.

 

Examples of galls caused by fungi include azalea gall (Exobasidium vaccinii), black knot of plum and cherry (Apiosporina morbosa), and Fusiform rust of pine (Cronartium quercuum).    More information on these diseases is available by clicking on the name of the disease. 

 A close up of a leaf gall on azalea . (Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic, Cornell University)

Black knot of plum and cherry.

 

 Fusiform rust (USDA Forest Service – Region 8 – Southern Archive, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org)

Insects and mites cause some very interesting galls on leaves as shown in the photo.  These usually cause little damage to the host plant or tree and control measures are not normally recommended.  A new theory is being explored by scientists that the swellings associated with these arthropods may in fact be caused by bacteria transferred to the plant tissue during feeding.   Fascinating! 

Hickory gall phylloxera.

 

Galls can be caused by cultural, mechanical and environmental factors including graft incompatibility, wounding, and freeze injury.   Galls on some conifers that vary from small to huge (several times wider than the trunk) are thought to originate when the trees are young seedlings from a single cell and enlarge for many years.  Low temperature injury is suspected, but not proven, as the cause. 

J Allen