Local Interest

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator

 

Viruses represent some of the toughest diseases to manage in cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and melon plants.  Often the disease doesn’t kill but does reduce the size and number of leaves, which in turn decreases fruit production. Cucumber mosaic, cucumber green mottle mosaic, watermelon mosaic, zucchini yellow mosaic, and squash mosaic are some of the viruses that infect plants in the Cucurbit family. The viruses are spread from infected seeds, by aphid feeding, and by mechanical means, such as using a gardening tool on an infected plant and then using the same unclean tool on a healthy one.

 

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator

 

Landscape journaling, the art and science of keeping track of plants and gardens in the landscape, may seem like a fluffy idea, but the task has merit. Are you having your ash trees treated every other year to prevent an infestation of emerald ash borer? A landscape journal can be a record of when and who treated the tree, along with the timing for the next treatment. Did a new pepper variety perform extremely well in your vegetable garden this year? This can be recorded in a landscape journal to serve as a reminder for next year.

 

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator

 

Helen’s flower, Helenium autumnale, is a native perennial of the sunflower family, producing show-stopping 2-inch flowers in colors of yellow, gold, orange, red or variations in between.  The notched petals, surrounding a yellowish brown globular cone, are a nice touch, giving the flowers the appearance of a ruffled skirt. The specific epithet “autumnale” refers to Helen’s flower blooms in late summer/early autumn, a perfect time when pollinator populations are really booming. Helen’s flower is also known by the unflattering moniker of “sneezeweed” which harkens back to when flower petals and leaves were dried for snuff.

 

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator

 

When it comes to August’s garden, many gardeners, plant enthusiasts and landscapers are willing to skip the month entirely because of the seemingly few plants that provide interest during August. I’d like to challenge that notion, mainly because August is a perfectly fine month of frost-free weather and why not make good use of it? Whether your goal is to spruce up a drab corner or benefit pollinators, look to some lesser-known flowering plants to brighten your August garden.

 

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator

 

Despite winter and spring conditions that we hoped could thwart them, the Japanese beetles are at it again. They fall on us as we mow beneath trees, eat our hard-won fruits as they multi-task, and drown in the dog’s water dish.  Here are some important considerations:

 

▪Japanese beetles do lay their eggs in the soil.  Managing Japanese beetle grubs to stop the damage to turfgrass IS effective. Targeting grubs IS NOT an effective means of damage prevention to trees, roses, and grape vines.  This is because there are ditches, fence lines and creek banks that are never treated for Japanese beetle grubs and emerging adults will always fly to where there is food.

By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator

 

The silvery checkerspot caterpillar, Chlosyne nycteis, can be found right now, happily eating away on sunflower, aster, Echinacea, goldenrod and Rudbeckia.  The checkerspot caterpillar has branched spines on its back that are black in color. Sometimes the caterpillars will have an orange stripe or two.  Depending on weather conditions, there will be one to two generations per year. Once first generation caterpillars are an inch long, they will stop feeding and form a pupal case on foliage. As the growing season winds down, the second generation caterpillars will hibernate as third instar larvae.

 

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