Roots & Shoots Master Gardener Society of Oakland County October/November 2006 MGSOOC Contacts President: John P Humphrey (248)542-8213 Vice Pres: Tom Hershberger (586)573-3954 Secretary: Ruth Vrbensky (248)969-6904 Treasurer: Jean Gramlich (810)714-2343 Team Adm: Sherry Jones (248)442-9866 MSU Extension Oakland County Coordinator Advisor: Carol Lenchek (248)858-0900 lenchekc@co.oakland.mi.us Team Coordinators Bowers Farm: Martha Humphrey babylon6@ameritech.net Communications: John P Humphrey (248)542-8213 Hospitality: Pat Banaszek (586)677-2048 Membership: Tom Hershberger (586)573-3954 Project Support: Clay Ottoni (248)454-9800 Trips & Tours: Sandie Parrott (248)394-1532 Web Site: Sheri Trout (248)328-0557 sheri@oaklandweb.com Mission Statement It is the Master Gardener Society of Oakland County’s Mission to assist, enable, and encourage its members to use their horticultural knowledge and experience to help the people of their communities, enrich their lives through gardening and good gardening practices. Web Site address: www.mgsoc.org October 4th, 2006 @ 6:30 pm MGSOOC Society Meeting & Location General Meeting ~ 6:30 pm ~ Full Credit Charles Bower Farm - 1219 E. Square Lake Rd, Bloomfield Hills Alternative School Building Education: Cantor Penny M. Steyer, Temple Shir Shalom, Sukkot, the Jewish First Harvest Festival November 1st, 2006 @ 6:30 pm MGSOOC Society Meeting & Location General Meeting ~ 6:30 pm ~ Full Credit MSUE Extension Office - North Office Building, #26 East 1200 N. Telegraph Road, Pontiac, MI 48341 Education: Mark Torregrossa, Chief Meteorologist, at WEYI, NBC25. He will discuss “Weather gardening” December 6th, 2006 @ 6:30 pm MGSOOC Society Meeting & Location General Meeting ~ 6:30 pm Location to be determined Holiday Potluck AUGUST MEMBERSHIP MEETING Our scheduled speaker for August was unable to come due to illness. Judy Cornellier filled in with good humor on short notice and offered a stimulating and entertaining talk on various topics. She brought with her lots of plants from Telly’s where she works. First of all she recommended two books to us: The Jewel Box Garden by Thomas Hobbs and The Well-Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy Di Sabato-Aust. Judy enjoys raising butterflies in a pet box. She finds the eggs or caterpillars and puts them in the box with their preferred food and watches them evolve into butterflies. She has found black swallowtails in her yard and feeds them fennel, parsley or dill. Children are fascinated by the process. She recommends The Butterfly Book by Lillian and Donald Stokes. Judy just had the experience of having her garden on the itinerary for the Troy garden walk. She watered and fertilized a lot more than she usually does so that her flowers would be in tiptop blooming condition. Ordinarily she uses organic fertilizer just once a month on garden flowers, but to perk everything up she used 10-52-8 fertilizer, and the flowers responded well. She uses the latter fertilizer in her containers regularly. She will go back to her once a month organic fertilizer for the garden because she thinks that over the long run it is not good to stimulate the perennials so much. For mulch she uses brown wood fines. She does not spread it until June 15 because it acts as a pre-emergent herbicide and really keeps the weeds in check. Judy likes to take her digital camera with her to gardens to take pictures of particularly pleasing combinations, especially in containers. Another trick is to buy a piece of fabric with a pleasing flower print and match the colors in a container. She made new chair pads and planted a companion planter. Each day she carries a basket into the garden to do her rounds. In the basket she carries a liner for under pots in case she sees a plant that needs more water, gloves, insect repellant, soil stirrer, scissors, clippers, and stretchy tape. During her stroll around the garden she picks a bouquet of flowers to bring into the house. Now to the plants! She brought a Crocosmia which often does not winter over. She has found that cement, blacktop and rocks moderate temperatures and help some of the more tender perennials survive our fluctuating seasons. For a great texture and color combination. She paired the crocosmia with its sword-like leaves with coreopsis tequila sunrise which has variegated green and yellow leaves with deep golden flowers with red centers. Agastache is a perennial which has recently come into favor again and breeders are offering many different varieties. It is short-lived but will seed itself. It attracts bees with its lovely flowers and will rebloom if deadheaded. Echinacea is another flower with many cultivars. It is strong and long-lived and produces lots of seeds for the birds. An unusual plant Judy brought in was a variegated hellebore. A new introduction is Sedum 'Black Jack' which can grow quite tall. If it gets too floppy, it can be cut in half in June. Judy brought in a blooming Chrysanthemum plant. The flowers will not last in this hot weather. If you want mums to come back next year, plant them in September so they have time to get established before winter. Newer varieties do not need pinching. If you want them for fall color in your garden, buy them later but don’t expect them to come back in the spring. Tender Lavender blooms all summer. You can put some of the flowers and leaves in your birdbath, and they will keep the water from getting slimy. Coleus is another plant with many new cultivars. We still have time to buy them and combine them in a container. The colors are richer if they get some sun. Judy made a topiary with a coleus so that it will fit in a window for the winter. You can also take cuttings for winter color. For the shade, she brought in a Hosta 'Stained glass' which has wonderful shadings of light green. Breeders are bringing us Heucheras in ever more fantastic colors for shady spots. We are grateful to Judy for presenting such a varied and educational talk on such short notice! Jean Gramlich WOODIES WITH PIZZAZZ! Danielle Smith from Spring Meadow Nursery in Grand Haven came to speak to us in September. Spring Meadow is a wholesale producer of Proven Winners shrubs. She brought with her slides and a color catalog of shrubs currently on the market or soon ready to be marketed. All the shrubs in the catalog have unusual foliage, as well as the flowers we are familiar with on their less colorful green-leafed cousins, or the flowers are showier than older varieties. The colorful foliages offer season-long color on shrubs which ordinarily put on a two or three week show when they bloom. Most of the plants are hardy to zone 5, but a few are rated up to zone 6 and would need winter protection here. The catalog indicates zones, light requirements, height, uses and deer resistance as well as any awards the cultivar has won. Gold leaves lighten up the summer landscape and create a contrast to green leaves and the burgundy leaves which have become popular in the last few years. Among shrubs with gold leaves are Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue,' 'Golden Spirit' Cotinus (smokebush), 'Chardonnay Pearls' Deutzia, 'Little Honey' and 'Limelight' Hydrangeas, and 'Dream Catcher' Kolkwitzia. Burgundy leaves provide another color on the new palette of shrubs. Barberry, ninebark (Physocarpus), elderberry and weigela are among the newer cultivars. They range in height and color and light requirements, though most of the dark-leaved varieties maintain their dark leaves better with more sunlight. Variegated leaves are popping up everywhere in the garden! Abelias now have silver or gold with green leaves. 'Kumson' Forsythia has conspicuous white veining on green leaves; while 'Fiesta' Forsythia has red stems with green and yellow speckled leaves. The aptly named ‘My Monet' Weigela has white-edged leaves with a pink highlight. The 'Cityline' series of Hydrangeas have mophead blooms on the old wood of compact plants. They have very strong stems so the "mops" do not droop. They were bred in Europe with four different colors available. Breeders have been creating wonderful cultivars of elderberry (Sambucus). 'Sutherland Gold' has lacy golden to lime leaves. 'Black Beauty' has very dark leaves and pink flowers. 'Black Lace' resembles an unusual Japanese maple with its finely cut dark leaves. English breeders have been working with butterfly bushes and produced cultivars with very long flower stems. They range from the dark 'Adonis Blue' to 'Purple Emperor' to ‘Peacock,' a deep rose. Other new cultivars have special characteristics which enhance the garden landscape. 'Cardinal Candy' Viburnum has masses of red berries that last through the winter if the birds don't get them first. 'Fine Line' Rhamnus is an interesting columnar plant which can be used as a substitute for Alberta spruce which often outgrow its space. It is deciduous with long, fine wavy leaves. Danielle showed us many possible uses for the shrubs including in containers. Provenwinners.com has many container ideas using their plants. Jean Gramlich A VISIT TO A GERMAN GARDEN By Ruth Frushour On June 17th a group of Troy Athens High School students traveled to Germany for a three-week exchange program. During their stay, they lived with German families, attended school and took many site-seeing trips. While in Berlin, the group toured a palace built in the 1600’s, by a man who wanted to honor his wife. The structure was massive, with spacious rooms and expensive art. In the back, was a magnificent garden. It seemed to stretch for miles. It included walk-ways with hedges, annuals, perennials, ponds and alyssum, daises, or marigolds amongst benches for relaxing. Roses also seem to be quite popular. A massive rose garden was off to the side, only to be accompanied by a fountain filled with fish and various types of water plants. As we continued to walk to the park, we noticed joggers and bikers as well. Apparently, the garden is now open for public use. As busy as this place was, it remained immaculately clean. We didn’t see any maintenance teams working to pick up trash. The public did it themselves. We took many pictures. If anyone is interested in a photo tour, contact me at jeffruth@wowway.com Oakland County Master Gardener Society Michigan Fallen Heroes Memorial Last year in November Oakland County Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard dedicated and unveiled the Michigan Fallen Heroes Memorial. The idea for the Memorial was originally conceived as a law enforcement memorial during his days in the Michigan Legislature as he remembered his early career as a police officer. Following the tragedy of 9/11, it became clear that the memorial should honor both law enforcement and firefighters, true brothers and sisters in preserving and upholding public safety. L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive, and the Oakland County Board of Commissioners granted the memorial site as the permanent location at the north east corner of the Oakland County government complex. Following the dedication of the Memorial last November, the site needed some tender loving green thumb care. Mandy Ford, Oakland County Sheriff Department, and Carol Lenchek, MSU Extension were approached on an idea to have the Society adopt the site as a project. At the same time late last year the Master Gardener Society of Oakland County restructured their committees including the Project Support Committee and over the next few months’ projects for the upcoming year were identified. The society chose to make the memorial their number one project. After further discussions with John Humphrey and Clay Ottoni, a landscape design workshop was held on Saturday, May 27 2006 (befitting during the Memorial Day weekend). Bev Moss volunteered to lead the workshop. Steve Stanford, Oakland County Facilities Engineering, provided an overview of the original vision of the memorial. The volunteers in attendance discussed the plantings in the inner circle, berm, and provided suggestions on a walkway with benches and accent plants, shrubbery and trees. The society decided to utilize the June 7, 2006 meeting with educational speaker Dr. Art Cameron as a fundraiser for the memorial. The night was a great success and earned funds for assisting with future plantings. In July, the Society tackled their first step. The roses and grasses in the inner ring around the statue were put in the ground with the original containers. In addition, the drainage was extremely poor. We coordinated with Mandy to use the Sheriff’s boot camp trustees to remove the plants, dig up the compacted soil (we used pick axes!), add drainage rock and soil, replant the roses and grasses, and add wood chips. Most recently a small berm has been installed with a surrounding cement walkway. This was complete for the 2006 annual ceremony. We have had master gardeners volunteer to assist with pruning and weed pulling and hope to continue to assist with the project. Future suggestions are: * Plantings need to be a monoculture or a mix of deciduous and evergreen. If one plant dies it will be replaced by another tree without worrying about the size of the existing trees. * The berms can be planted with low lying spreaders that can take foot traffic abuse. * White pines can be used as shielding around the west entrance cloverleaf with plantings that are always green (State tree – White Pine), woodies, River Birch, Hope for Humanity Rose, non invasive grasses. * Bush roses in a variety of colors can be planted near the walk beginning at the parking lot and entrance at the wall. The Master Gardener Society of Oakland County will continue our commitment to assist and maintain the Michigan Fallen Heroes Memorial in honoring those we’ve lost. My thanks for all of you who have helped with this project! Gail Novak, September 7, 2006 248-343-6703 A Message from Sherry Jones Dear Friends and Fellow Master Gardeners, Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Team Administrator for the past several years. It has been both challenging and rewarding in so many ways. I consider myself blessed to have met all of you and work along side some of you. I’ve not met a finer group of people anywhere, except maybe at church, but they don’t necessarily share our passion for plants, do they? After careful consideration I feel it is in everyone’s best interest to step down at this time. Due to upcoming health issues, I will be unable to offer the time and effort that is needed to do this job well. Of course I will be sure to assist and support your new team administrator, in any way I can. I’ll see you all in December….till then I hope you finish out a great summer and reap a wonderful fall harvest. And remember…FILL YOUR LIFE WITH SIMPLE JOYS! Love, Sherry Organic Gardening Notes INCREASED ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE CHANGES PLANT GROWTH, TRANSPIRATION, AND POSSIBLY PLANT MINERAL CONTENT Increased Carbon Dioxide Increases Plant Growth Burning fossil fuels, and also plowing up prairies and cutting down forests have all oxidized carbon that had been previously sequestered. So the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased. During the last 150 years atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased from 280 parts per million to 378 parts per million, a 35% increase. The increase continues, and many authorities predict that atmospheric carbon dioxide will reach double pre-industrial revolution levels in this century. Increases of this magnitude are bound to have significant ecological consequences – and they have. Two such effects have been, and will continue to be, climate change and acidification of the oceans. Another less well known effect has been to increase the growth of plants. Plants, like all living things, are carbon-based organisms; furthermore carbon is an essential element in photosynthesis. The source of all plant carbon is carbon dioxide taken from the air. Carbon dioxide is a scarce gas; 378 parts per million means 0.0378% -- compare this with 20% for oxygen. So it isn’t surprising that greater availability of a scarce critical growth element should lead to faster and greater plant growth. For example, laboratory studies have shown that doubling the amount of carbon dioxide available to cereal plants would increase their productivity by 25% to 64%, depending on the species. There are many such studies for most crop plants. Increased Carbon Dioxide Reduces Transpiration Plants respond to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by reducing the size of their stomata. These are the minute holes, mostly on the underside of leaves, through which plants take in carbon dioxide. Plants also use their stomata to transpire. Transpiration is evaporation of water from plants into the air. This is what keeps water moving through plants and causes them to take up groundwater through their roots. Plants have the ability to increase or reduce the size of their stomata, and they are continually making the trade-off between more carbon dioxide and more water loss as atmospheric conditions change. In greenhouse experiments acacia trees exposed to double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reduced transpiration by about one third. In response to the substantial increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, plants worldwide are transpiring less (vascular plants, that is -- which are the great majority). Several scientists have observed that the level of lakes and the flow of rivers worldwide have reduced markedly during recent decades. A 2006 British study of the possible causes concluded that reduced plant transpiration is the only reasonable explanation for this phenomenon. Increased Carbon Dioxide Might Reduce the Mineral Content of Plants The reduction in the mineral content of crop plants is a well reported fact. To take two examples: the British government measures the mineral content of crop plants every year; a paper published a couple of years ago showed that the content of most minerals in crop plants had declined steadily during the last 50 years. Another British study published this year showed a similar decline in the mineral content of milk, cheese, and beef since 1930. Most writers link the reduction in the mineral content of plants to modern agricultural practices. But increased atmospheric carbon dioxide might be playing a part. The effect of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide on the mineral content of plants was discussed in an article by Glenn Scherer in Grist Magazine (July 25, 2005). The article indicated that there are a small number of studies that conclude that, as carbon dioxide levels go up, trace elements in plants go down. Trace minerals are found in minute quantities in the soil and in plants, but many of them are nevertheless essential for building plant and animal protein and regulating the body’s operating systems (to borrow a phrase from the world of computing) including the immune system. In addition some plants, including forage grasses, show reduced nitrogen content in a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. This means less protein in the grass so that grazing animals will eat more but put on less weight. I hesitantly suggest that a possible explanation for reduced mineral content resulting from increased carbon dioxide – if it is indeed so – might be reduced transpiration. Plants transpire enormous quantities of water. Apparently they transpire more than they need to, and nobody knows why for certain. A possible reason - and I stress this is speculation - for “excess” transpiration is that plants are scouring the groundwater for the scarcer trace minerals. If so, then reduced transpiration might reduce the uptake of trace minerals without necessarily reducing the availability of the more common minerals. Peter Bray. May 22, 2006 Carol’s Corner Now is the time to buy and plant Tulips, Daffodils, Crocus, Hyacinth, Camassia, and Alliums And support the Oakland County Master Gardener Program at the same time! Now that it’s cooling off and the days are getting shorter, we hope your thoughts are turning to planting bulbs. Here at the Oakland County MSUE office, we are in the midst of our first fall bulb fundraiser. It will run until October 31st, so if this is the first you’ve heard of it, there is still time to shop! Depending on the success of this fundraiser, we may also have spring bulb fundraiser As a way to thank MSUE, a Genesee County Master Gardener Volunteer couple (with 2 Junior Master Gardener children!) started a bulb business and has been working with the Genesee County MSUE office for the last few years on this fundraiser. They have worked out the kinks and have now offered it to us! The plant varieties are the more unusual ones that cannot be found in most stores. We have the color flyer with plant description on our website, so go check it out. http://www.msue.msu.edu/oakland We are holding the sale in our office at 1200 N. Telegraph Road, North Office Building (#26 East), Pontiac 48341. Sale hours are 8:30-4:30 Monday through Friday and will run until the end of October. No mail-orders will be taken and we cannot mail them to you. If you have any questions, please call Linda at 248-858-0887. The fall daytime class is in full swing and I’d like to welcome any new Society members from the class. If you’d like to sit in on a specific topic, look for the schedule on our website http://www.msue.msu.edu/oakland MASTER GARDENER SUMMER CONFERENCE I was privileged to attend the 2006 summer conference as a representative of the Master Gardener Society of Oakland County in East Lansing. I enjoyed many aspects of the conference and learned much from classes and fellow master gardeners. We had the opportunity to buy master gardener clothing, books and tools at a discount and to visit tables of merchants with items of interest to gardeners. The keynote speaker was Pat Lanza who has written a book about “lasagna gardening’’ using layers of newspapers and grass clippings. Forty years ago (boy, am I dating myself!) my sister sent me a book by Ruth Stout who basically had the same idea of gardening under thick layers of mulch so you don’t have to till, spade, etc. Ruth Stout just knew that her way saved a lot of work and fed the soil. Now we know about all the little critters in the soil which are nurtured by this method. One of the problems with conferences like this one is that there are too many interesting classes going on all at once, and participants have to choose among them. Not only could we attend classes, we also had the opportunity to take guided tours of various gardens around the campus including the Radiology Garden, Fenner Nature Center, the student organic farm, and Beal Botanical Garden. Classes included presentation skills for master gardeners and PowerPoint, writing grant proposals and volunteer projects. In one time slot there were classes about climbing roses, water gardens, companion plants for hostas, local organic food, perennials, new flowering shrubs, designing garden borders, as well as the presentation classes, grants and volunteer projects AND a garden tour! Another time slot included classes on plant science for kids, winter seed sowing, plant diagnostics, landscape gardening in England, clematis, hydroponics, nuts and minor fruits, healthy soils, woody ornamentals, hydrangeas and viburnums, and herbal lotions and potions. Still other classes offered were growing orchids, invasives, pruning, gardening tools, vegetables and IPM, and bonsai. I took a class on diagnostic skills – I think I will never learn enough about this topic. What bug, disease or soil deficiency is causing the leaves of that plant to look like THAT? I learned a surefire deer repellent too: a mixture of 6 eggs beaten with a gallon of water, left to putrefy in the sun for a week, and sprayed on favorite deer food stinks worse to them than it does to us and definitely stops them from munching! One of the reasons the conference was so useful to me is that a year ago I moved to a house in Rose Township that needed to be totally landscaped. I attended workshops on new shrubs, perennials and hydrangeas and viburnums. I particularly fell in love with viburnums (the lecturer had great slides) and planted five different varieties this summer to add to several I had already planted in the spring (bought the spring plants from the Conservation District – a really marvelous way to get started on a large landscape on the cheap). I also found a new variegated leaf pink lacecap hydrangea and planted it in a protected place away from the ubiquitous deer. The two presenters on perennials also had excellent slides and lists which I have used since to design my gardens. All in all the conference was well worth attending, and I hope you will consider going to next year’s conference. Jean Gramlich   Notes from Nutcase Nursery Fall 2006 There’s a sadness in the air when the leaves and the nights turn crisp. As much as your practical self tells you that all good things come to an end, and there’s always next year, and you need a rest anyway --- it’s a sense of loss for the kaleidoscope of color and activity you’ve enjoyed since spring. The colors of autumn are not nearly as exciting but are welcome just the same. How could you not smile at the brilliant browns, exuberant oranges, saucy scarlets and poke- you-in-the-eye yellow? When the days are coolish and the sky is brand new blue, you can wind up with a headache from the glorious reflections of nature. It’s a good time of year to do some reflecting yourself. As you engage in that tedious task of fall cleanup, there is plenty of time to think about the successes and failures and maybes you’ve racked up during the season. Here at Nutcase we have a tendency to talk to ourselves so it’s for our own protection, in more ways than one, that we garden in close proximity to the Dog. She can be pretty handy fetching gloves and trowels and watering cans. She’s never far off unless she’s on critter patrol or squirrel watch. But I digress. That’s normal at Nutcase. Fall cleanup is a series of one digression after another. You go out to cut the lawn. As you keep a steady pace with the mower, your not-too-keen eye notices task after task and expects the brain to log it all in. Yep, the daylilies need to be de-stemmed. Some could use a shave. Whoa, how did that forsythia get so big again? I just cut it after it bloomed! I need a secretary to keep track. I do keep a gardening journal to remind me when to do things that shouldn’t be done now. After years of making notes in the monthly sections when I noticed something, I realized that December and January were pretty sparse, note-wise. So now I write my task lists in those spots and refer to them throughout the season. But there are some notes one might be too embarrassed to actually write. For instance, while I love their intoxicating scent and velvet stems, I do not want to see in writing (especially my own) the suggestion that I should not actually allow every datura seedling to live. There just isn’t room. Be an adult. You tell yourself that the images of garden errors will surely remind you not to do certain things next year. For sure. But there’s a problem because you have under-estimated the power the soul has over the brain. This malady originates in winter when the cold air makes your brain shrink. Then, when the days lengthen and warm in spring, your poor brain thaws too slowly to remember resolutions made last season. There should be a support group for this but everyone’s in denial. You should also be aware that there is a related cranial malady that has its origin in the fall. It occurs after you’ve done a little fall cleanup and you notice more open landscape. Note to Self: Pick up some bulbs. It looks like there are some good spots left. Maybe hit a sale at the market. If you’re keeping a journal you will probably wind up with an entry reminding you to mark the puddles of snowdrops, tulips and daffodils appropriately next spring because when you went to dig spots for those new bulbs you hit the snowdrops, tulips and daffodils that were already invisibly enjoying the area. Same thing happened when you dug the hole for that trio of great looking astilbes you picked up at 3 for five dollars. Perhaps if you have a habit of crowding, you might just need to start a new bed. It’s an excellent endeavor at this time of year. If it’s less lawn you want, cut the turf as low as possible, sprinkle with the hose then apply several sheets of wet newspaper. You can turn your garden cart into a rolling washtub by filling it half full of water and laying several sections of the Sunday paper, staggering them a little so they will be more easily separated. It doesn’t have to be the Sunday paper but it’s more fun with the Sunday paper because there are so many sections. Your fingers might turn a little black, so plan on scrubbing floors, doing a sinkful of dishes, or washing the car (or dog) afterward. It’s much easier to lay wet newspapers than it is to chase them around with the hose. Be sure each section is overlapped because you know the weeds will find a way through if possible. When you’re done with the papering, cover everything with shredded leaves and grass clippings or some other fine organic mulch. By the time spring comes back around you should be able to trowel through to plant your new bed. Perhaps instead of indulging yourself with a new bed you should do the right thing and refurbish an old bed. Has the catmint had a few litters? Has the bee balm become wasbalm? After all those years of trying to get caryopteris to overwinter, you seem to have finally succeeded. The late season of blue florest is totally cool but how many is too many? Tackle the more aggressive flora by digging them up and replacing only the freshest, healthiest growth. But before you do, renew the site with a good slow release fertilizer like cottonseed meal and some compost. De-thread every single weed from the area, especially from the clump due to return to the soil. Mind the more aggressive desirables and you will find that scaling back allows you to introduce a new baby, be it bulbs or a well-behaved astilbe trio. I know…but I didn’t have that color…..  Organic Gardening Notes Website: Enhancing Biological Control with Native Plants [ http://ipm.msu.edu/plants/home.htm, click on “Plant fact sheets”. Fact sheets prepared by Doug Landis and Anna Fiedler, Department of Entomology, MSU.] An article by Marty Hair in the Detroit Free Press cited this website. It contains, among many other things, fact sheets for 43 native wildflowers and five non-native flowers that attract natural enemies of pest insects. Of particular interest is the identification of the specific beneficial insects that were collected from individual flower species. To illustrate the kind of information provided, here are the results for six of the flowers in the fact sheets that grow in our home garden. (The relevance of this is that we don’t have any pest insect problems in our vegetable garden -- except for black aphids on fava beans; but that’s another story). Common boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum); native; natural enemies per sample – 200 Large numbers: Insidious flower bugs (a), Small brown plant bugs (b), Chalcid wasps (c), and Soldier beetles (d) Medium numbers: Crab or flower spiders (e) and Cynipid wasps (f) Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritime); non-native; natural enemies per sample – 60 Large numbers: Insidious flower bugs (a), Chalcid wasps (c), and Cynipid wasps (f). Medium numbers: Braconid wasps (g) Angelica (Angelica atropurpurea); native; natural enemies per sample – 32 Large numbers: Chalcid wasps (c) Medium numbers: Dance flies (h) and Insidious flower bugs (a) Fava or broad bean (Vicia faba); non-native crop plant; natural enemies per sample – 19 Medium numbers: Dance flies (h), Ladybird beetles (i), and Insidious flower bugs (a) Golden alexanders (Zizia aurea); native; natural enemies per sample – 13 Medium numbers: Chalcid wasps (c) and Dance flies (h) Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum); native; natural enemies per sample – 7 Medium numbers: Insidious flower bugs (a) …… (a) Orius insidiosus, (1mm.) (b) Plagiognathus politus; most plant bugs eat plants but this one preys on insects (c) Large superfamily of small parasitical wasps (5mm. or less) (d) Cantharidae; prey on caterpillars, cucumber beetles, grasshopper eggs (e) Family Thomisidae, masters of disguise and ambush (f) Small parasitic wasps (2-6 mm.); family includes gall wasps (g) Family of small wasps (2-15 mm.), larvae are parasites of many pest insects (h) Family Empididae (minute to 8 mm.), predatory (i) Family Coccinellidae, a large family Comments: 1. Boneset had the highest score of natural enemies collected (200 per sample; these numbers are the average of five samples counted) of any of the 48 plants studied. Sweet alyssum also scored high (60). This common garden plant makes an attractive fragrant border, alive with small insects, and is long blooming. Two others that are not shown in the illustration above had high scores: horsemint or spotted bee balm (62) and cup plant (44). 2. Insidious flower bugs deserve a mention because they figure so often in the results , and because they are the only insects identified as a species – all the rest are identified by their family -- so they must be famous. I had never heard of them or noticed them, no doubt because they are only about 1 mm. long. I am much more prone to notice the pollinator insects on the boneset and sweet alyssum. I have googled the following: Insidious flower bugs are true bugs (Order Hemiptera) and belong to the Minute pirate bug family (Anthcoridae). They are vigorous predators of thrips and mites and, therefore, are extremely valuable in the pest control of such field crops as corn and soybeans. 3. Of the six plants shown above: boneset, sweet alyssum, angelica, golden alexanders, and culver’s root (i.e., all except fava bean) have large clusters of very small flowers. This kind of flower attracts very small insects. Prime examples are the many families of minute wasps that contribute hugely to controlling pest insects, but which we never see because they are so small. These include the braconid wasps whose larvae parasitize tomato hornworms, the results of which many gardeners have seen – post-mortem. Two other common flowers with large clusters of small flowers include dill, which had a surprisingly low score (5), and Queen Anne’s lace which was not included in the fact sheets -- perhaps because, as a non-native, it mightn’t attract so many native insects. 4. The authors make the point that the native plants are perennials whereas the non-natives are annuals and require to be re-sown every year, and native wildflowers are far less likely to be invasive. I need to point out that, although sweet alyssum (a high scorer) is an annual, it does re-sow itself. 5. The moral of this tale is surely obvious: grow some of these plants. They will not only please the eye but will also deliver lots of free pest insect control without the use of poisons. Peter Bray August 10, 2006 Michigan State University Extension- Oakland County “Bringing Knowledge to Life” North Office Building, #26 East Office Hours: 1200 N. Telegraph Road Monday through Friday Pontiac, MI 48341 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon & 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Beverly Terry…248-858-0885 Carol Lenchek…248-858-0900 County Extension Director Master Gardener Program Coordinator E-Mail: terryb@co.oakland.mi.us E-Mail: lenchekc@co.oakland.mi.us Mary Wilson…248-858-0887 Linda Smith…248-858-0887 Horticulture Educator Horticulture Secretary E-Mail: wilsonm1@msu.edu E-Mail: smithlin@co.oakland.mi.us Yard & Garden Hotline…248-858-0902 Cathy Morris….248-858-1639 Charlene Molnar, Horticulture Advisor Clerk & Contact for Certification Hours of operation vary with seasonal needs. Of Volunteer & Education Hours E-mail: morrisc@co.oakland.mi.us Food Safety Hotline…248-858-0904 Robin Danto, Extension Educator 4-H Youth Programs…248-858-0905 Water Quality Education…248-858-5198 Tom Schneider, Extension Educator Bindu Bhakta, Extension Educator Lois Thieleke….248-858-0888 Children, Youth & Family…248-452-9726 Extension Educator- Food & Nutrition Saneya Hamler, Extension Educator The Oakland Gardener only accepts submissions via e-mail. E-mail needs to include a description of request, contact person’s name, phone number and e-mail address. This info will be “cut and pasted” into this newsletter. Roots & Shoots is a joint publication of MSU Extension-Oakland County and Master Gardener Society of Oakland County. Submit articles for publication by suggested deadlines below. January 1 for February/March Issue March 1 for April/May Issue May 1 for June/July Issue July 1 for August/September Issue September 1 for October/November Issue November 1 for December/January Issue Effective January 6, 2006, postal rates are increasing. With this in mind, if you have Internet access we encourage you to read Roots & Shoots online at the Master Gardener Society website www.mgsoc.org. ?? ?? ?? ??