The Late Summer Ramble

In July when we returned from our excursion to New England, I freaked out when I found a tussock moth caterpillar on the ladder to the roof of our motorhome.

Had I unwittingly transported an invasive insect across state lines and been the precursor of an environmental disaster? No, turns out this one dropped from a tree when we got home—but after that one I began to notice more and more. You can find out more about this tussock caterpillar/moth group and see them here https://bit.ly/2QciX1X as I suspect I’m not the only one who noticed the outbreak.

There was also a widespread outbreak of what some call the fall tent caterpillar, or the fall webworm. They’ve shown up on a number of shade trees, other ornamentals as well as apples, pears and blueberries. While their “tents” look as menacing as the caterpillars, the damage is generally localized and temporary. However, this caterpillar is easy to control without using chemicals. You can use a strong stream of water to destroy the tents and thus the protection afforded to the caterpillars. If the caterpillars are actively feeding on foliage when you notice them, next year you can spray with a strain of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and that will also kill them.

On a warm Saturday in late July I was watching the row of rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) along the highway in front of our property and I witnessed a two-day, albeit short-lived, miracle. These are great, robust shrubs for summer color, screening and hedgerows, but they do attract Japanese beetles. Because of the beetles’ life cycle, they can be even more of an issue on this shrub when the hibiscus is grown in or near a lawn. But as I was endlessly gazing at the plants I realized that a cardinal was in the hemlock across the street and every few minutes he’d dive-bomb one of the hibiscus plants.

He seemed to hit his target on his first try most times, but at others he would scurry about frantically chasing something from flower to flower. As I watched more intently, I realized that he was eating and seeking adult Japanese beetles. A bit gross and crunchy if you ask me, but hey, if it works? So this went on for two days and as surprising and as abruptly as it started, it stopped and the cardinal disappeared. Did he gorge himself into oblivion or just find better feeding elsewhere? No clue, but I can now say there is actually a bird that does eat adult Japanese beetles. Somewhat unheard of.

But in general, the JBs were somewhat tame this summer and most reports are that this was true in the tristate area in general. So why do we have some good years, when they are easy to handle, and bad years, when they seem ready to devour everything in their path? Like most insects, their populations are subject to disease as well as environmental factors. As we’ve seen in the case of the gypsy moth, in one year you can have a devastating outbreak. But if the rain and humidity are right while the caterpillars are in a feeding frenzy, they get attacked by a disease that wipes most of them out. If this happens two years in a row, it can be many years before that area will see another GM outbreak. I suspect that the same or similar phenomenon effects the JB. We know the populations drop where the soil is dry when the females lay their eggs and I also suspect there’s a fungal disease they’re susceptible to.

I haven’t been following the recent research and writings about the monarch butterflies, but based on my observations on Long Island, upstate and with reports from Connecticut, I can report that they have been showing up in numbers that haven’t been seen in maybe a decade. In their favor, this past season was a banner year for milkweed, one of the plants critical to their diet in their caterpillar stage. Then there are all the plants we’ve put in (we being all us gardeners) over the last few years to attract them and give them additional feeding places as well as preferred plants to lay their eggs on. Seems we’ve been successful. Not sure how much credit we humans can take though, because there was no killing freeze in Mexico last winter, no East Coast storms to disable them in their northern migration this past spring and the summer’s lush growing conditions helped as well. But if we humans have had an impact on bringing these long-distance flutterers back, then a pat on our collective backs is due. We still need to be vigilant, as we are partially responsible for their near demise.

Last summer I started a trial of Proven Winners “Oso Easy Double Red” rose. Let me say again that I’m not a fan of growing roses, but I did become obsessed with one several years ago and last year I began growing this Oso Easy variety. It started in the trial garden as a very small plant less than a foot tall, but I enjoyed the flowers so much I moved it into a garden spot this spring and it’s thrived. I’m looking at the plant now on a cool and gray September day and 50 feet away this 3-foot-by-3-foot gem is simply glowing and lighting up its place in the garden. I would call it an “ever bloomer,” but it really comes into its own in late summer and early fall when it’s, well, glowing.

A medium red with very slight hints of pink, the plant is well behaved and needs little to no care. Mine has been fertilized twice with an organic plant food and other than that, ignored. Well not really—I’ve cut quite a few flowers to take inside. But no spraying. A few leaves have been lightly munched and there is an occasional isolated leaf spot, but both are few and far between. The flowers are lightly to nicely scented and I’m already looking forward to next year’s show.

It was a banner summer for lawn diseases. Warm and humid nights, lots of rainy warm days and just enough heat and humidity did the trick. Turf diseases are very hard for home gardeners to diagnose and even more difficult to control. If you suspect that you have a disease in your lawn, you can hire someone to diagnose and treat the problem, but you can also submit a sample to Cornell Cooperative Extension in Riverhead for a small fee. You get an unbiased diagnosis from a lab that has no hidden agenda, and once you know what you have you can be an informed consumer when you call a lawn service in. You can find the submission form here https://bit.ly/2oXKlUK along with instructions. I suggest you call them first before sending your sample, and they can be reached at 631-727-4126.

If you’re looking for suggestions for more garden plants, here are some of my favorites from my current trials: Echinacea “Supreme Cantaloupe” is a reliable and long season bloomer and the flowers are, well … the color of ripe cantaloupe. Blooming from late May through the fall, the plants are disease and insect free and the flower color, unlike many of the other new coneflowers, is stable as is the flower form. Hydrangea “Let’s Dance Rave” is a reblooming hydrangea that actually reblooms. The flowers on mine are a very intense purple and quite stunning. This 3-foot-tall plant will do well in some light shade, especially in the afternoon when the hot summer sun can cause it to wilt, but it recovers. It may bloom continuously for some, but it’s certainly a rebloomer for everyone. Phlox “Fashionably Early Flamingo” is a garden phlox that blooms in June while most other garden phlox bloom much later in the summer. The flowers are lavender pink and lightly scented on 18-inch-tall plants. But wait, there’s a bonus. The plant reblooms again in late summer so again we have a great rebloomer. Keep growing.