Pay no attention to that frost! Spring is here!

By Kim Bagby, EMG, VMN

 

So much for getting all of last season’s leaves off the trees! Ready or not, spring’s here. What a wild ride we’ve had with the weather these last few weeks. What seemed like spring a few days ago now looks a lot more like false spring, or fool’s spring. Is there actually a definition for that? Is this “official”, or just us complaining about yo-yoing weather?

It’s probably all the above, and if you want an internet search rabbit hole to fall into, look for phenology and climate change. Long story short, phenology is the study of how the climate influences the natural world, and climate change is, well, climate change. Per the Old Farmer’s Almanac our projected last freeze date in the South Boston area is the 17^th of April. We’ll see.

The definition of false spring is a late winter or early spring warming period followed by a return of freezing conditions. Sound familiar? Of course it does. We do this every year, and reverse the process in the fall. It’s looking to be a trend that those last frosts come earlier, and the first frosts later.

The seasonal transition from winter into spring is driven by the amount of winter chilling we’ve had, the spring warmth triggering growth, and increasing day length. Phenology hasn’t been well-studied in the past but is coming more into focus as scientists try to zero in on the actual impact of climate change. It’s a fascinating subject, and it’s outside my wheelhouse—though I can see it through the windows.

Spring is always a delight for me (well, mostly. Not a fan of mud). I spent years in more arid climates than ours here. No redbuds or dogwoods; scant forsythia and spirea. And no violets!

The lovely Viola sororia—the common blue violet, or dooryard violet, or meadow violet—this little flower goes by many names. It’s native to eastern and central North America. It’s a herbaceous perennial that self-seeds and also spreads by means of rhizomes, which are underground horizontal stems that travel out from the plant to start new plants. Irises and lilies grow the same way.

Violets like moist, rich soil and dappled sunlight, which describes most of our lawns! It also tolerates wet or clay soil and will even tolerate juglone, the natural chemical black walnuts put out to discourage other plants from growing in its root zone. They seem to grow about everywhere!

The nectar from the flowers attracts butterflies and bees, especially fritillary butterflies and solitary mining bees. Birds and small mammals eat the seeds. Rabbits love violets. Deer, not so much. Not everyone likes them in their lawn, either, but these sturdy, early-spring flowering plants support pollinators that don’t always have a lot of flowers to choose from yet.

So even though the dead beech leaves are still rattling on the trees, awaiting the next generation, and the National Weather Service is predicting some really cold overnight temperatures, I’ll take the appearance of violets in my grass as a definite sign of spring’s arrival. One of the ephemeral delights of the season alongside the dogwoods and redbuds. Enjoy them—they’ll be here all summer and well into the fall, but this is their best time of year.

Many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who volunteer for our communities. Many, many more thanks to our late mentor and friend, Bill McCaleb. And congrats to our new Master Gardener Interns!

The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to ask@ssmga.org or by calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number.

 

   

How do Plants Know When to Wake Up in the Spring

 

By Kathy Conner Cornell

Southside Master Gardener

 

Have you ever really thought about how do plants know when to start budding and leafing out?  There isn’t a calendar that tells them, ok its time.  This is just one fascinating aspect of plants.  They do things we do to survive – make their own food, feed the entire plant, procreate, breathe – all in one spot. 

The common lilac is my favorite spring blooming shrub.  Without a cold winter, flower buds will not set.

          

        As you would expect, temperature is part of the equation.  Plants need to be adaptable to maintain dormancy when we get 70 degree days in February.  Because weather is more variable on the East Coast than it is in Europe and Asia, native plants are better at not leafing out during those early bursts of temperatures.  Don’t tell that to the daffodils.  As soon as the weather warms for a couple of days, the daffodils start to sprout out.  I’ve got some blooming in my yard right now.  Surprisingly, they seem to be able to bounce back when the temps drop like they have this week.

          Since lilacs are early bloomers, they already have leaves sprouting out.  The plant can withstand some cold temps without causing harm.   Not so with fruit trees.  It seems our peaches just want to get going early so they have already budded out.  These cold nights are going to destroy those buds, so no peaches this year.

          Another aspect is day length.  Plants can sense the days getting longer.  They certainly don’t know whether it is Eastern Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time.  The day length is the same either way.  Day length coupled with consistently warm temperatures is a good trigger for safe spring growth to start. 

          Something a lot of people don’t want to accept, is climate change.  In the past, we expected forsythia to bloom in April.  They are in full bloom now in mid-March.  If you feel that the stuffy nose and watery eyes associated with pollen allergies are happening sooner, you are right.  Because temps are warming ahead of the time they did in the past, plants are producing pollen earlier and causing the allergy producing event to last longer.  Higher amounts of carbon dioxide in the air also contributes to the rising temp cycle and plants wanting to get going.

          We can’t control how a plant reacts to the weather.  We can only sit back and relax and enjoy the glory of things blooming and greening up.  Come on Spring!

 

‘Tis the Season—What, Already?!

 

   

By K. Bagby,

VCE Southside Master Gardener and Southern Piedmont Master Naturalist

Oh, by gosh, by golly, it’s time for mistletoe and holly,” sings Frank Sinatra in the Christmas classic. As winter comes and the leaves are off the hardwood trees, the mistletoe’s revealed, fresh greenery and pearly berries amongst all the brown.

Mistletoe is a traditional holiday plant.  Be careful because it can be toxic if ingested by pets or humans.  Still it makes a beautiful additional to holiday décor.

 Cultural traditions around mistletoe go back well over a thousand years, when it was a Druidic symbol of healing, fertility, and the deep connection the ancient Celts had with nature. In the Middle Ages “kissing balls” made of mistletoe, holly, and boxwood were hung in doorways to bestow goodwill and blessings to all who passed beneath. (And, some say, to encourage romance!) By the early 1800s or so Victorians used live greenery indoors for Christmas decorations, and the traditional kiss under the mistletoe lives on today.

 One of our more contemporary traditions involving mistletoe is mistletoe hunting. Mistletoe seeds are spread by birds. The sticky seeds survive being eaten and stick to the high branches of hardwood trees where birds perch and  the seeds take root there. Since the highest branches of the trees aren’t suitable for climbing, some people shoot the mistletoe clusters out of the trees instead. A shotgun works but tends to shred up the target. A .22 brings a cleaner specimen down, but you have to be a pretty good shot. Or persistent, anyway.

 There are three families of mistletoes with over 1,300 species. Our local mistletoe is Phoradendron leucarpum, of the Santalaceae family, and it’s native to Virginia. That sticky seed up on a tree branch, one seed per berry, sprouts and sends a structure called a haustorium into the tree. Mistletoes are hemiparasites, which means they produce their own chlorophyll but depend on the host plant for nutrients and water. The haustorium is the “straw” they use to do it. A healthy tree can tolerate a few mistletoe infestations, but too many can be a problem. Infected branches can sometimes be pruned away, but remember the haustorium—it extends deeply into the tree, so be sure to prune the branch off at least six inches or so below the mistletoe attachment point.

 Mistletoe can be found at the tops of hardwood trees, particularly oaks, though in my neighborhood it seems to prefer hickories. If you harvest your own mistletoe for the holidays, the first thing to keep in mind is that the plant’s poisonous to humans, pets, and horses, though you’d have to ingest quite a bit for it to be fatal. The sprigs keep well in the refrigerator and can last longer as decorations if you mist them from time to time. Trim the sprigs of mistletoe to the size you’d like and then wrap the stems in florist’s tape, add some ribbon or small decorations, and hang your new ornament where it’s most likely to be effective in blessing those who pass beneath!

 Many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who give their time to serve out communities. Many, many more thanks to our late mentor and friend, Bill McCaleb.

 The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to ask@ssmga.org or by calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number.

 Happy gardening! Remember to leave the leaves and plant debris for the insects to overwinter in. They’ll appreciate it!

Pickled Flower Buds, Really?

 

Kathy Conner Cornell

VCE Southside Master Gardener

 

          Recently, my husband I went on a cruise.  One of the great things about cruising is getting to have bagels and lox (smoked salmon) any morning I want.  This treat is served with capers.  I thought capers might be the seed of a plant like coriander is the seed of the cilantro plant.  I was completely wrong.

 The white petals on the caper bush flower are quite lovely.  They only last a day but bloom from May to fall.  The condiment capers are the unopened flower buds of this plant.

          Capers are young unopened flower buds of the caper bush, Capparis spinosa.  What surprised me is that I think of flower buds as ovate and pointy.  Capers are perfectly round, very unique.  According to Wisconsin Extension, “when ready to pick, the immature flower buds are a dark, olive green and about the size of a fresh kernel of corn. Because they’re small and delicate, they have to be harvested individually by hand, instead of by machine, each morning just as they reach the proper size; this labor is what makes them so expensive. The buds are dried in the sun, then brined or packed in salt, or pickled in a salt and vinegar solution. Intense flavor is developed as mustard oil (glucocapparin) is released from each bud”.  I do gasp when I go to the grocery store and see the bottle the size of a quarter and about 5” high and they cost around $6.  But it is that hand harvesting that raises the cost. 

          The caper bush appears to be a very attractive plant.  It is evergreen although the leaves will fall off in northern extremes of its range, zone 8.  The plant will die if the temperatures get colder than 18 deg F.  It grows freely in what we would consider hostile growing conditions in sandy or gravelly soils, rocky hillsides, cliffs, stone walls and rock crevices in Mediterranean coastal regions, southwestern Asia, the Pacific islands and Australia.  It can sometimes be found growing in sidewalk cracks.  Most of the cultivated buds come from southern Spain, France, Italy and Algeria.  Caper usage goes back at least 2500 years.

          The flowers of the caper bush are white petaled with pale purple stamens,  Like daylilies, flowers only last one day but the bush blooms profusely from May to early fall.  After flowering, edible fruits known as caperberries appear.  These are also pickled and eaten.  The plant is rarely grown in United States gardens even in the dry west where conditions are favorable.  However, Wisconsin Extension says it can be useful as a potted plant, kept outside during the season and brought inside for the winter.  Since it doesn’t like a lot of water, only giving a drink every other week is sufficient and even less in the winter.  What is not to love!

          If you are considering trying this unique plant, it is important to note that it has spines.  There is one cultivar, C. spinosa var. inermis that is thornless.  Plant in a good sized container in sand with good drainage.  The plant can get 3’ high and sometimes twice as wide.  Provide good light, the caper bush will not grow in shade. Be sparing with the water and hold the fertilizer.  It is best to purchase a plant, hardwood or softwood cuttings are not generally successful.  However, seeds can be an alternative.

          Culinary wise, capers are useful in salads, Italian dishes and scrambled eggs. One tablespoon of capers will provide all of 2 calories.  However, they are high in sodium so limit use.  Capers also provide Vitamins A and E, manganese, niacin and calcium. The smaller the capers, the tastier.  The smallest are called nonpareils.  Now I knew this term as a tasty chocolate treat with tiny sprinkles.  The larger the capers the less tasty they become. 

          Have to admit, after researching this plant, it makes me want to have one.  Not planning to pickle my own capers but it was fun learning about the capers.  I am sure I will enjoy capers even more the next time I get to have smoked salmon.  Master Gardeners are ready to answer your gardening questions by calling the Help Desk at 434-830-3383 or sending an email to ask@ssmga.org.  Hope to see you at our 2026 Master Gardener class.

An Orange that isn’t Edible

By Kathy Conner Cornell VCE Southside Master Gardener Recently, my husband, his daughter and I visited Red Hill, the plantation owned by Patrick Henry. One of the great things about visiting Red Hill is the magnificent Osage Orange tree. As Dirr states in the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants it is the Granddaddy of Osage Orange Trees. Granddaddy indeed, the tree is over 400 years old. Legend has it that Henry played his fiddle to entertain his grandchildren while sitting under the tree. Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, is native to Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. However, it has “naturalized” to most of the areas east of the Mississippi. The tree has a number of unique qualities. First off, it is dioecious meaning, there are female parts on some trees and male parts on the other. If you want to have the orange fruit, you must have a male to service the female that will produce the fruit. Another unique feature are the super thorns that range from ½” to 1” long. When I went back to college for horticulture, my Woodies instructor did landscape design, implementation and maintenance. She often worked in Roland Park, a very upscale area in Baltimore City. The area was laid out by Frederick Law Olmstead, the designer of Central Park in New York. Less desirable neighborhoods were encroaching on this area. Karen’s answer to help secure the Roland Park properties was to use osage orange with its thorns to stop intruders in their wake. Although the tree is not that desirable for forestry programs, native peoples used the tree for bow making thus another common name was bowwood. The wood is rather orangy in color so has been used for dyes. The fruit is spherical and is useful for Christmas decorations. The tree has few pests. It grows in most soils. It prefers full sun but can take some shade although this sometimes impacts the growth of thorns. Is it a great landscape plant – yes in certain situations especially considering the thorns. Also noted: this is not to be confused with Hardy Orange, Poncirtus trifoliata, which Jennifer Gagnon so ably covered in her column You Ain’t from Around Here in the Virginia Forest Landowner Update, Summer 2025 edition. If you have an area that tends to be a little wilder, osage orange might be a fun tree to try.

The Lilac of the South

by K. Bagby, VCE Southside Master Gardener and Southern Piedmont Master Naturalist Ah, fall! Or false fall, possibly, depending on which weather person you listen to. Summer might come back, although briefly. Inevitably we’ll get fall. Yay! There are lots of great things about fall, aren’t there? As the days shorten and cool, we start to see the true colors of the green leaves we’ve had since Spring. We get to enjoy flaming reds, yellows, and oranges as the leaves of our deciduous trees stop making chlorophyll. But there’s more to fall color than just tree leaves! One of our Southern favorites, judging by the numbers in our yards, can get really showy as the season turns. Crape (or crepe—both are correct) myrtle is sometimes called the “lilac of the South”. It’s a member of the Lagerstroemia genus and the Lythraceae family, related to the loosestrifes. The common crape myrtle, L. indica, was introduced to the States in Charleston, South Carolina, in about 1790. It’s a non-native ornamental tree or shrub that likely came from India, southeast Asia, northern Australia, and similar places. The Royal Botanical Gardens’ online taxonomy database, Plants of the World Online, currently lists almost fifty different species of Lagerstromia. The hybrids and cultivars number in the hundreds, at least. L. indica is commonly hybridized with L. fauriei, Japanese crape myrtle, to produce plants that are more mildew-resistant. Crape myrtles are famous for their blooms. Depending on the type, some bloom all summer and into the fall. Some will also produce a second crop of flowers in the fall, and deadheading spent blooms can encourage the plant to make more flowers. Don’t deadhead too late in the season, though. The end of July is a good time to stop, since any new growth after that is likely to be damaged by fall cold.

The beautiful exfoliating bark is a special feature of Crape Myrtles. It shows up more in the fall when the foliage has died down. One of the other things noticeable about crape myrtles is their bark. It self-exfoliates, and sometimes the color difference between the cast-off bark and the new growth is striking. It all depends on the variety of the plant. Not everyone likes this of course, since it can get messy. And some varieties have blossoms that can stain, so take these things into consideration when selecting a variety. Crape myrtles prefer sunny locations in moist, well-drained soil. Good air flow can help limit powdery mildew problems. They bloom on new wood, so if you’re going to prune, do it in winter or early spring. Be kind with those pruners—no crape murder! Chopping them to stubs ruins the natural form of the plant and promotes the growth of whip-like, spindly branches that are too weak to hold the flowers up. A stressed crape myrtle—any stressed plant—is more vulnerable to disease and insect damage. Crape myrtles sometimes have problems with aphids or downy mildew, but they’re deer-resistant, and once established do well with drought. If you’d rather plant Virginia natives, you can substitute something like winterberry or spicebush. The Virginia Native Plant Society has comprehensive planting recommendations for each area of the Commonwealth. The one for our area’s titled Native Plants for Virginia’s Southern Piedmont. Many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who give their time to and through these groups to serve their communities. Many, many more thanks to our late mentor and friend, Bill McCaleb. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to ask@ssmga.org or by calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number. Happy gardening! Remember to leave the leaves and plant debris for the insects to overwinter in. They’ll appreciate it!

Gardening Here and Now

By Joan Wilson VCE Southside Master Gardeners No doubt the temperatures will pop up into the 90s again, but this week’s dip into the 80s is welcome. Plus tomatoes, melons, squash, cucumbers, beans are all harvest-ready. Keeping favorite crops thriving can be a challenge in hot, dry weather. See below: Get up early and garden before the temperature gets to 80. Drink water before you leave the house and when you return. Wear a hat! Water- water the ground, not the leaves, to avoid molds and mildew and sun damage. Soaker hoses work well. Rain barrels can help save the downpour rain to use on the dry days in between storms. Soaking the soil every 3 days for established plants works well. Mulch- to keep weeds at bay, keep the soil temperature and moisture steady. If you have last fall’s leaves, they work well as mulch. Strips of newspaper or cardboard underneath a layer of old leaves helps smother weeds. Pest treatment or removal – when watering, check for bugs, leaf damage and treat promptly. Harvest- pick your fruits and vegetables just a little shy of fully ripe especially if you have enough to store. Have a plan for freezing or preserving. Many flowers will continue blooming if the flowers are picked or deadheaded. The above suggestions for water, mulch, pest control apply to them as well. I have had roses in early December here. When a garden plot or flower bed is finished for the season, clear the weeds and add compost or old leaves to improve the soil for the next crop. I have several raised beds that need to have more soil added each late fall. This year the strawberry plants will need to be lifted and replanted after new soil is added, then mulched for the winter. However, last year I did not clear my broccoli raised bed and had a surprise small head of broccoli in January! Along the same vein, check your asparagus bed regularly for new growth as the temperatures drop. Cool season crops such as leafy greens (lettuces, turnip salad, kale, collards, spinach, mustard greens) and root vegetables (carrots, beets radishes, turnips) can be sown directly. Children can enjoy this activity. Use row covers if below freezing temperatures are predicted. This year I am going to try placing a old screen across a raised bed, and maybe a old window. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Chinese cabbage and Brussels sprouts can be transplanted. Fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries will form more buds for next year if watered and fertilized. Pruning- Except for fruits, flowering shrubs can be pruned when they have finished flowering. Trees in general are best pruned before the sap starts rising in late February or March. You may want to use surveyor’s tape to mark what you plan to prune later. If you have soil areas you plan to use in the spring, consider overwintering them with clover, oats, rye, winter wheat then tilling the plants in as ‘green manure’ in early spring. This may save on fertilizer. Clean your garden tools and oil them. Spray with chlorine cleaner, rinse with water, then dry and spray with WD40 and store inside. The Southside Master Gardeners have tool sharpening on September 13 from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Halifax Farmer’s Market. Summer is winding down but it’s not over yet!

A Prodigious Pollinator Powerhouse

by K. Bagby, VCE Southside Master Gardener, Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter Just recently at the Halifax Farmers Market, Kathy Cornell had some slips of mountain mint that she gave away. That might not sound like much but – Mountain mint, Pycnanthemum species, is a pollinator treasure. It’s truly a hard-hitting generalist. A study conducted several years ago by Penn State Master Gardeners and the Penn State Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension center involved planting 4,500 plant plugs from 85 species and cultivars of native plants. They counted 72 species of bees, wasps, syrphid flies—the hover flies and flower flies—and tachinid flies among the visiting pollinators, a diverse array of insects. Hands down, the mountain mint attracted more pollinators than any of the other plants. Second place went to Solidago, the goldenrods, but it wasn’t even close. About a dozen species of mountain mint are found in Virginia. Not to be confused with true mints such as spearmint or peppermint! Though both types of mint are members of the Lamiaceae family, mountain mints belong to the Pycnanthemum genus, while the members of the Mentha genus include the aforementioned spearmint and peppermint as well as basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, catnip, and lavender.

One of the biggest differences between the Pycnanthemums and the Menthas is that the former are natives, and the latter are not, though some of them have naturalized over the years. What does this actually mean? The simplest answer is that native birds, insects, and animals do best on the native plants they’ve co-evolved with over the centuries. But behind that simple answer lies the complexity of the food web that sustains us all: too deep a subject for this short article. Just remember that song about the toe bone connecting to the foot bone, and the foot bone connecting to the knee bone, and then the hip bone and backbone and everything else. Well, that’s the food web: it’s all connected. Pull one element out and you risk collapsing the whole structure. Food webs aside, being cousins, mountain mints and true mints have a lot in common, including the classic square stems. Both are aromatic, though the true mints are usually more so. The leaves can vary quite a bit, but the mountain mints usually feel velvety and have a whitish bloom, which can be striking in mass plantings. Possibly the most important difference for home gardeners is that while mountain mints spread by rhizome, as do the true mints, they’re far less aggressive than the true mints, and they’re easier to pull up to tame the plant’s growth. No worries about mountain mint taking over your whole garden! Mountain mint generally prefers full sun to part shade. It can tolerate different types of soil, but it needs good drainage to prevent root rot. You can divide or plant in spring or fall before the temperatures get too hot or cold. If you’re starting with seeds, sow them on the surface of the soil then just barely cover them with soil—they need sunlight to germinate. As with many natives, mountain mints are reasonably drought-tolerant and deer-resistant, though consider watering if it’s hot and dry for an extended period. You don’t need to fertilize them. Cut them back in late winter or early spring if you’d like. One of their best characteristics is a long blooming period starting in late summer and extending into the fall—perfect for pollinators that have lost spring and summer blooms and need something to eat. Deadheading spent flowers can help extend that blooming period. So there’s a very short introduction to a powerhouse native plant. Hopefully you managed to get one of Kathy’s slips! Flora of Virginia has great information on our local mountain mint species, and https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu is always a great source of information. Many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who give their time to and through these groups to serve their communities. Many, many more thanks to our late mentor and friend, Bill McCaleb. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to ask@ssmga.org or by calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number. Happy gardening!

A Nut that isn't really a nut

By Kathy Conner Cornell VCE Southside Master Gardener Every afternoon, my husband and I have a few beverages and sit with each other often talking but other times not. We generally have a snack and recently my husband brought out a can of Planters ® cashews. This reminded me of the wonderful cashews my sister and I used to get from Glaubers, a store that sold cards and nuts in Eastpoint Mall in Dundalk, MD. It got me to thinking about the unusual growth habit of this nut that isn’t really a nut. Most common nuts grow on trees and are born with a hard casing enclosing the nutshell that holds the nut meat. Think walnuts, pecans and filberts. All of these are commonly grown here in Virginia. Peanuts are legumes and grow below ground. Cashews are a bit more complicated. They are grown on a cashew apple tree and can only be grown in sub-tropical and tropical areas primarily near water.

This is a picture of cashew apples. They are drupes like peaches and plums. The brown semi-circle coming out the bottom contains the seed (think peach pit) which is the cashew nut covered by outer and inner shell containing toxic substances. The cashew tree, Anacardium occidentale, is in the same family as pistachios, mangoes, and poison ivy. The fruit of the tree is called a cashew apple, which is edible with its seed or the cashew extending below the apple. According to EBSCO cashew apples “are what botanists call drupes. (Cashews) are found growing on the bottom of the cashew apple and are harvested through a difficult process that puts harvesters in some danger from botanical poisons. The cashew seeds are collected and prepared for processing. Unlike many other seeds and nuts, cashews are never sold “in the shell." The grayish shell, which actually has two hard layers, contains two caustic substances. One is anacardic acid, an oily substance similar to urushiol, the compound in poison ivy that causes severe rashes. The other is cardol, a corrosive substance. Both have been known to permanently damage harvesters' skin”. Cashew apples are only harvested when they fall to the ground. The cashew portion is removed and the seed must be roasted, hopefully in a well-ventilated place. The outer and inner shell must be removed by hand. I checked the can of cashews and it said harvested from India, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Vietnam. I’d like to say that these are countries with laws protecting workers but I doubt they have the likes of OSHA or EPA. The roasting burns off the caustic substances. Workers must remove the shells by hand. The workers all have burn scars since gloves are rarely available. Harvesting machines have not been successful removing the cashew without breakage. Wages are fairly low in these countries also. Makes you appreciate those cashews. Info from Illinois Extension “like all nuts, cashews are quite nutritious. A one-ounce portion (about 18 whole cashews) has 157 calories, 5 grams protein and 12 grams fat, but most of the fat is the heart-healthy unsaturated fat. When buying cashews, look for those that say, “lightly salted” or labeled “raw”, which means they are still heated enough to be safe; they just don’t have any added salts or flavorings.” The liquid inside the cashew apple is used in tropical fruit juices. Feni is a distilled liquor that is made from the juices of the cashew apple. This is only made in Goa, India. Not easily found in the United States, I did find 2 sources costing around $30 for 750 ml which is a little over 2 cans of beer. Think I’ll just stick to the cashew itself. When you next purchase cashews, you are encouraged to look for fair trade options that support the workers. Enjoy the delicious taste of the cashew which isn’t really a nut!

This Flower Brings back Memories of Bullwinkle

By Kim Bagby, Southside Master Gardener and Southern Piedmont Master Naturalist I’m really going to date myself here, but daffodils bring back a vivid memory: Bullwinkle J. Moose reciting William Wordsworth’s poem, “Daffodils” in that goofy voice of his. And here the daffodils are again, and I’m smiling at Bullwinkle still. Daffodils, also known as narcissus, jonquils, Lent lilies, Easter bells and, locally, as buttercups, are originally from areas around the Mediterranean. They’re the Narcissus genus and came to North America in the 1600s, though they weren’t documented here for almost another century. They flourished in the southeastern United States. Along with periwinkle, they were sometimes used to mark graves, particularly of enslaved people whose families couldn’t provide an expensive gravestone. Daffodil plantings can last over a hundred years if they’re allowed to, and so people searching out old homesteads and graveyards look to where the daffodils grow to try to locate these old sites. The American Daffodil Society says there are as many as 200 different species, subspecies, and varieties of daffodils, and over 32,000 registered cultivars. They classify these into 13 divisions based on characteristics such as the flower’s form and colors. Daffodils grown from seed take up to 5 years to flower! But they reproduce quite readily by bulb division and will do so year after year. They’re not considered invasive but big drifts of naturalized daffodils can crowd out native spring ephemerals. Plant daffodil bulbs in the fall before the ground freezes. This gives them time to establish roots before spring. They like the sun but will grow well enough in a little shade. They’re easy to grow in almost any kind of soil we have around here as long as it’s not soggy. They’re some of the earliest bloomers in our gardens, but careful selection from the different cultivars with different bloom times can give you daffodil blooms all summer and into the fall.

Daffodils emerge in early spring and then burst open with the bright cheery flowers that bring a smile to our face thinking winter is over! Once they’ve bloomed, the best practice is to leave them alone—don’t cut or mow them—until after the leaves have turned yellow or brown. It's okay to deadhead them, but even after the bloom’s over, the leaves continue to produce food for the bulbs for about six more weeks, which helps fuel that bulb growth that results in the spread of the planting. Cutting the leaves back before they’re yellowed takes a lot of nourishment from the bulbs and they won’t do well. One of the benefits of daffodils in the garden is that deer and rodents won’t eat them, though they may dig the bulbs up. Daffodils are toxic to both animals and humans. Likewise, cut blooms don’t do well in vases with other flowers unless you condition them first. Daffodils release a sticky substance into the water that can clog other flowers’ vascular systems. There’s a way to do it, though! Pull daffodils from ground level—don’t cut them from the plant and be sure to leave the leaves intact. Trim the stems and put them in a vase with cool water for a few hours to let the sticky sap run. Rinse them off, wash the vase, and then they should be good to go with other flowers or greenery. To keep them going, trim the stems and re-condition them every few days. Or you can just relax and put them in a Mason jar with some water and enjoy them for days and days just the way they are. Many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who give their time to and through these groups to serve their communities. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can continue to reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to ask@ssmga.org or by calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number.

Beauty from Chaos: Repurposing Nature’s Unruly Invaders

By Jessica Driver, The Nonstop Naturalist, Southside Master Gardener, Southwester Piedmont Master Naturalist It’s a warm spring day, and you’re out tending your garden-the same one you’ve nurtured for years. The sun is on your neck and dirt is on your gloves. Then you spot it. How did that English Ivy creep into this bed? Is that a wisteria tendril reaching for your tomatoes? We’ve all been there, battling plants that refuse to stay put. Turning lovingly planned gardens as well as natural areas into weedy patches, wreaking havoc on your carefully curated private ecosystem.

Once these resilient plants get their roots dug down in the soil, sometimes you are left with the realization that you are stuck with mitigating the spread rather than completely getting rid of them. And since you have done all the hard, back breaking work of pulling and cutting, why let the plant go to waste? It didn’t choose to be here after all, it grew where the seeds happened to fall like the rest of your garden plants. You can however, make something that is helpful or beautiful for yourself. Chinese or Japanese Wisteria’s cascading purple flowers make it a beloved ornamental for trellises, but it’s fast growth and ability to spread via runners can quickly get out of control, overwhelming trees and structures. When cutting back the vines, look at how flexible and smooth they are. After removing the leaves, you can repurpose the vines into wreaths, baskets, or decorative garden orbs. English ivy is planted just about everywhere and is notorious for smothering native plants and damaging brickwork. When ripping up this ivy by the handfuls, separate the leaves for later use as a household cleaner. The leaves contain saponin, which is a natural foaming cleaner. Just boil 40 or 60 leaves in 3 cups of water for 15 min, let cool overnight, strain the leaves, and you have a wonderful and free counter cleaner. For those unfortunate souls who have Japanese knotweed which is one of the most aggressive invasives, capable of breaking through pavement, your battle is going to be a courageous one of herbicides and repeated cutting. But since you already have your hand pruners out, the strong hollow stems are very similar to bamboo but easier to cut when fresh. These are ideal for native bee hotels which are structures to support some of your native bee species. Or let them dry and use them as trellises or plant supports. If you get really adventurous, you can even make jellies, inks, clothes dyes, and paper from some of these never-ending natural art supplies! While using invasive plants can be both creative and sustainable, it’s important to do so responsibly. Always research the plant, correctly identify, and make sure you are disposing of any material as to prevent accidental spread including not throwing them in the woods. By thinking beyond eradication, we can turn these troublesome plants into valuable resources. Whether crafting with wisteria, making ivy soap, or creating bee hotels from knotweed, repurposing invasives offers a practical way to balance control with creativity. Just always remember, the best way to fix a problem is to never have planted it. Research before your next trip to the garden center to make sure you are not planting something that will give you headaches in the future!

Insects are Disappearing. Should I Care?

By Kathy Conner Cornell VCE Southside Master Gardener Are you one of those people that think the only good bug is a dead bug? I get it, insects can be pesky. They bite or sting and some spread diseases. But only about 1-3% of all insects are pests. The rest are either benign or working for you. Working for you might be a new thought. For instance, insects are bird food. Even birds that normally eat seeds, feed insects to their young. You might not miss the insects but you would sure miss those bluebirds that grace your backyard. The causes of the problem are quite a few things that you have heard before impacting other aspects of nature. Loss of habitat is a big one. The more our population grows, the more buildings, roads and sidewalks take over what once was green space.

This Bethany Beach Firefly has just been listed as an endangered species. It is found in a limited area of freshwater interdunal wetlands that occur along the Atlantic coast in Delaware and Maryland according to the Xerces Society. Loss of habitat is the primary cause. Photo by Xerces Society Another aspect of the problem is that our plant choices often do not support wildlife. How many of you have native plants in your landscape? These are plants that evolved along with the insects so provide ecosystem services to not only insects but other wildlife. For many reasons, our use of pesticides hurts insect populations. Sure that is what pesticides are supposed to do. But what happens is that we kill the good bugs right along with the pests. Often, if you let nature take care of things, the beneficial insects will take care of the pests in various ways. Could be consuming them or laying eggs in them that hatch and the larvae eat the inside of the pest. A good example of a problem pesticide are neonicotinoids. Often seeds are sprayed with this pesticide. Because it is systemic, it travels through the entire plant. An insect feeding on the nectar could become impacted and most likely die. Runoff or leaching is also an issue when spraying pesticides especially if you live near a water source. Aquatic creatures are highly affected by pesticides. You might think this is odd, but light pollution is a big disrupter of many insects. Take the lighting bugs for instance. A female will be unable to see the flashes of a potential mate if the light is too bright. No mating means no offspring. Another cause is climate change, climate reality as Al Gore calls it. Think about these horrible hurricanes, Helene and Milton. These hurricanes intensified because of the warm Gulf water temperatures; sea surface temperatures were higher than in the past. The impacts of the wildfires in the west also causes insects to perish. Sometimes plants creep north or south to seek better conditions. These are native plants that the insects coevolved with. The insects don’t necessarily move with the plants meaning their food sources are unavailable. So why should you care? Would you want to live in a world without coffee? The coffee plant can be self-pollinating but the presence of bees makes pollination more effective and increases the yield. Wouldn’t you miss those nice juicy peaches and the tomatoes right from the vine during the summer? Peach trees and tomato plants need pollinators to complete the process of fertilizing the egg causing fruit development. Every third bite of the food we eat requires pollination according to the USDA. Insects are important to us so here are a few tips about what you can do to help keep insects alive and well. Turn out the outside lights or replace the white bulbs with yellow, red or blue. Plant some natives. To find out what is native in our area, go to the Plant Virginia Natives website and look at the Southern Piedmont Nature Guide and find local suppliers. Reduce or eliminate your use of pesticides. You’ll find if you let nature take care of things, many pest problems will be solved. If you have questions or need additional information, contact the Southside Master Gardeners at ask@ssmga.org or call the Master Gardener Help Line at 434-830-3383. Be sure to leave your name, phone number and nature of the call. Start looking at insects with appreciative eyes. Some are very beautiful.

A House Full of Spiders

Kim Bagby, Southside Master Gardener, Southern Piedmont Master Naturalist Spider plants! What’s not to love? Gracefully arching striped leaves of bright white and green, lovely in hanging baskets, easy to grow and tolerant of bad behavior from their owners—helpful traits in a houseplant, unless you were born without a green thumb and can kill a plant by looking at it hard. Spider plants are actually in the same family as asparagus. Their Latin name is Chlorophytum comosum and they come in three basic varieties, two with green and white stripes and the one shown here with solid green leaves. They’re evergreen perennials originally from tropical and Southern Africa. They’re not cold-tolerant here in Zone 7, though they seem to enjoy spending the summer outdoors. Bring them in for the winter as you would any other houseplant. I typically clean mine off and spray for insects before they come inside. Temperature-wise, I usually bring my plants in when the lows are consistently in the 50s, though other people have their own preferences. Spider plants prefer loamy soil, which provides good drainage but also moisture retention and some air circulation. People differ as to how much light they need but start with bright indirect light and go from there. They also like humidity and can do well in bathrooms or with regular misting. They’re sensitive to fluoride and chlorine in water, so if you get leaf tip browning, consider using rainwater. Inconsistent watering doesn’t seem to bother them too much, but don’t overwater them. They like moist but not really wet soil. Go easy on the fertilizer and only fertilize in the spring and summer. Propagating spider plants is one of the fun things about them. When your spider’s healthy and happy, and maybe a little rootbound, it’ll send some long, thin stems out with widely spaced tiny leaves and exquisite white flowers. At the end of the stem is where the baby spider plants grow. On their undersides you can see some brown nubs: these are the beginnings of their roots. If you ask ten people what to do next, you’ll probably get ten different answers! Some people just leave the baby plants where they are, adding to the visual interest of the plant. In the wild, as these babies grow, their weight will eventually cause the stem they’re on to bow down low enough for them to touch the ground, and they’ll eventually develop their own roots. You can try to duplicate this with your houseplants by setting small pots near the parent plant and grounding the juvenile plantlets in them. You can also cut them free of the parent and just plant them in their own pots, though without a good root system, yet it’ll take them longer to establish. Water these small plants more than you would the mature plants to help them establish their roots, but again, don’t overwater. At the other end of the scale is simply rooting them in water. Some experts say they’ll have stronger root systems if you only leave them in the water a few days before planting them in pots, but your mileage may vary. I had one that I got frustrated with because it kept trying to die no matter how I potted it, and I finally gave up and just left it in water for the best part of a year. I eventually potted it this spring and set it outside. I had to support it for the season because the leafy above-ground plant had gotten so big in the water it was top-heavy on the roots, which were decently developed considering my neglect. It took off! It even got happy enough that it started making babies. It did better with hands-off parenting, I suppose. It got partial sun for part of the day and mostly subsisted on rain, though I did water it with water from the rain barrel when the stuff from the sky was scarce. It tolerated this summer’s hot, hot days pretty well, too. Spider plants really are nice houseplants to have. They’re graceful and airy but sturdy enough to tolerate—even thrive on—a little benign neglect. Hit up a friend or neighbor for a spider baby and have fun with it! Many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who give their time to and through these groups to educate us! The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Extension Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can continue to reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to wmccaleb@vt.edu or calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number.

Foraging in the Fall

Kim Bagby, SSMGA, VMN As of this writing, I just refilled my hummingbird feeder probably for the last time this season. I’ll keep it going as long as the hummers need it. Last year, if I recall correctly, we saw our last hummingbird as Halloween was nearing. There are still flowers blooming to help feed those hummers and other late-season pollinators. Bees and wasps are still actively working the blossoms they can find, as are many species of flies. The hummers are preparing for that long flight south, but the rest, the invertebrates, are preparing for a long winter right here. Honeybees will hunker down in their hives, starting their winter preparations when the temperatures hit the 50s or so. Their winter plan is complex and outside my experience, but there are lots of beekeepers in the county who would welcome your questions. As to the native invertebrates, their overwintering habits also vary widely with each species and habitat and make for some interesting reading. In the spring they’ll all emerge from their hiding places and start working again, pollinating our crops and flowers. Native insects look for native flowers for their meals. Earlier in the year supplies of nectar and pollen were plentiful, but as the summer and fall wane, so do the food supplies. Those vibrant splashes of yellow you see out along county roads? Generally at least two of these are from the Asteraceae. These include the Rudbeckia genus and here locally, include R. hirta, the black-eyed Susan, and R. grandiflora, the rough coneflower. Starting its bloom a little later in the season is Solidago, the goldenrod, with its graceful arching habit and delicate flowers. Obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana, is another late summer and fall bloomer. Its upright spikes tend to be lavender but can also be white. It reseeds itself readily and is a welcome splash of color when everything else seems to be starting to brown for the winter. Even though our native insects prefer to feed on native flowers, or sometimes are obligated to do so, for others some of the non-native plants will work. Chicory, the Cichorium species, native to Europe, is well-visited by some pollinators. So is mallow family member Hibiscus syriacus, native to east Asia. Virginia does have a native hibiscus, H. moscheutos, the swamp or Eastern rose-mallow, but it can be hard to find. Hummingbirds in particular seem to like the hibiscus. That pesky mint, that will run amok and take over your yard if you’re not vigilant and ruthless with it, also serves as food for the pollinating insects, particularly the smallest of them—the many varieties of flies you can see visiting the flowers if you’re patient. They’re tiny and fast—too fast for me—and I’ve seen upwards of half a dozen species on the plants. The bumblebees and wasps are there too. There are anywhere from one to two dozen different species of mint—even the botanists can’t agree on the names, let alone the numbers. The mints hybridize easily where their ranges overlap and cultivars have been developed for commercial sales. Mints are native to the Mediterranean, for the most part. There are only a few native to Virginia. One is Mentha canadensis, Canada mint, but it doesn’t grow here in Southside. The other is the better-known Pycnanthemum. Flora of Virginia lists 15 members of this genus but only a handful of them occur in Halifax County. They’re great for pollinators and lovely in a garden. I’ve only skimmed the tip of the iceberg where pollinators are concerned. In addition to birds and insects, plant pollinators include bats, spiders, beetles—even animals that just brush up against a flower and transfer pollen to another plant as they go by. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, three quarters of the world’s flowering plants and more than a third of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators. If the pollinators decline, as many species are, our food supply also faces collapse. The USDA has some great information on their Web site: The Importance of Pollinators | USDA. As always, I owe many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and the Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who give their time to and through these groups to educate us! The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Extension Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can continue to reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to wmccaleb@vt.edu or calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number.

2024 July Gardening Challenges

And you thought it was hot last August. Mother Nature didn’t wait until August this year to crank the heat and challenge even the best gardeners. Garden plants are under a lot of pressure, they are not as healthy, being stressed with the heat and lack of normal rainfall. Some of us just won’t give up and a gardening we will go, hoping for that fresh tomato, cucumber, pepper and such.

Tomatoes show reaction to dry and hot weather more than other plants. If you tomatoes are droopy, it is time to water. To make things easier on yourself you need to keep yourself well hydrated. Bring a water bottle with you when doing gardening chores. Take breaks and find a shady spot to rest in. Try to do your gardening early in the morning or later in the evening to avoid the hottest part of the day. Watering should be done in the morning to give plants time to take up moisture before the worst heat of the day. Watch your plants, especially your tomatoes. If they begin to droop, it’s time to water. Know your soil. If it is a sandy soil, it will need to be watered more often than those of us gardening in clay soil, which retains water much more than sandy soil. Should you mulch? Yes indeed, as the mulch will slow down evaporation. Use a drip system or a soaker hose for the most efficient watering. If watering by hand, be sure to water close to the soil under the plant and try not to splash soil up on the tender stems of your vegetable plants. Thinking about the rest of the plants around your home, hanging baskets and containers will need to be watered more frequently than those in the ground. Be sure to check them often. Different types of containers retain water differently from others. Terracotta or clay pots breath so will lose moisture quicker than plastic pots. You might consider moving potted plants into a shadier spot during the heat wave. Now is not the time to do anything that will stress a plant, like transplanting, pruning, or fertilizing. Remember fertilizers are basic salts so will build up and many of our garden and landscape plants can not handle much salt buildup. If you are starting seedlings for the fall garden, definitely move them to a shadier spot with the temperatures are in the 90 – 100F range. And my final advise for plants that you want to put into the garden or landscape is to check the label and make sure they are disease resistant and/or drought-tolerant varieties. If you have questions about gardening or your landscape plants, please give the Halifax Virginia Cooperative Extension a call on 434-830-3383 and a Master Gardener will get with you from another phone number, if no one is in the office when you call. Happy Gardening and let’s work with Mother Nature and around her, since we can’t change her. ¬

Cicada roar will diminish soon!

William H. McCaleb 5/24/24 As if you hadn’t noticed, your days are filled with activities and this year, an added attraction since the first of May has been the emergence of the 13 year cicada Brood XIX. People keep asking me how to stop the noise, how to get rid of them, and when are they ever going to ‘shut-up’. To answer these questions, basically mother nature started it the first of May in different degrees around Halifax County and Brunswick County. Mother nature will stop it following the end of their mating and propagating season which should be around the end of June. Why are we seeing them again? It doesn’t seem like it has been that long since we had the last blast of cicadas especially south of the Danville River into the upper reaches of Person County NC. Scientist have been tracking and predicting the emergence of the broods since 1840 and they predict cicada emergence much better than the meteorologists can predict rain showers. Getting back to how long do the cicadas live? The ones we are hearing now have a 13 years lifecycle though we don’t see them but for a few weeks of their lives. Cicadas have a fascinating life cycle! This brood XIX lifespan is 13 years. Back in late April and early May we started seeing all sorts of holes in our yards and forest where the nymphs emerged After spending all that time underground, cicada nymphs emerged for a brief few weeks above ground.

Look closely at this exoskeleton and you can see where the cicada emerged. Here two adults are balanced on a tree limb. As soon as mating has occurred, the adults will die off and the constant roar will cease. The cicadas emerge, they molt (shedding their exoskeleton), as they mature into adults. They will then mate and the female will find a suitable tree to deposit up to 400 eggs in a slit in the bark. By the way, it is the males that are making all the noise as they are looking and attracting a female to mate with. It is an attraction for them, but to us, it is a lot of background noise. Each male puts out about 100 decibels of sound. As I said, each female can lay up to 400 eggs in branches and twigs of hardwood trees. They don’t seem to care for pine and many of our evergreen trees. Not all eggs survive to become the nymphs that will crawl back into the ground. We have plenty of natural enemies such as lady beetle larvae that will gorge themselves on the eggs and nymphs after they have emerged. Generally, it is six to ten weeks before the young nymphs hatch. From what I have read weather, i.e., rain and temperature have a lot to do with that range of time. They will hatch from their eggs and dig themselves into the ground to suck the liquids of plant roots. You were probably wondering what they ate and what plants they like. Hardwood trees, some of our landscape shrubs are desirable but, in my lifetime, I haven’t seen enough damage done to kill our mighty oaks and other native trees and shrubs. If you planted young trees this year, I would exercise caution and put netting over them until the nymphs have gone back into the ground in July. As the nymphs do feed on the sap of the roots, keep an eye on the health of the young trees this year and the next. While most cicadas are considered generalists, with a broad range of host plants, they have preferences like all living creatures. Preferred plants for egg-laying including apple, hickory, maple, and oaks are on their main menu with birch, dogwood, walnut, willow, linden, and elm further down the buffet menu. I have found exoskeletons on the leaves of roses, fig, forsythia, pear, and lilac as well, but so far no slits or egg masses. Observations and research have shown that cicadas tend not to prefer plants whose sap or gum may prevent egg hatch or keep nymphs from escaping, such as our native conifers, sumac, cherries, peach, plums, and persimmon. Not to say you won’t find exoskeletons hanging on many other trees and shrubs. My plum has had exoskeletons hanging from leaves. Even crepe myrtles have shedded exoskeletons on them. The nymphs feed on the sap in tree and shrub roots until the emergent cycle begins anew. When fully grown, the nymphs emerge from the soil, climb a tree, building, or other upright object, and shed the exoskeleton that protected their body and wings while tunneling up through the soil. Adult cicadas emerge from their exoskeletons and mate. You may even find exoskeletons clinging to farm equipment, mudflaps on a pickup, or any upright structure they can find. As I mentioned above, after mating, the female makes slits in tree branches and lays eggs there. The eggs hatch six to seven weeks later, the nymphs fall to the ground, they dig into the soil, and the cycle begins again. These nymphs will see you in 2036 and the singing will begin anew. Look closely at this exoskeleton and you can see where the cicada emerged. Here two adults are balanced on a tree limb. As soon as mating has occurred, the adults will die off and the constant roar will cease.

The Great Hunger

By Kathy Conner Cornell VCE Southside Master Gardener We have heard about the Irish Potato Famine but how many of us know the history behind it and the devastation it took on the people of Ireland. Having had the good fortune to visit Ireland for my sixtieth birthday, I learned about the Irish culture that had their own language and of course their own religion. As far back as 16th and 17th century, Britain had conquered the island by force. Oliver Cromwell forces mutilated hundreds of Irish people and forced others from their land in Ulster and moved them to rocky land not suited for growing any crops but potatoes. In some areas, Catholics were not allowed to own land so they were tenant farmers on small pieces of property and paid rent to the owners – British “gentlemen”. Again, the potato was the only crop that could grow an ample amount of food in a small space. Priests were banished, the Gaelic language could not be spoken, Catholic churches and schools were closed. Every attempt was made to make the Irish people accept the Protestant religion, without much success I should add. In 1801, Ireland was officially governed as a colony of Great Britain and the two nations were known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. At this time the population was around 8 million. It appears the country didn’t like that situation any more than the Thirteen Colonies but it took them until 1921 to gain their independence. Potatoes were introduced to the Irish in the mid-1700’s. The only potato grown was known as the Irish Thumper. As with today’s potatoes, new potatoes are grown from the eyes or buds of mature potatoes. Therefore, the Irish could maintain “seed” potatoes for next year’s crop. Right there was a big mistake – diversity should be maintained in the garden. Planting a monoculture will cause a pest to easily spread from plant to plant. In 1845, the disease Phytophthora infestans entered Ireland through winds. The plant lived up to its name meaning “vexing plant destroyer” by spreading rapidly to the Irish Thumpers. It is a water mold and sends out tiny bags of several spores that are carried on the wind. When the bag lands on a susceptible host, it breaks open. If the day is warm and wet, which is often the case in Ireland, the “zoospores” will germinate and send threadlike filaments into the leaf. When purple-black or purple-brown spots appear on the leaves, it is too late for the plant to live.

The lesions on this potato leaf show the spores of Phytophthora infestans, the disease that caused The Great Hunger in Ireland. The irony of it all, is that a considerable amount of foodstuffs were exported to England. Here the Irish people are starving and all the food that they are helping to grow is sent someplace else. Most of us know this time as the Irish Potato Famine. I was reading an article by a gentleman whose relatives lived through this. He felt famine was the wrong word since there was plenty of food. The time is also known as The Great Hunger, in the Irish language, An Gorta Mor. The infestation ruined up to one-half of the potato crop in 1845 and about three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years. A brave group of people, that I learned about while in Ireland, are those that chose to live on the Blasket Islands. Although the land was not user friendly, the people could speak and worship as they chose. Other groups of strong people sailed on “coffin” ships to the United States, Canada and Australia. Most started the voyage weak and with the unsanitary conditions, many died during the journey or while in quarantine. One thing I would love to be able to explain is why The Great Hunger ended. The cause of the potato demise was not discovered until the early 1900’s. There was no treatment provided to prevent the disease or new strains introduced. Potatoes were still grown out of necessity and the fact that disease spores live in the soil for years, makes it a mystery to me how the potatoes all of a sudden weren’t impacted. It is true that there were considerably less people to feed. There is some indication that drier weather for several years may have helped reduce the pathogen in the poor Irish soils. Today we have many varieties that are resistant to Phytophthora infestans.

Brood XIX is coming! Be Not Afraid!

By Kathy Conner Cornell VCE Southside Master Gardener This is the year of the return on the 13-year periodical cicadas, Brood XIX, known as the Great Southern Brood. In Southside, the bulk of this brood will be in Halifax Brunswick Counties. Eric Day, Virginia Tech Entomologist, says that he expects spotty overflow to Mecklenburg County. You would be doing a real service, if you do see cicadas in Mecklenburg County, to email us at ask@ssmga.org and let us know where so we can keep Eric posted. If you can remember cicada emergence in the past, it was loud. That is about the worst of it all – the noise. The cicadas will not sting or bite you. If one lands on you, it was just coincidence.

Cicadas are scary looking with those red eyes but are harmless to humans. If they land on you, it is the freak factor that is chilling. They cannot bite or sting. The colonists first encountered the cicadas in Massachusetts. They reminded them of the Biblical plagues so called them locusts. Locusts chew leaves, fly in swarms and are a type of grasshopper. Cicadas do not chew leaves or fly in swarms. They are in the Magicicada species. The cicada life cycle is fascinating. To prepare for emergence, the mature nymphs build a tunnel type opening, they may include a chimney-like top. On the night they emerge, in mid-May, the nymphs will burrow out of their tunnel and alight on some nearby vegetation and complete their last molt. They have an incomplete lifecycle which means the nymphs look similar to adults. When they molt, or shed the exoskeleton, the life cycle is complete. The adults go on the hunt for a mate. The cicadas may seem to emerge all at once in a defense mechanism that scientists call predator-satiation. This means, that there is a large enough population so that if preditation does occur, there will be enough cicadas left to carry out the mission of successful breeding. It is the need to find a mate that causes the males to make their “singing” and with such a large population, that can be quite loud. Per University of Maryland Extension “Male cicadas contract muscles to vibrate drumhead-like tymbal organs on their abdomen. This sound resonates and is amplified by hollow cavities inside of their bodies. Different species of cicada produce different songs.” The females are capable of laying 400 eggs. To do this, the female will slice into an area on a small tree branch with her ovipositor, or egg laying apparatus, and deposit an egg. She may lay up to several dozen eggs on one branch before moving to another. This egg laying is usually done on branches the size of a pencil. This will cause little harm to established trees. Five to seven weeks after the egg is laid, the nymphs emerge and drop to the ground to burrow into the soil and feed on plant roots for the next thirteen years. Why do the cicadas do this? I’d like to give you an answer but there is no scientifically determined reason for this except it is what they do. There is also no definitive reason as to how they know when to emerge. If you are planning to plant some young trees, you should wait until fall. This is the best time to plant woodies so they get a good root system established before leafing out in the spring. Insecticides have little value so don’t waste your time and money. If you do have small trees, you might consider covering the branches with netting so the females cannot get close enough to slice into the branches. USDA Department of Forestry suggests “covering vulnerable trees and shrubs with an agricultural netting of ¼-inch mesh or less”. This allows air and water flow and will keep the females away from the branches. Before securing the netting, be sure there are no birds or insects on the trees and shrubs. Admittedly, cicadas are scary looking with those big red eyes. However, they won’t harm you or your landscape or vegetable garden. If the noise gets overwhelming, be glad you aren’t in Illinois. Some areas are having two or more different broods emerge this summer at the same time. By the Fourth of July, the noise should be over. Cicadas are tasty bird food treats. It has been studied that birds and new hatchlings are hardier because of the extra protein rich cicadas. If your dog wolves down a couple, there will be no negative effect unless it gobbles too many at once. Humans are known to eat them and I found no shortage of recipes when I searched for ways to cook them. I am confident my husband will not surprise me with fried cicadas for dinner this summer.

2024 Master Gardener Class

Pictured: Front row: Christina Schluter, Sandra Garner-Coleman, Ben Royster, Adla Angelina, Bill Will and Kelly Phillips. Back row: Bill McCaleb, MG Coordinator, Dawn Talbot, Barbara Mallard, C.J. Minor, Mary Jane Humphries. Brittany Clay. Celeste Carrington, Rhonda Hammonds and Michael Phillips.

Boxwood Blight Update

By Bill McCaleb, ANR Agent VCE Halifax As we round out 2023 I thought I would update you all on the research and development that has been going on with fighting boxwood blight around the world. year, there is more good news for boxwood blight resistant varieties both in Europe and the United States. BetterBuxus® is the brand name of resistant Buxus cultivars in Europe, developed for resistance to boxwood blight (Calonectria pseudonaviculata) by Herplant BV in collaboration with the Institute of Agriculture in Belgium (ILVO) starting in 2007. These cultivars were obtained and selected through traditional breeding between different species of Buxus and are therefore considered to be hybrids. There are four cultivars available, resistant to box-blight and each with its own specific applications. BetterBuxus® Renaissance is a low, compact Buxus hybrid. Characteristics are the small, dark green leaves, ideal for low hedges in broderie (parterre) style. BetterBuxus® Babylon Beauty is a low, broad-growing Buxus hybrid. The light green leaves and its strong spreading growth make it extremely suitable as a ground cover. BetterBuxus® Heritage is a compact to upright growing Buxus hybrid. Characteristics are the beautiful glossy, medium green leaves, very suitable for hedges and making topiaries. BetterBuxus® Skylight is a strong-growing Buxus hybrid. The glossy, medium green foliage and its strong vigor make it very suitable for ball shapes and volume applications. These cultivars are marketed exclusively in Europe for historical gardens and boxwood lovers and for the time being will not be available on the open market in the U.S. With the continued research, testing, and international trade hoops that have to be mastered, we can probably look to see these cultivars showing up in the U.S. by 2025 to join the NewGen™ Independence and Freedom that are currently available through some of our better known nurseries in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Think about Boxwood Blight when you dispose of your Christmas greenery By Kathy Conner Cornell VCE Southside Master Gardener This time of year, many of us purchase premade wreaths and swags from both mail order catalogs and local businesses. We don’t know the history of these decorative items, therefore we don’t know if they may contain some contaminated plant parts. It is highly suggested, that after you have enjoyed your greenery and are going to discard it, that you place the items in the trash versus a compost pile or a discarded plant pile. The mite that carries Boxwood Blight is very small and most likely undetectable. So, it is better to be safe than sorry and risk contaminating your or your neighbors’ boxwoods by improper disposal.