This is the 27th 2008 edition of the Buckeye Yard and Garden Line (BYGL).  BYGL is developed from a Tuesday morning conference call of Extension Educators, Specialists, and other contributors in Ohio.

BYGL is available via email, contact Cheryl Fischnich This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to subscribe.  Additional Factsheet information on any of these articles may be found through the OSU fact sheet database http://plantfacts.osu.edu/ .

BYGL is a service of OSU Extension and is aided by major support from the ONLA (Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association) http://onla.org/ ; http://buckeyegardening.com/ to the OSU Extension Nursery, Landscape and Turf Team (ENLTT).  Any materials in this newsletter may be reproduced for educational purposes providing the source is credited.

BYGL is available online at:  http://bygl.osu.edu, a web site sponsored by the Ohio State University Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences (HCS) as part of the "Horticulture in Virtual Perspective."  The online version of BYGL has images associated with the articles and links to additional information.

Following are the participants in the October 7th conference call: Barb Bloetscher (C. Wayne Ellett Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic (CWEPPDC)); Joe Boggs (Hamilton/Piketon); Jim Chatfield (OSU Extension at Wooster/Hort and Crop Science); Julie Crook (Hamilton); Gary Gao (Delaware); David Goerig (Mahoning);Amy Stone (Lucas); and Curtis Young (Allen);).

***  BYGL NOTICE.  As the days shorten, so will the BYGL ... in frequency, not length.  There will be NO BYGL next week (October 16).  The BYGL will return the following week for one final fall howl, and then it will retreat to its doghouse for a long winter nap.

However, the much anticipated, always exciting, annual BYGL survey will arrive in late October or early November.  We hope you will spend a little time helping us by answering our survey questions.  We look forward to the comments and appreciate everyone's suggestions for improvements.  There is one point we're sure we all agree on:  the 2008 BYGL season went too fast, doggone it!

In This Issue:

1. WEATHERWATCH. 
2. HORT SHORTS:  Plants of the Week [Woody -Seven-Son Flower, (Heptacodium miconioides); Perennial - Four O'Clock, (Mirabilis jalapa); Annual - PANSIES, (Viola X wittrockiana); Weed - Pineapple-weed (Matricaria matricarioides);  Dig'em up and move'm out; and What is in Fall Color?
3. BUGBYTES.  Dancing Puffballs on Alder; Watch those Bananas!; Indian Meal Moths, True Buckeye Fans; Pantry Pest Prescription; and Hurricane Evacuees.
4. DISEASE DIGEST:  Fungus Amongus.
5. INDUSTRY INSIGHTS:  Highlights from the Buckeye Bluegrass BYGLive
6. COMING ATTRACTIONS:  Why Trees Matter Forum; and Recert Yourself(Pesticides Conferences)
7. BYGLOSOPHY

The following weather information summarizes data collected at various OARDC Weather Stations spanning the dates:  October 1 - 8, 2008 with the exception of the soil temperatures which are readings from Wednesday, October 8 at 6:00 p.m.

For more information, see:

• OARDC Weather Stations

Read all about perennials and landscape trees and shrubs in the ONLA publications "Perennial Plants for Ohio" and "Landscape Plants for Ohio."  The descriptions and photographs of plants were provided for these publications by the OSU ENLT Team along with other industry plant lovers.  These full-color publications are available at http://Buckeyegardening.com for $5.00.  Click on "garden store" and then "ONLA plant guides."  ONLA members can purchase these in quantities at a reduced price at http://onla.org .

* WOODY ORNAMENTAL OF THE WEEK.  SEVEN-SON FLOWER (Heptacodium miconioides). This shrub to small-medium tree is becoming more popular, and this is the time of year when it is easy to see why. The soft green spring foliage deepening in color through the season, the exfoliating bark on young stems, and the creamy white fragrant flowers are all attractive, but over the next month the best feature emerges - attractive-salmon colored sepals that survive senescence of the rest of the flower parts.  These sepals are arrayed in the seven parted inflorescence that gives the plant its names.  This adaptable woody is a great addition to your garden, providing great features year-round, but especially now that autumn has arrived.  

* PERENNIAL PLANT OF THE WEEK.  FOUR-O'CLOCK, (Mirabilis jalapa)  This tender perennial is easy to grow because it tolerates most any soil site.  Propagate this timeless garden wonder by root cuttings or seed this time of year.  It can be grown in sun or partial shade and according to Steven Still's, 'Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants' manual, is tolerant to heat stress and pollution.  Mirabilis jalapa grows 18"-30" in height and produces quite a few, 1" across, fragrant, trumpet-shaped, flowers from summer until frost.  Four O'Clock flowers are available in whites, reds, pinks and yellows and do not open until late afternoon, as the common name implies.  An excellent old-time favorite your grandmother used as a border plant that still holds its own today in the garden next to our modern cultivars.

* ANNUAL PLANT OF THE WEEK.  PANSIES, Viola X wittrockiana - Our annual of the week is pansies.  Well, pansies are actually a biennial.  Fall is a great time to plant pansies since it is a cool season flower.  Gardeners will get to enjoy the flowers this fall.  They will also be rewarded with another show of flowers next spring.  Pansies are available in solid colors of white, yellow, rich gold, bronze, and deep rose, violets, and maroons or combination of colors.  Mixed colors have a center resembling a "monkey face."

* WEED OF THE WEEK.  PINEAPPLE-WEED  (Matricaria matricarioides).  Pineapple-weed is a low growing, (less than 6") summer or winter annual with finely divided pinnately compound leaves that have a sweet pineapple-like fragrance when crushed.  M. matricarioides is a dicot in the Asteraceae (Aster family).  The flowers heads can be described as a greenish-yellow, disk, that is conical in shape.  This plant tolerates compacted soils and is generally found in turfgrass, landscapes and nurseries around low maintenance areas such as roadsides.  It is found throughout the United States although native to the west coast.  Control pineapple-weed easily with manual cultivation.   Pre and postemergence herbicides are also effective.

No, we're not talking about resurrecting old TV westerns.  We're only bringing forth the realization that the growing season in Ohio is quickly coming to the end.  With the end of the growing season near, it is our solemn duty to remind our BYGL faithful it is time to pull all of your tender bulbs out of the ground and prepare them for winter storage.  Traditionally, bulbs sold in the fall are cold hardy and are planted now.  Spring offerings are not as likely to be entirely cold hardy stock for Ohio.  When we refer to bulbs in a general sense, we are referencing an entire category of plants that as they grow, and produce swollen roots, stems, or leaves underground.  Despite the common similarities and differences of their root systems, this time of year, the entire group should be sorted into those that are cold hardy and those that are tender (not cold hardy). 

A true bulb is an underground stem with modified fleshy leaves.  Examples that come to mind are onions, lilies, daffodils, and of course tulips.  In the case of most onions, obviously we plant them in the spring and dig in the fall.  Lilies, daffodils, and tulips are cold hardy and need not be dugout in the fall.

Horizontal, swollen, underground stems are called rhizomes.  The Canna lily and iris are two herbaceous plants that have rhizomatous root systems.  The iris is cold hardy, the canna lily is not. When sold as potted plants in the spring, one could mistakenly assume the canna lily will overwinter, only to be disappointed the following spring when it does not reappear in the garden. 

The garden favorite dahlia produces a tuberous root that is not cold hardy in Ohio.  It should be dug in the fall and divided so that each section has at least one shoot.

With all this talk about overwintering tender bulbs, we can't forget to mention two of our favorite tender tubers that should be dug now; the common potato and the sweet potato.

BYGLers had a discussion about the fall color this year.  The onset of peak fall color is coming.  Many folks wonder whether this is going to a great year for fall color.  It is hard to predict that outcome.  However, it is easy to figure out where the leaf colors come from.  Plant leaf colors come from three pigments.  Pigments are natural chemicals produced by cells in leaves.  The major pigments in plants are chlorophyll, carotenoid, and anthocyanins. 

Chlorophyll is responsible for plant’s green color.  Carotenoid is responsible for the yellow, orange, and brown colors in foliage while anthocyanins are responsible for the plant’s red, purple and blue colors.  Chlorophyll and carotenoid are in leaf cells all the time during the growing season.  But the chlorophyll masks the carotenoid.  Hence, most of the tree leaves are green during the growing season.  However, when fall comes, the rate of chlorophyll production is decreased or stopped.  Then, the yellow or orange colors show up.

Most anthocyanins are produced only in autumn, and only under certain environmental conditions.  Anthocyanin production is favored by warm, sunny days and cool evenings in autumn.  During the daytime, tree leaves make a lot of sugar, but the cool night temperatures help trees convert sugar into anthocyanins.  Anthocyanins give leaves their brilliant show of red, purple and crimson.  Not all plants produce anthocyanins in their leaves.  For more information on fall color, visit the Ohio Department’s Natural Resources’ website at http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/tabid/9584/Default.aspx

However, similarities between the two aphids end with the woolly two-step.  Beech blight aphids are only found on beech.  The woolly alder aphid also infests silver maple.  Indeed, the alternate common name for this aphid is MAPLE BLIGHT APHID.  On maple, the aphid spends the winter as eggs in bark cracks and crevices.  The nymphs hatch in the spring and migrate to the midveins on the underside of maple leaves where they cover themselves in a mass of white, woolly filaments.  Their plant sucking damage may cause leaves to become curled and puckered.  In mid-summer, white fluff-covered adults fly to alders where they establish colonies described above.  Flights of these "flying puff-balls" can be dramatic.

On alder, two types of aphids arise from the colonies at the end of the season.  One type will fly to maple and lay overwintering eggs.  The other type will remain on alder spending the winter in hibernation under leaf litter beneath the tree.  In the spring, these adults move back to the branches and establish colonies.

The aphids are prolific producers of honeydew, both on maple and alder.  Branches and leaves beneath the colonies may become glazed in sticky goo.  The honeydew is often heavily colonized by black sooty molds.  Indeed, Kathy reported that she observed significant accretions associated with these aphids.  However, the aphids appear to cause no approachable harm to the overall health of infested alder or silver maple trees.  Heavy populations usually collapse from predation and parasitism after a few seasons.  So, no controls are recommended.

For more information, see:

• NC State University

The spider, identified as a Nursery Web Spider, Family Pisauridae has not yet verified to be exotic, however it is certainly not native to Ohio.  Nursery web spiders in general are large, impressive spiders with a hardened carapace and wide leg span.  They look similar to wolf spiders, but the eye pattern consists of 2 rows of eyes, four of which are centered in the middle of their face.  They have a unique biology in that they care for their young.

The interesting saga begins when a male yearns to mate with a female.  He wraps a small insect in webbing and presents it to her as a nuptial gift.  If she is in the mood, she will begin to unravel the delicious tidbit as he mates with her.  If he finishes quickly enough, he snatches the gift back and retreats- quickly no doubt!  Once the eggs are developed, the female transfers the eggs into a silken bag underneath her chelicerae (mouthparts).  The name "nursery web" comes from the fact that when the eggs are ready to hatch, the female places them in a new silken case in a "nursery" of silk webbing encompassing leaves in a safe place where the spiderlings can develop.  The female will guard the larvae until they have molted the first time.

For more information, see:

• BugGuide
• University of Kentucky Entomology