July's Horticulture Hotline Report

Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepemichelle/

We've have had a boring few weeks, all mold and fungus, but now it’s getting interesting! 

The intense heat and the deluges are stressing out our plants!  Someone's neighbor just put in a pool and her 3 arborvitae are getting backwashed – between the chlorine and the flooding, these trees are in trouble!

We’ve also got leaf scorch combined with cedar apple rust on a crabapple tree.

We’ve got bugs:  Japanese Beetles, a grapevine beetle that smelled like wine (but Bonnie just thought it stunk - it was dead, afterall).

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) is becoming a problem.  People are reporting it eating their fruit and squash.  There are some kindhearted folks who think that if a bug is found in the house, it should be carried outside and released. I say: it's toast!

Mosquitoes – need I say more?  West Nile Virus has been found in Lower Bucks, be careful!  And gnats are a “gnuisance."  There are yellow sticky traps that can be hung outside and replaced as they get covered, but I’m not sure if that will be enough to make a noticeable difference.

That’s what’s heating up the Horticulture Hotline this month!

-- Bucks County Master Gardener Debbie Bennett-Vidaure