Happy New Year. A new year brings another year of expectation in the garden. We always hope that this gardening year will be better than ever! At least this year we are not submerged in snow like last year. Winter is still young, we will see what nature has in store for us. …
The poisonous caterpillar gets attacked
The Saddleback Slug Caterpillar featured in the previous post now has troubles of its own. It was attacked by a female parasitic wasp which laid eggs on the caterpillar. The eggs hatched and ate the insides of the caterpillar. The eggs were present inside the caterpillar in the previous photographs, …
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Do not Touch! The scary pretend face of the Saddleback Slug Caterpillar means beware
At first sight this weird caterpillar looks like an odd gum wrapper with its bright green color and four brown horns sticking out of the ends. It actually sticks to objects like gum, but there the similarity ends. This is more of a Harry Potter type of beast, it looks fun, but it …
Cutting a Dahlia flower nearly needs a stepladder
Cutting this dahlia nearly needed a stepladder. The flowers are held at over eight feet high on smooth dark stems. The flower color is almost impossible to describe, as the petals shade from a light creamy orange to a spicy darker center; sort of Cafe au Lait meets Orange Creamsicle. The center of …
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Weird parasitic plant – Thyme Dodder
I found an unusual plant called Thyme Dodder (Cuscuta), in the Sunset Garden today. It is a parasitic plant that has no chlorophyll and so relies on getting water and nutrients from its host plant, which in this case is a thyme. I remember this plant from childhood holidays at an English pebble …
Ladew Topiary Gardens, Monkton, Maryland
The gardening world is firmly divided over the question of topiary. Should you prune a tree or shrub into a shape to resemble another object or shape, or should you leave the pruning shears safely in the shed? This type of garden decoration has gone in and out of fashion many times in gardening …
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Eastern Cicada Killer wasp drags Cicada into burrow
Of course it is right by my door. An Eastern Cicada Killer wasp has just dug her burrow between the paving slabs by the front step. The female Cicada Killer is aptly named as she catches and stuns a Cicada, and carries it back to the nest. The wasp then drags the Cicada underground, into the burrow, …
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Lovely Larkspur
Larkspur (Consolida) flowers in that rare shade of blue and purple, that is so beloved of gardeners, are one of the joys of the self sown garden. Rising gracefully to 2.5 - 3.5 feet, larkspur plants are perfect to mix and mingle in the flower bed, as they take up very little horizontal space. After …
Ladybugs – an insect eating machine
This year at Northview there is a heavy infestation of aphids on the cup plants. Aphids are a type of insect that can reproduce asexually and reproduction is rapid. They insert their sharp proboscis into the phloem (the vessels carrying plant nutrients) and suck food out of the leaf. The aphids are …
