lavender

I'm afraid that rust fungus infects the whole plant (or so I've read) so it is in the root as well. I hope you burned or otherwise got rid of the infected branches. The spores will overwinter in them and can be travel on wind currents. It is always a good idea to burn plants that are infected with anything. Good luck!

My father-in-law brought me some once (not 50 pounds!) and we dumped them right in the garden. I'd turn them in though or scatter them very thinly. That could get very messy when wet.

I moved this from Events as I think we are more interested in it than the general public: The Down to Earth Garden Club will be holding its annual spring plant sale on Friday, May 9th and Saturday, May 10th. It will be held at BMP on Maple Avenue just before the Shaffer Road (mall intersection). There will also be a garage sale. There will be hundreds of well grown perennials. Many of these plants have been over-wintered in the pots so they have established root systems. You know our plants are hardy in the DuBois area because they have been grown in the DuBois area. No marginally hardy plants, seedlings or plants that will not grow in our soil. And you can

I've been sticking them on the embankment every time I find them on sale. That is always in the spring. I didn't know they ever had to be divided. I'm hoping they will fill in that lower part of the garden across from the Harley shop. They are one of the few things that the groundhogs don't eat.

Mine will be awhile yet. I have two from the lilac festival that I bought a couple of years ago. I remember one being purple with a white border but I can't remember what the other one was. I had one for years that would bloom in the fall as well as the spring but I think it died last year.

Can't beat lilacs. Take the family to the Lilac Festival in Rochester and pick out a real winner. But don't believe them when they tell you the yellow one is yellow. We found it and it was off white. http://www.lilacfestival.com/

You might want to look into a Cleveland pear which is just as beautiful as the Bradford pear but much sturdier. If you get a dogwood consider the Kousa dogwood. Our native dogwoods (Cornus florida) are susceptible to anthracnose. I'm not sure if it is a real problem around here yet but it was said to be heading this way. They come in pink and white too. If you plant a magnolia try to put it in a protected position. The trees are hardy but the flower buds tend to get zapped by the late frosts. I'm partial to the Japanese maples with the finely cut foliage. There are so many cultivars to choose from. They come in colors from silvery green through dark mahogany. I'm planting ginkos. I know they are messy and so slow growing that I probably won't ever see them get very large but the leave shape is so pretty.

That is a great technique to get rid of weeds as well as disease, Snellma. It gets rid of everything including seeds. The only thing I have seen escape alive was mint which had put its runners under a concrete surround. I've never used the combination of all three but have tarped soil with black plastic. I use newspapers for weed control all of the time. Anything that makes life easier! There are tomatoes that are fusarian resistant. I don't know which off hand but the catalogues should say. As for all of that early, early, early stuff sometimes when you look it is 2 or 3 days earlier than your main crop. I used to get some fairly nice Early Girls back when we actually got some rain. Tomatoes have been lousy for the last few years. I've stopped playing with them and plant the old standbys.

I've planted Brandywine and didn't really care for them. I thought that they were sort of watery. I don't remember any blossom end rot or any other disease problem. They were kind of late too. I seem to remember them ripening after I picked almost all of the Romas. There is a reason I remember that. ;D Some of the heirlooms sun scald. I remember Cherokee purple doing that. They were so bad I don't think I got many tomatoes.

Celebrity is a tomato that grows well in my garden. They are nice and round, don't split and are tasty. I like to grow the novelty tomatoes( green, pink, yellow, purple, pyramid shaped, doughnut shaped) but no one will eat them. Too weird! The sausage tomatoes are good for stuffing and salads.

I don't really know much about pruning of large trees but I do know that different types of apple trees require different pruning. You might want to do a bit of research. The 1/3, 1/3,1/3 rule applies to large scale pruning of old growth. It keeps the tree producing flowers and fruit while undergoing pruning. Usually around here it is the frost getting the flower buds that keeps trees from producing. If you open a flower bud and find it brown, the frost has killed it.

I knew it was too good to last.

Sounds as though they are just reaching their peak. I wouldn't divide until the the number of blooms seem to be declining. The books say 3-5 years for tulips.

Super Marzano is the best canning tomato I have ever found. It is large (about 5 inches in a good year), easy to peel and not at all watery. It ripens evenly and cooks into a nice red puree.

You can summer prune apple trees but it is used only to thin out new growth. You should wait until the tree just begins to put out leaves. Prune in late winter to get old apple trees under control and spread out serious pruning over several years never removing more than a third of the canopy. Check out this link for the section on summer pruning or just google it. http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/hgic1351.htm

The pictures of the very large purple ones that I have seen are gorgeous. Unfortunately they are not what I have. These are a small purple flower that is a very prolific reseeder. It came in a packet of white ones or maybe it was a mixed packet. There will probably be tons of seedlings as usual. They are pretty but not stunning.

If we do Community Days this year we will probably have some that we give out free. I think that is where you got the purple ones last year. We gave a bunch to a lady who I think is a friend of yours. She checked everything we had and said that they were all purple but there should have been some of the big white ones. I'll make sure there are this year.

The germination rate of moonflowers is very erratic. I find that fresh seed germinates right in the pot. Dormant seed is harder to germinate. Stratification used to be suggested to break dormancy but it doesn't really seem to be necessary. Give them a try. Keep them very warm and moist and if nothing germinates I'll bet I have some seedlings come up somewhere.

They are native to the South West and need really good drainage. I don't know if they need a cold winter or not. They probable do for the seeds to germinate. It would be interesting to see how well they do in the south.

I use Sevin on my broccoli and cauliflower so it should be safe for hostas.

Right you are! It is better to start out with the least invasive method and work your way up to the big guns. Or at least I think so.

Get a pyrethrine based insecticide. Pyrethrines come from plants. Or use a bait type poison that the ants will eat. Try mixing boric acid with something sweet like molasses or honey. Right now you could very easily move the hosta with no damage.

You don't have to worry about plantings then. In a wild populating the disease will run its course. If there are a few resistant plants they may multiply as the susceptible ones die off. Or if the whole stand dies off a more resistant strain may eventually replace it. The other option is that you will get a really bad year for the fungus one summer and the plants will get a reprieve. Mother Nature will do what Mother Nature will do. Enjoy them while you have them.

They do say not to plant any bramble fruit close to where wild ones grow. The wild ones usually have something, and while they may have learned to live with it, it will kill of the more susceptible tame ones. Fungicides aren't that expensive, and while there is probably no help for the wild ones, you might try spraying any tame ones you have.

I would think so. I've never heard of a plant fungus that would attack humans. If it produced a toxin I'm sure there would be warnings out there. We've eaten tons of the black soot mold that grows on apples. We're still all here.