Uconnladybug's Blog

Invasive species out-compete native plants.

Sometimes plants entice us to enjoy them with an abundance of flowers, brilliant colors or sweet fragrances. They use these lures to keep us from noticing the stealthy way they overtake more subtle but productive native species.  Several examples of this invasive style of growth are showing up in wooded areas and back yards this time of year.

 Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolate)

Originally introduced from parts of Europe and Asia for food and medicinal purposes in the mid-1800s, this flowering plant has become extensively invasive in most parts of the US. It appears in early spring in the undergrowth of woodlands, forests, along roadways and anywhere there is a bare, moist or dry open area. Its presence overtakes many native plants.

Garlic Mustard

It is a biennial that takes 2 years to mature enough to produce flowers that provide seeds.  During its first year of growth seeds germinate while the low-growing plants develop rosettes of leaves that can be hard to identify as an invasive. Its distinguishing fragrance of garlic when the leaves are crushed makes it easy to identify. A stalk appears the second year with small, white 4-petaled flowers atop the stalk. By the end of May seed pods that are dark and 4-sided develop and may each contain 22 or more seeds. The plant dies back by the end of June and the seeds are dispersed by humans or wildlife. The two-year cycle of germination and seed production continues as the plant spreads into new areas. Some research suggests that garlic mustard prohibits the growth of other plants in nearby areas. Seeds can survive as long as 5 years in the soil.

Management requires long-term  persistence. Hand- pulling to remove roots before seeds develop can be effective for small infestations. Removing plants with flowers and/or seed heads should be bagged and disposed of in the trash,  not in wood piles or compost areas. Chemical control can be effective but must be repeated due to the presence of seeds surviving in the soil.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) 

Honeysuckle plants were likely introduced into North America as ornamentals from Asia beginning in the 1750s. Some varieties arrived through the 1800s, and as late as the mid-1900s some varieties were still sold for various purposes such as arboretum specimens, for soil erosion control and for wildlife cover and food. Some varieties are still sold in nursery centers in some states; they are all prohibited for sale in Connecticut. They have all escaped cultivation and the seeds are spread by birds and wildlife.

The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group lists 6 types of honeysuckle on the state’s list of invasive or potentially invasive non-native species. They include the vine Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), and the shrubs Amur honeysuckle (L. maackii ), Morrow’s honeysuckle (L. morrowii), and Belle honeysuckle (L. x bella). These are all considered invasive. The two potentially invasive varieties include the shrubs Tatarian honeysuckle (L. tatarica) and Dwarf honeysuckle (L. xylosteum). Plants that appear on this list are prohibited from importation, movement, sale, purchase, transplanting, cultivation and distribution under CT General Statutes §22a-381d.

Morrow’s honeysuckle with flower buds in early spring

Honeysuckle shrubs are leggy, have an open form and range from 8-12 feet high. The vining variety can grow to 30 feet or more. Leaves typically are opposite, oblong and have smooth edges. The leaf upper and underside of some varieties are smooth, other varieties are hairy. Green berries appear in early spring. Small tubular flowers appear within the leaves in May and June and can be white, creamy, yellow or pink. Often several petals cluster to form a tube. If sliced open, stems on non-native varieties will have a brownish hollow center. Stems on native species will have a solid center. Depending on the species, berries can be orange to dark red and ripen in mid-summer until late fall.

Morrow’s honeysuckle blooming

True to their classification, these plants can form populations that out-compete and suppress the growth of native species.  They can deplete the habitat of moisture, nutrients and sunlight. In addition, the nutrients in the berries of invasive species are lower than native varieties. This requires birds to spend time eating large amounts of less nutritious food and could affect their migration.

While honeysuckle population numbers are low in an area, hand removal of seedlings or young plants is best before berries ripen and birds begin to spread them while feeding. Controlled application of herbicides might be required for areas of large infestation. A biological control is not known.

Native deciduous plants such as chokeberry (Aronia ssp.), spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and dogwood  (Cornus ssp.) will all provide food and cover for wildlife as alternatives to honeysuckle.

 Winged Euonymus  Euonymus alatus

Burning bush (Euonymus alatus), also known as winged euonymus, was introduced in the 1860s from Asia as an ornamental landscape plant. It is used extensively along roadsides, in parks and residential plantings and to beautify industrial parks all along the east coast and southern areas of the US.

Winged Euonymus

It is a multi-stemmed, branching shrub that usually grows 8-10 feet but when mature can grow to 20 ft. It is called “winged” because of the shape of its stems. Small, greenish flowers appear in spring, followed by a hard fruit which matures to a reddish purple in the fall. The leaves of the bush become a brilliant red, giving it the popular name “burning bush.”

It is on the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group list of invasive species but its sale is not prohibited. It produces hundreds of seeds annually which generate many seedlings under the parent plant as well as in areas removed from its parent, such as surrounding woodland areas and neighbors’ yards. It seeds are spread by wind and birds.

Its spread can be controlled manually, mechanically or chemically.

Jean Laughman

A quick review of our soil tests from the 2020 spring season so far saw a greater than 10 percent increase in samples submitted for vegetable gardens. Perhaps it is just coincidental but this may also reflect a way many of us are dealing with these tough economic times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For whatever reason, be assured that the UConn Soil Nutrient Analysis Lab remains open to accept your soil samples.

My grandparents (may they rest in peace) lived through the Great Depression years of 1929 into the 1930’s. When they came to this country as European immigrants they brought with them, among other items, basic food growing skills. Despite the relatively small lots in their Buffalo, NY backyards, they managed to grow a magnificent harvest of fruits and vegetables which were used fresh and preserved, and distributed among family and neighbors alike. I thought it might be interesting to review some other economically challenging times Americans have been faced with over the past century to see how local food gardening figured into coping with financial hardship.

As citizens left the agriculturally-based countryside and moved into urban areas, less food was grown by individual persons and instead they frequented the neighborhood grocery store for their fruits and vegetables and other staples. In times of good fortunes, their urban wages covered the cost of groceries. During economic downturns when unemployment became more widespread, many became impoverished and unable to buy enough food to feed their families. One such time in this country was during the 1890’s. It was during this period that ‘Pingree’s Potato Patches’ came into being.

Haze S. Pingree was the mayor of Detroit and requested that owners of vacant lots allow the unemployed to grow vegetables on their land. This saved the city money because less city aid was necessary to help the unemployed. It saved the taxpayers money because their taxes didn’t go up as high as they would have if they had to purchase food that wasn’t being produced locally. But the real benefit was to the unemployed who now had, at least temporarily, a feeling of self-respect and accomplishment, not to mention the fresh produce and opportunities for exercise and to socialize with other city residents.

Planting a ‘Liberty Garden’ was the patriotic thing to do during the First World War. Food production in Europe had dropped off precipitously because the farmers had left their fields to go to war and also, growing crops was not easy to do in war zones. It fell to the Americans to grow and supply food for the 120 million residents of the Allied countries. In 1917, the National War Garden Commission was founded by Charles Lathrop Park and there were more than 3 million garden plots by the end of that year. Americans were encouraged to plant gardens to feed ourselves and our allies, reduce fuel and transportations costs and share in this tremendous burden of war. Posters, cartoons, press releases and pamphlets served to educate gardeners on growing and preserving the harvest, and foster national interest in growing food.

Dig for Victory by artist Peter Fraser from Wikipedia.org

President Woodrow Wilson further encouraged the ranks of the food growing public saying, “Everyone who creates or cultivates a garden helps…..This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance.” By 1918, there were over 5 million garden plots!

The 2009 economic crisis had many likening it to the Great Depression, which started in1929 and lasted well into the late 1930’s. Hundreds of thousands lost their jobs in America but it too had worldwide financial repercussions. Relief gardens, sometimes referred to as welfare gardens or subsistence gardens were set up with governmental assistance to provide food and work opportunities. The greater governmental involvement probably sprung from the fact that it wasn’t the individual who was responsible for this massive economic failing but rather the inadequacies of the system as a whole.

Recreated Victory Garden at Strawberry Banke. Photo by dmp, 2007

It took several years to set up the gardening programs during the Great Depression but by 1933, most were resolved. Also non-governmental organizations participated in the war to combat hunger. Those who owned their own plot of land were encouraged to use it for food production and leave the community garden spots for those less fortunate. Both seeds and gardening supplies were distributed to the gardeners. Some farmers criticized the program believing that it was contributing to overproduction.

From: http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org

With President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ policy in 1933, over 3 billion dollars of aid was given to work garden programs being distributed by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Increased relief dollars, not surprising, came with stricter eligibility restrictions and not everyone in need was able to obtain assistance through these gardening programs. Finally, in 1935, funding was cut for these relief garden programs although some gardens, for example, those in New York City, continued to be cultivated. Working in the relief garden programs was no longer seen as an opportunity to improve one’s circumstances but simply as a food source for those less fortunate.

Recreated Victory Garden at Strawberry Banke, Photo by dmp, 2007

Just a few short years later, with the start of World War II, ‘Victory Gardens’ began sprouting up in response to the War Food Administration’s National Victory Garden Program. Some of these gardens were vestiges of WWI or depression era gardens but many were recent arrivals. Goals for these gardens included lessening the demands on commercial vegetable growers and processors so more food would be available to feed our troops, reducing food transportation needs to conserve energy for war efforts, increase self-sufficiency by preserving food for future needs, and to boost American morale by participating in healthy exercise and nutritious eating.

Victory garden sign, Photo by dmp,2020

Even Eleanor Roosevelt rallied to the cause having a Victory Garden installed on the grounds of the White House although apparently it was, at first, a source of distress to the USDA as they feared is would have a negative impact on the food industry. Nonetheless, the USDA did come round and ended up distributing information about food gardening in their public services booklets.

Efforts to cultivate Victory Gardens were enormously successful with 5.5 million gardeners participating in 1942. Seed companies had been remarking about the increase in vegetable seed sales this past year but it was nothing compared to over 300 percent increase they saw back then! Estimates by the USDA are that the Victory Gardens were producing 9 to 10 million pounds of produce which is about 44 percent of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed at that time!

The war ended. Growing one’s own food was not high on the list of priorities as attention turned to rock and roll, teen idols like Elvis Presley, blue collar jobs, poodle skirts, drive ins, Betty Crocker casseroles and production of Baby Boomers.

While no governmental figure, that I am aware of, is encouraging growing one’s own food, the increased demand for seeds, fruit plants and chicks seems to indicate a real concern that food items may be limited as this pandemic eludes control. Folks with plant cultural or pest questions are welcome to contact the horticulturists at the UConn Home & Garden Education Center at ladybug@uconn.edu. We’re here to help you grow.

Stay safe.

Dawn P.

These are some crazy times lately. Snow in the second week of May just adds to the disruptions in our lives right now. Folks are looking to their yard and gardens to bring stability to the upheaval in their lives, and snow and cold weather does not ease the mind. However, mother nature has a way of healing the plants and in doing so, shows us we will heal, too.

Some blossoms will sustain damage without the entire plant being lost. Some plants will succumb to the freeze, but these plants are ones that grow naturally and natively in much warmer areas which would not experience snow or freezing weather. If tomatoes or marigolds were planted out in the garden, they most likely were killed from the freeze. See packets and transplant labels state to wait to plant after all danger of frost has passed. For us in Connecticut, May 15th is the average last frost date. I err on the side of caution, waiting until Memorial Day when the soil as warmed considerably before planting cucumbers, peppers, petunias, squash and tomatoes. Putting these plants into cold soil will shock and stunt them for the rest of the growing season.

Perennial plants in our area are like old friends, returning home after a long absence. The familiarity of finding them in walk abouts, makes the world seem normal. Even some stalwart rhubarb laden with snow gives me hope we will weather  our storms. Rhubarb is a hardy perennial vegetable, providing pies and baked goods from its leaf stalk. Don’t eat the leaves as they contain a high level of oxalates the body doesn’t handle well. Better to use the leaves in the compost or lay them on the ground in the vegetable garden to keep the weeds down. They cover a lot of area.

Earlier in the week, I removed a flowering stalk from the rhubarb plant, to conserve the plant’s energy by not producing seed. Removal of the flower helps the clump grow bigger and get stronger.

Cut the rhubarb flower stalk at the base of the plant and compost it or use it in a flower arrangement.

Lilacs are a long-lived, woody shrub capable of with-standing freezes and snow. The flower buds were encased with ice and snow, but should bounce right back; only time will tell. The plant itself can live for over 100 years!

Magnolia is  another woody tree that lives a long time, but its flowers are often damaged by frost and cold weather. The photo below was taken before the snow  but after a frost, of Magnolia x soulangeana, showing the damage to the open blossom and the newly opened flower that was in bud at the time of the frost. After today’s snow, the petals have all fallen.

Flowering quince is a hardy shrub tolerant of late freezes. Its scarlet flowers didn’t blink with a covering of snow, shaking them off to shine brightly by noon once the sun came out. Each blossom should be appreciated up close for its rose like shape. Unfortunately, it is a pretty scraggly and unkempt specimen the rest of the year. She reminds of a  disheveled  and gangly teenage boy that cleans up nicely for prom, but only once a year.

Clove current is blooming, and before the snow released its spice scented aroma to soft wind. Hopefully, once the warmer weather returns so will the shrub’s offering to those in backyard.

I spoke of plants returning like old friends, expecting nothing from you except your company. They don’t try to change you or bring you around to around to their new found way of processing the world. Plants would never talk politics with you. They are just happy with your company. I think people could take a lesson or two from plants. Even weeds are consistently reappearing, each in their own time bringing a sense of comfortable familiarity. Chickweed has arrived, budded up with blossoms open in sunnier spots.

Bedstraw aka catchweed is entwining the old-fashioned shrub roses rescued from a 1600’s cemetery on Cape Cod. The paving truck was laying an asphalt walkway right over the rambling mass of thorny branches. I had to at least save a few in the way of its destructive path. The bedstraw always appears only in these bushes, making me think they must be old friends, too. I pull a few but don’t have the heart to remove them all, plus I like their airy foliage mixing with the deep pink roses once they bloom in June.

Milkweed shoots are up, promising a food source for many caterpillars and other insects. The monarch butterfly used milkweed species exclusively on which to lay eggs and for its larva. Common milkweed can become weedy as it spreads via seed and root, enlarging its colony each year.

I hope you find the return of old friends in the garden and maybe add a few new ones this season.

-Carol Quish

Native columbine

“Do you know why wildflowers are the most beautiful blossoms of all, my son?”

― Micheline Ryckman,  The Maiden Ship 

Why are wildflowers the most beautiful of flowers? Perhaps it is because they are untamed by mankind and often appear when one is not even looking for them. In spring, one of the pleasures of getting out on nature trails or trekking through the woods is coming across some of Connecticut’s spring blooming wildflowers. These colorful and interesting signs that warmer weather has arrived are a welcome distraction to the events around us. Whether found on purpose or by a happy coincidence, these wildflowers are interesting in their own ways.

Native pinxter azalea shrub in bloom along the edge of a steam

Canada lousewort Pedicularis canadensis, also called wood betony, is a native plant in the broomrape family that is found in open woods, clearings and thickets. It has small, 2-lipped yellow flowers in a tight spike. Flowers open from the bottom and progress upward. Plants can range from as low as 5 inches in height to 14 inches. Leaves are fernlike and form a basal rosette. It is a hemiparasite that attaches to the roots of other plants while still producing chlorophyll of its own. Look for these wildflowers as early as April- June. Bees will pollinate wood betony.

Canada lousewort- Pedicularis canadensis– wood betony

Asarum canadense, wild ginger, is native to eastern North America and can create a slow-growing groundcover in shady deciduous forests and can be found in the rich soils of shady deciduous forests. Flowers are seldom seen unless one knows where to look. Lifting the leaves reveals the bell-shaped flowers at the base of the plant close to the ground. Flowers have three triangular reddish- brown petals that fold back to reveal with an attractive red and white pattern that reminds me of looking into a kaleidoscope.

Flower of wild ginger Asarum canadense

Limber Honeysuckle Lonicera dioica is a native honeysuckle vine that blooms from May-June. Found in bogs or other wet areas, this plant has leaves that clasp the stem much like native boneset. The flowers of this honeysuckle are very attractive to bumblebees.

Limber vine honeysuckle

May apple, Podophyllum peltatun, is an interesting native plant that will have two leaves when a flower is produced, but only one leaf if no flower is produced. The large palmately lobed leaves are on the ends of long upright stems and resemble umbrellas. Flowers occur one to a plant, never more, are white with prominent yellow stamens, and are hidden under the leaves at the junction of the two leaf stems.

May apple colony

Violets seem to be everywhere- in lawns waste areas, woodland edges and trails. Over twenty species of violets are found in Connecticut, among them the bird’s foot violet, Viola pedata, distinguished by its finely cut leaf lobes that resemble the foot of a bird.  The petals are flat, with the upper two slightly folded back, and together with the prominent orange stamens it looks to me like it is sticking out its tongue at the observer.

Bird’s foot violet Viola pedata

Common blue violet Viola sororia

Trailing Arbutus is a low-growing shrub, usually under three inches tall. As the name implies, it forms a creeping mat, with trailing stems. A good feature for identification of this plant are the stems- six to 16 inches long and covered with bristly, rusty hairs. Leaf edges are toothless, but may also have the same stiff, brown hairs, as do the sepals. The tubular pink to white flowers will appear from April through May here in Connecticut.

Trailing arbutus with bristly hairs on leaf edges, sepals and stems

Purple trillium Trillium erectum

Trillium begin blooming in late April or very early May, with different species flowering as late as early June.  The flower of nodding trillium, Trillium cernuum, may be overlooked as it dangles directly below its rather large leaves and is found in damper, shadier woodland areas than the more common purple trillium.

Flowers of nodding trillium Trillium cernuum are hidden underneath broad leaves

There are so many wildflowers appearing in spring now that it is impossible to include them all in an online journal which is of little importance except to the writer. We all have our favorites, though, and the one I look forward to finding the most is the diminutive fringed polygala. A pink cross between a tiny airplane and Mickey Mouse, it one of nature’s adorable, delightful jewels.

The exotic flower of fringed polygala

Pamm Cooper