It is not for nothing that some call the May full moon the Flower Moon. Scarcely have lilacs’ soft shades become passé when azaleas’ and rhododendrons’ color splashes and trusses outshine the more delicate flowering crabs and cherries.
My flower love, however, belongs to the ancient order of magnolias, whose wonders are, for yet another year, now mostly past. But wait — we have Magnolia grandiflora still to come, magnificent in flower, successfully planted and growing here now!
There is something new every May morning. Peonies, camassias, irises, bluebells, columbines — all share bed space in this exciting time of year to be in a garden, or to view one. Plan a trip to Polly Hill to experience the wide range the gardens there display, and let them inspire you. Much that is fine and unusual has been found at PHA to flourish here on the Island.
In and around the garden
Late spring is when the usually handsome hollies and other evergreen conifers shed old foliage. They appear at their poorest now, peppered with yellowing leaves, even though their respective female and male plants are loaded with petite female and male flowers. A closer look will show the embryonic fruits in the female flowers’ centers.
By nature many gardeners are those who enjoy putting all usable materials to useful purpose, and repurpose. Composting, and wacky ornaments that peoples’ creativity spawns: Are these testament to those qualities? You bet your garden gnome! But what to do with a pile of prickly holly leaves? (Don’t walk barefoot; put on your shoes!)
What are called “pine shats” in the American Middle South and pine needles elsewhere are also being shed. Pine needles, if collected — this is available and economical bio-material — make a useful mulch for all beds and shrubberies. Run through a mulching mower, or even just left as is, they make a soil improver for beds, especially of acid-loving plants and shrubs. Pine straw holds moisture and lets rain percolate through, as well as producing a tidy look.
The cacophony of vibrant color in my small woodland azalea garden is an attention getter. It also draws attention to several Exobasidium galls that have distorted and spoiled several flower clusters. The Knaphill and Exbury hybrids, such as the ‘Gibraltar’ pictured, seem particularly susceptible, although this gall family also afflicts blueberries. To learn more about these fungal growths, please go to bit.ly/UMass_ExobasidiumGallAzaleas. They may be cut off and disposed of, but do not compost them.
Another attention getter this season is the prevalence of tent caterpillar nests. They are commonly found on wild native cherry, but also appear on other trees and shrubs, such as viburnum and hawthorn, usually in relatively open, sunny settings.
This is unproven, but hairy caterpillars such as tent caterpillars “are said” to be less palatable to birds, despite their being such ample sources of protein. In fact, a garden rich in common birdlife is one of the best means of insect control. A quick Internet search finds cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, juncos, nuthatches, and more are all seen to eat tent caterpillars.
Perhaps one action the gardener can take is to puncture the remarkably durable silken tent of the nest, making the wiggling contents more available for a beady-eyed bird. I usually just find a stick and punch a tear into the interior.
Despite what people like to believe, ants on peony buds are not necessary for the flowers to unfold. They are there to collect the syrupy honeydew the buds exude. The lush, immaculate rose foliage of last week has transformed into “something green” under assault by tent caterpillars, little green inchworms, leafhoppers, and sawfly larvae. They are getting a neem treatment this evening.
Neem oil is a good, general-purpose insect control that complies with organic practice. Mix one to two tablespoons oil into one gallon of warm water, and add one to two teaspoons of mild dish soap to emulsify. Clean sprayer immediately after use.
Ticks on all minds
Japanese barberry is a prickly ornamental shrub that has escaped and become invasive due to the appeal of its red fruits to birds. There is some ongoing research linking the presence of Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) thickets with incidence of black-legged (“deer”) ticks. Why this occurs remains open to investigation. Two theories emerge:
One suggests the thickets provide great protection inside the dense, prickly vegetation for white-footed mice nests. Protected from their larger predators, the mice become a food source for concentrations of the ticks and their larvae. The other theory suggests there is something about the barberry itself that creates a direct link with the ticks, a tick appeal, as it were.
In any case, invasive barberry is all over the in-town and habitat areas of the Island, its foliage leafing out much earlier than indigenous plants, which makes barberry easy to spot in early spring. It is often to be found seeded at the bases of trees that birds roost in. We have one; I have been trying to destroy it over several seasons, without much luck. It always comes back.
In my opinion, tick check every night — and often during the day, whenever one feels something itchy or crawly — is the best prevention.
The advent of clothing permeated with insecticide is one tool. Certainly, all-property spraying is available, although there are many unknowns concerning the wisdom of this approach. Have you considered the rest of the biome, and the insect food web that all-property spraying affects?
The facts are that one can pick up a tick anywhere. Even if one’s home premises are on a spray schedule, ticks are everywhere you go on Martha’s Vineyard. They come with the territory. Don’t scratch; investigate that itch! Tick check every night!
