What's Eating the Baptisia?

People often ask me, "How do you think of so many things to write about?" After more than five years of writing here at Our Little Acre, you might think I'd run out of things to say. Those of you who know me personally are snickering and muttering, "Fat chance!"

Though there are times when it seems that subject matter is at a lower level, there's always something, to paraphrase Roseanne Roseannadanna. Usually, just spending a short time in the garden inspires me to expound on something or another and yesterday was just such a day.

I've often said that I know nearly every inch of the property here intimately. I keep my eyes and ears open at all times and have discovered wondrous things this way. I also find not so wondrous things going on. As I went out to move the sprinkler in the vegetable garden last evening, I took a lap through the flower garden and noticed something had been eating the leaves on the Baptisia. A closer look revealed these - LOTS of these:

Genista Broom Moth (Uresiphita reversalis) caterpillar
on Baptisia x variicolor Twilite Prairieblues™ 

Some research revealed the caterpillar to be that of the Genista Broom Moth. The caterpillar isn't a particularly beneficial insect; they can certainly wreak havoc on a Baptisia (as well as Genista, Sophora and Lupinus) and it doesn't take very long for them to do it either. So I spent over an hour cutting them and the webs they'd formed off.

I thought maybe the chickens would like them as a treat. They like grubs and worms, so why not a caterpillar? I called them to the fence in my best falsetto, "Heeeere, chick chick chicks! I've got a treat for youuuuuuuuu!" That always gets them running to me, because they know I've got goodies.

Well.

They are not fans of the fuzzy caterpillars.

I bagged up the cuttings and the caterpillars and tied them in a plastic bag, then placed it in the garbage, which will be picked up tomorrow. I'm not taking any chances of them finding their way back to the Baptisia.

It's interesting that of the three baptisias I have, so far only two of them are infested. Of the two largest, which are also quite close to each other (6 or 7 feet apart), only the Twilite Prairieblues™ had the caterpillars. The straight species Baptisia australis did not.  Yet, a much smaller B. australis that I grew from seed several years ago, and 40 feet away, had a pretty heavy infestation.

Baptisia x variicolor Twilite Prairieblues™ in bloom - May 2012

Other than manual removal such as I did, you can use Bacillus thuringiensis to control these pests. It wasn't hard to cut the ends of the branches off, which is where the caterpillars were (they like the tender new growth) so I prefer that method. Older established plants may survive the defoliation they cause if left uncontrolled, but younger plants likely won't. I'll check each day for cats that I missed and remove those as I find them.

Strawberry Bed Redo

Back when I became a "real" gardener in 2005, we planted some strawberries. I love strawberries - they're one of my very favorite fruits - but I didn't really know much about growing them. I went to the local garden center and asked which berry would be the best. The owner advised me to plant 'Honeoye', a June-bearing strawberry.

We didn't get any berries that first year, but we enjoyed them for many years after. I learned more about strawberries as time went on, and after a few years I rejuvenated the berry patch by tearing out the old mother plants and replanting the baby runners. Last fall, I knew that it was time to do this again, but this time I wanted a different berry.

Last year, as part of a fun contest sponsored by P. Allen Smith's Garden2Blog event and Corona Tools (who provided a free trowel for planting), we were sent three 'Tribute' strawberry plants from Stark Bro's to grow. The goal was to see how creative we could be in growing them in a small space and to see how many berries we could harvest.

I planted my three plants in the bottom of a wire mesh kitchen organizer, along with a red-blooming begonia. It was a fun activity and though I didn't win the big prize of an iPad, I do consider myself a winner. I found a wonderful new strawberry!

So this year, we created an entirely new raised bed, where we planted 50 'Tribute' strawberry plants that I purchased from Stark Bro's. We put it in full sun, layering sand, compost, and soil (in that order, bottom to top), then top-dressing with more compost and a bit of organic fertilizer (Jobe's Organics Fruit & Citrus Granular Fertilizer) sprinkled between the rows. It's been a week now and all but one of the 50 plants is putting on new growth. That's a pretty impressive success rate, I'd say.

Just after planting. The large plant in the corner is last year's plant.

'Tribute' is a day-neutral strawberry, meaning it's not dependent on a number of daylight hours like the June-bearing plants are. Day-neutral strawberries will continue to produce berries for most of the summer. Everbearing plants are yet a third type, and these will produce two or three times throughout the season. Neither everbearing nor day-neutral plants send out many runners, so they're usually better for confined or small spaces.

I've already enjoyed several berries from last year's plant and the taste is very sweet, even having a bit of a wild strawberry taste to me. The berries aren't gigantic like some of the June-bearing berries are, but my experience has been that the largest berries don't always have the best taste anyway.

Strawberries are pretty easy to grow, thriving in sandy to loamy soil with a neutral-to-slightly alkaline soil in zones 3-9 (generally). They require 1-2 inches of water during fruit production and a strawberry bed will have a good productive life for about three to five years. When production slows, you'll know it's time to rejuvenate your strawberry bed and plant new.


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*I received a bag of Jobe's Organics Fruit & Citrus Granular Fertilizer free of charge from Easy Gardener.

My Love For English Roses

My husband has made it clear that he doesn't like roses. Oh, when they're in  bloom, he'll comment about how beautiful they are and "don't they smell nice?" But apparently, that's not enough to make him like them. I asked him just what it was that he disliked so much. "They've got nasty thorns."  Well, I'll give him that. But for me, roses are worth the thorns.

'Jubilee Celebration' - July 2007

About five years ago, Jackson & Perkins had a deal on David Austin English roses - five of their choosing for some ridiculously fabulous price.  My mom had schooled me on these special roses and I decided I must have some of them. So that summer, I planted 'Golden Celebration', 'Falstaff', 'Glamis Castle', 'Crown Princess Margareta', 'Jubilee Celebration', and 'Abraham Darby'. That's six, because J&P threw in 'Falstaff' for free.

Just what's so special about English roses?  They are the work of David CH Austin, a British rose breeder, who began hybridizing roses over 50 years ago, combining the form and scents of old roses with the repeat blooming of newer varieties. In my own garden, I've found them to generally be more resistant to common rose problems such as black spot too, although they make no claim as such.

'Falstaff' - July 2007
It's hard to photograph the true color of this one. It's more red than it appears
here. To see a more accurate rendition of its true color, click on the photo,
which will take you to the David Austin site.

I've loved my English roses, even though 'Abraham Darby' went to live in that great garden in the sky a few years ago. It didn't die; I just didn't like its weak stems. I don't know if that's characteristic of that one, but mine drove me crazy when it bloomed and the flowers pointed groundward. They were beautiful flowers too, but for me, that one just didn't work.

'Abraham Darby' - June 2007

I've been more than pleased with several of the others though. 'Glamis Castle' is especially lovely. It's extremely floriferous and sometimes the blooms resemble butterflies as they're opening. A pure white rose is a breathtaking thing of beauty.

'Glamis Castle' - October 2011

'Glamis Castle' - June 2007
See? Butterfly!

'Glamis Castle' - October 2011

Both 'Golden Celebration' and 'Crown Princess Margareta' are also heavy bloomers and are the most gorgeous shades of golden yellow and apricot, respectively.

'Golden Celebration' - July 2007

'Crown Princess Margareta' - July 2007

Last week, the folks at David Austin Roses sent me four new English roses to trial in my garden. That means they were free. I was beyond thrilled when that box came. I squealed like a little girl when I opened the box and there wasn't even anyone around to hear me.

I got the roses planted in my garden this week (after the record-setting heat subsided) and they're already beginning to put out new foliage. I look forward to seeing blooms on them before the summer's out.  Here are the David Austin images of my new roses:

'Skylark'

'Jubilee Celebration'

'Princess Anne'

'Christopher Marlowe'

If you're paying attention, you will notice that they sent 'Jubilee Celebration' and I already have that one. That's my fault. They asked me which ones I'd like to try and for some silly reason, I put that one down as one I would like. Well, I guess I really and truly like it, don't I?  I kept thinking the one I had was something else, until I checked the tag yesterday.

They have some deeper-colored ones that I'd love to add to my collection.  (I have enough to call it a collection now, don't I?)  They were out of those, so I'll have to order them early next year.  'Munstead Wood' is especially attractive:

'Munstead Wood'

I also love the deep orange shade (they call it "copper") of 'Pat Austin':

'Pat Austin'

For more information about David Austin English roses, visit their website.

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Though I was sent four roses free of charge, there was no requirement of me by David Austin Roses to write about or promote their product in any way.  They only asked that I try their two new varieties, 'Skylark' and 'Princess Anne' in my Zone 5 garden and report back to them on how they do. I wrote about them here because I love these roses.