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Black spot on roses, Japanese beetles are among pests; lindens, lilies provide pretty sight
By Jim Chatfield
Special to the Beacon Journal
Published on Saturday, Jul 12, 2008
This is quite a season, with ongoing rains keeping Northeast Ohio lawns lush, but at the same time promoting fungal disease problems in the landscape. We were reminded of this at the Plant Diagnostic Academy of the Ohio State University Extension earlier this week at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster. Our plant identification, plant problem and pest walks were wet on Wednesday but otherwise quite glorious with blue skies and a plethora of diseases, insects and lovely plants to study. Here are a few examples.
• Black spot of roses. This fungal disease that occurs only on roses thrives when leaves remain wet for seven hours or longer. It is not hard to imagine how or when that happened this spring and summer. Many types of roses are affected, even those, such as Knockout roses, that sail through with little black spot in many years. Clean up black spot-infested leaf, cane and flower debris, improve foliar drying conditions by keeping irrigation water off foliage and, if desired, use protective fungicide spray programs. And do a reverse rain dance — though beware what you wish for!
• Japanese beetles. Another rose problem, but this time not restricted to roses, is Japanese beetle feeding. They arrived a bit late this year, but are making up for lost time, feeding on everything from roses to lindens, from crab apples to witch hazels. Believe it or not, their lateness probably has to do with droughty conditions. Not this year, of course, but OSU's bug doc, Dave Shetlar, speculates that dry conditions last summer resulted in delayed egg-laying and hatching, and subsequently late development of Japanese beetle grub larvae that wintered in less mature stages than usual. He suspects that this carried over to this year, with maturation to adults a bit later than normal.
Many general-use insecticides are effective in controlling adult Japanese beetles — just check the label. Japanese beetle bag traps are not effective controls. They attract large numbers of beetles, all right, but typically the traps attract more beetles than they can catch, so the result on your plants is more damage than would have occurred if traps were not used.
If you do not like using pesticides, there is one predator of Japanese beetles you can employ — your own two hands. Or you can just ignore them; the leaf skeletonization injury they cause looks pretty horrible, but they will not kill your plants. This, too, shall pass.
• Silver linden. As noted, linden trees (Tilia) are one of the favored foods of Japanese beetles. Silver linden (Tilia tomentosa), however, is less-favored than other landscape lindens such as little-leaf linden (Tilia cordata). We were reminded of that this week in Wooster, as silver lindens at OSU's Secrest Arboretum were absolutely glorious with their shimmering foliage — and it was not because of reflected light from Japanese beetle wings! There was some feeding, but not much, although there were a large number of Japanese beetles on the dangling, aromatic silver linden flowers. Apparently, after mauling the flowers for a bit, they flew off to little-leaf lindens and other host plants.
But back to more pleasant topics. Silver linden is a medium to large shade tree that does quite well in street and landscape sites that can accommodate its size. It has dark green upper leaves and silvery lower leaf surfaces that shimmer attractively in the wind. The Sterling cultivar has magnificent overall structure, with broad pyramidal crown. It was a true standout in the OSU Shade Tree Evaluation Plot (1960s-1990s) at Secrest Arboretum in Wooster, and specimens of silver linden were kept for display once the research plot was decommissioned.
• Lilies. As indicated on OSU Extension's Buckeye Yard and Garden Line (http://bygl.osu.edu), now is the time to enjoy ''the heady fragrance permeating Ohio gardens at this time, especially if a Stargazer is present!'' Asiatic, oriental and other lilies are in full bloom, and the majority of them are fragrant. Plants grow from 2 to 6 feet tall, with straplike foliage along the stems. There is a wide variety of bloom colors, including reds, scarlets, oranges, whites, pinks, purples and blends, depending upon the type and cultivar.
Once lilies finish blooming, cut the blooms and about 4-5 inches of the foliage off and let them grow the rest of the season. Once they begin to turn yellow, cut them back to about 6 inches from the ground. All varieties prefer well-drained soil and full sun, with some protection for the bulb and roots; light mulching or the canopy from other plants takes care of this.
The Tiny series is commonly used for pot production, but should be considered for the garden. This short, 18-inch-tall plant has loads of blooms on sturdy stems that blend into the garden after bloom time. Tiny Bee is a bright yellow and Tiny Hope has wonderful, bold maroon-reddish blooms.
So, enjoy the garden and realize that there are two sides to everything in the garden, landscape and woods. Wet weather is starting to bring us more mosquitoes. Clean up areas of stagnant water, use some of the natural biological larval control products and apply repellents according to label instructions and personal choice.
For information, check the OSU Extension Bulletin 641, Mosquito Pest Management, available through Extension offices or on the Web at http://ohioline.osu.edu.
On the other hand, wet weather also helped control gypsy moths in Ohio this year. Moisture encouraged Entomophaga maimaga, a fungal pathogen of gypsy moth caterpillars that turns them into ''liquid goo.'' Ain't nature grand!
Jim Chatfield is a horticultural educator with Ohio State University Extension. If you have questions about caring for your garden, write: Plant Lovers' Almanac, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640. Include your phone number.
This is quite a season, with ongoing rains keeping Northeast Ohio lawns lush, but at the same time promoting fungal disease problems in the landscape. We were reminded of this at the Plant Diagnostic Academy of the Ohio State University Extension earlier this week at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster. Our plant identification, plant problem and pest walks were wet on Wednesday but otherwise quite glorious with blue skies and a plethora of diseases, insects and lovely plants to study. Here are a few examples.
Get the full article here.
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