Gardening, Puttering and Fire Season Thread, July 9

Crinum lilies are blooming again, and I have white spider lilies in the bed with them. Always start to bloom about July 4th. - Tom Servo

Luminous. All about Crinums. Longfield Gardens.

I once rented in a place that had amarcrinums (a cross with amaryllis) in the front yard, in Southern California. Susceptible to snails, but delightful. They will grow in the Central Valley of California, too, but tend to look ragged in the middle of summer.

one more photo, since I adore this flower. You can see how extended the stamens are, almost like antennae! Also a view of the luscious foliage the plant has.

Pretty exotic for a native plant!

Critters

We have a suggestion for today's thread:

While it's not the joyful and inspiring topic for the garden thread, I'm wondering if we should have a discussion on garden pests.

I'm only mentioning this because I just spent a couple hours clearing bagworms off my arbor vitae. Not the first time I've had a challenge. I tried growing brussel sprouts one year only to have to deal with cabbage moth larvae/worms. And don't get me started on what the deer have managed to take out. Sometimes I feel like some of my gardens have just been a buffet for nature.

Thanks,
Shy Lurking Voter

-SLV

This is a good idea. We have had discussions of insect pests in the past. Maybe we should try one at a time (unless you are having trouble with another right now). PennState Extension has a pretty good write-up on Bagworms. Sometimes they are mistaken for Gypsy Moths (name may change soon), grass bagworms, or snail-cased bagworms. They live on conifers.

Bagworms overwinter as eggs inside the bag constructed by the female (Figure 1). In late May through mid-June, eggs hosta and the larvae crawl out the bottom of this bag. They spin down on a thin strand of silk (a habit known as "ballooning"). Larvae will settle to feed on lower branches or may be blown to nearby plants during the ballooning stage. When they reach a suitable host, the larvae begin to feed and produce silk to construct individual bags around their bodies (Figure 2). Plant debris is woven into each bag to camouflage and protect the larva. The larva feeds through an opening at the top of the bag, while the pointed end of the bag dangles from the host. Very young larvae may carry their bags in a snail-like manner for a short time.

Only the newly hostaed larva and the male moth can be found outside a protective bag. As the larva grows, it enlarges the bag by adding more silk and plant material (Figure 4). The bag is attached to branches of the host with loose strands of silk and can be moved to get to fresh plant material (Figure 5). . .

Delightful!

Anybody have experience or ideas for dealing with this pest?

Below, a bigger critter that can sometimes be a pest:

Grimmy sent the following:

My wife appropriates my trail cameras in the off season (80% of the year), and had this one dangling from a branch overlooking a small, dry creek in the yard. A curious raccoon had a lot of fun playing with it one evening. That's the camera mounting strap in its mouth.

Friendly raccoon!

Fire Season

This is going to last for a while. Maybe we can gather tips and cautions from The Horde. NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker had a scare - a fire she could see from her yard!

The small plane carrying fire retardant we still call bombers because that's what they were originally, just retrofitted. The larger 747 type plane are the big daddies.

Another type of plane dropping retardant. Can you tell what kind it is? Any aviation buffs out there?

From our road:

These pics are some of the big double rotor helicopters that suck up water from area lakes, through a giant straw looking device and make water drops on the hot spots. There was different one of these but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture. There are a lot of regular size copters too, some with buckets and some with straws (?).

More later for our aviation buffs. Please contribute your knowledge!

Edible Gardening

Anybody got tomatoes? Squash?

Gardens of The Horde

Here's a lovely path behind a friend's house in south east salem Oregon.

List me as 'long time lurker' usually filled w admiration at the gardening abilities of others.

Thanks for the lovely photo.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend. If you didn't see your photos here today, check again next week.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, July 2 featuring red, white and blue flowers in Kansas, a wonderful hummingbird moth video, a fascinating green spider, Fourth of July berry kuchen recipe, an exciting scouting adventure with black powder shooting, hiking and history and daylilies!

Any thoughts or questions?

The comments here are closed so you won't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:27 PM

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