A Passion for Purple
It is very likely that you know a few people who have a passion for purple, and celebrated author Alice Walker noted that it’s almost a cardinal sin for one to ignore nature’s salute to the color purple… Read More
Tag: Pgm_HortComm
Professional landscape management resources
UF/IFAS Extension Sarasota County offers professional landscape management training and resources which promote environmentally sound use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides by industry professionals, and offers training and continuing education units to maintain or renew licenses. Tree Trimmer Workshop… Read More
Thank you, Nebraska!
You might already know that National Arbor Day is April 26. But did you know that we have Nebraska to thank for this? Trees, please Julius Sterling Morton (father of Joy Morton, the Morton Salt Company founder) moved… Read More
Pretty in pink
Molly Ringwald has a rival and it’s the pink trumpet tree, also known as the pink tabebuia (pronounced “tab-bee-boo-ya” or “tab-bay-boo-ee-a”), Tabebuia heterophylla, blooming now in a neighborhood near you. Tabebuias are native to the Caribbean and South… Read More
Counting Your Lucky Stars
If your neighborhood has a starburst clerodendrum (Clerodendrum quadriloculare), also known as a “shooting star,” consider yourself lucky. Because, although this is a gorgeous, small tree, it also is among one of the more rarely used landscape plants…. Read More
The plant kingdom’s “Twilight Zone”
What would you call a plant that does not behave like a plant? Ninety-nine percent of plants in the plant kingdom make their own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and other plant nutrients, via… Read More
A fungus among us
What do you do when your 30 year old oak starts sprouting some odd-shaped mushrooms at the base of the tree trunk? Sadly, there’s not much you can do – more than likely your tree is host to… Read More
When the bough breaks
Remember when it was the common notion that termites in trees did no harm – they were simply scavenging on decaying wood? Well it turns out that there are new and ‘improved’ termites which actually kill trees. Termite… Read More
Hey, ho, io!
They can be fairly hard to spot if you’re zipping through the landscape at 8 mph on a golf cart, but it is also hard to ignore 50 feet of a defoliating hibiscus hedge as a result of the… Read More
All-natural preservative; no refrigeration required.
What does the phrase ‘all-natural preservative’ conjure up? Salt perhaps, or maybe vinegar? To some, the phrase might even sound oxymoronic. But, it’s, well, a natural in the insect world, especially when it comes to wasps.