June 5, 1998
Leather Rot: Wet-weather disease on strawberries
The hurry-up springtime of 1998 has brought strawberry harvest a couple of weeks earlier than normal. Gardeners and commercial growers have started picking berries by now in most of the state. The Plant Disease Clinic has begun to receive digital-camera images and samples of an all-too-familiar strawberry disease: leather rot.
Maple Bladder Galls
Maple bladder gall is a common and well-known leaf gall found on the upper surface of the foliage on silver and red maple trees. Galls are present every year, though the abundance varies greatly from year to year and from tree to tree.
Maple bladder galls are a "pouch" gall. They typically appear as a rounded or elongate pouch on a slender, short stem or neck (though highly variable). Total height of the gall is approximately 1/8th inch. At first, the galls are light green in color. They quickly turn bright red and finally black by the end of the summer.
Ornamental Salvias
Salvias are a diverse group of plants consisting of over 750 species. Several species are excellent ornamentals. The following salvias are attractive ornamentals for the home landscape.
Red salvia (Salvia splendens) is the most widely grown of the ornamental salvias. Red salvia produces masses of brilliant red flowers atop deep green foliage. White, pink, burgundy, and purple flowering varieties are also available.
Plant Speckles Explained - Fourlined Plant Bug
By now many gardeners have noticed moderate- sized dark speckles on the foliage of many landscape and garden plants (mint, cone flower, black- eyed Susan, to name but a few). On most of these plants the damage in on older leaves. That is, new foliage at the tops of the plants appears unaffected.