Loquat – An Attractive Small Tree That Bears Tasty Fruit
Loquat trees provide nice fall color with creamy yellow buds and white flowers on their long terminal panicles. These small (20 to 35 ft. tall) evergreen trees are native to China and first appeared in Southern landscapes in the late 19th Century. They are grown...
Nectaries That Are Out of This Flower!
The diversity of life is impressive. As gardeners, we focus on plant life, which has so much diversity that you could probably study plants all your life and still feel like there is so much more to know and discover. Botanists attempt to classify all living plants...
The Docile Nature of a Cow Killer
The Docile Nature of a Cow Killer Has a large, flashy, bright red-orange, fuzzy ant-like creature ever captured your attention? It may have been the infamous velvet ant, otherwise fittingly known as “cow killer” for the very painful sting it can inflict. A solitary...
Tree Leaves Can Help Control Landscape Weeds
Weed control is not top on my list as a reason to use mulch. There are weeds that can push through mulch such as nutsedge (nutgrass) or that can germinate and grow in the mulch. But done correctly, mulching plant beds and gardens can help inhibit some weeds. Tree...
A Gorgeous and Delicious Hibiscus
Just before the recent cold weather I harvested seed pods from my roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa, and made the most delicious and nutritious iced herbal tea. You may have heard other names for this plant of Asian or African origin: bissap, red sorrel, Indian sorrel,...
Dancing Around Fruit? – The Mulberry
“Here we go ‘round the mulberry bush” is still sung by small children today. There are lots of different versions of the lyrics. But each usually describes a daily or weekly task list. In fact, the rhyme began in 1840 as a cadence for female prisoners exercising at...
Fire Ant Control May Include Doing Nothing
Fire ant control options in some situations include doing nothing. Fire ant colonies consist of the brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) and adult ants. The adults include winged males, winged females, one or more egg producing queen and workers. The winged males and...
Controlling Lawn Burweed: The Spring Lawn “Sticker”
Most lawn weeds are annoying, appearing in unwanted places and numbers, but few actually cause physical harm like the pest plant Lawn Burweed (Soliva sessilis)! This infamous small, spreading winter weed’s seeds generally germinate when temperatures begin to cool in...
New Demonstrations in the UF/IFAS Extension Building at the North Florida Fair
New Demonstrations in the UF/IFAS Extension Building at the North Florida Fair Every year during the North Florida Fair in Tallahassee, extension agents from all over the Florida Panhandle showcase their various programming in the UF/IFAS exhibitor building. This...
Knowing and Loving your Backyard Spiders
With Halloween just behind us, some of us may still have fake spiders in our yards and cotton webbing all over the shrubbery. Spiders (along with bats) are among those creatures feared and demonized in folklore this time of year. It is important to remember, however,...