The Emerald Ash Borer is an exotic Asian beetle that is most harmful in its immature larvae stage, when it hides in and feeds on the insides of ash trees.  Over time, this tunneling makes it really tough for the trees to freely pass water and nutrients throughout their systems and thus kills them.

Emerald Ash Borer...found nowhere near here; photo by Benny Mazur

After the damage in the upper Great Lake states and in the wake of EAB spottings in the Twin Cities and Houston County, MN, one might be tempted to panic.  There have been a lot of ash trees planted over the past couple decades, and there are a ton of ash trees in our woods.

However.  While we are sorry Michigan,  Indiana, and Ohio had to go through a lot of the trial-and-error for the rest of us, a solid plan of action is emerging from all their various attempts to control the green pest.  Monday night, this trickled down to our fair city and was presented at the Winona City Council meeting on this past Monday night.

If Emerald Ash Borer surfaces around these parts, city foresters, business owners, and homeowners alike will have a powerful weapon at their disposal now: the chemical is called Tree-äge and the method of delivering that insecticide is called Arborjet.  The basic idea is simple– a certified professional drills holes into the affected ash tree, injects Tree-äge, and plugs the holes.  The chemical is not benign by any means, but it does stay within the tree’s tissues, does not leach out into groundwater, and is effective for 2 years.

Does it really work?  Yes; independent university research has found this method to even rescue trees that had experienced 50% dieback.

So the situation is not hopeless.  We don’t know about you, but we are deeply relieved that EAB is not going to just run rampant.  While not every single tree may be able to be saved if Emerald Ash Borer comes, many, many trees will be. Insert deep sigh of relief here!

Treegator by chinacat013

There are a few funky things going on in this picture, and your first instinct might be to point out the weird-looking bag zipped around this tree’s trunk.   You may have even seen these around town.  What exactly is that thing?

Well let us tell you.  It is a time-saving, water-saving, money-saving bag called a Treegator!

Say you have a newly-planted tree in your yard.  Zip this bag around the tree trunk, and through a hole at the top, fill up the bag with your garden hose.  The Treegator takes it from there, slowly dripping the water out over the course of approximately 6-8 hours.  Fill it up twice a week and watering chores for the new tree are complete!  How cool is that?  Pretty darn cool.

But not as cool as the lobster on the side of the house. (We’re just jealous.)

tent caterpillars hanging out; photo by ken schneider

The University of Minnesota Extension office reports that yard/ garden/ woods insect activity is 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule.  As if we needed to tell you.

Besides the tick population being particularly proliferous (I’m sure they’re proud), tent caterpillar sightings have also been way more numerous  and way earlier than usual.  They are responsible for the big white masses you’ve seen woven in amongst tree branches…get close to them and you can see the swarming mass feasting on the tree.  Yum.

The good news:  getting rid of them is usually a pretty low-tech affair.  Simply cut off the affected branch area(s), put the branch(es) down on a hard surface, and step on the web to kill the insects. Or get a less-squeamish individual to do the above.  It’s one of the few things that really is that easy.    Happy Spring!

Pella Tulips

For a few years now, I’ve wanted to take in the spectacle that is Tulip Time in Pella, IA.

photos by Douglas Coulter

Very soon (May 6-8 this year), all things tulip and Dutch will reign supreme in this Iowa town, and I’m so curious what it’s like! It’s supposed to be one of the greatest tulip displays this side of the Netherlands–must be a sight for sore eyes. After all the white, white, white, the rich saturated colors of tulips are so amazing anyway, and to see so many in one town would be incredible. Plus I hear they roll out some really good Dutch pastries…..

So have you been there? Is it really as great as it sounds? Do the marching bands really wear red wooden shoes? Do daffodils get invited to the party at all? Do tell!

]]> http://www.winonanursery.com/2010/03/ever-been/feed/ 0 http://www.winonanursery.com/2010/03/getting-some-education-in-march/ http://www.winonanursery.com/2010/03/getting-some-education-in-march/#comments Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:14:49 +0000 winonanursery http://www.winonanursery.com/?p=641 March 2010 seems to be THE month for our continuing ed.  Seems like every green industry organization is having a seminar or training session of some kind. It was hard to pick and choose, but here’s what we settled on:

photo by Susan NYC

• Weathermatic Water Management Services seminar–Edward attended this valuable class, aimed at teaching contractors how to calculate home and business owner’s current water usage versus what they actually need to apply.  This is good news, because there is real money to be saved when you figure out how to most efficiently water your turf.
• Power Limited Technician continuing education–According to state law, we need to have current  licensure in order to legally do our irrigation controller and outdoor lighting hook-ups; Edward put in 8 (long) hours of training, getting all the updates on electrical standards.
• Unique Lighting Design & Engineering seminar–Outdoor lighting is a quickly-evolving part of landscaping; Ed, John, and Jordan went to get the latest.  They really liked how this seminar showed  how to highlight the typical home and make it shine during nighttime hours.  That, and they got free pizza.
• Perennial Picks for 2010 seminar–Dana, Bonnie, and Becky attended this seminar…one of the speakers might have hit the nail on the head with his presentation, “Reconsidering the Tried and True.”  Many of the new plants that were highlighted in other speakers’ talks are in testing…we prefer not to have our landscape customers to be the guinea pigs, so we’ll watch these new plants for you and report, but maybe it’s time to go a little old-school with plant selection.   There were a couple new varieties that we will start incorporating into designs however…Andrew Hosta, a cool green, blue, and white variegated hosta, and Carex elata ‘Aurea’, a finely-textured charteuse grass.  This little pop-of-color plant can handle dry shade, something a lot of homeowners have.

And that’s it for March…whew!

Beautiful Outdoor Lighting

You may know who’s doing what in Hollywood, but are you current on what’s going on at Winona Nursery?

We now offer landscape Lighting services to further enhance your outdoor living areas. Increasingly people are looking to make the most of their time outside and/ or enhance the look of their home. We can do that! If you’ve been wondering what type of lighting is out there and how to make it work for your place, we’re here for you.

AutoCAD

The end of the landscape season marks the beginning of continuing education season at Winona Nursery. In December, 4 of our employees (Dana Coulter, Ed Becker, Dan Filla, and Becky Benson) attended a 12-hour AutoCAD Civil training course through Minnesota State College–Southeast Tech in Winona. Brushing up on our design software capabilities makes us even more efficient and ready to work with you on YOUR project!

Japanese Garden, Bloomington, MN. photo by jpellgen

Right on cue, the beginning of the month ushered in winter, and snow blanketed the Southeastern Minnesota landscape.

Yay for all the plants! The layer of sparkly whiteness does more than ensure Christmas shoppers feel more festive and, therefore, feel more like opening their wallets. It insulates plants and “tucks them in” for winter, so to speak. That’s good news as far as we’re concerned!

The holidays being here is more good news, and we wish everyone a beautiful Christmastime.

New Tree Owner's Manual

Finally someone has put together a comprehensive yet entirely readable tree care manual!  We have had various attempts over the years, as have others, but this is clearly superior… thanks, USDA Forest Service!

• Did you know that tree branches conduct electricity?
• Did you know that first tree roots (those first found under the surface and are bigger around than a pencil) should not be under more than 4″ of soil?
• Did you know new trees need you to monitor their watering needs for 3 years?

Get smarter. Download and read about all this and more! Or contact us, and we’ll be happy to mail you a copy.