Yard & Garden

Q&A: Should I Avoid Cut Nandina Berry Decor?

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Two bundles of cut winter greens featuring red berries.
Winterberry branches in mixed greens bunches.
Photo credit:  Miri Talabac

Q:  Are Nandina berries okay to use in holiday decor? I love their bright color and long-lasting berries, but I heard they may be invasive.

A:  I would not use them, since yes, Nandina domestica is invasive in our region. While observations of the species growing in natural areas suggest it hasn’t run as rampant as other invasive shrubs (Multiflora Rose, various honeysuckle species, Autumn Olive, etc.), we should not assume it will stay that way as the climate changes. For example, a decade ago, I didn’t notice Mahonia seedlings to the extent that I do now. They are easy to see in deciduous woodlands in winter, with their evergreen, holly-like leaves on shrubs that are short enough for deer to ravage if they were actually willing to eat them.

For colorful berries in winter holiday arrangements, Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata) is a commonly available alternative, and the species is native across the state. (The forms grown for cut branch use are cultivars that produce larger or more prolific berries than wild forms.) The berries should last from when cut branches are first sold for the season (usually early December, at least from local farms) to when you compost the aging arrangement after the new year. As with most cut holiday greens, Winterberry branches hold up best when kept cool and out of direct sunlight.

Other hollies, like Foster Holly (Ilex x attenuata ‘Fosteri’), can also be used for showy branch cuttings, and the hybrid’s leaves are more slender and less prickly than American Holly or other evergreen species. It may be harder to find cut Foster Holly boughs, though, especially since a farm will need to reach high branches to harvest. A red accent to a greens arrangement can also be added via cut stems of Redtwig Dogwood, though overall they’re a darker red color than holly berries. There are native (Cornus stolonifera, which is rare in Maryland) and non-native (Cornus alba and Cornus sanguinea) species and cultivars available on the market, which vary in stem color and brightness. If you grow your own for harvesting, it’s the youngest wood that has the richest bark color; older stems are less showy, which is why older shrubs are often cut back every few years to force more colorful regrowth.

By Miri Talabac, Horticulturist, University of Maryland Extension Home & Garden Information Center. Miri writes the Garden Q&A for The Baltimore Sun and Washington Gardener Magazine. Read more by Miri.

‘Tis the Season to Upcycle: Winter Solstice Container Gardening

Emily Clark Waterson2 Comments

Last weekend, I was doing the usual seasonal clutter sort and purge, and I discovered several partially used bags of planting material in the garage and a whole lot of vintage stuff piling up around the house that needed to be redistributed before holiday guests arrived. What better time to design a Winter Solstice container garden to brighten our porch entryway? It was time to clear out all of the gardening tools that had piled up in that corner, anyway!

I visited my local native plant nursery and found some deeply discounted, cold-tolerant native plants with which to deck the halls (or, in my case, the front porch).  Wanting to create a layered effect, I searched out examples of ground cover, rushes, sedges, ferns, and small shrubs, going for as much color as this transitional time can offer.

Decorative wooden planter featuring native plants with brightly colored stems, evergreen foliage, and red berries.

To my delight, I found a small young pussy willow (Salix discolor) with reddish branches, an intriguing Soft Rush “corkscrew” variety (Juncus effusus var.), some Appalachian Barren Strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides), Broadleaf Sedge (Carex platyphylla), Coral Bells (Heuchera americana), and abundant berrying Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). Any number of native plants could be used to achieve a similar effect, depending on what is available locally. Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea), American Holly (Ilex opaca), Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), and Pretty Sedge (Carex woodii) would all be great Maryland native options. 

Some of what I found on clearance were “nativars,” cultivated varieties of native plants, or are endemic to other ecoregions of Maryland, so I may not be inclined to put them all in the ground, but I’m comfortable with using them in a lovely container planting like this. With more advanced planning next year, I’ll pre-order more local, native “straight” species.

Close up of a drill adding drainage holes to the bottom of a wooden barrel.

My discount plant haul was so large, though, that I needed to upgrade my container from the old terra cotta pot I had on hand to a re-purposed oak whiskey barrel I found at a local hardware store. Its aroma indicated that it was the real deal, no imported factory knock-off! This did require drilling some holes for drainage, though, to protect the barrel against freeze and thaw, and water ponding at the bottom.

I added potting soil with a small amount of leftover 50/50 peat/sand mix over a layer of small rocks to retain soil in the pot while allowing for drainage, then it was time to plant!

Close up of a mass of roots from a container plant.

Following a vigorous growing season, my new plants were more than a little root-bound, so I trimmed the root ends with garden shears to allow me to ease the plants out of their nursery pots, then gave each root ball a light massage between my palms. 

Everything nestled into the container well, and I was able to tuck it all in with some small scraps of moss left over from an earlier project, for insulation and moisture retention. I finished the display off with a green Jarrahdale pumpkin that will eventually become a homemade pie and some vintage decor I had around the house, along with a colorful watering can that reminds me to water.

Close up of plants in a container garden with a small decorative owl.

I was pleased with the final result as a way to celebrate the transition from fall to winter and brighten the entryway of our front porch.

Container gardening is a great way for small-space gardeners to get into growing native plants throughout the seasons, as well.

Larger view of the Winter Solstice container featuring various plants with different textures.

If you try Winter Solstice container gardening this year, please drop us a note or picture below in the comments! 

Photos & Text: Stacy Small-Lorenz, Ph.D. University of Maryland Extension | Statewide Specialist for Residential Landscape Ecology

Read more posts by Stacy.

Gardeners Give Thanks for a Garden’s Gifts

Maryland Grows7 Comments

Gardeners are a grateful lot.  Why? We toss a handful of seeds in the soil and up come all manner of flowers and food. The sticks we plant turn into roses. Acorns become oak trees. It’s all quite miraculous. Granted, in between there’s a bit of work. We water and weed, hoe and mulch, and spend an inordinate amount of time on our knees. Perhaps it’s that prayerful stance that graces our harvests.

Perhaps it also helps us to accept the vagaries of wind and weather, rain and frost that would make lesser humans weep. We know, somehow, not to toss in the trowel when things go wrong. It’s character building, I’m told. Tomorrow the sun will shine.  The frost will nip only the outer buds.  The torrential rains eventually end.  When disaster departs and we are left with dew-dazzled leaves, the warmth of the sun, and the smell of musty earth, we are grateful.  It could have been worse. 

A close-up image of a bee on a sunflower flower feeding on nectar and covered with pollen grains.
A bee dusts itself with pollen as it feeds on nectar in a sunflower
Photo credit:  Joan Willoughby

So, we celebrate the first handful of fresh peas, the juicy tang of a tomato. We savor the wine-tinged nectar of a grape and the heavenly scent and squish of the first strawberry. My, but there is so much to give thanks for that feeds both body and soul. Beauty abounds in a garden. It stirs the breeze with a butterfly’s wing. It hums with a pollen-dusted honeybee.  It sings in birdsong and glows in a lemon-yellow tulip. As gardeners, we are front row center to all this loveliness.

A close-up of a monarch butterfly feeding on the nectar of a milkweed plant.
A monarch butterfly sips on a native plant at the Boonsboro Library pollinator planting. 
Photo credit:  Jackie Schwab

And we appreciate the mental and physical workout that gardening provides. Bending and stretching to pull weeds, tie up vines, and turn compost is good exercise. No gym can compete with the fresh air and sunshine we get in tending our plots. We also value the lessons learned. What’s that bug? What caused those spots?  What tree would work best there?  What shrub?  We look it up, phone a friend, or Ask Extension. We never stop learning.

A smiling woman working in a garden.
UME Master Gardener Tracy Barlup helps with a restoration planting at Kiwanis Park’s Monarch Waystation. Photo credit:  Ann Aldrich

Gardening friends are a godsend.  They bring a sympathetic ear, a scrap of advice, a tender cutting, and abundant camaraderie. Most of my closest friends are gardeners, and I value them dearly. Together we live the seasons. Spring brings rain. Summer brings heat. And fall brings the avalanche of harvest.  Bushels of potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and squash fill our larders and set our canners boiling. We gladly share our bounty with friends and family. 

A carton of chicken eggs and harvested vegetables, including carrots, tomatoes, and butternut squash, on a table outdoors.
A celebrated harvest at the Master Gardener
demonstration garden. Photo credit: Ann Aldrich

Who among us is able to get through a holiday season without giving a few gifts from the garden? Jars of jam, tins of lavender cookies, homemade applesauce, and herbal liquors are wrapped with care. We give of ourselves and our gardens. So, in this season of thankfulness, we gardeners are especially grateful.  For we touch the earth and it gives back so much.  Food.  Beauty.  Knowledge.  The fellowship of gardening friends.  We grow with our gardens and count ourselves richly blessed. 

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension.  Read more by Annette.

Little Beetles Are All Over My House!

Maryland Grows2 Comments

Q: What should I do about Asian beetles? There are hundreds of them on my house.

Multicolored Asian lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis) vary in color and the number of spots.
Photo: Gyorgy Csoka, Hungary Forest Research Institute, Bugwood.org

A:  There are multiple species of insects in our area that are native to Asia. The ones on your house are Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles (ladybugs). These beneficial insects are looking for a sheltered place to spend the winter. For this insect, or any other insect trying to enter on chilly nights, all you need to do is seal any gaps, cracks, or other access points. There is no effective repellent, and while the insects won’t harm people or damage the home itself, they can be a nuisance when they find their way in, since they are trying to find shelter for the winter. Check the window screening for tears that need to be repaired, and the door weather stripping for any gaps or worn-out pieces that require replacement.

By Miri Talabac, Horticulturist, University of Maryland Extension Home & Garden Information Center. Miri writes the Garden Q&A for The Baltimore Sun and Washington Gardener Magazine. Read more by Miri.

Have a plant or insect question? The University of Maryland Extension has answers! Send your questions and photos to Ask Extension. Our horticulturists are available to answer your questions online, year-round.

Q&A: Why Do My Boxwoods Look Off-Color?

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Boxwood leaves that are yellowish and blistered due to Boxwood Leafminer feeding.
Yellowing of boxwood leaves caused by Boxwood Leafminer feeding. Photo credit: Miri Talabac

Q:  I have a low hedge of boxwoods that are looking somewhat orange-tinted and less dense than usual. What might be causing this?

A: Boxwood Leafminer is my primary suspect, and I have recently seen boxwoods looking just like you describe, which had high populations of this common insect pest.

With only one generation per year, this species of fly is currently in its larval (juvenile) stage inside the leaves. Since larvae feed on tissues between the upper and lower leaf layers, you need to peel the leaf apart to find them to confirm their presence. Outwardly, affected leaves will become blistered-looking and have a blotchy yellow or orange-yellow color. Leafminer damage can also cause the shrubs to shed some leaves prematurely, so the branches will have more sparse growth towards the plant’s interior than a healthy shrub would have.

Boxwood Leafminer larvae are tiny orange-yellow legless maggots, only a few millimeters long. However, they are readily visible if you open a leaf and examine it with a hand lens, since the rest of the leaf interior will be light green. They will pause feeding as winter approaches and overwinter in a state of suspended development, resuming more voracious feeding in early spring. Larvae pupate and transform into orange gnat-like adults by late April or early May (depending on temperature trends).

Boxwood leaf tissue has been cut away to reveal Boxwood Leafminer larvae feeding between the upper and lower leaf surfaces. Photo credit: John Davidson, Ph.D., UMD

Some boxwood cultivars have greater resistance to leafminer (as well as to fungal diseases) than others. When the insects are too abundant for their damage to be tolerable, prune out the infested branch tips or, as a last resort, consider using an insecticide to reduce their numbers. Keep in mind, though, that insecticide use can have unintended consequences: it might facilitate an increase in boxwood spider mites (by killing mite predators); harm pollinators visiting the boxwood’s flowers; or harm insect or spider predators wandering its foliage that would be eating pests.

You can learn more about leafminer as well as other common boxwood ailments on Extension’s boxwood diagnostic web page (go.umd.edu/boxwood]).

By Miri Talabac, Horticulturist, University of Maryland Extension Home & Garden Information Center. Miri writes the Garden Q&A for The Baltimore Sun and Washington Gardener Magazine. Read more by Miri.

Have a plant or insect question? The University of Maryland Extension has answers! Send your questions and photos to Ask Extension. Our horticulturists are available to answer your questions online, year-round.

Meet the “Earth Almond,” aka Yellow Nutsedge

Maryland Grows1 Comment

You may have suddenly noticed yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) crowding into your mulched garden beds or lawn in late summer/early fall. Also known as “chufa sedge, tiger nut, or earth almond,” this charismatic and fascinating plant was one of humanity’s earliest cultivated plants. It is still cultivated and considered a culinary treat in North and West Africa, western Europe, and China for its nutritious nut-like tubers attached to underground stems known as “rhizomes.” 

Yellow Nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) can quickly colonize bare spots in a mulched planting bed. Photo credit: Stacy Small-Lorenz | UMD

Yellow nutsedge can be identified by its yellowish coloration, stiff triangular stem, and three long leaf bracts at the base of a puffy brown flower. It tends to thrive in sunny areas with moist, disturbed soils.  While similar in appearance to straw-colored flatsedge (Cyperus strigosus), it can be distinguished by its small, nut-like tubers. One yellow nutsedge plant can produce thousands of tubers, which allows it to produce more vegetation in the spring. Yellow nutsedge flowers in late summer and early fall and is a wind-pollinated plant that cannot self-pollinate.

Yellow Nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) tubers and rhizomes. Tubers distinguish it from 
Straw-colored Flatsedge (Cyperus strigosus). Photo credit: Stacy Small-Lorenz | UMD

Yellow nutsedge colonized North America before Europeans did, so it is considered native here by some sources. In Maryland, it is most abundant in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain ecoregions.  It is often treated as an aggressive agricultural and lawn weed across the U.S. because it can quickly take over disturbed areas and may outcompete lawn or garden plants. It tends to thrive in mulched beds and lawns that are overwatered or mowed too short.

To remove yellow nutsedge manually, you’ll have more success starting early in the season, when the plants have fewer than five small leaves. If you’re pulling in late summer or early fall, once flowers have developed, you might leave tubers and rhizomes behind in the soil that will only multiply. So, if you’re trying to manage its spread, try to remove as much of the underground plant material as possible, then stay on top of pulling it early when it emerges again next summer. You might also consider re-planting the area densely with a variety of native plants suited for sunny, moist conditions, then stay on top of weeding in spring.

If you choose to make peace with yellow nutsedge as part of your landscape, however, you can take comfort in knowing that its large underground biomass contributes organic matter and aeration to clay soils, improving water infiltration and soil structure for enhanced plant growth. It also makes a greater contribution to biodiversity than turfgrass – it’s a food source for Wild Turkeys and a wide variety of mammals that root up the tubers, and it is noted by the Maryland Biodiversity Project to be a larval host plant for the Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris).

The Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris) uses Yellow Nutsedge as its larval host plant.
Photo Credit: Katie Woods | iNaturalist CC BY-NC

By Stacy Small-Lorenz, Ph.D., Residential Landscape Ecology Specialist, University of Maryland Extension. Read more posts by Stacy.

Itchy, Witchy, Hexing, Vexing Plants

Maryland Grows3 Comments

Scary plants earn Halloween points. Some plants are downright scary. Since Halloween is around the corner, I thought it might be fun to discuss a few. 

Raise your hand if you love weeds.  Okay, weeds are my nemesis. Yours too, I bet. If you’ve ever wrangled with mile-a-minute you’ve probably dreamed of this vine engulfing your house, your car, your dog.  Ditto with bindweed, bermudagrass, and other brats. But armed with a little knowledge and persistence, you can get the upper hand.  There’s a good weed ID guide on our website with photos and management tips. 

Mile-a-minute vine with blue berries.
Mile-a-minute weed spreads aggressively by seeds spread by birds. Photo credit:
Leslie Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut; Bugwood.org

Much scarier are invasive plants.  These plants are obnoxious spreaders that threaten ecosystems. English ivy, garlic mustard, and others bully out native plants that we – and wildlife – need. Lest you think I’m exaggerating, look at photos of garlic mustard blanketing forest floors or trees smothered in English ivy.  These plants are a serious threat and need to be banished.  Learn more at our invasive plants page.

Garlic mustard plants with white blooms growing beneath pine trees.
Garlic mustard sneaking under a pine tree.
English ivy vines growing up on and covering forest trees.
An infestation of English ivy in a forest. Photo credit: Leslie Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut; Bugwood.org

Have you ever noticed a garden center plant labeled as “vigorous?”  Beware.  That could be nursery-speak for “spreads like wildfire.”  These vigorous plants are often beautiful and can be tamed, but it’s best to go into any relationship informed.  I call them my beautiful monsters, plants I can’t be without but need to manage carefully.

Mint will spread like mad so always, always contain it in a pot.  Brazilian verbena (Verbena bonariensis) will drop seed like crazy.  Deadhead it – or at least some of it – before it goes to seed. Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana) is anything but obedient.  Dig out its sneaky underground rhizomes where you don’t want it or enjoy it in others’ gardens.  Yes, it’s a native, but it is a serious spreader.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Obedient plant with purple flowers.
Obedient plant is anything but obedient, spreading quickly. 

Another scary plant is poison ivy.  I itch at the mention of its name.  The merest brush of a leaf is enough to make me blister. First things first when tackling poison ivy.  Cover any part of you that might come into contact with the plant.  And consider having on hand a product that neutralizes the oils that cause itching. Remove small seedlings by hand.  Sever vines growing up trees.  Treat when you must, following the guidelines in our fact sheet. Ironically, we’re the only species for whom poison ivy is a problem.  It’s a native plant with berries that form late to feed many forms of wildlife. It only irritates our skin and sensibilities.

Poison ivy vine growing up a tree trunk.
Poison ivy deserves respect…and distance. Phot credit:
Betty Marose

Less scary are the plants in our gardens with a white latex sap such as milkweed, balloon flower (Platycodon grandifloras), and spurge (Euphorbia species).  The sap can cause minor skin irritations, more of an annoyance than a threat. The same is true with juniper rash, the red dots you get from pruning junipers.  Wear gloves to protect your hands from itchy spots and dots.

I hope I haven’t scared you too much.  Most plants are quite harmless and a delight to both tend and behold.  Into every garden a few itches, weed witches and vexing plants must grow. 

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension.  Read more by Annette.