THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701240087
SECTION: HOME & GARDEN PAGE: G3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Gardening Reminders
SOURCE: Robert Stiffler
LENGTH: 89 lines
TESTS AT THE University of Delaware prove that bug zappers - those black ligt traps that lure and electrocute insects - are largely ineffective against mosquitoes and biting flies. In a suburban setting, over an entire summer, only 31 insects out of 13,789 caught by a bug zapper were biting flies, mosquitoes or biting gnats.
About 48 percent were harmless, non-biting aquatic insects that would have served as food for fish. Nearly 14 percent of insects caught were beneficial predators.
At the University of Minnesota, entomologists say bug zappers can hurt the environment, because they kill large numbers of harmless and beneficial insects.
Pick up dropped blooms
Cold weather causes camellias to drop their blooms. Keep blooms picked up and destroyed to help prevent petal blight.
Bulbs will be fine
A reader recently wrote asking how to protect spring bulbs, which sprouted during warm weather, from the return of cold weather. Most likely the green shoots were from daffodil bulbs. They are among the toughest plants you can put in your garden.
Crocus, snow drops and other early-blooming bulbs also may sprout, but cold weather does not harm them. They are from Holland where the winters are horrendous. These bulbs like the cold.
If it makes you feel better, you can cover the sprouts with pine straw, pine bark or hardwood mulch, but that probably does more for you than it does the bulbs. Worry not.
Program on trillium
Nicky Staunton, a wildlife artist, illustrator and photographer, will present a program Thursday night on trillium grandiflorum for the South Hampton Roads Chapter of Virginia Native Plant Society. The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. at Norfolk Botanical Garden Auditorium. Trillium grandiflorum, also known as white trillium and large flowered trillium, was the 1996 Virginia Wildflower of the Year.
Staunton is a past president of the Virginia Native Plant Society and currently is conservation chair for the state organization.
Plant when you can
The ground has been frozen for the last week or so, but as long as it is not frozen, you can plant year-round. Winter is often the best time to give a plant a slow but healthy start.
If you're planting camellias, Ray Bond, owner of Bond Nursery in Dallas, reminds readers that they like filtered sun. Camellias do not like early morning sun or heat-of-the-day sun. Fifty percent shade is great. A pine grove is ideal.
Appleton to speak
Bonnie Appleton, tree expert with the Hampton Roads Research Station, will be a featured speaker at the professional arborist symposium Feb. 16 at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond. The program, titled ``Trees Are Cool,'' is geared toward professionals but is open to anyone who wants in-depth tree-care information. Cost is $45, but the fee is discounted for companies sending three or more people. Call (804) 262-9887.
Brighten planter boxes
Planter boxes are often left empty during winter, creating a sterile look where you once had color. You can fill them with various lengths of pine, spruce or fir boughs to create an elegant and inviting sight, suggests Brickman's Landscape Memo. Other possibilities include red-berried branches of holly, hawthorn or crab apple or a combination of Red Stem Dogwood (Cornus Sericea) and holly.
Seedlings for sale
The Virginia Dare Soil & Water Conservation District is holding its annual seedling sale. You can get tree seedlings of sassafras, dogwood, bald cypress, persimmon, golden-rain tree, redbud or Southern wax myrtle at the low price of five for $10 or 10 for $18. If you want Virginia pine, shrub lespedeza or loblolly pine, they're 25 for $8 or 50 for $12.
Orders and payment must be made by Feb. 7. Seedlings can be picked up at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center Agricultural Building 14 in March. Call 427-4775 for details.