A Greener View by Jeff Rugg

Summer is here. It is time to analyze how your landscape looked this spring. By doing the analysis now, you can plan for a better spring landscape next year. Walk through your landscape and ask questions like these: How did your bulbs bloom? Did you have weed problems? Did your lawn come out of the winter in good shape? Take more pictures as you do your analysis and add them to your photo album. Use note cards to make notes and do small drawings of the things you like and dislike.

As your spring-blooming perennials stop blooming, it is a good time to remove the seed heads that developed. This is the process called "dead heading." Removing the seeds before they can mature is beneficial to the plant, because the plant does not waste energy on unwanted seeds. The plant can use the same energy to develop more stems and make the leaves look fuller. More leaves means more food production, which means more food will be stored in the roots — for better survival over the winter and for a healthier and prettier plant next spring. Sometimes, deadheaded plants produce more flowers later in the season, giving the plant a double season of bloom.

Removing the seeds may seem like too much work, but besides being beneficial to the plant, it is often beneficial to you, because many perennials freely seed themselves around the garden. It is easier to cut off some seed heads that are sticking up in the air than it is to pull a bunch of plants sprouting up at ground level in all the wrong places. Cutting off the heads and leaving some of the stalk is safer for the plant than pulling the heads off many perennials, since some perennials might be pulled out of the ground with a sharp tug on the seed stalk.

Q: My iris plants seemed to be wilted all of last summer and I had a hard time keeping them watered.

A: Iris borers are the caterpillars of a night-flying moth. The first symptom you will see is ragged holes along the edge of the leaf or small pinholes in the middle of the leaf. Then the tiny caterpillars work their way into the center of the leaf where they tunnel down into the roots. The weakened leaf will hang over as if it is wilted, when it really has an insect problem. The roots of the iris can then get bacterial diseases that kill the plant. As the root system dies, the leaves look wilted again, but this time it is a combination of fewer roots and the diseases.

The few stems that you have left are in for a lot of trouble this season, because you have new caterpillars and fewer leaves to attack them. Look for small holes in iris leaves. Run your fingers down both sides of the leaf toward the ground. You can smash the tiny caterpillar within the leaf if you do this early enough. Later in the summer, the top of the leaf will turn brown and start wilting.

Follow that leaf down and see if it has any soft mushy areas near the base. If a light tug pulls the leaf off, look inside it by holding it up to the light or opening it up. If the caterpillar is inside, just step on it. If it is not, check down at the leaf base to see if it has made it into the roots. Pry it out with a stick and step on it. If you cannot find the larvae, you may want to apply a borer killer insecticide.

The borer spends the winter as an egg on old iris leaves and plant debris at the base of iris stalks. This fall, you will need to remove all the dead leaves and do a good job of cleaning up around the iris plants.

E-mail questions to Jeff Rugg, University of Illinois Extension at jrugg@illinois.edu. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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