Q: Some of the plants in my garden have a unique growth covering the plant like a giant spider web. It is orange and looks like the plants were sprayed with one of those cans of play string. I have tried pulling it off the plants, but it seems to come back. What is this and what do I do to control it?

A: The plant you are describing is called Dodder or strangle weed (Cuscuta campestris). It is a parasite that gets its nutrition from other plants. Being an annual, it will die when the cold weather arrives and will come back next year from seeds. Dodder can grow fast enough in one season to completely cover a medium-sized tree. It is found worldwide and is a serious crop pest in some areas. Your landscape plants can be killed in one season if it is not controlled.

Once it sprouts, it grows until it finds another plant. The vines grow on the plant and produce suckers that suck the sap of the host plant and at the same time the roots attaching it to the ground die. It can spread over the top of any nearby plants. Small white flowers produce pea-sized seed pods. The seeds can stay dormant in the ground for several years.

If you pull it off the plants, be sure to get the seeds. Pulling it off will help control it and may prevent flowers and seeds, but any small suckers and pieces of stem still on the host plants will continue growing, so this method of control will have to be repeated during the summer.

Dodder can be killed with herbicide sprays such as those with glyphosate, but these herbicides can kill the host plant too. Pre-emergent herbicides with Triluralin, such as Preen, Miracle-Gro Garden Weed Preventer, and Treflan will prevent the seeds from growing. Pre-emergent herbicides need to be applied to the flowerbeds early in the spring before the seeds sprout.

Q: My peonies, coneflowers and several other perennials are starting to look miserable. The leaves are not green anymore and they look more than half dead. Can I cut them back to the ground a month early or will that cause them problems?

A: In eastern parts of the country, wet spring or summer weather has allowed fungal leaf diseases to infect many perennials. Peonies get a disease called Peony Measles. The top of the leaves develop red or purple circular spots.

One of the first steps in controlling fungal diseases is sanitation. Remove the infected leaves before they collapse to the ground and become hard to find. If there are a lot of dead leaves on the mulch, remove some of it as well, and replace it this fall. Be sure not to bury the crown of the peony plants with too much mulch as they need to stay at the surface.

Q: Some of the ears of corn in my garden have become infected with a strange bug. The kernels of corn have been transformed into a weird blue mass of bumps. Do I have to destroy the whole plant and not plant corn again in this garden, or is this something easy to get rid of?

A: The ears of corn are displaying the gall or mushroom stage of corn smut. It is a fungal disease of corn that is spread in the wind and is found wherever corn is grown. Usually it doesn't infect too many plants in farm fields; however, it can be devastating in the small garden plot. The blue or gray mushroom stage will eventually dry up and turn black before releasing the spores. Dispose of it before it reaches that stage.

The mushrooms are edible and it is a delicacy in Mexican cuisine where it is known as huitlacoche. Since it would be a hard sell to get people to eat corn smut, the food industry now calls it the Mexican Truffle. So, instead of throwing it out, you may want to try it.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at [email protected]. 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.