October 2007 Archives

A few years ago while visiting the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens, a little low growing plant in a shady grove caught my eyes. I'd never seen it before, but it had a sign right by it (bless the Bot. Garden folks for a good job of signage - the bane of many public gardens), removing guess work and searching. The sign gave it a charming name, too - Widow's Tears - botanically Tinantia pringlei.

It looks a lot like a spiderwort or dayflower (Tradescantia), and indeed, widow's tears is a common name for several different types of spiderworts. The informative sign confirmed it was in the Commelinaceae family, and also indicated it is native to Northeast Mexico. A search revealed that Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery collected this gem from the Sierra Chiquita Mountains on a 1994 expedition to Mexico. Tony gives its common name as Speckled Wandering Jew. This intriguing, low-growing plant has dull green leaves with extensive dark-purple splotches covering the leaves. I had to have a cutting, and quickly got permission from the head horticulturist. They rooted easily, and found a home in a shady spot in my front yard. 

The next 2 years were a bit trying due to the grueling drought, but they didn't die!  This year, they not only grew luxuriantly and bloomed over several months, with attractive, small, medium blue flowers, but also started coming up hear and there (in true Commelinaceae fashion) - I hope it doesn't become a pest! Several of the Tradescantia clan can be invasive. I'll keep a watchful eye out, ready to eliminate every last one if it looks like a take-over plant. But, in the meantime, I'm enjoying Widow's Tears.

 

I've also been admiring a related plant, and a true Tradescantia (though a hybrid), in the IDEA Garden. She's called 'Sweet Kate', and has golden foliage in spring and early summer, fading to light green in late summer and fall, and is covered with sky-blue flowers for several weeks in the summer. 'Sweet Kate' has shown no indications of casting seedlings everywhere - maybe she is a sterile hybrid (or the Master Gardeners are doing a good job of deadheading). Click here to go to the IDEA Garden database to see 'Sweet Kate'.

This morning I was greeted with this sight - right along the driveway, at the corner of a flower bed and patio. This is not too far from where I caught mole #10 last week. There has always been a major tunnel system along the driveway, and I have never been too successful in catching moles there. Perhaps because of the concrete ledge underground sticking out, causing the legs of the trap to be in line with the tunnel. Unlike finding a plug of dirt and pushing their way through, if moles encounter a foreign object in the tunnel, they will often go around, under or just plug off that tunnel. At any rate, I know where to concentrate my next efforts for trapping.

After reading The Moleman's web site, I've come to believe that the years of half-hearted trapping allowed the moles to  create a very extensive tunnel system that allows moles to freely re-inhabit areas from neighboring areas.Trapping will be a fact of life for this property for some time to come.

In recent days, little elm twigs have been falling randomly in yards here and there. They all have a common characteristic - the ends appear to have been chewed off, kind of like a beaver chews wood in a circular ring around the trunk. Very clean cuts around the edges, with a little ragged center where it breaks off. The culprit is a moma twig girdler. Twig girdlers are beetles who complete their life cycle by laying their next generation eggs under the bark of a branch or twig, and then chew a complete circular ring of bark and wood off, on purpose! The idea is that the twig will sooner or later break off, fall to the earth and begin the process of decaying. Twig girdlers hatch into their larval form, and begin to feed on the decaying wood tissue. Of course, the question is always, what can I do about it?? The problem is, there's nothing to do other than collect up all the fall branches and twigs and either burn them or send them to the landfill. Other than that, look at it as some minor "unauthorized pruning" on your trees.

  Click here for larger image

For the last several weeks, moles have once again been making their presence known on my little slice of land. I've already trapped 9 moles this year. As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum, and it was only a matter of time that moles would migrate in from neighboring property. At least, that is what I theorize - there could be some remaining from my spring and summer trapping, but the neighbors have also been getting a lot of mole mounds. Now they've been working in my back yard and front yard.

So, I've been trapping for the last several weeks near the areas of mounding. But, it has been very dry since July, and the soil there is very sandy. So, moles have been pushing right through and under my traps without tripping them; the soil just sifting around like in an hourglass. I've been waiting for a good rain to help the soil hold together better.

A major tip for trapping moles is to keep moving traps if they don't get tripped within a day. A promising run showed up yesterday evening along the sidewalk. It was a little deep, so I used the Victor Out O' Site trap. This morning it was sprung and mole #10 for 2007 was caught.

When living in Corpus Christi, I enjoyed growing a plant called Firespike (Odontonema strictum). It's large, dark green glossy leaves emerged in late spring in a shaded spot in my yard, making a lush and luxurious clump. Then in late summer, firey red spikes emerged, drawing in every hummingbird to fight over the clusters of tubular blooms. When I moved 8 hours and almost 2 USDA cold hardiness zones north to Tyler, I figured had to leave this favorite tender tropical in containers. But, on a whim, I planted in a shady spot, and for the last 12 years have been enjoying firespike and fighting hummingbirds every fall. I'm testing out a new purple variety - supposedly not as hardy and vigorous - we'll see. It just started blooming in my garden. (click on image for a larger view)