Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / June 2008

After flowering do the stalks get trimmed back?
My Orchids live in Florida.

An odd flower formed around the main leading shoot of a tomato plant
With rather more than the normal number of petals, it completel
surrounded the main leading shoot, with a tuft of leaves sticking ou
of the middle. A deformed tomato (with irregular deep ribbing) has no

I was told that the telltale sign of the wooley adelgid were masses of
a "cottony" material in the branches.  I have discovered some areas of
spittle.  Is the spittle from a different bug or can that be the
wooley adelgid?

Please help!
Many thanks,
H :
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The Book of Rarer Vegetables by George Wythes,Gardener to the Duke of
Northumberland & Harry Roberts,1906,VGC,109 pages.
Really useful old gardening manual on sone very unusual
vegetables,with a small section at the end of each section on how to

I have been sent this picture for our local HPS newsletter as a couple of
members just back from Spain found the beaches covered with millions of
these strange objects which were hollow and empty. they seem to be made
up of plant material, any one any idea what they may be?

Hello, my first post is about a Rowan tree i have acquired! It is
young one, about half a metre of growth on it. I have the roots sittin
in a tub of water just now but i want to obviously put it in the ground
The problem is that i havnt yet completed digging the turf up in m

I have just bought a new John Deere LA115 from a dealer in Long Islan
USA, just wondering if anyone knows if anything has to be changed o
the mower to run over here. I heard that the spark plugs might need t
be changed as we run a different mix petrol. Any help would b

Both my cucumber plant and several broad beans plants apear to be
wilting and dying. I can see no sign of pests. Does anyone have any
ideas? I don't think I have been overwatering but I suppose it is
possible.

I've found some patches of grass that grow really fast and I wonder if
someone could identify it for me please.
How to get rid of it would be nice to know too.
Pictures are here:

Have an irrigation well with 30' depth, 2" pump input and check valve, 1.5hp
pump.  This setup has delivered great water for the system.  Saturday, the
pump ran but nothing coming out.  Went ahead and primed it, but no output.
The guy that dug the well said "well, it's either a ...

Last year,my first year on an allotment, I had disastrous
results with Brussels sprouts.
They all opened up like flowers and I was told that I had not
transplanted them deep enough and not firmed them into the

I am currently conducting a study of the public perceptions of gree
roofs and facades (plants grown on buildings) for the University o
Surrey, and I would very much like to get the opinions of thos
interested in gardening. I'd like to invite you all to fill in a

Does anyone have any links or know of any books on Wildflowers and
grasses in Southeastern Oklahoma?  I am trying to ID the plants I am
using in cut flower arrangements and dry flower arrangements.

Actually, I'm not even sure if they are weeds or not. I don't know
much about horticulture. I tried a few web sites to try to id them
myself, but couldn't even answer most of the questions (ex,
http://weedid.aces.uiuc.edu/).