Should I Stay or Should I Go? Coming To Terms With Aster Yellows Disease

Darling you got to let me know

Should I stay or should I go?

If you say that you are mine

I'll be here til the end of time

So you got to let me know

Should I stay or should I go?--The Clash, 1981

I really didn't want to have to talk about this. It's not something I've been looking forward to. But I had to reach out for help before it's too late and I'm 'taken out'. Literally.

*If my Echinacea could talk, this is what it would be saying right now!

I am a Coneflower. Echinacea purpurea, to be exact. I am a magnet for pollinators!

Over the last several years the head master gardener here, Jan, has come to realize the importance of native plants and began adding me and my pals to the gardens.

Here in Just-Be Gardens, I am mostly true-to-the-native-form (but a couple of my friends are cultivars, such as E. 'Pink Double Delight', above.)

Along the way, my head master gardener was intrigued by some of the new cultivars and brought home several, such as E. 'Pixie Meadowbright', E. 'Kim's Knee High', E. 'Magnus', E. 'Cocunut Lime'--but many of them did not return the following year.

That has been 'OK' with Jan, because she learned that pollinators have a lot of difficulty entering those fluffy, frilly cultivars and that in many cases, they are sterile and don't produce much pollen to begin with. And being sterile means they produce no seeds to reproduce themselves or most especially, to feed the birds such as goldfinches, that are looking to snack on their seedheads...such as these Rudbeckia--Black Eyed Susan's--provide in a different area of Jan's garden:

But I will say, strictly speaking as a coneflower, E. 'Pink Double Delight' has been a highlight of my time in Just-Be Gardens. She has come back year after year and even though she's got 'frills', she's always covered with my insect friends.

It's not that it isn't okay to have some of the cultivars of Echinacea, if you like them...just be sure you also provide some natives so my pollinator friends can actually get some substantial sustenance like pollen and seeds!

At any rate, there's a big problem lately here in Just-Be Gardens, and the head master gardener seems to think the only way to solve it is to rip us out.

We all seem to be plagued by a new 'oddity' that has never entered these gardens before. Jan has tried to ignore it, claiming to 'accept' us with our flaws and not judge only by outward appearances.

After talking to some other gardeners and doing some research, however, my Echinacea friends and I are afraid she has come to the haltingly grim conclusion that we have got to go!  (We wondered what she's been doing this past year in her Master Gardener classes...and now we're not so sure we're happy with some of her new-found knowledge)!

We really don't look THAT ugly, do we? What harm can come from letting us stay, I ask you?

It seems that we've got something called Aster Yellows. It's a disease caused by an organism called a phytoplasma--similar to a virus or bacteria.

The phytoplasma is sucked up by leafhoppers, which feed on us and then pass it from plant to plant.

Perhaps you've seen something like the white substance on the hosta shoot, below? Ever wonder what that was? It's not a disease...it's leafhoppers! Leafhoppers don't really hurt the hosta...so they can just be hosed off, wiped off, or allowed to stay, if you're ok with their visiting.

But leafhoppers carry the phytoplasma organism from this damaging Aster Yellows disease to many other plants, particularly Echinacea...but also to Rudbeckia, along with hundred of other kinds of plants in a variety of families.

I have to agree with the head master gardener here, it would be sad if our disease was transmitted to her other plants, which would not only make them look deformed, but continue the cycle even further.

If we aren't yanked pulled up out of the ground and thrown in the garbage disposed of, we won't necessarily die this year, but next year when we produce our flowers they will likely still have the disease, and it might even be worse than what we have now.

So, I guess this is goodbye from all most of us Echinacea at Just-Be Gardens:( The head master gardener has said she won't rip out any of us that aren't showing signs of the disease, but will be keeping a close eye on us and the first time she spots it again, out the next ones will go, too. This isn't something to fool around with and Jan is right to throw us out bury us. But she has said she is going to continue to grow us, because she loves us.

Sometimes you have to hurt the ones you love, I guess. Such is life in the real world, and in the gardening world.

Since native plants are important to me and included in the subject of this post, I've added it to Gail's Wildflower Wednesday meme at her Clay and Limestone blog.

Until next time,

Words and photos ©Thanks for today.™, by Jan Huston Doble @ http://www.thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/

Not to be reproduced or re-blogged without express permission of the author.

Now That's an 'ice Picture!

Thanks to my friend, Buddy, for inspiring the title of this post, after I uploaded my Euphorbia 'Blackbird' to my Facebook page. His comment was pure simplicity in clever and humorous form;-)

Euphorbia 'Blackbird' (a.k.a. 'Spurge', it's common name)

Well, it IS an 'ice picture, don't you agree?!

And on that note, here are some more 'ice plants that I photographed during our recent ice storm:

Lagerstroemia indica Crepe Myrtle branch with dried blooms

Various Coneflowers (Echinacea) were also posing nicely for this photo-shoot:

This particular coneflower (below) has been featured in a couple of other posts I've written on winter interest.

Echinacea purpura Purple Coneflower

I'm glad I still haven't cut it back as in it's frozen state, it further demonstrates the natural art that occurs by allowing your garden to 'go wild' during the non-growing season--whether simply posing dried, dusted with snow or frozen solid in ice!

 A few more...

Echinacea purpura 'Double Pink Delight'

And this is what you get when you allow your Russian Sage to stay 'natural'...sometimes it looks messy, but with ice or snow it really glows:

Perovskia (Russian Sage)

Are those diamonds or just CZ's?!

Even the Aster's look nice on ice:

Aster novae-angliae

How about Sedum 'Autumn Joy' with a bit of an icing? 

Hylotelephium Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Or Blue Mist Shrub:

Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'

Or the frozen 'hips' of the Carpet Rose?

Even the stems/branches of the rose bush are eye-catching with a little ice:

How about a clematis vine encased in ice?

Or colorful berries of the dwarf Nandina, highlighted by leaves covered with frozen water crystals?

Nandina 'Harbor Dwarf'

And last but certainly not least, the evergreens put on quite a show of their own:

Leyland Cypress tree

Next up: my entry in the GGW photo contest: Macro in a Mason Jar. Stay tuned!

Today I'm thankful for the changing weather, which gives rise to changing views and drama in the garden.

Words and photos ©Thanks for today.™, by Jan Huston Doble

Written by Jan @ http://www.thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/ Not to be reproduced or re-blogged without express permission of the author.

First Dusting of Snow

We are now into our third snowfall here in northern Virginia so before we proceed with current weather updates, I invite you to compare the following photos with those from my last post in mid-December

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Echinacea (coneflower)

and you will see just what a little dusting of snow will do for a garden.

While some people might think a garden left uncut looks wild and unkempt

Seed heads of coneflower

I have become more relaxed in my attitude about fall 'clean-up'.

It isn't the neatest nor the most 'manicured' gardening style

Rosa 'flower carpet red'

but it sure does encourage a second look, once the white stuff comes along.

What do you think?

Aster

Would you rather a garden be cut all the way back in the fall to eliminate the remaining dead stalks?

Agastache (Anise hyssop) seed heads

Or do you, like me, appreciate a landscape highlighted by this natural beauty?

My area is now in the beginning stages of a Nor'easter that is making its way up the coast from South Carolina to Maine.

Rose hips

There will be perhaps six inches of snow here, when all is said and done--which is not much, when we take into account the amount of snow southern states have recently received and the amount predicted for places north of here.

ANY amount of snow is exciting here, however, as the birds never fail to make an appearance in the garden. In my next post, I'll introduce our avian visitors that have stopped by during the past week. Here's a sneak peek:

Pileated Woodpecker on suet feeder

*This post is being linked to Nancy Bond's blog Leaping Greenly, for the 'First Snowfall Project' which she hosts each winter. Be sure to hop over there to see first snowfall garden photos from around the world!


Today I am thankful for the first dusting of snow which has fallen on the stalks that remain in the garden -- adding variety to the landscape.

Words and photos ©Thanks for today.™, by Jan Huston Doble

Written by Jan @ http://www.thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/ Not to be reproduced or re-blogged without express permission of the author.