Re: Iris problem

In a message dated 5/21/01 2:21:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
mygarden@easystreet.com writes:

<< I must say I'm puzzled why the Rocky Mountains and/or the Mississippi river
 still stops pests and diseases from being shared with one coast from the
 other.  You have Iris borer, Kudzu and Japanese Beetles - we do not.  We
 have root weevils, Sudden Oak Death (marching north from California) and
 probably some horrible exotic plant (i.e. weed) you do not. (do you have
 bind weed? Wild cucumber? Horsetail rush?) >>

Hello Marilyn,

That iris borer is a native eastern pest.   It's natural food supply is the 
iris indigenous to the Northeast and probably the iris a bit farther south, 
iris versicolor, iris virginica.  This is big, fat, nasty (eats its siblings) 
caterpillar that destroys tall bearded irises.  I don't grow these bearded 
irises because the pest is too prevalent, requiring a lot of vigilance and 
work.  When gardeners planted non-native irises the borer found something he 
liked even better.  The old hybrids survive, the newer larger TB's are 
infested every time.

Just why you do not have the Japanese beetle yet is probably a matter of 
time.  On a map of beetle locations, I notice that the Denver area has some.  
You will always remember the time of your life when the beetle, called JB's 
here, were not part of your garden.  They are hard to kill, most people 
handpick them.  Their life cycle allows them to mature from the grub stage to 
adult over the entire summer.  This means you do not have a hatch and get rid 
of it, it means there are some new ones every day.  Many garden pests have a 
season, easier to control  They eat only certain things.  The JB eats roses, 
all roseacea, hollyhocks and all malva,  grape vines (planted as trap plants) 
and when it's favs are not around it will eat anything it lands on.  This 
pest begins life as a grub in the lawn.  We are always being advised to kill 
the grubs in the lawn as a control.  Not good if your neighbor does not also 
kill grubs.  There are grasslands not controlled by anyone where it can 
manage to breed.  A truly nasty garden pest.

Yes, we have bindweed.  It is not a pest in my garden but I see it in the 
fields.  Zone 4 is a short season so this plant is cut down  before it can 
make the masses of vines it does farther south.  Horsetail is a plant we also 
have and it can ruin an entire garden if it is spread around by plowing or 
any mechanical cultivation.  The best I can do is pull it out when I see it.  
I have a compulsion to pull horsetail and walk clear through any garden if I 
see one stalk.  Wild cucumber. I am not sure that I know that plant.  There 
is something called spitting cucumber. Canada thistle is another.

If you have not seen the Kudzu, it is an amazing plant.  Than goodness it 
cannot survive in the North.  We do not have it in NYS, I don't know it's 
northern range.

Eventually all of us will have everything, I suppose, if it will survive the 
weather.  

You mention an oak disease.  There all sorts of tree failings here that 
become known only when mass deaths take place.  Sugar Maples near highways 
don't die but become weak.  Native Ash trees have some weakening disease.  
Many more.  Of course, everyone knows we have no American elms or if you do 
it is only temporary.

The Rocky Mountains probably are some kind of deterrent but it may be just a 
delay in the rapid movement of some of these plagues.  You have a rose rust 
that is not a problem here.  That is another example.

Best of all is the slug thing.  You have the winners there.  I have not seen 
one slug this year and that is because we have not had any rain since the 
snowmelt in April.  I seldom have many slugs in the garden unless, as last 
year, it rained every day.

All of these issues are interesting as they are all studied all of time.  My 
personal thoughts from the old Northeast is that the battles will go on.  I 
think, one day, I will read a catalog description that will state the tree or 
shrub does not fall victim to and here add all the diseases and pests around. 
 Not how beautiful or desirable, just how free of pest and disease. We may be 
all growing the same dozen trees. 

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4



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