There is just not much good one can say about thrips. They attack ornamental landscape plants, spread viruses, and simply make the foliage ugly and your plant sicker than it was. Many pests "move in" and make themselves at home when the health of a plant is poor. Thrips are no exception. In fact, they are most likely to attack a plant that is too dried out--especially if the foliage is dirty.

Thrips are microscopic and look like elongated black flies. They may be tiny, but the damage that they cause is not. And that damage is quite characteristic, and easily identified. The foliage becomes silvery or bronze and stippled, because thrips are both chewers and suckers. There can be a blackish deposit from their presence, and often the plant will develop sooty mold as well.

The natural predators to thrips include parasitoid wasps, soldier beetles, and green lacewings and their larvae. Spraying with insecticidal soaps can also help. If their presence is minimal, cut, remove, and destroy the infested foliage.

In severe cases, other insecticides can be used to treat an infected plant. Talk to one of our salespeople to determine not only the right product but also the right time in the season for treatment.

Remember--during hot, dry weather, one of your best protections is to make sure your plants have the appropriate amount of water and fertilizers to keep them healthy.

Peppers can be broken down into four major categories: bell peppers, sweet peppers, mild chile peppers and hot chile peppers.

Here's how to choose the best varieties for color, shape, and flavor:

Bell Peppers
Bell peppers have the thickest flesh of all peppers and a mild and fruity flavor. They come in a rainbow of colors including the traditional green, red, orange, yellow, and purple. The green and yellow tend to have the sweetest flavor, while the orange, red and purple have a zestier flavor. Most start out green and then turn color as they mature.

Sweet Peppers
These peppers pack a lot of flavor without a lot of heat. They are usually thin-walled and less juicy than other pepper types but exceptional for cooking. They vary in shape from elongated and pointed to heart-shaped or rounded. These include the apple, banana, carmen, cherry, Corno di Toro, Gypsy, Italian, Marconi, pepperoncini, pimento and Santa Fe.

Mild Chile Peppers
These peppers have a mildly hot and spicy flavor and can be used to spice up dishes where a little heat is needed. They can be dried or be eaten fresh or roasted and added to salads, salsas or dips. Varieties in this category include anaheim, ancho poblano (perfect for chiles rellenos), cascabel, española, 'Fooled You' (a no-heat jalapeño hybrid), mariachi, mulato and sandia.

Hot Chile Peppers
If you want some heat, then these are the peppers for you! These guys pack a punch and are not for the meek of heart. They're loaded with flavor and tend to be thin skinned and smaller in size than other peppers. We recommend handling these with gloves (it's hard to get pepper juice off your hands). If you aren't sure of a variety, remove the seeds and veins from them before cooking and eating; then do a lot of taste-testing. It's easier to add more heat to a dish than to take it out. These hotties include cayenne, chipotle, habanero, hot cherry, Hungarian yellow, jalapeño, pasilla, pequin, serrano, Scotch bonnet, tabasco and Thai dragon.

Coneflowers (Echinacea species) are native American wildflowers that have found their way into our gardens because of their stunning beauty and hardiness. Originally only available in shades of purple and lavender, coneflowers now come in a wide range of colors. Thanks to the efforts of breeders across the country, they can now be found in shades of pink, white, purple, yellow, orange and salmon. They come in a range of sizes as well, from dwarf coneflowers that grow only 18" high and wide to varieties that grow 4-5' high and half as wide.

The 3-5" diameter flowers on these robust deciduous perennials are arranged above sturdy, elongated, upright stems that are perfect for cutting and last in a vase from 5-7 days. The flowers have somewhat weeping petals that surround a coned center (thus, the name) and are produced from summer into fall.

Coneflowers prefer full sun locations and regular watering in well-drained soil that keeps them moist, but not wet. They require a couple of feedings per year of a good flower food to keep them healthy and strong.

Coneflowers make an excellent addition to any perennial garden and also look great in border or container plantings. They are a perfect selection for butterfly gardens. We invite you to stop by and bring some home today!

Considered to be the first scientific instrument, the sundial allows us to visualize our four dimensional world--height, width, depth and time. Granted, it is not as convenient as a wristwatch, but it remains a link to ancient celestial origins, and has adapted to modernity by providing unique focal points in gardens. While easily incorporated into your garden motif as an ornamental addition, when especially designed for your location by an expert, sundials can accurately tell time to the minute.

Dating back to 5000-3500 BC, the earliest sundial was probably the gnomon (Greek for "the one that knows"), a vertical "shadow stick" or pillar dating back to the Egyptian period. The length of the shadow it cast was indicative of the time of day, when combined with the perception that the shadow moved as the sun "moved" from east to west during the day. During the period of 2500-2000 BC, the Babylonians and Egyptians built "Cleopatra's Needles" which were tall, slender, tapering four-sided stone towers, or obelisks. The shadows they formed divided the day into two parts by indicating shadow length at noon, which also evidenced the year's longest and shortest days of the year. Eventually marks around the base were added to show further time divisions.

By 800 BC the Egyptians had developed a greater precision in their sundials. The earliest known extant sundial is a shadow clock, consisting of a straight base with a raised crosspiece at the end. On the base is inscribed a scale of six time divisions, with the crosspiece placed with the east end in the morning and the west end in the afternoon. The resultant shadow indicates the time.

The passing centuries added to the knowledge of how a sundial works, and by 250 BC the Greeks were constructing complex sundials utilizing their advanced understanding of geometry. By 1300 AD the first all-mechanical clock is made, a large iron-framed structure that was driven by weights. These first European clocks were not intended to indicate time on a dial, but rather to give astronomical indications, along with sounding the hour. Located in monasteries and public bell towers, the earliest extant example, constructed in 1386, resides in Salisbury Cathedral, England.

The period of 1500-1800 AD was the great age of the European sundials. In 1635 Galileo designed a clock using a pendulum as the primary timekeeping element; the first true pendulum clock was created by Christian Huygens in Holland, in 1656 AD. From this point on, all new clocks would incorporate the pendulum. However, even after the mechanical clock was developed, well into the 19th century sundials were used to check and adjust the time on them.

Today's sundials are primarily decorative, providing focal points in herb gardens and perennial borders. They can either lay flat on the ground, or on top of a raised pedestal. If you wish to use one to tell time, here's the easy way to set a sundial for reasonable accuracy. Place the sundial on a flat, level surface, and in full sun. At 12 noon, position the sundial so that the shadow of the gnomon is lined up with the noon mark. You must re-position at least four times a year to keep it reasonably accurate.

Product Spotlight: Dr. Earth Flower Garden Food

Dr. Earth Rose Organic Flower Garden Food will help you have the best looking flower garden in the neighborhood. It contains a superior blend of organic ingredients in addition to beneficial soil microbes and mycorrhizae. You'll get more consistent blooms with no excessive growth spikes. Your flowers will look great immediately because the nutrients are released quickly into the soil for a stronger root system, lustrous foliage and what everyone wants, a greater abundance of flowers. So don't delay. Give your flowers what they crave. Feed them Dr. Earth Organic Rose & Flower Food.

How can I keep cats from using my vegetable garden for a litter box?

Answer:
First of all, remove any existing calling cards from your vegetable garden. If you can identify which one of your delightfully inconsiderate neighbors allows their cat to do his business in your garden, place the calling cards in a plastic bag on their front doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run. This gives the game "doorbell ditch" a whole new perspective--especially if you weren't able to play the game as a child.

If you don't have the time or the legs to play this game, a better solution is to sneak into your neighbor's yard at night and over-seed their garden with catnip. Their cat will be in pure heaven and never want to leave.

Kidding aside, there are a number of naturally safe repellents that should make Fifi think twice about using your garden as her personal toilet. If an electric fence or chicken wire isn't your cup of tea, consider applying a commercial cat repellent. The key to using a repellent is to consistently re-apply the product until Fifi associates the desired area with the bad smell.

Home remedies like moth balls (inside coffee cans with small holes in lids) or cayenne pepper shaken around the exterior of the bed have also been known to be somewhat effective. Mulching may help, and keeping the garden soil moist. Cats like loose, dry soil to bury their doings in. You may want to try to catch Fifi in the act and spray her with water. This will make you feel better but, unfortunately, rarely deters a persistent cat.