Hello, and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in the studio today to talk about all things gardening are two of our favorites.

We've got Chuck and Phil in the studio today.

So before we jump into the items that they brought, let's have them tell you a little bit about themselves and their specialty.

I'm Phil Nixon, I'm an Extension specialist in entomology retired from University of Illinois, and I remain a what they call a urban entomologist means I answer questions associated with trees and shrubs and flowers and turf and things like that.

And the pesky things that bother them.

If it's crawls.

I know it.

Check.

All right.

I'm Chuck Voigt.

And I retired from more or less the same department Phil was in the Department of Crop sciences, which is where horticulture ended up landing.

Toward the end of my career, vegetables and herbs were my specialties.

But I can do most anything as can fill I think so did you guys work together?

Because known each other for years?

A little bit, but not not that so director's office was three doors away from me.

So you know, we kind of Yeah, it was cool to be a fly on the wall, we would wander over to beer hall for lunch quite often.

Yes.

All right.

So we are.

And we wouldn't call these the dog days last week was more of the dog days, we're past that.

So what do you want to start insects, and flowers fine.

Okay, let's do that.

Tell us what we're seeing.

We're seeing in what I call Syrphid flies or flower flies.

These have been quite pesky around gardeners for the last few weeks.

And these are beneficial insects by two different directions.

The adults, as you can see being on on a flower do feed on flowers, and particularly in the spring of the year when it's kind of cold.

For some of our bees to be out and pollinating things, these guys are out there doing it because they have huge muscles in their thorax in the center part of their body that if they're able to move those at all, it warms them up and they're good to go.

So there'll be out pollinating fruit trees and so on when the temperatures are in the 30s or the 40s.

And most of the bees are too wimpy to be out there until it's at least 50 degrees.

So and usually 55 to 60.

So actually, some of your apples get pollinated and things like that fry these guys that when it's a little cold out there sometimes.

But the larval stage feeds on aphids and other small insects.

And this time of year as you may have noticed, when you drive around, there's a bunch of soybean fields out around the Midwest and we get we get these insects will feed on the on the aphids that are on the soybeans and on other plants around and particularly when we have some cool temperatures and in the central part of of the Midwest, from Northern northern temperatures, northern winds coming down and bringing us nice temperatures in between the 90 degree temperatures they bring aphids with them and the aphids will increase and so the surfer flies in Greece and so they can become quite numerous quite pesky.

People call them sweat bees but they are really not sweat BC they're called also called hoverflies because they will hover around you.

They also seem to have a propensity for for electricity, which is interesting to me.

The other picture has been on the screen is are some on my on my saw that I will use to cut cut branches off the trees and so on.

It's a battery powered thing.

And he just seemed to mob that thing.

I just love that.

And I think it's the electrical materials in it or something like that.

But at any rate, they can be quite quite numerous and quite pesky.

But they do not have the equipment to stay with.

But it kind of gets along in life by we tend to leave them alone era pollinators.

They are predators of pest insects and they do not staying so kind of a little slack cut them some slack Okay, we're gonna go to check with them.

Okay, I was out out looking for things today and first thing that came to my mind.

Were these two roses.

I don't know if you're familiar with two bros or not.

The genus is is poly antes pol y A and thts Tuberosa.

Which, what grows underground to me looks more like a ball.

than a tuba.

But we got another day, right, right.

This one is sold to me as pink.

And you can kind of see the pink in the buds opens up and there's if you have a good imagination, there's still a little bit of pinkish to them.

The standard for yours were a single white, and a double white.

And lately the colors have been showing up.

These are the first ones to come out for me.

But I have one that supposedly is yellow with probably about that much yellow not not just screaming yellow.

And then there's one is supposed to be purple, which hasn't ever flowered yet, so we'll see how that goes.

But a wonderful fragrance.

Oh, love.

Yummy smell like yummy, but lovely.

And it will perform an indoor room but it won't overpower like a like a Lily, Lily or lilac.

Yeah, I was thinking about the smells really nice.

Paper, white Narcissus is what I was thinking about that can literally drive people out.

But that's fun.

It's a it's a it's, it's a clump of of what I would call balls.

Each one when it gets to a certain size will flower the following year, that one dies, but it puts a whole bunch of them around the outside.

So the clumps keep getting bigger and bigger.

And when they get bigger than your fish, theoretically, you should divide them.

Okay.

But from personal experience, I would say when you divide them, you should give a bunch of them away or do something with them.

Because otherwise soon you end up with 20 boxes of things you carrying in and out of the cellar each each fall and that's, that's not good gardening.

Originally, we got them.

My grandpa worked as a custodian in a bank.

And I think they had them forced there.

And when they were done, he brought the bulbs home and grew them and then we kind of inherited them.

And so I gotten these late more recently.

This also has a story.

It's a little Rudbeckia.

I was speaking at the garlic festival in Saugerties in New York.

And Betsy Williams of famous or herb lady and I were in the same motel, different rooms.

When dad was there, and I was there.

Anyway, in the parking next to the parking lot, there was this kind of natural area or some would say a weedy area.

But this was growing there.

And Betsy was threatening to dig it up and take it home with her.

And I said Well, that seems kind of drastic.

So it had bloom far enough that I took a couple of mature heads and took them home planted the seeds.

And now it's kind of naturalized at the farm.

So I don't know, weed might not have been that far from the truth.

But so you have to be careful with that.

A long time ago when I was 12 or 13.

I brought home this pretty little ground cover plant with purple flowers and got it at the farm and it was ground ivy.

And we don't like to call it creeping charlie because I feel guilty enough about creeping Chuck right.

Yeah.

This is a little after that.

It's definitely more or less a weed but also sort of a wildflower.

It's, it's been at the farm forever.

And this is my effort to kind of my annual effort to for the golden rod anti Defamation League.

Goldenrod has has the reputation of being a horrible Hayfield.

It does and it isn't as as my old ta Mark Jansky would would tell the story.

The pollen on this is thick and sticky.

Not unlike pardon me snot.

And so the only way it's going to get anywhere is on a bees legs when it's pollinating the flowers.

The things that that are going to cause you problems are the things that are wind pollinated, like ragweed and giant ragweed, which unfortunately bloom the same time as ragweed.

And through cartoons and everything else.

ragweed has been depicted as this villain Goldenrod Goldenrod sorry.

ragweed is the villain is definitely the villain.

And so that this is my Danuel attempt to dissuade people from from thinking that that, in fact, anything that's insect pollinated really is not going to give you hay fever problems.

You could be you could be allergic to plants in the in the ASTER ice and get a contact dermatitis if you rub up against them, but in terms of hay fever should not be a problem unless you just you know, pull off the fall.

And like pack it up your nose.

And if you do that you deserve a for now it's golden rod.

I remember Jim or John Bolton Steiner brought a piece on last year.

Isn't that one of the last flowering plants that the insects can?

There was something about Goldenrod that made it extra, like a little bit more PR Can you Give it a lot another PR boost.

Yeah well it's on the campaign.

Well there are there are a lot of different different Goldenrod species.

Some of them are actually sold for as garden plants.

Some of the smaller ones and and actually are ones in fact I think one it is sold for gardens is called showy Goldenrod I think it's a common name for it.

So, but But yeah, it is one of the later bloomers and it is one that you can that you can many times see later insects on and there's a little little daisies and so on that are also fit that that category but but the but yeah, it's a it's not going to be a real problem I have hay fever, I'm not having any problem.

I like to always tell people I've told people when I've taught is that if it's got a pretty flower to attract an insect or a or a bird hummingbirds or something like that.

It's it's not a hay fever problem just like just like Chuck said, essentially, if it's got a if it's got a nice looking flower to attract somebody to pollinate it.

That is not using the wind got you know, it's just kind of like we n n and you look at ragweed is blooming right now will bloom throughout the latter half of August through September.

And all you got our little green spikes that that as you if you go mowing that area you'll notice these yellow puffs and so on.

And so it's when pollinated many people have problems in the spring, when when when the pines are pounding their wind pollinated when the maples are pollinating their wind pollinator for the most part.

So you know, and, you know, none of those are things that we tend to put in bouquets is pretty flowers or their flowers or are not really obvious and many times are very indistinct.

And, you know, if you're just rolling your pollen around, you don't have to bring anybody to you to help you out.

Okay, so we just did our duty, our annual Goldenrod positive PR, you're a nice guy, despite what some people say, okay.

All right.

We're back to you.

We're talking butterflies and moths.

Yes, well, just Butterfly.

Butterfly.

Okay.

Interesting thing is, is that many times people talk about well, I just haven't seen any butterflies in my yard, things of this nature.

Well, one thing that's important to do, and we figured out this, with monarchs that to have more monarch butterflies, you need to plan to milkweed.

Right.

And we've got that figured out.

Well, if you want to get some other butterflies, you need to plant the plants.

You know, it's even before Field of Dreams, one of my favorite things was failure.

If you grow it, they will come.

And, and that's a that's an important feature.

The one that one's the most common that's in many, many of our areas, and when it's easy to grow a lot of plants for it is the black swallowtail and the black swallowtail is going to feed on several garden plants in what used to be called Unbeliev free I think we got a new name for it now.

But, but essentially, it's parsley, it's carrots.

It's fennel, dill, all of these things are great sources of food for the caterpillars of the black swallowtail.

And, and it's a and it looks the way it does the adult black swallowtail with the black wings with the spots on it and the and the blue or in the hind wings.

Because it is a mimic there.

Everything we talked about today is more or less a mimic for one that we will talk about.

So this is this is a mimic as well.

The next one is his giant swallowtail.

That one's a little bit harder to grow things for because giant swallowtails common name for the larval stage is called Orange dog.

If you've got a caterpillar called Orange dog, guess what it feeds on citrus.

Okay, all right.

It feeds on oranges feeds on lemons feeds on limes.

We don't have a lot of those in Midwest, but we do have some things that are in the same family and and and one of those is the is the one that I'm holding.

This is called Hot tree or wafer ash.

It's not a true Ash by any stretch of imagination.

Emerald Ash Borer does not like it.

It's on a different different plant family actually it's in the Rutaceae II along with its citrus and so and I planted this in my yard just to get giant swallowtail butterflies and it didn't work.

Oh it does.

Okay, that's we get them every photo that I had was out of my yard.

If you plan it, they will come.

This is a hard tramp plant to find and to purchase.

The ones that I have purchased from Moni nursery up, we're up north and they're a special nurse specialized nursery in Illinois growing native plants and so particularly trees and shrubs that are native so, so I got these, this one that I'm holding actually came from there.

There are other sources of course and you can get online and find those but it's, it's not something that you're it's a common edge Illinois plant something that grows along the edges of various.

The next one is the is the model for for all these other butterflies.

And that is the pipevine swallowtail and it feeds on pipevine.

Dutchman's pipe, which is kind of an old, old fashioned over the trellis around the around the porch type of vine to very aggressive vine, we have it in our yard, and it's amazing how far it will go and climb up to the tops of trees and things of this nature.

But we have let the bitter toxins in the pipeline that the caterpillar picks up and keeps them into the adult.

And you can see on the screen the the the the black wings was spots, the hind wings with blue fits right in with the with the black swallowtail this one does taste bad.

Birds find that out very quickly once they grab the first one, they are going to cough it back up.

And it does have some pretty nasty little toxins associated with it.

Another one that mimics the same this the same pipevine swallowtail is the is the spicebush and the spicebush swallowtail is going to feed on spicebush which is a which is a native shrub work looks beautiful in your yard.

Very nice shrub very nice rounded four to six foot shrub also feeds on what I have in my hand.

This is SassaFrass which is which is another nother plant that's a native tree, small tree edge tree.

And this one apparently really needs Michael rising in order to survive well.

We've tried planter yards three or four times without success until we found one that we could bring the soil with it and brought the micro razie the fungi that lives on the roots and helps increase apparently uptake.

And then the final one I want to talk about is zebra swallowtail.

It's not doesn't it's not a mimic of ease of the pipeline.

They don't feed on Paw Paw sometimes called Michigan banana.

And again, it's an edge tree that that you know when I go out of my way to find these things and put them in your yard.

Because like I said, if you plant them you will have the butterflies.

If you don't plant them you're relying on somebody else's plants provide the butterflies to fly through your yard.

And you need to take a stand up to the plate.

Take after all the plants take actions around bringing your plants and we have a local book which works very well for identifying them.

This was written by a previous professor of entomology at the University of Illinois Jim Sternberg, with others and it's got a it's very good at helping to identify and your butterflies that you've got your yard and find out what they feed on and, and so you know what point Okay, excellent.

available through the Illinois natural history survey website.

Get your copy today and get your butterflies All right.

So we've got about five minutes left.

Okay, and now Chuck's gonna his muskmelons time muskmelons time and I've talked before about my two favorites, Athena, and this one sugar cube.

And it might be interesting to note that that my sister Donna likes Athena loves this was I don't have a brix meter anymore, but I'm sure the sugar content of this is through the roof.

It's crowded.

Well don't we all they have it they have flesh that is that is firm, more like the ones we get in the winter from outwest.

Those don't do well here because the they grow in the desert and don't have the leaf disease resistance that we need here.

Somehow these have both they have that quality flesh and disease resistance that we need.

And they do quite well.

They're both hybrids.

And I just I just live in fear that that something else is going to oust sugar cube from the from the marketplace because it is it is just wonderful.

Okay, what's the flesh look like?

What color is orange orange I bet it smells sweet to me or she is there we go did you have a good harvest of these this summer?

Not so much.

You know the weather you thinking or Yes, they were.

They were drought stricken like everything else.

And then when it rained, the weeds took over.

And because I was lulled to sleep by the drought in the absence of pass it over the allergic gentleman what a good day for me to bring this.

But yeah, they so and the only maybe downside of great hybrids like this is they're very uniform.

So yesterday, the day before I picked the whole crop they were they were all ready to go.

And so you end up being able to gift them because you can't possibly keep up with them.

But what do you think it's incredible.

Yes.

It's incredible.

That's really good.

You're missing out?

Oh, yeah.

So so so by sugarcube muskmelons seeds and keep it keep it alive because it's at the whim of whatever Seed Company has the has the inbreds that can be used to make the hybrid we've got about three minutes left.

So water wise, did these prefer to be evenly moist?

Do they what how do you how do you take care of them?

Well, they they they certainly like to be more moist than they've been most of the season.

Watermelons are better at at that standing drought.

I think maybe because of where they come from.

And those kinds of things.

Musk muskmelons would would really prefer in my major professor would kill me for saying prefer because plants can prefer.

But they do better.

With an even even source, you don't too much water is not good, because it kind of dilutes the flavor.

Back in 2015 When we were inundated with water through May and June and the flavor was not as good because these ripened when it was getting dry again, after after that, that brief flurry where we got adequate rainfall for a month.

So now the flavor is just just really, really good.

Unfortunately, the they're not going to survive much more because of combination of the heat, the drought and the and the weeds.

But what a wonderful brief season.

Absolutely.

I wanted to ask you, I have an apple tree in my yard that struggles every year with stinkbugs they get the little holes, right.

Okay, but this year, for whatever reason, and I wanted to know if it was maybe weather related, a lot of the apples are unblemished this year.

And I've lived in the same house for 10 years and they've been bad, not bad, but they've been blemished and diseased.

And this year, there are so many apples that look really, really good.

And I'm shocked because it was a it was a strange weather year.

So what are you making now all of a sudden they just shaped up?

Well, it's probably not as much insect related, but it could be we had some pretty what we have is well apples are they get their seeds around by being eaten.

So they are meant to be eaten.

And a tree wants them to be eaten because that moves the seeds and so and so they are susceptible a lot of different insects and diseases.

Earlier this year, we had some quite rainy weather at the time when insect for a very active say in in much of June are in late May.

And and and insects get diseases and die.

And that would help reduce the number of insects.

But then as the Apple started to get bigger, we've hit a dry spell essentially, there wasn't any rain and much of June and much of July.

And diseases do better under damp conditions they take out the bugs better they take out the plants better they get on the apples and you get a you get apple scab and things of this nature on on the apple trees and that will reduce their growth and you'll end up getting some knobby apples from some of the diseases that they get and things of this nature.

So I think we had kind of a perfect storm of being being wet early.

We took out a bunch of the insects then it was dry when the apples were growing and maturing, which also concentrated the flavor Yeah, just like the most mountains and then the anatomy it's it's it's rained again and and and so so that's all bad went on Oh bad they were able to fill out.

Okay.

All right.

That's the time.

Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time.

If you've got questions, send them into us.

You can find us on Facebook or search for us on Gmail at your garden@gmail.com Thanks.

Bye bye