Thousands of Flower Cultivars on Display at Penn State's Trials near Lancaster

Sometimes you just need a break from the gloom and doom of mid-summer plant disease epidemics (late blight) and want to look at pretty flowers. So that’s what I did this week and visited Penn State’s Southeast Pennsylvania Research and Extension Center, near Lancaster.

Each year, more than 1000 different cultivars of flowering annual plants are established and evaluated by Sr. Extension Educator, Alan Michael. Quite an undertaking. The results are of great interest to plant breeders, salesfolks, garden center managers, greenhouse operators, and plant lovers in general. As I write this, hundreds of folks are attending the open house which is held each July. I snuck out a day early to avoid the crowds. My pal Al gave me a personal tour of the trial highlights. One of the great things about the research center is that you, too, can drop in for a visit any weekday between 8 a.m and 3 p.m. The plants are well labeled and you are welcome to do a self-guided tour. I highly recommend it. Or do a virtual tour by visiting this website.

I am more of a fruit and vegetable guy than a posy lover but man does not live by bread alone so I also try to learn something about the ornamental plants. The Coleus and Petunia cultivars are knockouts. It is worth the trip just to see ‘Pretty Much Picasso’ Petunia. Begonias for full sunlight are stunning. Do you know Angelonia? Torenia? How about Calitunia (a Petunia x Calibrachoa cross). A handy cultivar list provided at the trials makes note taking easy.

So before the summer is over, take a day trip to the Flower Trials at Penn State’s research farm. Stop in Lancaster for a whoopee pie. If you’re free this Saturday, July 25, check out the “Summer Garden Experience”. It includes free lectures, Master Gardener demonstrations, a native plant sale and, of course, the flower trials.

Budworms ate my blossoms

Penn State Master Gardeners have established several fantastic demonstration gardens at Neshaminy Manor Center, where our Extension office is located. We recently received the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society “Community Greening Award”.

But there is trouble in paradise. The tobacco budworm has eaten virtually every blossom and flower bud from our petunias! Purple ones, white ones, pink ones. We knew what was up because this is a recurring problem. Initially, we thought that the petunias simply stopped blooming but on closer inspection it was easy to see the chewing damage. Once we caught one of the caterpillars it was easy to solve the mystery.

Several weeks ago we applied Bt, (Bacillus thuringiensis) a biological insecticide, and that did the job. We must be into the next generation of budworms now because the color is again gone from our petunia beds. The Bt treatment only lasts a short time.
So, if your petunias (or geraniums or tobacco)seem to have mysteriously stopped blooming, check the flower buds for ragged, chewing feeding symptoms. The insects themselves are elusive, feeding at night and hiding during the day. A shot of Bt did the trick for us. Other insecticides will work but Bt is quite selective for caterpillars and so that is a good choice.