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YARD AND GARDEN: Change up your holiday plant tradition with amaryllis | Home & Garden

YARD AND GARDEN: Change up your holiday plant tradition with amaryllis | Home & Garden

by Home And Garden

Master Gardener Juanita Sherwood introduces you to amaryllis.

By now, Thanksgiving is over and your focus is on Christmas. Maybe you are one of those people who regularly buy a poinsettia or two for yourself, and some as gifts for friends and family. I like at least one for myself and have sometimes bought one of the newer varieties just for a change. I especially like the one that looks like it has been splattered with paint.

While poinsettias are a great tradition, there is another holiday plant that you might not want to overlook, both for yourself and as gifts, and that is the amaryllis. Amaryllis bulbs were brought to Europe from Africa in the 1700s, but our current amaryllis originated in Central and South America.


YARD AND GARDEN: Discover the eerie wheel bug

Amaryllis grows from a bulb. Bulbs can be purchased as a loose bulb in a bin at a garden center, in a box with an enclosed pot and potting medium, or from a catalog or online with a decorative pot that complements the bloom and also includes a potting medium. Select the largest bulbs available for more flowers. Make sure bulbs are firm and dry with no signs of damage, mold, or decay.

I was thrilled a few years back to find a bulb in a bin at a reputable garden center that displayed a lovely light pink bloom on a picture over the bin. Brought it home, potted it, lovingly cared for it, and waited for the plant to do its thing.

Guess what—when it bloomed, it was the same old red. It was a lovely plant, but a disappointment because I was expecting it to be a delicate shell pink. Guess loose bulbs can get mixed up from bin to bin.


YARD AND GARDEN: Interested in becoming a Master Gardener?

Amaryllis can come in white or many shades in the red/pink spectrum. Blooms can be trumpet-shaped, or in the case of double varieties, very showy blooms with extra petals and a variety of shapes. A few blooms have narrow petals that are tendril-like. Some blooms called picotee have a thin line of contrasting color outlining petals—think white outlined in red. Many blooms feature two colors such as burgundy and white.

Plant amaryllis bulbs in a container that has drainage holes to minimize root rot. The pot should be about one inch wider than the bulb and twice as tall. The potting medium that is sold in the boxed kits or that comes with a bulb and decorative pot is finely shredded peat. Avoid letting that dry out as it is difficult to rehydrate. When to top two inches of soil feels dry, water and let it drain freely.

A problem in making the plant its utmost in appearance is the stem handling the blooms, which get top heavy, can fall over. This can be taken care of in several ways: by purchasing a small diameter dowel rod and cutting it to size, by purchasing a commercially made amaryllis stake, or by using one of those arched bamboo pieces that come in vining plant pots from the nursery.

A clever stake in a catalog that I received this year looked like a ladder with Santa or a snowman ascending. That would likely put a smile on someone’s face.

To maximize the appearance of your amaryllis, you will need to turn it a quarter turn daily to encourage the stem to grow straight. Otherwise, the plant will seek the sun and grow toward it. Once the flower buds have begun to open, move the plant out of direct sunlight. Also, a houseplant fertilizer with high phosphorus content will promote blooming.

If you want to have amaryllis blooming during this Christmas season, you should be putting the bulb in a pot now as it generally takes 4 to 8 weeks for the growth/blooming process to reach fruition. You can get amaryllis to bloom again, but that’s a topic for another column. In the meantime, keep your amaryllis watered and enjoy their beauty.

If you have questions about your garden or landscape, contact a master gardener at the University of Illinois Extension office in Mattoon at 217-345-7034 or through our online hotline at https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/1523725. Be sure to visit U of I Extension’s horticulture website http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ccdms/ and like the Master Gardeners’ Facebook page www.facebook.com/ColesCountyMasterGardeners.

YARD AND GARDEN: Discover the eerie wheel bug | Home & Garden

YARD AND GARDEN: Discover the eerie wheel bug | Home & Garden

by Home And Garden

Master Gardener Darla Chouinard introduces us to the eerie wheel bug.

Recently, a neighbor posted a picture of a big scary bug on social media inquiring what it was. I promptly identified it as an assassin bug or a wheel bug specifically an Arilus cristatus (Linnaeus). I am familiar with the wheel bug, as I found a dead one at my house not long before. There are about 160 species of assassin bugs in North America but the cristatus variety is found only in the United States.

Even though these bugs are terrifying, they are beneficial to the farmer and gardener. Their diet includes “pest insects” including insect eggs, leafhoppers, aphids, larvae, moths, and caterpillars, just to name a few. It is also one of the few bugs that eat the brown marmorated stink bug. Unfortunately, they eat beneficial bugs like lady beetles and honey bees.


YARD AND GARDEN: Interested in becoming a Master Gardener?

The adult wheel bug is approximately 1 to 1.25 inches long. Its coloring can be dark brown, grey, or black and they have a somewhat camouflaged appearance. It has a sturdy rigid body with long spooky spindly legs and antennae with a stout pointy beak.

They have large beady eyes on a slim head, and a prominent thoracic (the midsection on a bug body) with a semicircular crest that resembles a cogwheel or a half-circular saw blade that stands up on its back. The semicircle crest is present only on the cristatus species in the United States. The wheel bug gets its name from this semicircular crest.


YARD AND GARDEN: Canada Geese can be real pests!

Wheel bugs move and fly slowly and clumsy. While in flight, they sound like a grasshopper and make a loud buzzing sound. They stalk their prey or wait for them to cruise past, then quickly attack with their piercing beak. It then injects a toxic paralytic substance that instantly immobilizes, then kills its prey within 30 seconds of injection.

These insects should be avoided as they will easily inflict a painful bite on humans. It has been said that the bite feels as bad or worse than bees, hornets, and wasps. Initially, the bite is painful, followed by numbness for a few days. It becomes red and hot to touch and later may become white and hardened at the puncture. It usually takes two weeks to heal from a wheel bug bite. Therefore, it’s advisable to admire them and not handle them.

Wheel bugs lay their eggs on branches of trees and shrubs in late fall and the eggs resemble tiny brown bottles in a cluster. The eggs overwinter and hatch in spring. When they hatch the nymphs are bright yellow-orange. The nymphs or young have five stages to transition through before they molt into an adult. As they molt, their color changes too.

Even though these bugs are terrifying, they are few, and control measures are not recommended as they provide benefits to your garden by eating pests.

To learn more about these fascinating insects go to https://growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu

If you have questions about your garden or landscape, contact a master gardener at the University of Illinois Extension office in Mattoon at 217-345-7034 or through our online hotline at https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/1523725.

Be sure to visit U of I Extension’s horticulture website http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ccdms/ and like the Master Gardeners’ Facebook page www.facebook.com/ColesCountyMasterGardeners.

YARD AND GARDEN: Interested in becoming a Master Gardener? | Home & Garden

YARD AND GARDEN: Interested in becoming a Master Gardener? | Home & Garden

by Home And Garden

Interested in becoming a Master Gardener? This week, Kathy Hummel has the information to help you realize that you might already be qualified and not realize it.

When I retired from teaching 23 years ago, I had a list of activities I wanted to do: writing sparkling children’s books that would have all the publishers clamoring to represent me, taking piano lessons, finishing the cross stitch I’d started 18 years ago, organizing and labeling drawers full of photographs, volunteering at Lincoln Log Cabin and 5 Mile House and taking the Master Gardener training. Hey four out of seven ain’t too bad…


YARD AND GARDEN: Canada Geese can be real pests!

Partaking in the Master Gardener training and volunteering with University of Illinois Extension’s Master Gardener program has proved to be one of my most fulfilling leisure time activities. The group has a great, friendly can-do attitude, ready to pitch in for our projects. I’ve learned so much about gardening just by chatting with other Master Gardeners. To see if you meet the criteria, try taking this quiz.

1. Are you at least 18 years old? Never fear we won’t ask your actual age.

2. Do you enjoy puttering around with plants? Would you like to study research-based information to learn more about them?

3. Would you be interested in receiving 60 hours of training, incorporating the latest field research from University of Illinois professors on a myriad of gardening topics, including soil types and enrichment, landscaping and lawn care, pruning practices, vegetable and fruit growing, insect and disease management, flower and ornamental cultivation, composting and much more?

4. Would you enjoy interacting with other gardeners, swapping plants and ideas?

5. Are you available one day a week for 12 weeks during February, March and April for the training?

6. Do you have a strong internet connection? The classes will be a hybrid of on-line and in-person meetings.

7. Very important: After the training, are you able to give back 30 hours of volunteer time each year? This can take many forms: working in the Idea Garden, answering gardening questions phoned in to the Extension Office, giving talks to community groups, writing articles for the newspaper, judging 4-H entries for the fair, attending gardening conferences, attending monthly Master Gardener meetings, viewing online educational gardening seminars, working in the greenhouse and Mater Gardener gardens, etc.


YARD AND GARDEN: What do do before winter to prepare for springtime

If you answered affirmatively to all seven questions, you really ought to sign up. You fill out a brief application and go through a short, friendly interview process. Applications will be taken through Jan. 24.

To apply visit extension.illinois.edu/ccdms/become-master-gardener or stop by your local Extension office.

Cost for the training is $200 but includes a huge manual, which is yours to keep. That might seem like lots of moola, but you wouldn’t believe how chocked-full of up-to date research-based information it contains. Think of it as getting all that training plus a superb lifetime reference manual. I still refer to mine when I have questions. Financial assistance is available.

One thing Master Gardeners are not. We do not consider ourselves experts in all areas, nor are you expected to be. People often ask me questions out of the blue, and often I confess I don’t know the answer, but I can look it up (we have a superb reference library in the office).

If what I’ve described above appeals to you, why not give the Master Gardener program serious consideration this year? You’ll be glad you did!

If you have questions about your garden or landscape, contact a master gardener at the University of Illinois Extension office in Mattoon at 217-345-7034 or through our online hotline at https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/1523725. Be sure to visit U of I Extension’s horticulture website http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ccdms/ and like the Master Gardeners’ Facebook page www.facebook.com/ColesCountyMasterGardeners.

Yard Sale Raises More than ,000 for Sarah’s House of Maine

Yard Sale Raises More than $10,000 for Sarah’s House of Maine

by Home And Garden

The 2021 return of this community celebration can help rejoice the daily life of Sarah Robinson and carry on her mission to help cancer people

Posted: Oct. 13, 2021 at 9:00 AM EDT|Updated: 17 several hours back

BANGOR, Maine, Oct. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Superior Homes and Gardens Authentic Estate The Masiello Team and Wonderful East Title recently joined forces to increase $10,685 for Sarah’s Home of Maine at yearly Sarah’s Property Lawn Sale.

Members of Great East Title and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate The Masiello Group present...
Members of Good East Title and Far better Households and Gardens Serious Estate The Masiello Team current Sarah’s Household with a check out for $10,685. Pictured (l to r) is Rachel Cole, Sherrill Tompkins, Phil Sloan, Judy Colier, Kasey Levesque, Delores Landry, Russ Harrington, Suzie Chase, Deb Forsing.

The celebration, which has lifted far more than $63,000 above the past 9 many years, supports an organization that offers rural most cancers sufferers with a relaxed property away from home when going through cure at the Lafayette Most cancers Center in Brewer. This year celebrated the return of the preferred yard sale following it was canceled in 2020 because of to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of people turned out to store on Saturday, August 21, browsing countless numbers of merchandise such as furniture, clothing, domestic objects, antiques, sporting products, and more.

To Honor Sarah
The celebration, and Sarah’s Property, honor the memory of Sarah Lunette Robinson, who died in 2011 at the age of 26 from mind most cancers. Even though undergoing treatment, Sarah achieved other people today who were touring up to 5 hours to acquire their everyday living-saving treatments. She observed that the lengthy and regular vacation was placing a pressure, equally mentally and bodily, on these fellow cancer patients, so she invited them into her have home to deliver them a position to remain on remedy times.

This is how Sarah’s Household of Maine started. It afterwards grew into its possess 9-area facility in Holden that has furnished quite a few people today more than the yrs with a supportive, and affordable put to continue to be.

Sarah, who was a actual estate agent with Town & Nation Realtors in Bangor, now a Superior Dwelling and Gardens Actual Estate The Masiello Group organization, was a beloved member of the local community. Good East Title and The Masiello Team spouse and children have near ties to the group. Not only was Sarah after an agent, but Director Delores Landry was an agent as nicely, and other individuals ended up close friends and co-employees of Sarah’s as effectively. The shut link, and the rapid require for its services, inspired the two companies to aid Sarah’s Residence of Maine and hold Sarah’s memory alive.

“Sarah was this kind of a fantastic particular person and a lively section of our neighborhood,” explained Kasey Levesque, of Excellent East Title and organizer of the yard sale. “This celebration has been a good way to deliver together people of us who realized and loved her, as effectively as do a thing that just arrived naturally to her–supporting individuals in a time of will need.”

This year’s property sale proceeds ended up donated in honor of Landry’s late mom, Priscilla A. “Pat” Rollins, who died of cancer in September and was a volunteer for Sarah’s House. Rollins assisted with bookkeeping, cleansing rooms and laundry, donating far more than 1,200 several hours of provider. In 2019, Rollins was honored with the Amanda Dempsey Award for volunteering, which recognized in this article commitment to Sarah’s Household and the individuals remaining there.

About Sarah’s Property of Maine
Sarah’s House supplies not only an reasonably priced spot to keep, but also a supportive and caring environment centered all over hope and therapeutic. Referred company are served with integrity and regard and with out regard to money assets. Anybody who is receiving cure at the Lafayette Most cancers Center and life extra than 30 miles absent can remain at Sarah’s Dwelling of Maine. The business suggests a donation of $15 a night for the remain, nonetheless, support is readily available. For those people who could possibly have trouble obtaining transportation, Sarah’s Home provides a van shuttle to the middle, which was generously donated by Darling’s of Bangor. To make a donation on-line, go to www.sarahshouseofmaine.org.

About Greater Properties and Gardens Actual Estate Masiello Team
Greater Residences and Gardens Real Estate is the only life-style model in Authentic Estate – bringing generations of know-how for all points related to the dwelling into the community market. The Masiello Group, a trailblazer in New England Genuine Estate since 1966, has 33 offices all through New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont — The Masiello Group is the greatest true estate company north of Boston and presents complementary household solutions like mortgage loan, title, household warranty, homeowner’s insurance policy, and relocation. Pay a visit to www.masiello.com to understand a lot more.

About Excellent East Title
Great East Title Expert services has been presenting title and closing providers for much more than 25 several years. It serves extra than 170 communities throughout Northern New England ranging from Keene, New Hampshire to Bangor, Maine. Good East Title presents personalized attention with some of the industry’s most progressive and flexible expert services and items readily available these days.

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Resource Greater Properties and Garden Authentic Estate The Masiello Team

The previously mentioned press launch was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, thoughts and statements in the push launch are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they always state or reflect those people of Gray Media Group, Inc.

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