SUNDAY LIVING MAY 31, 2020 B3

Submitted Photos LEFT: Mullein, thapsus, is a biennial that makes the rosette of fuzzy gray-green its first year, then sends up rocket-like flowering spikes the second growing season. But only two or three flowers open at a time, and the spikes can grow to be 5 or 6 feet tall. RIGHT: Azalea fungal gall is caused by the fungus Exobasidium vaccinia. Take all root rot is a cool-season fungus Dear Neil: We myrtle Q. Dear Neil: I see your distance of your home. they are scale insects, and be taken up through the lost St. Augustine bark scale, recommendations that we https://www.treesaregood. if so, they will pop off if roots, eventually killing Q.in a low area of another look for a “certified arbor- org/findanarborist/ you pry under them with the pests. If, on the other our lawn where water that ist.” How can I check out findanarborist. your thumbnail or with hand, these are not scales, pools. Is it possible it was ejects those credentials? I know a sharp knife. I’ve grown I’m going to suggest that root rot since the grass honeydew you don’t recommend com- Q. Dear Neil: Please Nellie R. Stevens in my you take a sample to a pulls up easily without onto leaves, panies by name here. help a gardening “new- landscape for 50 years. In Texas Certified Nursery roots? We looked for grubs trunks and bie.” I am wondering what fact, I have more than 60 Professional for help in and found a few, but not surfaces NEIL A. The certifica- might be on my Nellie R. beneath our pecan trees identifying this. I just can’t enough to have caused beneath SPERRY tion is granted by the Stevens holly? right now. I have never tell for sure. that. What should we do the tree’s Guest International Society seen this on any of them. now? canopy. Columnist of Arboriculture (ISA). A. I’m trying my best If these do prove to be Have a question you’d like Neil to Application Here is a link to the page to make out details from scales, you’ll want to apply consider? Mail it to him in care of this A. I had so many ques- now may where you can enter your your photo. I need to ask Imidacloprid systemic newspaper or email him at mailbag@ tions about take all root give a full season of con- Zip Code and find certi- you to flick on a couple insecticide as a soil drench sperrygardens.com. Neil regrets that he rot this spring. It’s a cool- trol. If not, the aphids fied arborists within a set of these spots. I believe around the . It will cannot reply to questions individually. season fungus that kills are easily controlled roots and that results in with a spray application St. Augustine and zoysia to the foliage later in the turning yellowed and summer. growing slowly, even dying. It’s going to be Q. Dear Neil: Several going away now until next months ago I noticed the spring, so treating with bark on one of my live Azoxystrobin fungicide oaks was separating from probably isn’t justified any the trunk down near the longer. If the area is full ground. It goes about half- sun or nearly so, replant way around the trunk. It’s with new sod. And for on the south side of the what it’s worth, TARR tree which I’d estimate to can show up in areas that be about 33 years old. I did aren’t especially poorly have a certified arborist drained. look at the tree. He said the wood beneath the Q. Dear Neil: I’ve separating bark looked attached a photo of mush- healthy, and he did not rooms that have fallen off recommend application branches that are dead in of pruning paint – just my elm and pecan trees. to leave it alone. Do you Are these dangerous to agree? my dog or to the trees? If so, what can I use to spray A. From your photos for them? it looks like the internal wood where bark has A. Your thumbnail been lost has become soft photo is quite small and and pulpy. That should quite dark, but these are not have been happening. some of saprophytic Scratch on that gently fungal growth that is pres- to see if it’s sound or if it ent because the branches flakes away easily. If the were dead. If you’ve raked latter, contact another them up they won’t harm arborist to get a second your dog, but you ought on-site opinion. It looks to have a certified arbor- like there must be some ist look at the trees to be kind of decay going on sure they are structurally internally. I can’t tell with sound. I doubt if there any more detail, but it’s is anything that can or possible that something should be applied at this needs to be done to stop time. the deterioration.

Q. Dear Neil: I have Q. Dear Neil: I found this thick, waxy growth this plant growing in a on the leaves of my aza- pasture near Athens. leas. What can I use to That’s where my parents control it? live, and I transplanted it into my mom’s backyard. A. This is azalea leaf It looks a lot like lamb’s gall, caused by the fungus ear. Will it make a good Exobasidium vaccinia. It garden plant? is more unsightly than it is harmful to the . A. “Good” is a relative I’ve usually trimmed it term. This is mullein, out of my plants when I’ve Verbascum thapsus. Most seen it, but here is the offi- gardeners consider it to cial word from the Azalea be a strong-growing bien- Society of America’s web- nial weed that makes site. Scroll on down for the rosette of fuzzy gray- details. https://www.aza- green leaves its first year, leas.org/further-azalea- then sends up rocket-like problems/#laf. flowering spikes the sec- ond growing season. But Q. Dear Neil: What is only two or three flow- the systemic insecticide ers open at a time, and used to kill aphids that the spikes can grow to give off that sticky honey- be 5 or 6 feet tall, so it’s dew from crape myrtles? rather rangy. All things considered, it may not be A. Imidacloprid. It also the best gift you ever gave works well against crape your mom. Read The Paris News online at theparisnews.com