The Oakleaf hydrangea (HYDRANGEA quercifolia 'Snow Queen') is one of the few hydrangeas native to the United States. This hydrangea is a dramatic, white-blooming shrub with four seasons of interest.

The Oakleaf gets its name from the shape of its beautiful large leaves. Though its name might make you think otherwise, this shrub is a showcase of earth tones. The leaves often turn colors of brilliant red, orange, yellow and burgundy in the fall if planted in a sunny location with a little afternoon shade.

My Snow Queen has been planted for a little over two years. It has thrived in New Jersey's moderate climate and it finally bloomed for the first time this year. Below are a few shots that show off this plant's brilliant summer/fall colors. Easy to grow, I highly recommend the addition of this plant to your garden.

Two years ago I purchased my first Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum' for my garden. This maple is more commonly known as the Golden Full Moon Maple. What struck me about this tree was the foliage! The leaves feature a beautiful chartreuse color matched with rounded maple-like toothy lobes. The tree I purchased was grafted onto a root stock and sold at a local nursery for $150 for a 4 ft. specimen.

RareFindNursery.com describes this maple as:
Very slow growing and upright when young and will mature at around 20 feet in very old age. The leaves in spring are a nice yellow-green and in summer turn all yellow. In the fall they show spectacular colors varying from yellow to orange to a deep red, all on the same leaf. This plant is very desirable and quite rare in gardens because it is difficult to propagate on a commercial scale. Plant has chartreuse leaves that are full and round. In fall the leaves develop a large red margin with the remainder taking on an almost blue cast. One of the most outstanding maples for any garden.

When trying to find more information about the Full Moon Maple on the Internet, I noticed what great color this tree exhibited during the fall season. What struck me as odd was that it didn't appear as if my tree exhibited all of the yellows, red, pinks and purples like so many other A. Aureums did when it was about to lose its leaves.

This past year, I decided to take several photos of my tree throughout the spring, summer and fall months. As it turned out, my tree in fact did turn. Of course, this is no surprise. What was surprising was how fast everything happened.

On October 15th the leaves were still green... by October 26th the leaves were a rainbow of colors... by November 1st the leaves were mostly brown with tinges of yellow and red and by November 3rd the leaves were almost completely brown. Click the picture below to view a slide show of pictures I took during 2006.

My wife reads many magazines that are geared towards women. (Whose wife doesn't?) Occasionally, she finds an interesting story to share. One day, she clipped out a few paragraphs for me to read. She knew that I was having trouble with aphids eating the tender new growth on my tomato plants and weevils/beetles doing the same to several of my Rhododendrons.

So what insight did she decide to bestow upon me? It was a recipe for a simple and cheap pest remover. The recipe called for two ingredients: water (1 gal.) and Tabasco (1 Tbsp.) Simply mix the two in a spray bottle and then go-to-town on those pests!

Did it work? Yes it did. Why did it work? It worked because of the capsaicin in the Tabasco peppers. This simple pest romover worked as well as the more expensive pepper sprays that are currently on the market. I should note though that the homemade solution needs to be applied more often. Not sure why...

Who knows what else this recipe will work for? Give it a try. Pretty neat, huh?

So the Mythbusters tackled an interesting plant related myth this week (9/6/2006). They wanted to test to see if plants could "express" themselves. More to the point, they wanted to test if they could measure a plant's reaction to outside influences. So, how would any would-be scientist go about doing something like this? A plant hooked up to a polygraph machine of course!

The Mythbusters proceeded to "think" good and bad thoughts (and many other emotions) about the plant, they subjected the plant to a quick shot of cold via a fire extinguisher and they implemented an odd test with chicken eggs... all in the effort to get a measurable reaction from the test plant on the polygraph machine.

So, did it work? Not really. The myth was "busted". You can click here to read what other Mythbuster fans had to say on the official Mythbuster's forum.

BTW, why did the producers of the show cut Kari's Polygraph test? Hmm...

For a few weeks now, I've noticed an odd looking tree that just seemed out of place in South Jersey. It looked tropical, yet I knew it wasn't because a tropical plant could not survive a northern winter. One day, on my way home from work, I was lucky enough to stop and talk to the homeowner where this tree was growing. I inquired as to what kind of tree it was, but the homeowner did not know. He was told it was a Magnolia, but he wasn't sure.

To me, it did not look like any Magnolia I had ever seen. The leaves were 18 to 30 inches long, wavy and seemed somewhat frail. It did, however, have the rose colored cone-like fruit that many magnolias get late in the summer or early in the fall. I had to know what kind of tree it was.

Last weekend I took action. I grabbed my digital camera, drove to the house, and snapped a few shots. I emailed a friend that works at a local nursery and he wrote back that he thought it was in fact a Magnolia and a rare one at that. He wrote that he believed it was a Magnolia ashei, a rare (at least to New Jersey) Magnolia that is indigenous to the northern pan-handle of Florida. Now before anyone writes me back, I also understand that this could be a Magnolia macrophylla as well. Either way, I look forward to getting one in the near future.

For anyone who is interested, more information on Magnolia ashei can be found below.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/dendrology/Syllabus2/factsheet.cfm?ID=814 http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500767

Like many homeowners, living with neighborhood critters is an everyday nuisance. If you're like me, you have squirrels, chipmunks, voles, moles and mice running amok in your backyard.

In the past, I've tried animal friendly Have-A-Heart traps to remove these pests. I've tried various noisemakers and scarecrow-type objects. All to no avail. I was having no luck. By chance, I was in my local gardening center and struck up a conversation about garden pests. I inquired what they might recommend for removal of said critters. I was told to use a product aptly named Shake-Away.

Shake-Away is a product that works in a very unique way. It preys on the said critters innate sense of fear. The granular powder in Shake-Away (depending on which critter you need to remove) contains the scent of the critter's worst enemy, the Coyote, Fox or Bobcat. I decided to give Shake-Away a try and purchased two different versions of the product. One was for voles, moles and mice and the other for squirrels and chipmunks.

So, did the product work? Yes and no. The Shake-Away product seemed to work well for voles, moles and mice. I definitely noticed a drop off in the amount of their activity around my home. On the other hand, the more damaging squirrels and chipmunks could absolutely care less about the Shake-Away powder I spread around their boroughs and the trees they frequent. In fact, they were probably snickering at my feeble attempts to prevent them from entering my yard.

So, what do *you* do to remove pests from your back yard? Let me know. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve. I'll let you know if they work.