Search and Destroy

Euonymus bungeanus

 

This is a great time of year to rogue out invasive aliens.

Euonymus bungeanus is closely related to the Eastern Wahoo (a name that cracks me up). The best way to tell the difference between the two involves the color of the flower.

Wahoo flowers, the good one

Eastern Wahoo has sepals the color of Boisenberry yogurt while bungeanus has sepals the color of Key Lime Pie filling.

Asian Bush Honeysuckle

Celandine majus

The reason this is a prime time to search and destroy is because many of the invasive aliens leaf out before our native species. This gives them a leg-up, photosynthetically. It also makes them easy to see from fifty yards away.

I use loppers (and chainsaw) on the honeysuckle and Euonymus bungeanus. The Celandine is very vulnerable to a sharp shovel skimmed just beneath the crown.

Gratuitous Garden pics

Romaine lettuce. I moved them to a flat to give the dirt in Mrs ERJ's salad garden time to dry a little before one more tilling

Tomatoes. Seeds planted March 22 and seedlings moved to a flat March 31

This is what they looked like on March 31

Foxglove seedlings on the left side of this tray, softwood cuttings on the right

Figs

Multiplier onions. Very few food plants thrive with as little care as multiplier onions if they are planted in their happy-spot. These are on the south side of the raised soil immediately next to a mature Honey Locust tree. I have also seen them cheerfully growing in ditches.

I was also able to talk Mrs ERJ into helping me moving some Pyrus calleryana seedlings to use as rootstocks later on. We planted them into their permanent locations and I will either bud in July or graft next spring.

Pyrus calleryana is considered an invasive alien but it makes a fair rootstock for pears. Since calleryana is of marginal hardiness in the coldest winters, it is advisable to make the graft/bud within two inches of the ground so snow covers the rootstock-and-graft during the coldest part of the winter.