In the 1980's Linden Viburnum was the "must have" shrub in the capital area because of the pretty berries it produced. The Nat'l Arboretum introduced cultivars. Sadly today, it is an incredible weed pest in the Arboretum's understory second only to Morrow's Honeysuckle. Americorp Volunteers are trying to remove them by hand. The Virginia Native Plant Society and the Student Conservation Assn are sponsoring an invasive removal of Linden Viburnum in Turkey Run Park nr McClean VA. If you are able come out on Saturday, July 9 from 10 to 1. Volunteers will cut the shrubs and a staffer from the Nature Conservance will paint stumps with herbicide. We will meet at the Police Headquarters at McClean and carpool to the site. Prolific fruit production of Linden Viburnum has put this specie's invasiveness on par with shrub honeysuckles and Elaeagnus spp. Well meaning gardeners have planted it with the idea that it is good for wildlife. It is a matter of time before Linden Viburnum invades natural areas in other parts of the country. Sam

Climate has and does change quickly over shorter periods of time depending on a variety of natural events that have nothing whatsoever to do with man - and there is a lot of information out there that, contrary to what the fear-mongers push, the temperature deviations we've seen in recent times is well within the normal range of climate cycle temperature changes. There is plenty of scientific discussion about it, and much recent research suggests that the pattern of warming YOU are noticing (within the last 100 years or so) has more to do with solar activity than with any increase in CO2 emissions (which is just silly as there have been periods on earth - before we existed - with much higher CO2 levels than we have now - and a lot of discussion about how little CO2 matters to climate conditions when compared to other atmospheric gasses and conditions). Meh, I could go on and on but you can do you own research, take some scientific classes on the subject, or swallow the pap that politicians and groups with ulterior motives for scaring you shove in your direction. We are not capable of stopping the earth from changing its natural tendency to NOT be stable - including climate - and we really aren't capable of changing it in any effective way. People screaming about it simply want control of you, or control of your money, because they, in actuality, have no way of effecting any sort of controlled change on something that has been happening since literally the dawn of the Earth. Of course, you can start paying them for their useless carbon credits if it makes you feel less afraid for your grandchildren, I guess.

We've had a lot of branches on neighboring trees come down in those conditions, with leaves still on the trees and heavy snow. One large limb of a Silver Maple did some damage to a couple of fence sections and broke all the branches of our Gray Dogwood and a Spice Bush that were in that corner, last year. We were getting ready to replace that line of fence and we did that this past summer. Such a production, but we finally got it done. The Gray Dogwood, suckers and we cut back the main shrub that was tall and full but that allowed all the suckers around it to grow faster. This year it filled in nicely but no berries. By next year, it might be almost as large as the one we lost. The Spice Bush was tree like and we had to cut that back to a stump. I was considering digging it out but left it for the spring. But in spring, the stump pushed out a lot of new growth, it's in an unused corner, so I'm just letting it figure itself out. But, Peren..all - like you, I often will put my boots and coat on and head out to shake some of the snow off any shrubs I think are struggling under the weight. You just have to do it before it freezes to the branches and is then really hard to get off without damage. I saw a few flakes today but that's it. We are forecast for 20s and teens the next few days and then a warm up leading to Thanksgiving. Supposed to break temperature records tomorrow and Thursday. Just now, we looked out the kitchen window and the sky was wild. First an eerie light and color cloud above the horizon and then the whole sky turned red and gold. It was beautiful. Very odd.

This is indeed a threat. That's true, alliums don't usually bow down to anything! On reading more, it seems that these leaf miners were first identified in Poland in 1858, and have been very slowly taking over Europe. Reached the UK in 2004. Kind of remarkable that it's taken so long for them to get established here. Their life cycle and habits sound very similar to Squash Vine Borers. We don't import many alliums from Europe, though some of our onions do come from Spain. Most of our garlic comes from China where I don't believe the leaf miner has reached.