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UC Gardening Blogs
A Butterfly for a Beer! Or Suds for a Bug!
A butterfly for a beer? Suds for a bug? The annual “Butterfly for a Beer” contest,...
A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, nectaring on catmint in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Davis Teen: How Those Pesky Mosquitoes Led to a Scientific Publication
Listen to ABC Channel 10 News, broadcast Dec. 22Seventeen-year-old Helena Leal doesn't like...
Researcher and lead author Helena Leal, 17, a scholar at Davis High School, injects a sample of odorants trapped in a solid phase micro-extraction syringe intothe gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in the Walter Leal lab at UC Davis. In back are chemical ecologist Walter Leal (right) and UC Davis student researcher Kaiming Tan. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Working on the mosquito cage assay are (from left) researchers Kaiming Tan, a UC Davis student in the Walter Leal lab; lead author Helena Leal of Davis High School, and UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Looking over mosquito specimens are (from left) UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal and two members of the research team: daughter Helena Leal, lead author; and UC Davis student Kaiming Tan. Not pictured is UC Davis student researcher Justin K. Hwang. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Davis High School scholar Helena Leal addresses the crowd at the Mexican-American Yolo County Concilio Scholarship Dinner. At left is keynote speaker Carlos Saucedo of ABC Channel 10.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Cooler Weather Companions
When summer's final sputter of temperatures in the 80s and 90s finally yielded to cooler weather in late October, I celebrated. What a relief to swing open the patio door and realize I was no longer walking into an oven. As I continue to survey the plantings I lost during those long months of relentless heat, I am actually quite amazed at what is left.
A tuberous begonia, its pot placed sight unseen beneath a myrtle tree, seems to have popped up out of nowhere. I'm surprised by its large leaves and vibrant blooms on sturdy stalks.
The cannas in the front yard are finally stretching toward the sky — and flowering.
My favorite fence climber, a David Austin rose, is throwing out canes and sprouting buds — enough for a gorgeous fragrant bouquet of fragile multi-petaled blooms.
Seems to me that both gardeners and gardens feel better, look better and perform better in cooler weather. I know that I do. Heat stress is dehydrating regardless of how much water is applied to plants or how thick the mulch in flowerbeds. More often than not, buds wither or don't produce at all. Leaves are more vulnerable to insects. Pollen becomes non-viable. Personally, I've watched not only my vegetables bolt and go to seed in hot weather but have seen the roses pout as buds dry up and drop off and the delicate velvety petals singe.
So, don't blame your plants' performance this summer on the drought. Instead, blame the heat. But keep your eyes open before frost comes. You just might find a couple cooler weather companions in your own garden.
Tuberous begonia. (photos by Launa Herrmann)
Canna
English climbing rose
There's a 'Me' in Mead
There's a "me" in mead. Mead or honey wine is the "in" thing, and the UC Davis Honey and...
UC Davis winemaker Chik Brenneman leads a group at the Honey and Pollination Center's Mead Making Bootcamp. In back is Bruce Leslie, of Griffin Mead fame. "He is relocating to Chico to be the Olivarez Honey Bee Mead Maker!" said Amina Harris, center director. (Photo courtesy of the Honey and Pollination Center)
Pete Bakulic (left), president of the Mazer Cup International, the world's largest mead competition, leads his group of mead makers during the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center’s boot camp in the UC Davis Winery. (Photo courtesy of the Honey and Pollination Center)
How to Have a Bugworthy Holiday and Beyond
So you're looking for a suitable bugworthy holiday gift. You're in luck. UC Davis has you...
You can buy honey for your honey or for yourself from the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. Pictured are orange blossom honey, wildflower honey and corinader (cilantro) honey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The t-shirt, "The Beetles," is available on the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Students' Association website.
Want to purchase a gift certificate for a UC Davis beekeeping class? This is Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño teaching a class. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
