By Sue Healey, Tillsonburg Horticultural Society 

Once winter loosens its chill grip, I am seized with the need to be outside. There doesn’t seem to be a moment to waste now that the sun shines more readily and there are full days of warmth. But I’ve learned over my years in the garden, to tread lightly in these early days of spring. The ground is cold and frozen in the shadows. Digging and planting are weeks away. There are many good things still at rest in the garden. Beyond dormant plants and yet to bloom bulbs, is a world of beneficial insects nestled in the leaf cover, burrowed just underground, or sleeping in last year’s stalks. 

Pollinators, natural predators and their prey are important aspects of a healthy garden and many need time to come out of hibernation. Instead of tidying, I’ll use these early weeks of spring to refresh my knowledge of what lies waiting to emerge, the good bugs and the bad.

On the most common garden pests, aphids, has a natural predator that is just as well known. Lady Bugs (Coccinellidae), the dotted beetle of nursery rhyme fame is a voracious aphid hunter. They can be found, along with their alligator-shaped offspring in amongst the colonies of aphids, happily impaling and consuming them by the dozens. I watch every spring as my Euonymus’ new growth is curled by hordes of aphids, only to be wiped out within a few weeks by the Lady Bugs and their young. The sight is truly a marvel and one I encourage you to seek out.

While Lady Bugs need no introduction, but pale green Lacewings (Chrysopidae) might. An important predator of aphids, scale, mites and other pests, this delicate looking insect has a slender body with large, veined wings and dark, round eyes. Lacewings are skilled hunters in almost very stage of their lives; their nymphs (juvenile offspring) are so ferocious, they are dubbed “aphid lions”. Lacewings lay their eggs on the underside of tree and shrub leaves, so letting leaves lie is an important step to encouraging beneficial insect populations. Providing over-wintering, nesting and feeding sites will encourage populations for generations. If natural predators are in short supply, they can be purchased at some garden centres or online. 

Scale, another sap sucking insect that we often find on our shrubs and trees, protects itself with a waxy or cottony outer shell. While they feed on many types of plants and can sap the life out of them if left unchecked, scale is also a food source for many beneficial insects. Lacewings, syrphid flies, and parasitic wasps all feed on scale’s various life stages and can keep most populations in balance. When numbers do get out of control and native predators are overwhelmed, dormant oil sprayed over affected limbs can be an effective control measure. In some cases, only the removal of the affected plant will ensure that the scale does not spread to neighbouring plantings.

We all have caterpillars of one sort or another in the garden. There is a thin line between friend and foe when we think of the caterpillar. They are the larval stage of so many things, moths, butterflies, beetles. They are destroyers of crops, like the codling moths (Cydia pomonella) that leave worms in your apples. Theyare producers of the crop, like the silkworm (Bombyx mori) that spins the finest thread. They are magicians, weaving themselves into objects of pure fantasy and delight. So, I go with a light hand when hunting in the garden. I rely on manual control, and only when numbers threaten the health of it’s host. But mostly, I let the wasps do my pest control. Of all the beneficials I have discovered, wasps have been perhaps the most wickedly wonderful. 

There are hundreds of types; tiny to large, metallic to dull, thin waisted and long legged. Almost all are natural predators of caterpillars, scale, mites and leaf hoppers. Waspsboth feed directly on their prey and use them for their young. Live prey can be stuffed into chambers along with unhatched eggs or laid directly on their prey, a ready meal once eggs have hatched. More macabre still, some wasps lay their eggs inside the host so that it is consumed from inside. Viburnum Leaf Roller, Tomato Hornworm, and even June bugs are all parasitized by different types of wasps that are readily found in our gardens. Native wasps and bees are usually solitary, incidental pollinators and harmless to humans. While they feed on other insects, they also use nectar and pollen as food sources and can be attracted to the garden with flowering plants such as sea holly, sweet alyssum and statice. Nesting sites include dead tree trunks, hollowed plant reeds and underground burrows.

There are others that have come to visit and taste what lives around my home. There are bugs and weevils, leaf hoppers and miners but most don’t do much damage before they move on. There are spiders and assassin beetles to ward off the worst, birds and dragonflies to guard the skies. They are all welcome and wanted, all part of a healthy and vibrant ecosystem.

Refocus that spring cleaning energy on your local Horticultural Society. Volunteers are welcome at a variety of society events and programs. 

April’s featured speakers are Irene Kicak and Veronica Tunzi who will present “Hemp for the Homestead”.

Tuesday, April 1, 2025, Tillsonburg Seniors Centre, 7:30 pm. Membership $20/year or guest $5/meeting. 

Come as guest, stay as a member.

📷 S Healey

By Sue Healey, Tillsonburg Horticultural Society

I’ve written before about window gardens. About their importance in getting me through the winter months of Southwestern  Ontario. Last year I introduced you to my Orchid window and they are once again stretching their way to the light, buds still clasped tight. This year I wanted to introduce you to another of my window gardens. This one, strange and wonderful and filled with plants unlike most. Here on a narrow ledge in the milky Northeastern light, grow my collection of Tillandsia, sometimes known as air-plants. Reclining in their glass houses, seemingly sipping on nothing more than air, these alien beautiesbring interest and colour to indoor spaces with their varied forms and spectacular blooms. This epiphytic member of the Bromeliad family is easy to grow, long lived, and worthy of featured spot in any indoor plantscape.

The Tillandsia family is vast and varied with varieties that range from miniature puffs to bulbs as large as the hand. As always, the rabbit hole of collection beckons, so consider yourself warned. Native to the southern regions of the Americas, both arid and moist, these plants come in dozens of forms adapted to each. Most send out spectacular blooms, usually blue and often preceded by richly coloured leaf bracts or foliage in hues of pink and red. All done without the benefit of a traditional root system. Instead, they take nutrients from moisture in the airusing small appendages along their leaves called trichomes. Species from dryer areas (known as xeric types) are often covered in more than their rainforest cousins (mesic types) giving them a fuzzy appearance. In their native habitats, Tillandsia situate themselves in the crooks of trees where accumulating debris and moisture secure and feed them. Blooming is usually followed by the formation of offsets, called ‘pups’ and the gradual decline of the parent plant. Pups can be gently pried loose at half size or left attached until they toomature and bloom. The ability to grow without soil allows us to use the species at home in ways that traditional flora can’t be. Whether set in glass globes designed specifically for them, or strung on frames, wired to driftwood or tucked into the fork of an indoor tree, your imagination is the only limit to how these plants can be displayed. 

My window is blessedly long, providing enough light and ledgefor just a few of the small to medium varieties available. The largest is T. circinnata, known as the pot-belled air-plant. 45cm tall and heavy in the hand, the bulbous base and arching leaves are covered in long trichomes, giving it a furry look. This species can be slow to bloom and divide. T. ionantha is the exact opposite, fitting into the palm of your hand and blushing to the tips of it’s crown before sending out up to three violet bloomsand sprouting multiple pups. Commonly found glued to driftwood or blown glass balls, they are an easy introduction to the family. T. baileyi, with it’s squid-like silhouette and rich purple skin, makes an impressive statement piece alone or as the star of a dry terrarium. T. balbosa, small and bulbous with crooked, cylindrical leaves adds a comical touch amongst the heavier species. My T. balbosas haven’t bloomed yet but I’ve read there is hope. I would have them regardless. There are others, isolated in their crystal homes – T. juncea, like a fan of long grass, T. fuchsia, needle fine leaves forming an almost perfect silver sphere, and T. brachycaulos, unassuming when not in flower, but a showstopper once it begins. August brings leaves striped in bubble-gum pink that quickly suffuses the whole plant to shocking pink before sending out a single, trumpet of violet blue and gold tipped stamens. Superb. These are but few examples of this broad and unique genus, each one offering an exciting challenge and a new perspective on what flora is.

In the wild, Tillandsia rely on humidity and rainfall to provide them with nutrients. At home, that role falls to us. If kept indoors, there are two methods of watering recommended:misting and soaking. Misting is most often advised for xeric types but must be done consistently and thoroughly to maintainhealthy plants. Soaking is easiest and my preference but only if plants aren’t mounted. An hour-long soak in shallow, tepid wateris a bi-weekly ritual in summer and a monthly one in winter. Drying them on the slant will ensure there’s no water hidden in their plated leaves to cause rot. I enjoy the watering of my Tillandsia as much as the flowering. Handling the plants gives me an intimate view of how they live. Their growth, ailments, even their decline, all part of the fascination, placing somewherebetween pet and plant. Given this treatment and an occasional spa day in the summer rain, they have bloomed and become many in their gratitude, just the thing to distract us from a bitter and bleak February morning.

Your local horticultural society has some great distractions planned for every season. Join us the first Tuesday of every month. February’s featured speaker is Robert Butt who will present “How to manage urban soils”. Members are also invited to attend the Seed Exchange happening at 6:30pm prior to the regular meeting.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Tillsonburg Seniors Centre, 7:30 pm

$20/year $5/meeting

“Come as guest, stay as a member”

📷 Sue H