Insect Profile: Apion (Rhopalapion) longirostre, Hollyhock weevil

Apion (Rhopalapion) longirostre, Hollyhock weevil, on, of all things, my hollyhocks in the sunny border at Garden #4 in Flatbush. The upper photo shows a single male, I believe, on a leaf. The lower photo shows a pair in their typical posture, ie: mating. The female has her (even longer) snout buried in the flower bud.
Photos taken: June 4, 2006

The taxonomy of Apion (Rhopalapion) longirostre, common name Hollyhock weevil or (sometimes) Black vine weevil, is confusing. I've seen it listed as being in the Family Brentidae, the straight snout weevils, the Apionidae or Apioninae, and the Curculionidae. Whatever! They are in the order Coleoptera, the beetles.

The genus Apion seem to generally have long snouts. Their antenna are jointed and located halfway along the snout. A. longirostre is distinguished from other Apion species by its orange legs.

Their native range of A. longirostre is in Eurasia, originally limited to southern and southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. It has since spread much further afield there. It was first detected in North America in Georgia in 1914. Within fifty years it had spread across the continent.

Article (Book Announcement): Eco-Friendly Living [and Gardening] in New York City

Science & the City announced that another Brooklynite, Ben Jervey, has just published a book, "The Big Green Apple: Your Guide to Eco-Friendly Living in New York City." He's also launched a Web site, Green Apple Guide, in association with the book.

The opening to the book's preface:

Right now, right here in New York City, somebody is cultivating a garden. [And how!] Around the corner, somebody is pocketing their car keys and hopping onto a bicycle. In some nearby kitchen, locally grown, organic produce is being kept cool in a refrigerator plugged into wind power energy. Somewhere in New York City, a street tree is being cared for by a concerned local resident, while a sanitation worker on the street adjacent is dutifully keeping the recyclable paper and plastics separate.

Although difficult for many to believe, all over the city of New York, acts of sustainable, low-impact living are being performed by a hearty bunch of citizens who recognize the inflexible connection between the quality of life in a place and the attitudes and lifestyle decisions made by those who live there.

The article presents five tips:

1. Change your light bulbs
2. Order a home water conservation kit from the
   DEP
3. Join a community-sponsored agriculture group
4. Choose your own energy source
5. Reduce, reuse, recycle - in that order!

- Eco-Friendly Living in New York City, Science & the City, June 19, 2006

Tips 2 and 5 are of particular relevance to gardening. Item 3 is also of interest.

Tip #2: Reduce water use. Now that we own our own home instead of renting an apartment, we see the water bill, which means we have some idea of how much water we're using. I conserve water in the garden in several ways:

• Choose plants appropriate for the site, conditions, and climate. Native plants (appropriately sited) and drought-tolerant plants will need less water than others. Plants in sunny areas, containers, or exposed to extra heat from pavement, walls and other structures, will need more water. A rooftop garden, for example, is essentially a desert; choose and plant appropriately.
• Increase the amount of organic material, such as compost, in the soil. Organic material provides several water-related benefits, including absorbing and retaining water, reducing runoff by allowing water to penetrate the surface of the soil, and improving the soil structure to allow roots to run more deeply and widely, increasing the ability of plants to reach the moisture they need.
• When gardening in containers, use non-porous containers (I don't always do this, but I'm mindful of it) and amend the soil with water-retentive materials such as compost or hydrogel.
• Mulch to reduce surface runoff and evaporation.
• Water only when needed. If the soil is moist below the surface, it doesn't need water (yet). Group plants with similar moisture requirements together, so you can water them at the same time.
• When extra water is needed, water in the morning (ideally) before the sun is fully up, or in late afternoon or early evening, as the sun is going down.
• Water at or below the mulch or surface of the soil. A sprinkler loses more water to evaporation, in the air and from leaves, than hand watering at the surface. Soaker hoses reduce evaporation even more, since they can be placed on or below the mulch or soil surface. For containers, drip irrigation systems can achieve the same result. I haven't used either of these, but my neighbor uses soaker hoses, and I hardly ever see any water runoff. The only way I know they're watering is from the sound of the water passing through their faucet! I'm hoping to invest in a soaker system, possibly next year, when I have a better idea of how the beds will be arranged.
• Collect rainwater for garden watering. Again, I haven't had the opportunity to try this before. Now that we have a house, it's a possibility.

Tip #5: Reduce, reuse, recycle. There are numerous opportunitiess to reduce consumption in the garden:

• Apply organic growing techniques to reduce the use of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals in the garden.
• Reduce or eliminate areas devoted to lawn and turf.
• Grow some of our own vegetables and fruits to reduce the need to transport them long distances to supermarkets and our homes (the "Victory garden").
• Select native and heirloom plants and vegetables which we can propagate from year to year instead of having to purchase new seed, plants and bulbs each year.
• Replace gas-powered tools with electric ones, and powered tools with hand tools.

We can reuse materials throughout the garden:

• Broken pots can be used as decorations, and pot shards can be used in the bottoms of pots to control drainage.
• Other artifacts can be reused in the garden as containers and decorations. One of our neighbors has an old radiator spread out as a fan and used as a decoration in their front yard!
• Old, misshapen or imperfect brick and other building materials which can't be used for construction can be used as pavers, stepping stones, edging and so on in the garden.
• Propagating plants, and giving them away to others, is the ultimate reuse.

Finally, in the garden, composting is the ideal recycling technique. Yard waste such as shrub trimmings and tree prunings can be chipped and shredded. Grass clippings which are not left on the lawn are prized ingredients in compost. Fall leaves, spring cleanup trimmings and summer weeds (which have not gone to seed) go into the compost heap. Kitchen scraps (excluding meat, fat and bones) can be added to the compost as well.

Links:

• Green Apple Guide
• New York Academy of Sciences, Science & the City

Garden Notes: Garden Furniture

Yesterday, I took my laptop out to the backyard for the first time. The wireless reception was excellent. It was a little awkward, but workable, sitting in an Adirondack chair with a laptop. Although the trees provide filtered shade, I still had to brighten the screen to its highest setting, reducing battery life. So I want a table where I can put the laptop, and a regular height chair to sit at and type or write, and an umbrella to provide more complete shade.

I'm researching a dining table, seating for at least four, and an 8' or 9' umbrella. I have a 7' umbrella which is on its last legs: the bottom part of the part has rotted off, and one of the spurs has broken. A 7' umbrella is just not large enough to provide enough shade for four people sitting around a table. I want wood, rather than metal, for its comfort, warmth, beauty, and the natural element it adds to the garden. The table must have an umbrella hole. Ideally, the table will be foldable, and the chairs foldable or stackable, for storage.

Over the years, I've used wooden planters and garden furniture made from cedar, teak, and "tropical hardwood." In my experience, teak really does last several times longer in the garden than any other wood. For example, I can squeeze about five years out of a cedar planter by first treating the wood and reinforcing it with galvanized brackets; the bottom will rot out before the brackets give way. On the other hand, I have a teak planter nearly ten years old which is nearly new. My cedar furniture gets weathered, pitted, loose and weak after just a few years. My teak furniture turns grey the first winter and then nothing else happens to it. No wood is as resistant to rot, insects, and diseases as teak.

The qualms I have about teak are about whether or not, by specifying and purchasing teak as my wood of choice, I'm contributing to deforestation, habitat destruction, and so on. It's my intent to minimize the impacts of my gardening activities, and to garden sustainably however I can. Is my teak table the equivalent of a tiger-skin rug, or an elephant foot umbrella stand? Nearly every company will claim that their teak is "ecologically harvested" or some such, whatever that means. Third-party certifications, such as those from the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance, hold promise for identifying sustainable sources and holding suppliers accountable.

All I can conclude is: I can't know for sure. The same problems arise when purchasing any wood product: a cedar bench could come from a clearcut forest in northwest North America, for all I know. In the absence of other information, my strategy is to select the highest quality and longest-lasting products I can, and to deal with reputable companies. I hope I can reduce my gardening "footprint" by using products which will last me twenty years or more, not something I will need to replace in five years.

The following suppliers are all companies I've dealt with over the years. In alphabetical order:

• Crate and Barrel. I like the design of their teak Trovata Round Folding Table. However, the hardware is galvanized steel, which will eventually rust and stain the wood. Any metal used outdoors other than brass must be sealed, galvanized, or allowed to oxidize or rust. For outdoor folding furniture, the best hardware is brass.
  
• Land's End. They've just recently added an "Outdoor Living" category to their catalogs and Web site.
  
• Plow & Hearth. They offer furniture made from eucalyptus, cedar, and "yellow balau." I have no experience with eucalyptus; I expect it's comparable to cedar. Their Lakeside series is made from eucalyptus in an attractive, Mission style. I've never heard of "yellow balau" and assume it's in the "tropical hardwood" category.
• Pottery Barn. They've recently added outdoor furniture to their offerings. Their Jayden series is teak. They have the least expensive umbrellas.
  
• Smith & Hawken. The original popularizer of teak garden furniture and planters. They've made an effort to select reputable sources. At full price, among the most expensive. I wait for sales and discounts.
  
• Wood Classics. My favorite company for teak furniture. They're employee-owned and based in upstate New York. What I especially like, is that all their furniture is offered in kit form at deep discounts over the assembled, and even flat pack, pricing. This makes their teak furniture competitive with other suppliers, and gives me the satisfaction of building the furniture myself.

Links

Forest Stewardship Council
Rainforest Alliance

Garden Diary: What's blooming now

In the backyard and shady path:

• Astilbe, two unknown varieties: one with dark red flowers, and one with white flowers
• Dicentra eximia "Aurora", White bleeding heart
• Hosta, variety unknown: small, yellow leaves, purple flowers, could be "Gold Drop"? (just starting to bloom)
• Hydrangea, variety unknown: white, lacecap type flowers
• Ilex verticillata "Southern Gentleman", Winterberry, male (in container)
• Itea "Little Henry", Sweetspire: white flowers (in container)
• Kalmia "Peppermint", Mountain laurel: white flowers with dark red rays (just ending)
• Lonicera sempervirens, trumpet honeysuckle: dark orange-red flowers (just ending)
• Tradescantia "Sweet Kate", Spiderwort: Chartreuse foliage, bright purple flowers

In the sunny border:

• Alcea, Hollyhocks, unknown strain: tall, pink flowers, white flowers
• Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly weed: Bright orange flowers
• Campanula trachelium "Bernice", Bellflower: Double purple flowers
• Coreopsis verticillata "Zagreb", Tickseed: Orange-yellow flowers
• Digitalis, Foxglove, unknown variety: White flowers (just ending)
• Hemerocallis (fulva?), Day lily: Bright orange flowers with brick red interior rays
• Heuchera, Alumroot, unknown variety: white flowers, silver-variegated burgundy foliage
• Ilex verticillata, Winterberry, female: White flowers, bright red berries still persisting from last year
• Monarda didyma "Gardenview Scarlet", Beebalm, Bergamot: Dark red flowers
• Tradescantia, spiderwort: dark purple flowers

In the front of the house:

• Centaurea, Bachelor's buttons: Cornflower blue flowers
• Dianthus caryophyllus Super Trouper Dark Violet, Carnation (windowboxes)
• Heuchera, unknown variety: White flowers, burgundy foliage overlaid with white
• Penstemon "Husker Red": White flowers
• Lavandula, Lavender, unknown variety: dark purple flowers
• Thymus, Thyme: Pale purple flowers
• Viola, Pansies: Large chrome yellow flowers with purple marks in the centers

First parrot sighting of the season!

I just heard, and then saw, a pair of the Brooklyn Parrots. This is my first sighting this season. They were flying down the adjacent road, just below rooftop level. I saw them as they passed between our two back neighbors' houses. They're easily identified. They are large (about the size of a blue jay), bright green, loud birds. Their flight is also distinctive: straight, strong, and fast.

Myiopsitta monachus, Monk Parakeets, have established numerous colonies in Brooklyn. They are Brooklyn's most charismatic potentially invasive species. They are also now established in over a dozen other states.

Monk Parakeets are the only parrot species which build their own nests, rather than nest in existing cavities. They create large, communal nests of twigs and other materials. This is one of the characteristics which enables them to adapt to our winters. That, and they like to build their nests around the transformers of power distribution towers.

Links (in alphabetical order by title):

• Brooklyn Parrots
• Feral Monk Parakeets (Quaker Parakeets) in North America
• Institute for Biological Invasions: Monk Parakeets
  
• Quaker Parakeet Society
  
• Wikipedia: Monk Parakeet
  

The Fourth Gardens: Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York

I'm writing this from my tree fort. Actually, it's the rear porch on the second floor of our house, roofed and screened (mostly). Seated at the table here, my line of sight is about 17 or 18 feet from ground level.

It's dusk. Most of the birds have settled in for the night. I hear, but can't see, a cardinal calling out from high in a neighbor's tree. To my left is our next door neighbors' apple tree; its apples are showing color now, so maybe we'll have parrots at the end of the summer again like last year. In front of me, in our backyard, are two Norway Maples towering overhead and our flowering cherry tree barely reaching my eye-level. Behind us, our back neighbor has another flowering cherry. On the other side of us, to my right, our other next door neighbor has in their backyard a cedar, a spruce, a dogwood, and something else I don't know. Behind them is a birch. Beyond, more distant and all around, are more maples, oaks - everything.

This neighborhood is all about its trees. Our lot is 50' wide at the street and 100' deep, like most of the lots in this area. For New York City, that's huge; most townhouses are 20' wide or less. The houses are fully detached, wood-frame homes built at the turn of the last century, mostly late Victorian in style as ours is. No two of the houses are exactly alike. From up here on the back porch, you can see nearly every style of roof and dormer: shed, gable, hipped, gambrel, and eyebrow.

This leaves lots of room for trees, and gardens. Here, at my fourth garden in New York City, for the first time I can have multiple gardens: front, back, and two sides. I've watched and weeded and planted and watered them over the year since we moved in. My ideas for them, for what they will all become, have shifted a little over the past year.

The front yard faces West. It's shaded by street trees for much of the day during the summer, which limits the varieties I can grow there. There is a sunlight gradient from the south side of the front yard, which is open and sunnier, to the north side, which is more shaded. There is also a small lawn. When we first moved, I thought I would eliminate it. But when I walk along the sidewalk on our block, I see the arbor of trees along the street on one side, and the sweep of lawn uniting the properties on the other. It is a parklike setting, and when this view is interrupted by hedges, walls or fences, I miss it. To preserve this, I can live with a little bit of lawn.

The front yard will be the heirloom/antique garden. All the plants there will be species and varieties which were available over 100 years ago, 1905 or earlier. Our house was built in 1900, so this is the "Neo-Victorian" garden referenced in this blog. No elaborate bedding plant schemes or anything like that. There will be heirloom bulbs, perennials, annuals, a shrub or two, and at least one old rose. Victorian gardeners were eclectic, fascinated with the new and bizarre, while embracing the old-fashioned and comforting. Which describes me pretty well.

On the south side of the house is the driveway. During the summer, the sun is high enough to clear even the three stories of our next door neighbor's house. The bed along this side of the house gets full sun. It runs nearly the depth of the house, for 35 feet or more. Its width varies: it's about 8' at the deepest and tapers to a point at the rear corner of the house.

This will be the cutting garden, the rough garden, the wild garden ... the garden for anything I want to grow that doesn't fit anywhere else. This will be a mixed border. Variations in height, color and texture will make the beds seem longer, and deeper, than they actually are. There will be a place here for at least one other old rose and some other shrubs. There's enough room here for them to grow large enough to partially shade the first floor of the house and keep it cooler in summer, while allowing sun in the winter to warm it. These will also visually anchor the house to the property, connecting it to the land and making it seem smaller than it is.

(I've moved inside for the rest of this. It got chilly and started raining as it got dark outside.)

The backyard will be a sanctuary garden, for people and wildlife. It will be separated from the side yard and driveway by a fence and gate. Visitors will pass through a deep trellis, providing a transition to mark the entry into the sanctuary. Vines on the trellis will shield the backyard further, providing a feeling of enclosure and reinforcing the sanctuary.

There will be seating back here, and a porch swing suspended from another trellis. The backyard will be all native plants (save for the Norway Maples, about which I can do little for now). I've had bird feeders up, but these attract junk birds - European finches, starlings, even the occasional pigeon - as well as native species. So I'll be planting the native shrubs I've collected over the years. The tallest will grow up to 15' in time, providing an understory. These will provide berries as well as shelter, and possibly nesting sites. At ground level there will be ferns and wildflowers. There will be a mix of things growing from the ground up into the lowest reaches of the canopy provided by the trees.

The north side of the property is narrow, maybe 6' wide. Native plants, especially ferns, will continue onto this side of the house. There will also be other shade plants: hostas, astilbes, and so on. A narrow path will lead to another gate and trellis to demark the transition between the backyard sanctuary and the front, public side of the property. On the front side of the gate will be more shade plants, merging with our next door neighbor's mixed bed along their driveway, blurring the line between the two properties. The path continues to the front of the house, to the front steps, and back to the heirloom garden.

While I could walk around the property in a minute or two, all these transitions, shielded views and sheltered places, changes in designs and textures, and the sheer number of different species of plants all have a larger purpose. I want visitors, and me, to slow down, to view, to feel, to smell, to listen to the gardens. The gardens will invite us to stretch out time and space, to connect, however briefly, with other rhythms and beats. The gardens will allow us to synch with the pace of the minute, the day, the seasons, the years.

It will take years to accomplish all this. But I'm hoping to be here a long while. I hope that things will be in good enough shape in two years that I can add my gardens to the Victorian Flatbush House and Garden Tour. Visitors to this blog will be able to watch my progress over the next two years. And if I get on the tour, you'll be the first to know.

Web Log: The City Birder

A web log from another Brooklynite, Rob J: "Red-tailed Hawks and other wildlife observations from around Brooklyn and NYC." Beautiful photographs of nesting hawks and other birds all around New York City, and photo-journals of field trips to upstate New York and other areas. An avid, nay fanatical, birder.

Rob also authors Prospect Park Advocate on blogspot. On NYC Bloggers, he locates himself at my old subway stop in Park Slope, 7th Avenue on the F Train, which has the most blogs of any subway stop in Brooklyn.

News, June 6, 2006: First Images From NASA's CloudSat

I'm a space baby. During the 60s, I watched rocket launches from my bedroom window. Aside from my fascination with the technology, satellite imagery and data has transformed our recognition and understanding of earth systems. Think "ozone hole" for just one example.

I'm encouraged by news such as this. There is a strident minority in this country who would replace science and inquiry with fundamentalism and eisegesis. May they be left behind.

... The first-ever spaceborne millimeter wavelength radar, CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar is more than 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar. It can observe clouds and precipitation in a way never before possible, distinguishing between cloud particles and precipitation. Its measurements are expected to offer new insights into how fresh water is created from water vapor and how much of this water falls to the surface as rain and snow. ...
First Images From NASA'S Cloudsat Have Scientists Sky High

CloudSat is one of an internationally coordinated suite of satellites, the "A-Train" ("A" for "Atmosphere"?), which are orbiting over the same areas within 15 minutes of each other. CloudSat and CALIPSO, another U.S. satellite, will orbit within 15 seconds of each other:

CloudSat and CALIPSO will collect information about the vertical structure of clouds and aerosols unavailable from other Earth observing satellites. Their data will improve our models and provide a better understanding of the human impact on the atmosphere. Policy makers and business leaders will make more informed long-term environmental decisions about public health, the economy and better day-to-day weather predictions as a result of these missions.
Cloudsat Mission Overview

Links:

• Cloudsat Home Page
  

Event: CAMBA's Annual Shona Sculpture Public Sale Benefit, June 7-11

The Church Avenue Merchants' Block Association, CAMBA, is holding their annual benefit sale of Shona sculpture - stone sculpture from the Shona artists in the Republic of Zimbabwe - this week.

OPENING NIGHT COCKTAIL RECEPTION
Date: June 7, 2006
Time: 6-9 PM
Place: CAMBA Gallery
Admission: $75

PUBLIC SALE
Dates: Thursday June 8 – Friday June 9, 2006
Time: 1 - 7 PM
Dates: Saturday June 10 – Sunday June 11, 2006
Time: 1 - 6 PM
Place: CAMBA Gallery
Admission: Free

The CAMBA Gallery is located at 19 Winthrop Street, just east of Flatbush Avenue, one block north of Parkside Avenue. The closest subway stop is the Q Train Parkside Avenue station. The phone number is (718) 284-9064.

About CAMBA

CAMBA is a Brooklyn-based non profit organization with programs throughout the diverse neighborhoods of Brooklyn. CAMBA was founded as a merchants association in 1977, but in direct response to the emerging needs of the Brooklyn community, has steadily expanded its services. CAMBA has grown into a full-service, community-based organization providing a continuum of employment, education, health-related, housing, legal, social, business development and youth services to approximately 30,000 individuals each year. ...

CAMBA serves persons of low-income; persons moving from welfare to work; persons who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or transitioning out of homelessness; persons living with or at risk of AIDS and HIV; immigrants and refugees; youth; and other groups, working to become self sufficient. Our 28 years of experience in working with Brooklyn’s diverse populations has demonstrated to us that, when provided with services and supports that are meaningful and culturally relevant, our clients can make tremendous contributions toward building their own lives, their families and their communities. The majority of CAMBA’s clients live, work and/or attend school in Brooklyn. CAMBA serves local residents of diverse ethnic backgrounds, including recent immigrants and refugees ...

Links:

• CAMBA
• Shona Sculptures
  

Invasive Plant Profile: Chelidonium majus, Celandine, Greater Celandine

Revised 2015-02-23: This was one of my earliest blog posts, first published in June 2006. I've overhauled it to 1) meet my current technical standards, and 2) improve the content based on the latest available information.

---

Chelidonium majus, Celandine or Greater Celandine, is a biennial (blooming the second year) herbaceous plant in the Papaveraceae, the Poppy family. It is native to Eurasia. It's the only species in the genus.

It's invasive outside its native range, and widespread across eastern North America. It emerges early in the Spring, before our native wildflowers emerge, and grows quickly to about 2 feet. That's one of the clues to identification. It's also one of the reasons why it's so disruptive. The rapid early growth crowds and shades out native Spring ephemerals.