Fall is here and quickly on its way out in many parts of the country. Gardens are slipping gently into winter slumber. What's a gardening nut to do? Enjoy the brief respite with some fun facts.

DID YOU KNOW? Dragonflies can fly up to 20 miles per hour! They also hover and fly backwards. These insect-devouring hunters should be a welcome sight in any garden, consuming gnats, midges, beetles, moths, and mosquitoes. More than 400 dragonfly and damselfly species inhabit North America.

The average caterpillar has 4,000 muscles and 248 in its head alone! Caterpillars are the larval stage of moths and butterflies in the order Lepidoptera. Over 180,000 species fall into this classification.

Planting just 3 shade trees around your home can save between $100 and $250 per year in energy costs! Best choices for aiding inside temperature are deciduous trees, which shade the house from the sun in summer, but allow the sun to penetrate during winter. Evergreens are a good choice for blocking cold northern winds.

Ancient Egyptian laborers ate onions to give them strength while building the pyramids! The Allium genus is one of the largest plant genera in the world, with over 1,250 species. Onions are also one of the oldest vegetables used as a food source.

You can tell the temperature outside by listening to a cricket! Count the number of chirps in 15 seconds, then add 37. The sum will be the approximation of temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. The male cricket does most of the singing by rubbing his wings together, usually to attract a female, but often to sound an alert when danger is near.

Figs were the first domesticated crop in the Near East about 11,400 years ago! Archaeologists found carbonized figs in a village north of ancient Jericho, and compared the fruits to modern specimens. Through this comparison, they determined that the fruits had been intentionally propagated.

Rafflesia The world's largest flower measures up to 3 feet across and weighs close to 15 pounds! Rafflesia arnoldii grows in the rainforests of Indonesia. It is a parasitic plant, which uses a host plant to gather water and nutrients. Though beautiful to behold, the bloom has an odor similar to that of rotting meat.

The annoying Asian Lady Beetle is a beneficial insect! Though not welcome inside the house, these predators consume large quantities of aphids and scale insects, and are responsible for benefiting the pecan industry by controlling the pecan aphid.

A pair of doves can produce up to 5 or 6 broods a year! Generally, the female lays a clutch of 2 eggs. The nest is never left unattended; the male sits on the nest from mid-morning until late afternoon, then the female takes over for the night.

Most variegated plants are actually mutations! Chlorophyll is the green pigment needed for photosynthesis. In variegated leaves, the cells that are genetically unable to produce this pigment appear white; some pigments in the mutated cells can produce pink or yellow. These interesting and attractive plants are prized by most gardeners and highly cultivated by nurseries. A variegated plant will grow more slowly because of its reduced ability to produce food energy.

Some plants bloom at night to attract night-flying pollinators! Ever sit out at dusk and suddenly notice a heavenly scent on the air? Chances are, you or your neighbors have one or more of the common night-blooming species such as Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana alata), Moonflower (Ipomoea alba), or Angel's Trumpet (Datura inoxia). Petunias bloom during the day, but release their scent at night. August Hosta (Hosta plantaginea) fills the evening air with heavy perfume, and the Lemon lily (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) and Citron Lily (Hemerocallis citrina) release a crisp, refreshing scent. Shrubs that are known for night scent are the Ear-leaved Umbrella Tree (Magnolia fraseri) and Sweet Bay (Magnolia virginiana).

The Red Twig Dogwood is one of my favorite deciduous shrubs in the yard because it provides interest in my garden all year long. It gives the bees (and me!) wonderful tiny white flowers nestling against the softly bright green leaves in mid summer; then in fall it produces small berries the birds love, and finally it moves into its finest season, winter.

Winter is where the vibrant Red Twig Dogwoods (Cornus serica) excel as they liven an otherwise drab landscape. Winter finds this shrub standing in bright contrast against a fresh snowfall, and winter is when the colorful red twig dogwood is a constant reminder that the additional colors of spring will indeed be coming.

Red Twig Dogwoods are incredibly easy to grow and thrive in almost any soil (including heavy clay) as long as they are planted in a consistently moist but well-drained area in full sun or light shade. Hardiness is from USDA Zone 4a to Zone 8b. They are not even fussy about pH, and will tolerate soils from mildly acidic (pH 5.1) to mildly alkaline(pH 8.5). Typically they will grow to 6 feet tall, maybe a bit more, and the only maintenance required is occasional pruning. In early spring you may prune up to 1/3 of the branch length, and you should occasionally remove any old brown woody stems from the center of the plant. The brightest winter color comes from the new stems.

Propagation of this shrub is easily accomplished by dividing the rootball. It can also be propagated by cuttings (softwood, semi-hardwood or hardwood), by grafting, and by layering. They are often used for stream bank protection, windbreaks, slope stabilization and of course, ornamental.

There are slight variations of the stem colors in this red twig dogwood shrub, depending on cultivars. There is also a Yellow Twig Dogwood that has bright yellow stems in winter. Stems and peeled bark of the various colored stemmed dogwoods, sometimes called red willow, are used in basketweaving because they are both colorful and pliable.

Americans smoked the inner bark (mixed with tobacco) in sacred pipe ceremonies and used it in tanning and drying hides. The stems were used in arrow-making and other tools. The peeled bark was used to make a dye and peeled stems were used as toothbrushes. The Chippewa made a bark infusion to treat poison ivy although the bark is seldom used in modern herbalism.

The small white berries of the red twig dogwood are bitter and tart, but were still eaten by many tribes. They were gathered in fall and a few eaten fresh. Most were dried, sometimes mashed, and stored or mixed with other fruits like chokecherries and Saskatoons in cakes.

An oil obtained from the seed burns well and can be used in lighting.

Are you Dreaming of a Green Christmas? With so much focus on going green why not try to add a 'green' tree to your Holiday traditions? For a natural tree this year attach bundles of dried flowers to the tree and add pinecones, cinnamon stick bundles, bird nests, feathers, berries, nuts, strands of popcorn and cranberries to a potted tree that you can plant outside after the Holidays. Wrap the presents in brown grocery bags turned so the writing is on the inside decorated with evergreen sprigs and tied with raffia. For your centerpiece arrange a bowl of fruit and nuts.

Garden Calendar for November---If you still have some spring blooming bulbs that you haven’t gotten around to planting, consider forcing them. Pot up bulbs in pots, water them in and allow them to remain at room temperature for a couple weeks. During this time the bulbs will root in and allow them to grow and flower better later. Next, place the pots in a cool spot (just above freezing to about 45F) so they get the cold requirement they need. This can be done in the refrigerator or a root cellar. Different kinds of bulbs have a different minimum number of weeks of chilling (typically ranging from 8 to 12 weeks). Stagger bringing them out of cold storage and forcing them into flower to enjoy them over an extended period of time.

Provide additional mulch to insulate marginal perennials after the ground begins to freeze. The goal is not to keep frost out, but to prevent freezing and thawing and to keep the temperature from falling too much below freezing. Putting a lot of mulch on too early can promote a lot of warmth and humidity around the crowns of plants and encourage rot. Keep bags of leaves or other sources of mulch handy, so when the weather is right you will have easy access to it. Consider wire or other barriers to prevent rabbits and other rodents from having access to young woody plants and chewing off bark.

Take notes of some of your best and poorest performing varieties of annual vegetables and flowers. Documenting your successes and gardening challenges of all kinds can be very helpful to reflect upon and consider when planning for next year’s garden. Consider getting together with gardening friends this winter to share these experiences and learn from each other.

Frequently scout plants that have been brought in to overwinter for pest problems. Without their natural enemies, many insect plants that may have inadvertently been brought in can proliferate in the house. By intervening early the task of pest control can be make much easier

American Wintergreen, an Attractive Woodland Groundcover---American wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) is an attractive evergreen groundcover. Its glossy dark green foliage and large red berries that appear in late summer and fall are two of its most ornamental features. American wintergreen is native to Eastern Canada and most of the United States East of the Mississippi. It is most abundant in the northeast. It is a member of the Ericaceae (Heath) family and, like other members of this family (e.g. azaleas, blueberries, and cranberries), prefers acidic, moist, well draining soil high in organic matter. It performs well in part shade to shade and is typically found on the forest floor.

American wintergreen shares similarities with blueberries and cranberries. In late spring into early summer it produces white bell shaped flowers borne singly or in small clusters that look much like the flowers of blueberries. Its growth habit, however, is very similar to cranberries. It only grows to about 6” in height. Its stems are of two types: solons that grow parallel to the ground typically among leaf litter and humus and short side stems that grow upright and produce foliage, flowers and fruit.

American wintergreen used to be one of the main commercial sources of methyl salicylate (aka oil of wintergreen), the compound that gives it its wintergreen flavor and scent. Besides being used in small quantities for flavor, methyl salicylate is an active ingredient in topical skin creams used to warm the skin, increase blood flow and reduce pain.

Other common names for American wintergreen include Eastern teaberry, mountain tea, teaberry, deerberry, partridge berry and boxberry. Many of these names refer to the pleasant tea can be made from the leaves or that many mammals (including humans) and birds like to eat the berries. Fresh leaves can be used to make tea, but the flavor is often mild. In order to get a richer wintergreen flavor, leaves can be fermented for a few to several days.

American wintergreen can make a great ornamental groundcover or accent to a shady or wooded landscape, provided one has the acidic, moist soil conditions that it needs. It can most readily be propagated through division. Although a little trickier, cuttings or seed can also be used. Next time you’re out enjoying a hike in the woods, you might just come across this native treasure!

Holiday Cacti---Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus, Easter cactus...what about Halloween cactus, Valentine’s Day cactus or Mother’s Day cactus? Three different holiday cacti are probably enough for now! With Thanksgiving approaching and Christmas not far off the horizon, it seems like an appropriate time to learn about the differences and similarities of the flowering cacti named after these holidays.

There are two types of Holiday cacti: the Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti. Both plants are classified in the genus Schlumbergera, which is named for the French cactus collector and nurseryman Fréderic M Schlumberger. Thanksgiving cactus is the species Schlumbergera truncata, while the Christmas cacti are Schlumbergera x buckleyi, a hybrid between S. truncata and S. russelliana.

The plants in this genus are native to Brazil, specifically, the Organ Mountain range north of Rio de Janeiro. They are epiphytes in their native environment, growing on trees like orchids, bromeliads and some ferns between elevations of approximately 3,200-5,500 feet.

In order to distinguish the difference between the two holiday cacti, we’ll first go over some of the basic features of a holiday cactus plant. The stems of the plants are composed of a series of connected phylloclades, which are the structures that look similar to leaves and carry out photosynthesis. This is the first place to look for the differences. Thanksgiving cacti have margins that have pointed lobes, while the Christmas cacti have rounded margin lobes.

Other ways to distinguish between the two plants utilize flowering time and floral morphology. As you could probably deduce from the common names of these plants, Christmas cacti flower around the Christmas season in the northern hemisphere. Consequently, Thanksgiving cacti flower six weeks earlier, approximately around the Thanksgiving holiday. What causes the difference in the flowering time of these two species if they are so closely related? Flower induction in both cacti is a photoperiodic response. These plants initiate flowers in response to the shortening days of summer and fall and are termed short-day plants. The critical photoperiod for a short day plants is the length of day (hours of light) that when day length is equal to or shorter than this length flowering of the plant occurs. For example a short day plant with a critical photoperiod of twelve hours will flower when the days are twelve hours or shorter. Thanksgiving cacti have a longer critical photoperiod for flower induction (more hours of light), with flowers initiating under the typical daylengths experienced in late summer and early fall, while Christmas cacti have a shorter critical photoperiod that does not occur until later into fall.

In addition to flowering time, the morphology of flowers can help distinguish between the two types of plants. The anthers, the pollen-bearing parts of flowers, are purplish-brown for the Christmas cactus while the Thanksgiving cactus anthers are yellow. Also, the ovaries in the flower of Christmas cacti are ribbed while Thanksgiving cacti have a smoother appearance.

Holiday cacti are easy plants for home gardeners to grow. For starters, propagation of these plants is easy. The first step is to find a suitable container for growing a plant. A four inch pot is a good size for a starter plant. Next, fill it with a loosely drained medium such as the general soilless (peat-based) houseplant mix that is readily available at garden centers and home improvement stores. For starting plant material remove three or four individual mature segments (phylloclades) at least one inch in length from a larger plant (if you have a friend with a really great flowering holiday cacti, now is the time to butter them up!). One can also use cuttings involving not only a single phyloclade, but also a couple of them piggybacked as a cutting. These phylloclades may be stuck directly into the moistened medium no deeper than half of the length of the segment. To increase the success and to speed up rooting, place the pot inside a large, clear plastic bag such as a one gallon Ziplock® bag and seal almost completely shut. This will increase the humidity of the rooting environment for the phylloclades and allow for a little gas exchange. Place this on a sunny windowsill and water to maintain a moist, but not soggy, medium. The rooting process may take a while, but don’t worry- these succulents are resilient.

Once the phylloclades have rooted into the medium and new growth starts to appear, fertilization of the plants may begin. Using a general houseplant fertilizer such as a 20-10-20 mix a teaspoon per gallon of water during the later spring into the early fall, and decrease to one-half teaspoon per gallon during the winter months. Holiday cacti may be fertilized at every watering, with at least one watering a month with clear water to leach out any salt buildup.

The optimal growing environment for holiday cacti is easy to achieve in most homes. Temperatures from about 65 to 74 °F and light levels of 2,000-3,000 footcandles are best for growth. These temperatures and light levels are easily achieved by placing plants next to an east or west window.

To induce flowers, there are a few simple tricks that may be used to ensure a spectacular holiday show that these plants are known for. Flowering may be induced by exposure to either low temperatures or short days. Exposure to temperatures below 57 °F will induce flowering in holiday cacti, regardless of the photoperiod. This means that the length of the day could be eight or sixteen hours long, but as long as the temperature is below 57 °F, flowering will commence. To do this in the home, place your plant outdoors or in a three season porch until early fall when the temperatures get below 50 °F. Alternatively, you may place plants next to a drafty window during late fall and throughout the winter where temperatures will be lower than that in other parts of the room.

As mentioned earlier, these two holiday cacti are short day plants, meaning they flower in response to shorter days. When temperatures are between 60-75 °F, plants will flower when exposed to short days. For both Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti, daylengths between 8-11 hours are considered best for flower induction. To achieve this in the home from mid-September to mid-April, place plants in a room that does not have any lights turned on before sunrise or after sunset, maintaining naturally short days. If you are disciplined, plants may be forced to flower any time of the year by placing them in darkness for 13-16 hours each night. You would want to place plants in a closet when you get home in the evening and pull them out in the morning when you get up for just under four weeks.

Holiday cacti are houseplants that are easy to grow and re-flower every year if attention is paid to their requirements. With both Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, wouldn’t it be fitting to have some beautiful, flowering plants that compliment the festivities and also serve as great houseplants?

The diversity found within the species Cucurbita pepo is amazing!---It contains summer squash, gourds, and some of the members of what we commonly call pumpkins. Great diversity can be found for color, size and shape of the fruit. For instance, this white crown of thorns, or ten commandment gourd, is relatively flat with ten elongated finger-like protrusions and zucchinis are elongated and typically dark green. Native to North America, most of the popular types of this species we commonly grow were already developed by Native Americans when European settlers arrived. Most of our cultivated forms are not found naturally in the wild and are the product of breeding and selection efforts by mankind. Native Americans routinely used fruits of these plants for food, bowls and other containers, and for decoration. Since these varied members comprise a single species, they tend to cross pollinate readily and produce viable hybrids. Care must be taken by seed companies to control the pollination of the different forms (typically by isolation or controlled crosses for F1 hybrids) to keep them true to type. Sometimes if we save our own seed or have purchased seed where an unexpected cross may have occurred, we can get an odd looking hybrid. A common misconception is that when an odd fruit is found in the garden, a cucurbit of a different type pollinated the flower the same season and caused the unusual fruit. Fruit tissue is maternal and a particular mother plant should produce fruit of all the same type no matter what pollinated it. It won’t be until the next generation when the seed, which gives rise to the new plant contains genes from both parents grows and produces its own fruit.

Dragonflies in the Garden---Dragonfly décor is a common sight in the garden, less common are dragonflies themselves, but here are a few tips on enticing dragonflies to your garden to prey on pesky insects like mosquitoes, gnats and black flies. Dragonflies and their close relatives the damselflies are both members of the ancient insect order Odonata whose ancestors co-existed with the dinosaurs and had wingspans up to 30 inches across.

As with butterfly gardens, hummingbird gardens and gardens that attract bees, it’s the “plant it and they will come” attitude that is key in attracting beneficial insects like dragonflies and damselflies to the garden. Like butterflies and hummingbirds, dragonflies thrive in habitats that provide food, shelter, clean water and most importantly plenty of sunshine. Plants like blue flag iris, narrow-leaved cattails and arrowhead are dragonfly favorites.

The first part of a dragonfly’s life is spent on the water, which is why you often see them hovering on lily pads and around ponds and other water bodies. As adults, dragonflies move onto more terrestrial habitats like your garden. The lifespan of adult dragonflies is quite short and they die when the weather gets cold. Like butterflies, dragonflies like to be around water even if it’s a shallow pan that collects rainwater.

By the way, the difference between dragonflies and damsel flies is that dragonflies have wings that extend straight out to the sides whereas the wings of damselflies are folded behind the insect. Damselflies are also a bit smaller in size. Oh, by the way what is a group of dragonflies called? A dazzle

Ladybug Myths

Myth: Ladybugs are different from lady beetles

Fact: Ladybugs and lady beetles and ladybird beetles are all different names for the same thing.

Myth: Asian lady beetles come from soybean fields.

Fact: There are Asian lady beetles in soybean fields, but also many other places including trees and gardens.

Myth: Soybean harvest causes multicolored Asian lady beetles to migrate to town and to houses.

Fact: Day length and temperatures trigger migration – expect swarms of beetles on first warm days after frost. Soybean plants lose their leaves and therefore any aphids the lady beetles might be eating long before harvest. The beetles leave soybean fields as the plant leaves begin to turn yellow and not when the combines arrive.

Myth: Farmers released the lady beetles to eat the soybean aphid

Fact: No releases were ever made. Multicolored Asian lady beetles arrived by wandering from adjoining states several years before the soybean aphid appeared.

Myth: Lady beetles breed in the walls of the house during the winter.

Fact: They do not reproduce during the winter.

Myth: Finding a ladybug brings good luck.

Fact: This myth might not be all wrong. Since ladybugs eat aphids, other small insects, mites and the eggs of insects and mites, you could argue that ladybugs do bring good luck to farmers and gardeners. However, there is no evidence to prove that the good luck extends beyond the benefit of fewer aphids feeding on your plants.

Myth: You can tell the age of a ladybug by counting its spots.

Fact: There are over 5000 different species of lady beetles (ladybugs) in the world and approximately 475 species in North America. There may be as many as 100 different kinds in Iowa. The numbers and arrangements of spots on the backs of ladybugs are distinctive for the different species, and once a lady beetle emerges as an adult it never changes its spots.