Crepe myrtles are hot right now. In fact, no subject is of more interest to Southerners this summer than the non-stop coverage of Michael Jackson. (FYI, before the funeral, the family rejected embalming MJ, as that would be redundant.)

Thus, the ever-generous, all-caring Grump will answer 10 of the most common questions about crepe myrtles directed his way every week.

1. What does crepe myrtle need to grow well and bloom?

 Answer -- Lots of sun, well-drained soil, and extended summer heat. After suffering for so many years from hearing about how great gardening is in England, I am gratified to know that crepe myrtle hates it there. The summers aren't sufficiently long and hot.

Winter cold is another consideration for you people up north. Although some selections, such as 'Acoma' (white), 'Centennial Spirit' (dark red), 'Comanche' (coral pink), 'Hopi' (medium pink), 'Yuma' (lavender), and 'Zuni' (lavender), are reputed to withstand temperatures below zero, if zero temps are common where you live, I wouldn't plant crepe myrtle. It does best in Zones 7, 8, and 9. Instead, plant 'Pink Diamond' or 'Tardiva' hydrangea. (Both are selections of summer-flowering Hydrangea paniculata.)

2. When is a good time to plant crepe myrtle?

Answer -- When the plant is dormant, either in fall, winter (where winters are mild), or early spring. Of course, you can plant a crepe myrtle grown in a container in summer too, as long as you water it frequently to keep it from wilting. Once it's established, it's quite drought-tolerant.

3. When should I prune crepe myrtle?

Answer -- Late winter is the best time for two reasons. One, the plant has no leaves, so you can easily see all the branches and which ones need removing. Two, crepe myrtle blooms on new growth. Pruning in winter won't reduce summer blooming.

Having said that, you can produce a second major flush of blooms on most crepe myrtles by pruning off the round, green seed pods that form just after the first flowers fade. The second flush won't be quite as showy, but you'll like it nonetheless.

4. What is "crepe murder?"

Answer -- Crepe murder is the odious practice of using saws and loppers to cut down a crepe myrtle into thick, ugly stubs, usually performed on an early spring weekend by bored husbands seeking to justify their existence to women. This ruins the natural form of the plant, produces weak spindly branches too weak to hold up the flowers, and prevents the formation of the beautiful, smooth, mottled bark that looks so pretty in winter.  

For specific instructions on pruning crepe myrtles, see "Stop! Don't Chop" and "Crepe Myrtle Pruning Step-by-Step," two highly informative articles written by your favorite Grump.

5. What's that black stuff all over the leaves?

Answer -- Hershey's Dark Chocolate. Nah, just kidding. Actually, it's black mold growing on the sticky honeydew produced by sucking insects, usually aphids. Get rid of the aphids and you'll have no mold. Spray according to label directions with an environmentally friendly product, such as refined horticultural oil on insecticidal soap (make sure to wet the undersides of the leaves), or a systemic insecticide that's absorbed into the leaves, such as Ortho Max Tree & Shrub Insect Control.  

6. White that's white stuff all over the leaves and flower buds?

Answer -- Powdery mildew, a fungus that likes warm, humid weather. Many older types of crepe myrtle are highly susceptible. The fungus distorts the foliage and often ruins the flower buds. While you can prevent powdery mildew by spraying according to label directions with a fungicide such as Daconil or Immunox or even with refined horticultural oil, you're better off buying a mildew-resistant selection, such as 'Natchez,' 'Miami,' 'Sioux,' 'Dynamite,' and 'Biloxi.' Look for this on the plant label.

7. Why doesn't my healthy crepe myrtle bloom?

Answer -- Could be lots of reasons. Maybe it doesn't get enough sun. Maybe powdery mildew ruined the blooms. Maybe Japanese beetles ate it. Maybe it just needs a few more years to grow. Maybe you're in a drought. A crepe myrtle will often go dormant during a very dry summer with flower buds ready to pop. They'll only pop when the plant gets some water, either from rain or from you. 

8. What are some crepe myrtles that don't get so tall?

Answer -- One way to avoid crepe murder is to select varieties that don't need pruning. Small ones (5-10 feet) include  'Acoma,' (white), 'Hopi' (pink), 'Tonto' (red), and 'Zuni' (lavender). Dwarf types (3-5 feet) include 'Centennial' (purple), 'Petite' (various colors), 'Razzle Dazzle' (various colors), 'Pocomoke' (rose-pink), and 'Victor' (deep red).

9. What are the Grump's favorite crepe myrtles?

Answer -- 'Natchez,' (tall white), 'Miami' (tall pink, pictured above), 'Catawba' (medium purple), 'Dynamite' (medium red), 'Watermelon Red' (tall red), 'Petite Orchid' (dwarf purple).

10. Why do you spell crepe myrtle with an "e"?

Answer -- It never ceases to amaze me how many people think this spelling is the most significant issue facing the world today. I spell it with an "e" because the crinkled flowers remind me of crepe. If you want to spell it "crape," go ahead -- on your own blog.

I hate watering plants. The way I see it, if any plant can't naturally survive 6 weeks without rain, it shouldn't be here to begin with. Survival of the fittest, baby.

And of all the things I hate to water, watering the grass is numero uno and for very logical and well-considered reasons. (This is standard for the Grump.) 

1. Unless you are filling a swimming pool or hosing down a pod of beaches whales (curiously enough, this happens to me all the time), watering the lawn takes more water than anything else in your yard.

2. You almost cannot buy a new house today that doesn't come with in-ground sprinklers. Nothing encourages more waste of water than sprinkler systems. From my unimpeachable observations, many people don't even know if their systems are doing the job. They have them come on automatically, whether it's raining or not, at 4 AM every morning to water for 20 minutes. This is so stupid. For one thing, it turns otherwise self-sufficient lawns into water junkies that go through withdrawal unless they get their daily water fix. Watering the grass frequently at night makes it more susceptible to disease. And lots of people don't know if their systems even work properly. I can't tell you how many sprinklers I've seen spraying water only on the street.

Here in Birmingham, Alabama, we usually get plenty of rain (54 inches a year average, although a lot of that comes in tropical storms and hurricanes). Each year, my goal is to never have to water my Bermuda grass lawn even once. I made it last year. But this year, after a very rainy spring, it hasn't rained a drop in more than three stinkin' weeks. Things are turning brown.

No Water Secret Revealed!

So how does the Grump avoid loathsome lawn watering when it just won't rain? Simple. I refuse to cut the grass until it rains two days in a row.

How come? Because if I cut it in the summer heat, it immediately turns brown. This means my wife yells at me about the ugly lawn, so I have to water it to turn it green again. Then it needs mowing, so I mow it and it turns brown, and the whole cycle repeats ad nauseum, just like Oprah's dieting. 

A Necessary Sacrifice

There are, of course, consequences of such a radical course. The most obvious is that the unmown grass, though lush and green, grows very tall. So far, I have lost several family members in the front lawn. They went out to get the mail and never returned.  

But if it means saving the planet and conserving our natural resources, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

How about you?

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HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYBODY!! I WON'T BE CUTTING THE GRASS!!

When anyone asks me what's the best time to prune a mimosa, my instinctive response is, "Any time you can find a chainsaw."

That's very judgmental of me, I know, but heck, that's pretty much my job. And mimosa is one of those plants you either love or you hate. I hate it now. But I used to love it.

Why, when I was a kid, at the nadir of sensibility and good taste, I thought mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) was the prettiest tree in the world. Its leaves were like ferns. Its flowers were pink puffballs. And it bloomed in summer, when few other trees did.

A Miracle -- My Wife Agrees!

Judy, who notices very few plants,  has fond childhood memories of mimosa too. She remembers climbing up in her neighbors trees to smell the flowers. I think they smell faintly of gardenias -- not like my son's socks, which would actually cause you to faint.

How It all Began

Native to the Middle East and Asia, mimosa was brought to this country in 1785 by the famous French botanist Andre Michaux, who planted it in his botanic garden in Charleston, South Carolina. It grew quickly into a vase-shaped, flat-topped tree, 30 to 40 feet tall, and it loved the Southern climate. The flowers, attractive to butterflies, hummingbirds, and colonial gardeners, ranged in color from nearly red to deep pink to flesh-pink to white. On one road-side near my home, there is a row of them, each a different color. Here's the usual pink.

And here's a white one. I really like the white, but I've never seen it for sale. The various colors are due to genetic variation, with pink being dominant. Where I live in Alabama, the trees usually start blooming in June and continue for several weeks into July.

So Why Do I Hate Mimosa Now?

Two reasons, First, like most all fast-growing trees, mimosa is notoriously short-lived, subject to many pests, and will die on you in a heartbeat. When people ask me the best way to get rid of a mimosa, I tell them to make it the focal point of their landscape and it will be gone momentarily.

Second, after the flowers fade, the tree grows hundreds of 6-inch long, bean-like, brown seedpods which hang from every branch. The seedpods persist all winter, even after the tree has dropped its leaves. Few trees look as ugly or more forlorn.

But wait! It gets worse! Each of those pods is filled with seeds and each and every one of them germinates somewhere, even in cracks in the pavement. Plant one mimosa in the yard and soon every house in the neighborhood has two or three mimosas. coming up in the fence, the middle of a bush, or by the silver propane tank.

Mimosa adapts to almost any well-drained soil, laughs at heat and drought, and does not mind if you spray-paint the trunk white, hang tires from the branches, or park your pickup on top of its roots. In hort class, we called it a "pioneer species," because if you disturb the land, remove native vegetation, and open the tree canopy to light, it's one of the first trees to appear. That's why you see it growing along just about every highway and country road in the South. Northerners be glad it doesn't like your cold winters, but with global warming, who knows how much longer you'll be free?

Not Fooling Me

Recently, a new kind of mimosa was introduced to the gardening world, a purplish-bronze leaf selection called 'Summer Chocolate.' The hype over its undeniably pretty foliage and pink flowers was overwhelming. Probably many of you bought one and are enjoying it right now. But not me.

See, any mimosa that flowers is going to produce seeds and lots of them. And if a thousand seedlings come up in my yard, I don't care if they have green leaves or purple leaves. They need to be eliminated with extreme prejudice.

So my advice about when to prune a mimosa remains the same -- whenever you can find a chainsaw.

Grumpians, everyone wants to do their part in helping to save the planet. That includes turning garden waste into compost to keep it out of landfills. But how do you know when the compost is ready to go into the garden? Play this informative video and find out! 

Well, I hope that answered all your questions.

On a related note note, Shelly from Buffalo, Wyoming writes: "Last year I had wonderful beets, carrots, onions, beans, zucs, and corn. My garden has not grown well this year. My husband added several bags of tree leaves to it this spring. I think it has too much acid, I don’t know what kind of leaves he used. How do I correct this?"

Grumpy replies: Greetings Shelly, oh ye of very cold winters and beautiful mountains.
 
The Grump has spent little time in your state, but what time he has, he has thoroughly enjoyed.
 
Good gardening in Wyoming, as it does in every state, starts with good soil. I think your soil is naturally alkaline, so I doubt adding a few bags of leaves to it would turn it acid. It might not cause any reaction at all. Essentially, what you have to do is build good soil and your plants should thrive. Work in as much organic matter -- chopped leaves, peat moss, composted manure, grass clippings, ground bark, and garden compost -- as you can. It's nearly impossible to add too much, so do this every year. Organic matter loosens soil, improves aeration and drainage, and stores and provides nutrients. It can also be quite tasty, as you've just seen.

Here's another fascinating question about enriching soil from Brandy in the Texas Hill Country:

"I have a circular area about 8 foot in diameter that I want to raise by tilling in additional native soil that I already have available and then adding 8 inches of organic compost. I would also like to add cottonseed meal, lava sand, and earthworm castings (at their recommended rates on pkg.) Is this too much organic fertilizer? I intend on seeding this bed with annual and perennial seeds that grow well in my area, then possibly adding one or two small perennials plants to the bed as well. My local nursery suggested using "Plant-tone" as an organic, all-purpose plant food. Is all of this too much??"

Grumpy repIies: think your plan is OK as long as you till in everything well. Plant-tone is a good, slow-release, organic fertilizer, as are cottonseed meal and worm castings. Lava sand, however, is not organic nor is it a fertilizer. It is at most a soil conditioner. Contrary to what some people in Texas claim, it is not a miracle additive, does not store or release any nutrients, and does not add any magical qualities to the soil. Those who claim it does are dealing in pseudoscience, the same kind of stuff you see in informercials on TV. Here's an interesting commentary on it:  http://froebuck.home.texas.net/toppage8.htm. I'm not saying don't use it. Just don't fall for the hype. Organic matter will do much more for your plants than lava sand.

We've all watched manly adventurers take down charging bears with pepper spray. We've also seen it used to control rioting old ladies at Wayne Newton concerts. And we've wondered -- how can we gardeners get in on the fun? 

Now we can with an all-natural insect control that's perfectly safe around the house, but makes bugs wish they'd never been born. It's Hot Pepper Wax and the Grump is here to tell you that it really works. Spray it on a plant according to label directions and any insect that takes a bite will be too busy looking for a glass of milk to take a second one.

I just used it against some little beetles that suck sap from my daylily flower buds and cause them to fall off before they open. Those beetles took off and never returned.  

Hot pepper wax is both an insecticide and a repellent. It blends capsaicin from cayenne peppers with highly refined paraffin wax to coat plants with a thin, invisible barrier against pests. The wax allows one spraying to work for up to two weeks, regardless of weather. It also acts as an anti-transpirant to reduce water loss from plants during hot weather.

Deer, rabbits, squirrels, and other varmints don't like like having their tongues go up in flames either. You can buy gallons of the stuff to apply through a tank sprayer, but I prefer a ready-to-use spray bottle. You'll find it in garden centers or you can simply click on the link above.

Bugs -- get ready to burn!!! Scream to your PETA mamas!!!

The new July 2009 issue of Southern Living features an incredibly entertaining and informative story written by me about three great trees for summer blooms. In case you're too cheap to buy  it, let me discuss my favorite tree of the bunch -- chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus).

Native to southern Europe and central Asia, chaste tree quickly grows into a multi-trunked tree about 10 to 20 feet tall and wide with a broad, spreading habit. It gets its name from the erroneous medieval belief that a potion made from it could curb the libido. In reality, wearing a house dress with orthopedic shoes and multiple nose piercings is much more effective.

That doesn't mean that chaste tree doesn't have its pharmacological uses. An extract made from Vitex supposedly does a very good job of controlling PMS. Which means any of you guys out there who are routinely beaten every 28 days should definitely plant one in the yard.

Blue for You

But the best thing about chaste tree, in my uber-learned opinion, is the flowers. Chaste tree is one of the very few winter-hardy trees out there that sports true blue flowers (although they can also be pink, purple, or white). The one you're looking at here is 'Abbeville Blue.' which bears large, spectacular panicles of deep-blue flowers in summer. Other selections I like include 'Montrose Purple' (purple blooms), 'Shoal Creek' (blue-violet), and 'Silver Spires.' (white). If you buy an unnamed chaste tree tree from a nursery, buy it in bloom so you can see the color of the flowers and the general shape of the plant. A good mail-order source for named selections is Forest Farm.   

The Skinny on Chaste Tree

Here are some different ways to use chaste tree in the landscape:

1. As a single specimen in the lawn

2. In a row along a property line or a driveway

3. Limbed-up in a border with lower plants growing beneath it

4. As a small patio tree

Few trees are as easy to grow. Here's the low-down:

Light: Full sun

Soil: Well-drained

Water; Regular moisture at first -- very drought tolerant once established

Pests: None serious

Pruning: Not the tidiest plant in the world. Needs regular pruning to produce an attractive multi-trunked tree. Prune in winter. Clean out the entire center of the tree, removing all side branches from main 4 to 5 trunks. Also remove messy, twiggy growth that tends to crowd the ends of the branches. As an option, cut entire plant to ground in winter. It will sprout in spring and bloom in summer, although later than chaste trees not pruned so severely. You can also force a second bloom in summer by removing the first flush of blooms as soon as they fade. 

Salt & wind tolerance: Good

Cold-hardiness: Winter-hardy through Zone 6; in Zone 5, may be killed to the ground in winter, but will sprout and bloom the following summer.

Bee alert: Bumblebees love this plant above all others and will even spend the night on the flowers. Keep this in mind if bees freak you out.

A while back, the Grump linked to highly intelligent garden bloggers from across the country, so that each of us could present "The Six Plants I Can't Live Without." It was a lot of fun and incited a lot of discussion and possible future warfare. The July 2009  issue of Southern Living mentions this blogathon, so if you missed it the first time and would like to see which plants His Grumpiness picked, click this link.

Ebony and ivory

A white spider consumes a bumblebee

Sucks out all of the goo

It's real bee stew and

It's fat-free!

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Forgive me for making light of this poor bumblebee's demise. It's a defense mechanism. You see, spiders creep me out. I'm not afraid of snakes, not afraid of cats, and not even afraid of Nancy Grace as she tries to railroad innocent Duke lacrosse players to spike her ratings. But spiders -- well, they give me the willies.

Now as a learned human being, I know spiders perform a very important and valuable service to the ecosystem. They eat all sorts of bugs that would otherwise eat us out of house and home. Still, my first instinct when seeing a spider is to squash it. Spiders seem evil and dangerous. After watching that episode with Shelob in "The Lord of the Rings," I carried a magic sword for weeks. 

Most spiders are harmless to humans -- except, of course, if you accidentally have your genes scrambled with those of a fly and wind up stuck in a web like poor little Andre crying, "Help me!"

Still, there are some kinds you really need to avoid, like these:

                                   The Black Widow (aka "Wonder Woman" to feminists)

The scourge of outhouse toilet seats throughout the South, the female black widow (Latrodectus mactans), is around 1-inch long. She is shiny and black with a telltale red hourglass marking on the underside of her bulbous abdomen. She gets her name from her heartless habit of devouring the male soon after mating. This situation is the best argument I know for no-fault divorce.

Black widows favor dark, out-of-the-way places to build webs. Buried valve boxes for lawn sprinkler systems are favorite haunts. The spiders aren't aggressive, unless they feel threatened. The neurotoxic venom is quite potent, though nonfatal in the vast majority of cases. Symptoms include pain, muscle cramps, tremors, and nausea.

                                                             The Brown Recluse (aka violin spider)

Here in the South, this is the spider to really watch out for, though in most cases you'll never see it coming. It's shy and mostly nocturnal, hiding in garages, closets, basements, vents, stored clothes and shoes, boxes, furniture, and work gloves. The brown recluse (Loxoceles reclusa) is about 3/4-inch long and features a distinctive violin shape on its cephalothorax.

Many times, you won't even feel the bite. The venom kills tissue, as my wife discovered when she awoke one morning after feeling something crawling over her face. A small reddened ulcer appeared on her nose. It steadily enlarged, hardened, and then turned almost black. After 6 weeks, it finally healed, but not before leaving a deep pockmark that required cosmetic surgery to fix. Some bite victims also report fever and vomiting.

 Hobo Spider

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, one bum you definitely don't want to meet is the hobo spider (Tegenaria agrestis).  Somewhat larger than the brown recluse, it is indigenous to western Europe and was introduced into the northwestern U.S. near Seattle aboard commercial ships sometime in the 1930's. It's often called "the aggressive house spider" for its reputation for supposedly chasing people, but this is pure fantasy. It frequently takes up residence in homes. Its bite causes necrotic lesions similar to those made by brown recluses, but symptoms are generally milder.

Don't Walk This Way

I'll leave you with one nightmare you don't have to fear, but my sister-in-law, Penny, does. She's soon moving to Belize, home to the world's most poisonous spider, the fearsome Brazilian walking spider.

This beastie is named for its habit of wandering the jungle floor at night searching for prey, rather than building a web. Its genus name, Phoneutria, is Greek for "murderess." The Brazilian wandering spiders can grow to have a leg span of 4 to 5 inches. The one pictured here is P. nigriventer, probably the most dangerous species.

P. nigriventer venom contains a potent neurotoxin. A serious bite causes breathing problems and loss of muscle control, resulting in paralysis and eventual asphyxiation. Victims should seek immediate treatment. But the news isn't all bad. The venom also causes skyrocketing blood pressure, which in men acts like a triple shot of Viagra. Viva, Phoneutria! 

Walking spiders usually hide out during the day, searching for cover in dark places. It gets its other common name, "banana spider," because it occasionally hitches a ride in shipments of bananas. In fact, one of these huge spiders recently emerged from a shipment of Honduran bananas in a Whole Foods Market in Tulsa.

The stock boy has not yet been found.

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Thanks to Casey Pfleger for sending me the white spider photo. Grumpy

Question from John: I live in  Wisconsin close to the Illinois border. Each year I purchase Gerbera Daisy plants. After about a week on the patio, the yellow finches pluck out the petals. They pull  them out one at a time. They do not eat them or the center of the flower. They just pluck them out and drop them. They strip all the petals from all colors and just the gerbera daisies.They do not touch the centers of the flowers. At first we thought they were taking the petals for nesting purposes, but they just pluck them and drop them. Once all the petals are gone they move on to the next flower. Any ideas?

The Grump replies: It is a sad commentary on the fallen state of the world when we can no longer feel safe around goldfinches. Most people trust these little birds as they would trust their own children. Yet see how that trust is repaid!

I have never witnessed such outlandish behavior myself. I can think of only 3 explanations:

1. They're looking for seeds in the center. When they don't find any, they move on to the next flower.

2. Maybe they are Illinois goldfinches making a border raid on you Wisconsin cheeseheads!

3. You're dealing with a group of delinquent birds. The Goldfinch Gang has come to town.

 An innocent Gerbera awaits its fate. It's a plucking shame.

Bird Gangs?

Don't be shocked. Ever since Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film, "The Birds," debuted in 1963, we've known our avian friends had a dark sinister side. They tweet sweetly on the feeder, all the while selecting which one of us will get our eyes pecked out. Maybe it will be you!

Grumpians, can any of you offer John an explanation for why these finches are pillaging his Gerberas?

While John waits, he can take solace in the fact that behavior on his feeder could be even worse. 

Anyone know a good source for a bear baffle? This is what you get for putting suet in your feeder!
 

Growing Gerberas -- A Grumpy Quickie

Light: Full to part sun

Soil: Moist, well-drained (soggy soil es muy malo). I think that's Spanish for "very bad."

Water: Water thoroughly, then let soil go slightly dry before watering again

Fertilizer: Feed monthly with liquid bloom-booster fertilizer

Grooming: Remove spent flowers to keep new ones coming

Nice to know: Plants often do better in containers than in the ground

Watch out for: Goldfinch gangs

At the insistence of my wife, my co-workers, and everyone else who knows me, I have been banished to the Florida coast for the next four days to watch the waves roll in, stroll in the surf, and feed small unaccompanied pets to the bull sharks.

But have no fear, Grumpians, I haven't forgotten my commitment to you. Even here, where the sloths of the sand spend all day reading in recliners in the shade of umbrellas, I still work to enlighten you on matters of horticulture. Why, just last evening, I discovered some fascinating information.

For example, a quick tour of the local village revealed a number of blue agaves growing in people's gardens. One resident told me of a special juice made from these plants that he fermented and mixed with lemon and lime juice to make a refreshing drink named for his mother, Margarita. In the interest of science, I had to try it and it was quite good. However, knowing that first impressions can sometimes be misleading, I repeated this experiment four more times. Sadly, my research abruptly ended when I fell asleep.

Oh well -- I am at the beach, you know. At least, I wasn't wasting my whole day reading a book.

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Today, I will research another drink locals make with something called "rhum" that is flavored with mint and key lime juice and called a "moheeto." (Hope I got the spelling right -- I don't speak much French.) But before that, I will answer a gardening question or three from faithful readers. 

"Dear Grumpy,
I have a really stupid question, but you have answered my stupid questions before. I planted a bare root silver maple about 6-8 weeks ago. It is still a great big ol stick with stick branches. How do I know if it's just slow or dead? I am in SE Alabama. I'm not very patient, but don't want to pull the plug too soon.
Thank you, Holly."

The Grump replies: There are no stupid questions, just stupid morning show hosts. Your tree should have leafed out by now, so I would guess it's dead. One easy way to find out is to scratch the bark with your fingernail or a knife. If there is a green layer just under the bark, there's hope. If it's brown, pull the plug.

A question from Julie:

"You recently wrote of the virtues of centipede grass for lawns, but I find it an invading nuisance to my flower beds.  Is there an easy and/or effective way to keep it from overtaking my plants?"

The Grump replies:Yes. All you have to do is mix up some Roundup according to label directions and spray along the edge of your beds a couple of times a year. That will keep the centipede out. If you're afraid of accidentally spraying good plants, use Ortho Grass-B-Gon instead. It comes in a spray bottle and only kills grass.

And a question from Gitta:

"I need your help desperately. I have about fifty azaleas in my front yard – all Red Ruffles – who have an illness! After blooming the bushes have developed a growth mostly on the tips that look almost like warts. They are light green, grow larger and turn color to a lighter green, almost light yellow. I contacted my garden center and was advised there was no medication for the disease. All I should do is remove them. I have filled a garbage can – I am embellishing ! – and every morning there is new growth which I promptly remove again. I cannot believe that YOU would not know how to handle my problem. Will you help, please."

The Grump replies: Fortunately, you have contacted the one person in the world who can identify your problem and tell you exactly what to do. The growths are due to a fungus called azalea leaf gall that usually appears after stretches of cool, wet weather in spring. Light green growths with the texture of apple flesh eventually envelop the leaves and turn whitish. At that point, they release spores that infect other leaves.

 Azalea leaf gall

I would advise doing two things. First, pick off and throw away all of the infected leaves before they grow and turn white. Second, spray your azaleas according to label directions with a fungicide such as Daconil, Bayer Advanced Disease Control for Roses, Flowers, and Shrubs, or Spectracide Immunox. If you prefer a more natural funcide, try Soap-Shield liquid copper fungicide. You can spray now to prevent leaf gall from spreading to new foliage. Next year, spray your azaleas just as they are about to bloom.