Botanni

09/04/2026

💚

Crews are in the final stretch of planting hundreds of thousands of native grasses, plants and trees at Ada County’s new Park at Expo Idaho. 🔗⬇️

08/18/2026

TO***CO BUDWORM
Are you seeing holes in your flowers, tiny eggs on the leaves or black specs on the stems?

These are characteristic symptoms indicating the presence of the To***co Budworm. The larvae attack several ornamental flowers including petunia, rose, geranium, and nicotiana. They feed primarily on buds, petals, and developing seed pods, but will feed on shoot tips and foliage if flower buds are not available.
On most hosts, larvae prefer to tunnel into buds, but they will also feed on the petals of opened flowers (especially on petunia). Damaged buds fail to open, resulting in loss of color in floral plantings. If buds open, flowers and leaves appear ragged or tattered.

The adult is a greenish-brown moth with cream-colored bands on the wings. It is about 3/4 inch long with a wingspan of about 1 1/2 inches. Eggs are laid on blossoms, fruit, or shoot tips of plants. Very young larvae are yellowish or light-yellow green, but the color of older larvae is variable.

NON-CHEMICAL MANAGEMENT
-Avoid use of broad-spectrum insecticides which kill natural predators of garden pests.
-Consider planting less-susceptible plants. For instance, ivy geranium is reported to be damaged less frequently than standard horticultural geraniums.
-Monitor plants closely for damage. Handpick and destroy larvae and infested buds on roses, petunias, and geraniums.
-Scout for larvae at dusk, when they are most active. Check for actively-feeding larvae, small holes in buds and flowers, and caterpillar droppings (frass or f***s) associated with damaged buds.

https://extension.colostate.edu/resource/tobacco-geranium-budworm/
Image of caterpillar via Wikimedia commons

07/27/2026

Apostle Islands dogwood (bunchberry; cornus canadensis). Alone on the cliff's edge timing the breeze so these sweet little dogwood would be in focus

Biophilia; love of life 💚
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07/24/2026

It has been hotter than heck and I am having quite the long gardening days but Thursday goes down as a wild one!

Started with a dump truck rolling backwards almost hitting the vehicle behind it, that vehicle honking, the car in front of me thinking I was honking and then giving my peaceful, plant-loving self some not-so-pleasant words.

Then I stood working unknowingly on an ant hill and not realizing that until ants were literally in my pants (overalls to be exact) and made it up to my neck in a very organized ant train.

Then I found a wasp nest the hard way… when it stung me on my earlobe. Ow! And what a home camera would have picked up between the ants and the wasp would have been comedic brilliance.

And then the SE Boise storm that blew THROUGH our house plastering us with hail and debris, took down a tree and destroyed my container veggies that were looking glorious. So darn sad but exciting I must admit!

07/24/2026

Played with ICM/ intentional camera movement. Intentional was a first (I've had a few happy accidents as my gear was falling)...
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07/20/2026

It was the last week of the lupine bloom on Madeline Island and soooo glad not to miss it 💜
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07/17/2026

And the lupine of Madeline Island are magical...
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07/12/2026

Idaho mountain weekend…
The lake to ourselves, quiet, fishing, and cool weather!

07/04/2026

Ivy overhaul - this was a doozy!! But figured out more effective techniques at removing these bully vines and will be getting all the little shoots that arise over the coming year ;)