A:  The first step should always be to try to break the life cycle, because killing only the biting adults with typical mosquito sprays won’t get you good control in the long run. Look for breeding habitat: Mosquito larvae require water to live in, and they can use surprisingly tiny volumes to mature successfully — as little as one teaspoon. Eliminate any sources of standing water, or modify them, to discourage egg-laying and larval survival.

For garden water fountains or ponds, that could mean adding movement to the water surface, to disrupt egg laying and the ability of mosquito larvae to breathe. Ripples from dripping water or devices that vibrate enough to keep the water surface moving can help.

If water basins can’t be emptied often (or at all), see if they are suitable for treatment with Bti, a naturally occurring soil-dwelling bacterium whose toxins kill certain fly larvae without directly harming other types of wildlife. Otherwise, empty and refill them regularly as an alternative or supplement to movement or Bti treatment, since mosquito larvae can develop to adulthood in a short period. Not only will doing this potentially flush the larvae out, but it can dilute or remove their food source, which is bacteria living in the water along with algae and organic detritus.

A mosquito problem is harder to solve if you can’t access breeding sites like a poorly-draining roof gutter, for instance, or ponding in a natural area, or if a neighbor has standing water they won’t or can’t address. Use long-sleeved clothing and/or mosquito repellent to help evade bites when you can’t effectively suppress the mosquitoes themselves. If you’re sitting outdoors, use a fan pointed in your direction for a steady breeze to make it harder for mosquitoes to fly close enough to bite.

I strongly discourage spraying for adult mosquitoes. No matter what chemical is used, organic or otherwise, it is not selective for mosquitoes and may harm various other insects or wildlife. Spraying is only a very short-term solution: adult mosquitoes will fly in again from other areas.

For the long term, increase the diversity of flowering plant species in the yard or in your neighborhood, if there are common areas that can be converted from turf to other plantings. This buffet of alternative food and shelter will attract and support predatory insects and other animals that consume mosquito adults and/or larvae – a natural means of population suppression that is self-sustaining.

Explore our Controlling Mosquitoes web page for more tips and information about the impacts of pesticide use. The page also links to a UMD Maryland Grows blog post about mosquito control, which includes tips for a homemade trap for Asian tiger mosquitoes.

Q: The leaves on my pole beans are turning pale. Is this a disease?

A: Spider mites are a common hot-weather vegetable garden pest. Mite feeding damage is called stippling, which is the fine flecking causing leaves to turn light yellow or greenish-white. High populations of spider mites will also create visible silken webbing between leaves and where the leaf joins the stem.

In the hot weather that spider mites thrive in, using an insecticidal soap or horticultural oil spray to smother the mites on contact can injure plant tissue and cause even more damage.

Instead, try spraying the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves with a strong jet of plain water from a garden hose to knock off most of the mites. Keep plants well-watered, and don’t over-fertilize, which can increase mite populations.

Spider mite outbreaks tend to favor areas with heat buildup, where reduced air circulation stresses plants, such as planting beds close to a wall, solid fence, or heat-reflecting and heat-absorbing pavement or stone. Try to avoid growing mite-prone plants in such areas, or just be aware that those are the areas to check first when conditions favor a mite population rise and plant stress.

University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information at extension.umd.edu/hgic. Click “Ask Extension” to send questions and photos.

As home gardeners become more educated about the benefits of native plants (supporting native insects, birds and wildlife, and the environment as a whole), the focus has mainly been on trees, shrubs and perennials.

Native annuals have somehow gotten lost in the shuffle, likely because most of them aren’t readily available at the garden center. And most of the annuals (and tender perennials treated as annuals) that ARE sold in local nurseries are introduced species from faraway places. As such, they don’t provide much benefit to the local ecosystem.

Native insects have evolved along with native plants, so they recognize them as food. Filling a garden with exotic plants essentially creates a food desert, which can have dire consequences that range from fewer insect pollinators and birds to diminishing food crops and, eventually, livestock.

We know that using native plants of all types can help prevent a plethora of environmental problems. They’re also easier to care for because they’re naturally adapted to local conditions and are generally drought-tolerant.

Unfortunately, most home gardeners don’t know about or have access to native annuals. I hope that changes.

The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, based in Austin, Texas, has a wonderful online plant database that allows users to search native plants by state, lifecycle, bloom time and other criteria. (It’s at www.wildflower.org.)

Consider asking your local nursery to stock them.

Here are some favorite native annuals.

7 Native annuals worth adding to the garden

Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), which is native from Massachusetts south to northern Florida and west to Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma and eastern Texas, is sadly underused. The lovely 1-to-3-foot-tall plant, which produces clusters of 1-inch-wide yellow flowers on tall, slender stems, thrives in both sun and part shade. A member of the legume family, it also releases nitrogen into the soil, which provides a natural and free fertilizer for itself and the other plants in the bed.

American basket flower (Plectocephalus americanus) has a native range that spans west from Missouri to Kansas, then south to Louisiana, Texas and into Mexico. The plant, which boasts 4-inch, honey-scented, lavender-to-pinkish-purple flowers with creamy centers, thrives in full sun to part shade.

Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum) are delicate flowers that remind me a bit of Dutch irises. Growing to just over 2 feet tall, the late-summer bloomer is native to Michigan, Missouri and Texas east to the Atlantic coast, from Maine to Florida.

A better-known U.S. native is the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), which, as its name implies, is native to California and Baja California. It grows up to 2 feet tall, sending up thin stems that each hold a single yellow-orange flower.

Many sunflowers are North American natives, and some of those are perennials. But the Helianthus annus species, known as common or annual sunflower, is a native annual. Originating in Manitoba, Canada, and Minnesota, south to Texas and west from Oregon to Baja California, Mexico, the multi-branched, bushy plant becomes covered in yellow flowers with maroon centers in summer.

Indian blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella) is another U.S. native annual that I’ve seen at the nursery. They’re not native to my home state of New York, however, but rather native from western South Dakota to Kansas and Louisiana and west to Colorado and Arizona. The 2-foot-tall plants put forth daisy-like, red-petaled flowers with yellow tips.

Impatiens capensis (Orange jewelweed) should not be confused with the widely available Impatiens walleriana, which comes to us from eastern Africa, or Impatiens hawkeri (New Guinea Impatiens), which is native to the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Instead, this North American beauty has a native range that covers Saskatchewan to Newfoundland, Canada, then extends south to Georgia, west to Oklahoma and northward to Missouri. Great for shady spots, its speckled orange flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

I hate to break it to you, but just like your calendar can’t tell you the best time to harvest, it won’t provide you the perfect date to attack the pests waging war on your plants.

Timing effective pest control is all about understanding how the weather affects insect life cycles.

We know that most plants and insects emerge in spring, advance through summer, and, in cold regions, go dormant over winter. But beyond those general seasonal cycles, there’s no way to predict precisely when, for example, seeds will sprout, garlic will be ready for harvest or pests will be at their most vulnerable.

Those developmental stages vary from year to year because they’re dependent on the weather.

That’s where growing degree days come in.

GDD is a cumulative system used to determine exactly when plants and insects will reach certain stages of maturity. And with so much variability — with different pests having different life stages that are vulnerable (or resistant) to different control methods at different times — it’s a helpful tool for gardeners.

The system, introduced by the French entomologist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in 1735, is a measurement of heat accumulation that accurately predicts when seeds will germinate, crops will mature and specific pest populations will hatch and reach advancing stages of maturity.

The progression of an insect’s life cycle, like much of the natural world’s biological activity, is dictated by environmental factors like temperature. And because not every life stage will succumb to treatment, weather is the only thing that can truly accurately inform the timing of many control methods.

Here’s how it works

The average daily temperature is typically recorded on March 1, and for each degree over 50 degrees Fahrenheit, one point is assigned. Then, every day throughout the remainder of the season, the number of degrees over 50 is added to a running tally. If the temperature is exactly at or below 50 degrees, the day is assigned a score of zero.

Let’s say the temperature was 53 degrees on March 1; the GDD on that day would be 3. If it was 60 on March 2, the GDD would be 3 plus 10, or 13. If the temperature was 49 on March 3, that would add nothing, and the accumulated growing degree days would remain at 13. The tally continues to grow through a regionally specific date in the fall.

Seems complicated? The good news is you don’t have to crunch the numbers yourself.

Your local cooperative extension office likely tailors and tracks this information for your region, and many post the GDD, as well as pest- and plant-specific GDD guidelines, on their websites. In addition, the agricultural company Syngenta offers a handy tool among its GreenCast online resources that quickly generates the GDD for your zip code.

What does this mean for your garden?

As an example, Colorado potato beetle eggs and pupae are not susceptible to pesticides, so attempting control during those stages would be pointless. But their larvae are vulnerable to the natural biological control Bt from the time they emerge until they reach ¼ inch in length. Rather than heading out into the garden with a ruler — or spraying every day and hoping for the best — you can time the application for between 65 and 185 GDD.

Similarly, the first generation of euonymus scale insects are most vulnerable to Neem oil and horticultural oil treatments between 400 and 575 GDD.

And for pre-emergent crabgrass controls, like corn gluten meal, to be effective, they should be applied just before 200 GDD. That’s why I recommend a treatment window that coincides with the time between when the first forsythia blooms and the last of the lilacs fade: It’s a visual cue tied to nature’s reaction to temperature.

Depending on the variety, most tomatoes, which love the heat, are ripe for the picking between 1,000 and 2,000 GDD. But, for the record, my tomatoes always let me know when they’re ready.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

A:  You can’t intervene much if you want to let the plants support wildlife. Insecticides would not be recommended (even organic options could harm pollinators) and a physical barrier like a cover of insect netting would, of course, prevent any pollinator access.

A wide variety of insects in midsummer can chew petals (and foliage), which include many species of beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, earwigs, and caterpillars. Some of the caterpillars that can eat coneflower (Echinacea) blossoms are camouflage loopers, which chew petals, certain inchworms that tuck into the crevices and are hard to find, and the sunflower moth, whose caterpillar bores into the flower head.

None of these insects damages the plant enough to worry about. In many cases, the true flowers in the center cone of the flower are still perfectly functional for pollinators. If pollinated flowers produce seeds, they are also valuable to birds like goldfinches. As with all daisy-style aster family plants, the petals surrounding the cone are the ray flowers, which are usually sterile. While ray flowers help to catch the eye of pollinators from afar, they are not providing any of the floral food, so if they go missing or are damaged, it’s not a great loss. Many gardeners plant these perennials for the benefit of wildlife, so we have to expect that wildlife will actually make use of them in ways we might not appreciate.

There should be enough blooms unscathed by these flower munchers that you can still enjoy the plants, if not this season, then in a future year at least. This is one reason why planting a given species in groups, if feasible, can reduce the visual impact of some imperfections or damage that would be more prominent on a lone plant or two.

If you want to use the blooms as cut flowers, you can bag a portion of them to exclude these nuisance pests: use an organza, tulle, or mesh bag with a cinch-tie to cover the buds so they open intact. (Mesh maintains airflow to reduce the risk of fungal growth.)

Q:  My iris leaves look diseased. Can that be treated?

A:  Possibly, but it shouldn’t be necessary. The fungus (Cladosporium) that causes leaf spot infections on iris doesn’t infect the belowground parts, but if plants are weakened by heavy infection, they won’t be able to store as much energy for future blooms. Since the fungal spores overwinter in dead foliage and infect new growth in the spring, then spread further as rain splashes spores around, sanitation is essential. A thorough clean-up at the end of the season is the main approach to discourage recurring outbreaks.

During the growing season, you could cut off all infected foliage tips and dispose of the debris. After the growing season, remove all frost-killed leaves and dead flower stalks. Like many fungal pathogens, this one thrives in mild, damp weather conditions, so grow iris where they get good air circulation (not too crowded or close to a wall or solid fence) to help wet foliage dry off faster. Full sun exposure promotes good flowering and helps dry leaves off after rain, dew, or irrigation.

If you need to water the plants during dry spells, either avoid wetting the leaves entirely (only water the root zone), or water early enough in the day so that the foliage can dry by nightfall. Many species of iris rarely need routine watering because they are sufficiently drought-tolerant, but plants that have been cut back may benefit from occasional irrigation during dry spells to help them regrow.

Fungicide can’t cure existing infections, and while it might successfully protect uninfected growth, I don’t encourage its use. As a last resort (other than just replacing plants repeatedly plagued with leaf spot), you could try a product with the active ingredient chlorothalonil, following all label directions.

University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information at extension.umd.edu/hgic. Click “Ask Extension” to send questions and photos.

Landscape fabric may sound like a neat, tidy and easy solution to all your weeding woes, but, as often is the case, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

To be fair, landscape fabric has its place. Unfortunately, it’s widely misused in most home landscape applications, where it does more harm than good in ornamental beds and around perennials and crops.

The woven (or sometimes non-woven) synthetic (or sometimes biodegradable) barrier is meant to suppress weeds while allowing water and air to pass through to the soil beneath it. And that’s exactly how it works -– for a short time, after which buyer’s remorse almost always sets in.

Before long, soil and other organic matter settle on top of the fabric, seeds find their way to the surface, and weeds begin to grow. Since their roots penetrate through the fabric, removing them becomes extremely difficult.

Under the barrier, which restricts water and oxygen from reaching the soil and carbon from escaping, microbes, earthworms and other insects die, fertility declines and roots struggle.

In perennial beds, the fabric creates heat pockets and impedes the spread and self-seeding of plants. In time, the fabric will shift and tear, and attempts to remove it will no doubt make you rue the day you had the bright idea to use it.

Plastic sheeting is even worse, as it completely blocks water and air from reaching the soil, overheats roots and releases microplastics into the ground.

There are exceptions, however. Landscape fabric can be helpful under gravel or stone paths or walkways, where it creates a barrier between the hardscape and the soil below.

It can also help smother grass and weeds when used temporarily to help create a clean slate for future planting beds in areas that are difficult to clear. Still, I recommend using thick layers of newspaper or cardboard instead, as they biodegrade naturally and perform the same function without having to be removed.

When your landscape fabric becomes a torn, weedy, root-tangled mess – and it will — good luck removing it. The painstaking process involves slowly and carefully pulling up individual fragments of the fabric, which will be heavy under the soil, and cutting them away from around and between roots, which will have grown above, below and through the textile.

Instead of shooting yourself in the foot with landscape fabric, opt for an organic mulch like shredded bark, wood chips or straw. It will regulate soil temperature and moisture, nourish the soil as it decomposes and support the soil life that supports your plants.

Apply a 2- to 4-inch layer, keeping it away from trunks and stems, and refresh it when it breaks down. You’ll still get a few weeds, but they’ll pull up easily, roots and all.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

A:  No, they’re harmless. This is a widespread but not often seen millipede named Apheloria virginiensis, and it grows to about 2 inches long. (This species doesn’t have a widely-used common name; some sources call it the Kentucky flat millipede or the black-and-gold flat millipede.) Avoid handling them, as this and other species can produce defensive cyanide-containing secretions if they feel threatened by predators.

Millipedes might eat live plant tissues on rare occasions, but they don’t damage garden plants and generally help to decay already-dead plant matter. They also might scavenge dead invertebrates if the opportunity presents itself. As nutrient recyclers, they are valued members of the ecosystem and beneficial in gardens for breaking down leaf litter and other debris.

Millipedes might become more visible as they roam around during rainy weather, or if saturated conditions temporarily force them out of the soil. Otherwise, you’ll typically find them under or within moist rotting logs, stumps, and leaf litter. A few dozen species of millipedes occur in Maryland, with our largest reaching over twice this length, but it isn’t as colorful as the Apheloria.

Q:  How can I support fireflies in my yard?

A:  Preserving habitat is key, so they have the food, shelter, and environmental conditions needed to reproduce. As larvae (juveniles), these insects feed on a variety of pests, including slugs, snails, and caterpillars, plus earthworms and other soft-bodied invertebrates. They roam the ground, including exploring mossy areas or under rotting logs or leaf litter, to search for prey, and require moist or humid conditions to thrive. Some species spend a couple of years in this life stage before maturing into adulthood, which is comparatively short-lived, so suitable conditions for the larvae are critical.

As with some other beetles, firefly adults will sometimes visit flowers. Growing a diverse array of native plants can support fireflies by attracting the species they prey on as larvae and potentially feeding the adults if they seek nectar or pollen. If your landscape has the room, leave fallen logs to decay at their own pace, and welcome mats of moss at the edge of a lawn. (If moss is taking over areas of lawn, the grass was struggling to begin with, so the moss is not to blame for its decline.)

Outdoor lighting interferes with adult firefly behavior and makes it harder for them to find mates, since the light distracts from or drowns out their flashing. Turn off what lights you can, or switch them to motion-activated sensors or timers so they aren’t on all night.

Reduce or eliminate pesticide use. This spares the fireflies themselves from direct exposure and harm (especially from broad-spectrum ingredients like those used for mosquito and lawn treatments) and preserves their food source. Water quality is another concern regarding habitat degradation, and some pesticides could contaminate surface water in settings with leaching or erosion.

Where possible, leave leaf litter in place in the autumn instead of blowing it away or chopping it up. Natural mulches like leaf litter insulate the ground and provide hiding and foraging spots for wildlife. Like the measures above, this will broadly support local biodiversity.

University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information at extension.umd.edu/hgic. Click “Ask Extension” to send questions and photos.

When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle grew tomatoes in plastic buckets lined up like soldiers on the cement patio in their tiny Queens, New York, backyard.

They also grew dozens of vegetables in their 10-by-10 foot patch of soil and installed a pergola they made from green metal fence posts above a picnic table. While it provided much-needed shade, it more importantly supported grapevines that produced enough fruit for their annual homemade vintage.

Space — or the lack of it — doesn’t have to stand between you and a fruitful garden. You just have to be creative.

Start by looking up

Vertical space is a horizontally challenged gardener’s best friend.

String up a trellis, hang baskets or attach planters to a fence or wall. You might be surprised at how much you can grow when you consider the third dimension. Vines, herbs and even strawberries are content climbers or danglers.

Create visual interest by strategically grouping containers in clusters of odd numbers rather than lining them up in straight rows or placing them all separately. Try staggering their heights by perching them on decorative pedestals, overturned crates or stone slabs to draw the eye up and out.

Compact and colorful crops

Of course, size matters. If your space is limited, seek out compact or dwarf varieties of your favorite plants. They’ve been bred to thrive in tight spaces, and many are prolific producers of flowers, fruits or vegetables. These days, it’s easy to grow roses, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers — even apple and fig trees — in containers.

And don’t sleep on plants that multitask as both beautiful ornamentals and nutritious crops. I’ve grown amaranth, cherry tomatoes and rainbow chard in my perennial beds. Other edibles with attractive foliage or flowers like chives, fancy lettuces and sage would be equally at home among my coneflowers, zinnias and roses. And sweet potatoes make a nice ground cover or trailing vine in a mixed container.

Make the most of a single vegetable bed

If you have a small, designated bed for vegetables, you can maximize your yield by planting a succession of crops throughout the season. Start by planting early-maturing plants like peas, beets, kale and lettuces. Then, after harvesting, replace them with warm-season crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, summer squash and beans. As they fade and fall approaches, use the space for another round of cool-season plants.

Even a narrow strip or window box can feel lush if you plant it in layers. Place tall, upright plants in the back, midsized growers in the middle, and low bloomers in front to create visual depth that can help transform even a balcony or front stoop into your own personal nature retreat.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

A:  Unfortunately, they want conditions we might not be able to provide in our gardens, but I have a fondness for this plant, too. In our region, you’ll find fringed bleeding-heart (Dicentra eximia) in the mountain habitat in West Virginia. For example, they grow in the Dolly Sods Wilderness, which ranges in elevation from roughly 2,500 to 4,000 feet, creating an environment akin to southern Canada and very different from where most Marylanders garden in the piedmont or coastal plain.

Fringed bleeding-heart is quite rare in Maryland, only growing wild in Allegany and Garrett counties, despite being sold around the state at native plant sales and nurseries. Much of its native range centers around the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, where West Virginia meets Virginia and Tennessee meets North Carolina. The emphasis there is mountain; despite the range being south of us, the higher elevation habitat makes most of Maryland hotter than the plant prefers.

Often growing in rocky ground with acidic soil in the wild, this species doesn’t go summer-dormant the way the popular non-native bleeding-hearts do (Dicentra/Lamprocapnos spectabilis), but heat may hamper growth and pause flowering. Some references say the plant will tolerate a near-neutral soil pH, and it prefers a rich soil (with lots of organic matter).

I’ve seen it growing alongside abundant reindeer lichen and heath family plants (blueberry, huckleberry, mountain-laurel, rhododendron, azalea, and wintergreen), on the edges of mixed hardwood-spruce forest. In a garden setting, growth is probably best in afternoon shade or dappled summer light (more sun would be fine in evenly moist, cool environments), in a soil that doesn’t get dry but also drains well.

If you are shopping for the plant, make sure the tag says Dicentra eximia if you want the Eastern native species. Dicentra formosa is the West Coast native analog, and sometimes it’s mislabeled as D. eximia, or a cultivar (like ‘Luxuriant’) is a hybrid between the two.

Q:  The lower leaves on my tomato are getting spotted. Will that kill the plant, or can I treat it?

A:  It’s likely a fungal leaf spot infection like Septoria or early blight, which are quite common in summer. Leaf surfaces that remain wet for long periods, from rainy weather, heavy dew, or running a sprinkler, are more vulnerable to infection. Fungal spores infect lower leaves first and spread upwards.

To discourage infection, try to keep the leaves dry. You can’t avoid wet weather, of course, but when watering the plants, only moisten the soil if possible (don’t shower the foliage in the process). Water early in the day so that the foliage can dry by nightfall, which will also help the plant stay hydrated through the heat of the day. Covering bare soil between plants with mulch will reduce the risk of infection. Removing three to four of the lowermost branches, once plants have established and fruits appear, will improve air circulation and reduce disease risks.

You can learn more disease prevention techniques and explore typical tomato problems on our Key to Common Problems of Tomatoes web page.

As a last resort, you could try to suppress the spread of infection by using a copper-based fungicide, but keep in mind that it can’t cure existing disease, it might not always work completely to prevent new infections, and spray residues might be harmful to pollinators or other organisms. As with any pesticide, always follow label directions carefully, and make sure the chosen product is labeled for the insect pest or disease you need to treat and for use on edible plants.

University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information at extension.umd.edu/hgic. Click “Ask Extension” to send questions and photos.

A:  This sounds like feeding damage from a population of chrysanthemum lace bugs. Despite their name, they feed on several plants in the aster/daisy family, especially asters and goldenrods.

Named for their mostly clear, lacy-patterned wings, lace bug adults are fairly small, at about 4mm long. Don’t confuse them with the similarly-named, unrelated, larger and clear-winged lacewings, which are beneficial predators. Over a dozen lace bug species can be found in Maryland, their hosts ranging from azalea or rhododendron to oak, walnut, fringetree, linden, eggplant, and even grasses.

Like other “true bugs,” lace bugs have mouthparts that pierce and suck, which they jab into leaf cells to suck out the contents. This gradual removal of the leaf’s chlorophyll causes the pale, bleaching symptom. When large areas of feeding damage coalesce, they make whole sections of the plant look pale and stressed. I have seen leaf-edge browning and drying associated with these lace bugs, even though the roots have enough moisture.

Use a garden hose and aim a strong spray of water at the leaves, both tops and undersides. Adults can fly and might return, but the juveniles cannot fly. Or, just give the plant a good, vigorous shake and see who falls off. This approach isn’t perfect and won’t eradicate them all, but it doesn’t have to – the plant will live and regrow just fine next year.

Avoid using insecticides on plants as popular with pollinators as the aster family members are. If nothing else works and the lace bug population remains high, horticultural oil or insecticidal soap might suppress them enough to minimize their impacts, though it’s pointless to try if the plants are already heavily damaged. (In that case, spraying the foliage could worsen the damage by “burning” the injured leaves.) You’ll have to thoroughly coat both sides of the leaves with the spray. Even these low-toxicity options could endanger any caterpillars present.

Do not spray while temperatures are above 85 degrees, or you risk phytotoxicity (plant damage from chemical exposure), even on healthy leaves. Additionally, contact insecticides need re-applying roughly every 1 to 2 weeks for a few sessions to catch missed individuals, which can be a hassle.

Since treatment won’t reverse existing leaf damage, I typically wouldn’t bother with trying it, aside from the hose-off method. This is a native insect, and it’s part of the “ecosystem services” we’re striving to provide by planting native aster and goldenrod species. Everything feeds on something else: predatory insects, spiders, and other beneficial organisms will remove some of the lace bugs on their own.

Q:  Do flowers for attracting hummingbirds need to be red?

A:  While red is a popular color with Ruby-throated hummingbirds, they will just as eagerly visit blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, and white flowers. A trait the most popular blooms share is a long, tubular, bell or trumpet shape, often hanging or drooping downwards, preventing other pollinators from easily landing on the flower petals to crawl inside.

Plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae) are frequently visited, such as sages (Salvia species, both cold-hardy and tender), the aptly-named hummingbird mint (Agastache species) and beebalm/bergamot (Monarda species). Also favored are our locally native perennials lobelia (not solely the red cardinal flower), butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa, orange), tall phlox (Phlox paniculata, white, pink, and other colors), and our annual jewelweed (Impatiens capensis, orange, and I. pallida, yellow).

Keep in mind that hummingbirds catch lots of insects, both to round out their own diet and to raise their nestlings. Therefore, you can grow an even wider variety of flowers that attract small insects that will help feed hummingbirds living near your garden, even if you can’t accommodate as many of their preferred flowers due to constraints of space or growing conditions.

University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information at extension.umd.edu/hgic. Click “Ask Extension” to send questions and photos.

For about two weeks every spring, my letter carrier, delivery drivers and just about everyone else who walks into my yard comments on the deliciously strong scent emanating from the two lilac shrubs flanking the front gate. Most days, the breeze carries the fragrance all the way to the front door or even indoors if the windows are open.

Not many flowers have that power. Some never did. Others no longer do, thanks to breeding that has developed bigger, prettier, hardier and disease-resistant plants at the expense of scent. Most carnations and violas aren’t what they used to be, and even some roses are now fragrance-free.

But if it’s an intoxicating perfume you’re after, there are still some flowers that will make your nose — and your heart — happy.

Choosing the ideal fragrant bloom

Of course, not all lilacs are the same. Syringa meyeri Palabin, the dwarf Korean cultivar I grow, is among the most powerfully fragrant. It’s suitable for zones 3-7. Other lilac varieties that stand out for their scent include Syringa x Josee (zones 2- or 3-9), Syringa vulgaris Krasavitsa Moskvy, also known as Beauty of Moscow (3-7), and Syringa vulgaris President Lincoln (3-7).

Magnolia, especially the southern grandiflora species (7-9), is another highly aromatic shrub or tree that puts forth large, sweetly fragranced flowers you’re not likely to forget. The more cold-hardy sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) will provide a similar service in zones 5-10.

Texas lilac, also known as chaste tree (Vitex), is a beautiful specimen with purple flowers that bloom in midsummer, imparting a delightful scent that wafts through gardens in zones 6-9.

Old garden roses, the original heirloom varieties that haven’t been tinkered with, are less popular today than modern hybrids and cultivars, in part because they bloom just once a year. But their powerful, true-rose fragrance is worth the tradeoff. Consider roses in the tea, gallica, damask and alba classes for the most intense scent.

As far as vines go, the scent of star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), a climbing evergreen vine with star-shaped white flowers, will stop you in your tracks. It’s perennial in zones 7-10; elsewhere, grow it with support in a large pot placed where you spend most of your time, then move it indoors over winter. Although not related, common jasmine (Jasminum officinale) also smells as good as it looks.

Dutch — or common — hyacinths (Hyacinthus orientalis) make the early spring garden smell delightful. Think ahead and plant a grouping of bulbs by the front door in autumn in zones 4-8.

Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus), not to be confused with edible garden peas, are annual plants beloved for their intense, sweet aroma. Other beautifully scented annuals include heliotrope (technically a tender perennial in zones 9-11) and flowering tobacco (Nicotiana), although, these days, some varieties are more fragrant than others. When shopping, let your nose be your guide.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

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