Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
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Smarty Plants Question Topics
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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| Pecan tree dropping dead leaves August 02, 2014 I have a very old, tall pecan tree in my yard that has been dropping dead leaves for the last three weeks. My back yard looks like it is the Fall season. Do you have any insight on this? View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Mexican oak and red oak not looking healthy August 02, 2014 I purchased a Mexican oak tree and I believe a red oak tree from your center about 1 year ago. Recently I've noticed that they don't look as healthy as they have been, and I just looked at the leave... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Live oaks dropping brown leaves August 02, 2014 We have three live oaks and one of them has been dropping quite a few brown leaves over the past two weeks. I looked at pictures of trees with oak wilt and ours do not look like the pictures. I als... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Mountain laurel with fasciation July 24, 2014 My Texas Mountain Laurel bush has developed several "crested branches." What causes this, is it harmful & how do I get rid of them??? Thank you! View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Gaura Plants Dying In PA July 16, 2014 I had six gaura plants. They were beautiful last year. Now I have one that is doing well and the others are dying slowly one at a time. I don't understand this. They are on a slight slope and have ... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Yaupon hollies dying mysteriously July 16, 2014 I have a row of yaupon hollies (Ilex vomitoria) that I keep trimmed like a hedge. They were all healthy for many years. Two years ago one of them died and I removed it, leaving a gap in the line of h... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Problem with American Beautyberry in Houston. July 02, 2014 My American Beautyberry is dying one branch at a time. The entire plant looks great, now flowering and starting to put out berries. Then one or two branches will completely die. Trim those off, wi... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Northern Catalpa Tree Doing Poorly July 02, 2014 One of our Northern Catalpa trees appears to be dying. It is about 28 feet tall and this year only about 1/3 of it is producing leaves. It is next to our largest Catalpa tree (about 65 feet tall and a... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Tan, rough, fan-shaped growth on mountain laurels July 01, 2014 A tan rough fan-shaped "something" is growing at the end of the mountain laurel branch where the flowers would be .. what is it and can it harm the plant? View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Live oaks exhibiting white foam spots from Round Rock, TX June 08, 2014 We have several native very large Live Oak in our backyard, and this summer we have noticed white foam spots on the branches. We live in Round Rock next to the Williamson County Park. The spots look... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Problems with Copper Canyon Daisy from Austin June 08, 2014 We had 3 copper canyon daisies. Two of them bloomed profusely last year, but only one has come back this spring. We cut them all back as instructed. When it was clear that two were not coming back, we... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Stress on Goldenball leadtrees from Austin June 07, 2014 I know of two separate instances where young Goldenball Lead Trees (leucena retusa) have shown symptoms of defoliation and a bleeding of white sap from sores that have developed on the bark. The first... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Decline of sheared dwarf hollies from Rockwall TX May 31, 2014 I have 20 year old established dwarf yaupon hollies in front of the house that I trim every year and shape the same. This year the new growth that was 2 1/2 " long I noticed the new leaves were curli... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Mildew on phlox paniculata from Morrisville PA May 30, 2014 My Phlox paniculata, all 7, have powdery mildew. I read about using NEEM to combat the mildew. NEEM is organic but the bottle says it is also an insecticide. The phlox are near my milkweed and gold... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Brown leaf problem with herbaceous blooming plants from Greenfield MA May 28, 2014 I have 3 plants cimicifuga brunette and lots of astile planted near each other. Suddenly the edges of leaves have turned brown and shriveled and spread to entire plant, all of them. It has not been ... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Problems with non-native artichoke from El Paso, TX May 25, 2014 I have a five year old artichoke plant in the ground that gets sun and some shade, has plenty of fertilizer and compost. Gets enough water. It has been beautiful in years past and last year had 10 a... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Small tan balls on oak from Pipe Creek TX May 21, 2014 Dear Mr. Smarty Plants, our spanish oak is growing tan colored lumpy balls about the size and weight of a marshmallow..sometimes just one at the end of a short stem and sometimes 2-3 clumped together.... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Trimming of Escarpment Oak from Austin May 18, 2014 We have a 2-year-old quercus fusiformis in our front yard and have been advised by some people that we need to remove the bottom branches and trim the ends of the branches that are hanging far down. ... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Problems with transplanted Texas Madrones from Junction TX May 13, 2014 We planted 3 little Texas madrones last year 9 - 12 inches high. 2 of them seem to have some kind of black blight along the edges of the leaves that I don't think was the result of our late freezes. ... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Problems with non-native Banana Shrub from Houston May 01, 2014 My 7' beloved Banana Shrub (magnolia) has white dots on top of the leaves and nasty black stuff covering the backside of the leaves. The plant is dropping leaves. What can I do to save it? I has bee... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Live oak leaves not dropping from Austin April 29, 2014 We had a 65 gallon live oak planted last October. We watered it regularly and it was green all through the winter. In March the leaves started to turn brown but never dropped, as they should have. ... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Blossom end rot on non-native tomatoes from Newport RI April 25, 2014 Can epsom salt or eggshells end blossom end rot on tomatoes? View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Non-native invasive carrot wood tree losing leaves in Alpine CA April 22, 2014 My carrot wood tree is losing all of its leaves. The tree is about 15foot high & 13 years old. Could it be gophers? The tree was trimmed 1 year ago. View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Dying foliage on non-native Otto Luyken Laurel from Georgetown KY April 09, 2014 I have 5 luken laurel scrubs planted around foundation. They have done very well until this last winter..the foilage is now brown and crispy. Will they come back? Do I need to prune back the damage... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Plant mistakes from Cedar Park, TX April 09, 2014 At our "Wilts End" in Cedar Park, TX. and are looking for a tall shrub/tree that will hide a 6-ft tall concrete wall and muffle the noise from a busy street. The wall forms a very wide-angled V shap... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
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