Fluvanna Master Gardeners

Educating the Fluvanna County community to use environmentally sound and sustainable horticulture practices.

Horticultural Help Desk

The Fluvanna Master Gardeners Horticultural Help Desk at the Fluvanna Public Library will reopen on Tuesday April 6, 2021!

Weekly Help Desks are every Tuesday from 2 to 5 pm on the covered patio of the Library. Come with your questions on gardens, lawns, trees, and plants. We provide research-based advice, along with handouts, and reference material from Virginia Tech and other research institutions.

During the pandemic we require masks and social distancing. Hand sanitizer will be available.

If you can't make the face to face Help Desk, you can still get help by contacting us by clicking here or the Help Desk tab at the top of any of our web-pages and completing the Contact Us form. You can also call the Fluvanna Virginia Cooperative Education office in Fork Union at 434-591-1950 and ask the staff to convey your message to us.

Bring us your gardening questions!

 Special note: If you wish to send a plant or insect sample to the VT Plant Clinic - PLEASE contact us FIRST for instructions on how to do this correctly or the Clinic may not be able to process your sample. Click on our Help Desk page for instructions for submitting plant samples.

Updated Mosquito Fact Sheet

Virginia Tech recently posted a revised fact sheet for mosquito control in yards and near dwellings. It deals with the most common mosquitoes that develop in small containers and standing water. Please follow this link: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/ENTO/ENTO-202/ENTO-202.html

Fluvanna Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners (FCE-MG) volunteers can help you identify the mosquitos in your yard if you have concerns about disease-carrying insects.  Mosquitoes to be submitted for identification will need to be adult stage and dead.  If you have any questions, please contact  VCE-MG at 434-591-1950, by the Contact tab at the top of this web page, or at any of our scheduled Help Desk sessions at the Fluvanna County Public Library.

 

 

Boxwood Greenery and Boxwood Blight – ALERT

Click here for attached alert  Boxwood Greenery
I wanted to share this (see attachment from VT Plant Clinic above) with those that might be impacted by boxwood blight, and it’s incursion due to holiday decorations.  Please share with anyone you feel appropriate.
Given Fluvanna County has lots of boxwoods in our landscape plantings, and a strong historical holiday “feel”, this is timely for us.
John G. Thompson
Extension Agent, Agriculture and Natural Resources
VCE Fluvanna Unit
P.O. Box 133
132 Main Street
Palmyra, VA 22963
Phone: 434.591.1950
Fax: 434.591.1951

Impatiens Downy Mildew Fact Sheet

Subject: impatiens downy mildew fact sheet

Dear VCE  Agents,

We wanted to alert you to a new electronic VCE fact sheet on impatiens downy mildew at the following url: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/PPWS/PPWS-19/PPWS-19.html. The fact sheet includes information on the disease, as well as a list of helpful web resources on this disease. We hope you will find this to be a useful resource.

Mary Ann and Elizabeth

---
Plant Disease Clinic
106 Price Hall
Dept. of Plant Pathology, Physiology and Weed Science
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0331

Resources to help handle emerging ornamental diseases

Dear Colleagues:

 

As the 2013 season starts, there will be a lot of questions from farmers, garden centers and landscapers as well as Master Gardeners and the public about rose rosette disease (RRD), boxwood blight, impatiens downy mildew and other emerging ornamental diseases.  On behalf of the ornamental pathology team, I am sending the following web resource links to help you handle the questions that you may be asked. Please share them with your Master Gardeners and clientele.

 

Rose Rosette Disease e-book http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/450/450-620/450-620.html

Box blight fact sheet http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/PPWS/PPWS-4/PPWS-4.html

Recording of recent Box blight update webinar (ANLA, 2013) http://www.anla.org/knowledgecenter/premium/index.cfm?view=player&colid=112&cid=324&mfid=5538&StartNum=1

Impatiens downy mildew webinar (ANLA, 2012) http://www.anla.org/knowledgecenter/premium/index.cfm?view=player&colid=112&cid=364&mfid=5473&StartNum=1

 

If you have any questions/suggestions or receive questions that are not covered in the above web resources, forward them to me, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, or Norm.  We will do everything we could to help you out.

 

 

Chuan

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Chuan Hong

Professor of Plant Pathology

Hampton Roads Agricultural Research & Extension Center

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++