February 2020- What’s with all this buzz about EAB?

Urban Tree Diversity

What’s with all this buzz about EAB?

The acronym “EAB” is being thrown around a lot lately by the mainstream media. We learned that: ‘ EAB Discovered in Southern MN’s Steele County’, ‘Crews Begin Removing 168 Trees Infected by EAB Along I-94 in St. Paul’, ‘St. Louis Park Receives Grant to Combat EAB’, ‘If they’re not in your backyard, they will be soon’ . It can be tough to keep track of all the new acronyms being used these days, but don’t fret, we can help with this one.

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Pollinator/Insect of the Month

Peck's Skipper

( Polites peckius )

With a wingspan at just over an inch, this is a small butterfly that ranges in mostly the eastern half of the United States. It is found in open fields, woodlands edges, parks, and roadsides. Caterpillars live in clumps of native grasses like rice cutgrass. These skippers are light brown with spots of yellow and orange. This species visits a variety of native plants including hoary vervain (pictured right), Joe-pye weed, echinacea spp., liatris spp., milkweed species, and more!

Retail Nursery News

Mark Your Calendars!

Visit Us this Spring!

Here are our upcoming retail dates:

Fri. May 15th

Sat. May 16th

Fri. May 29th

Sat. May 30th

For more sale dates and information:

Visit our nursery website

Non-native Species of the Month- Norway Maple- ( Acer platanoides)

This species was just added to Minnesota's Specially Regulated Plant List due to its invasive characteristics. Nurseries selling it will now have add instructions to plant it at least 100 yards from natural areas and only in areas where it's seedlings can be controlled. It is from Europe and Asia and can grow up to 70 feet tall. Some cultivars have very dark, purple foliage. Leaves are opposite, 5-lobed, and emit a milky sap when broken, which makes it easier to differentiate from our native sugar maple. This species invades our woodlands and displaces our native maples. Management strategies include cutting and treating the stumps of larger trees or pulling up small saplings.

Native Plant of the Month-

Bur Oak ( Quercus macrocarpa)

This native oak tree likes full sun and can be found in woodlands and open savannas. It can grow up to 100 feet and live for hundreds of years! It has large, gnarled branches that can make the canopy wider than the tree is tall, and up to 40 inch diameter trunks with thick bark that help it survive the occasional prairie fire. The bark is light brownish gray. Leaves are tapered and narrow where they attached to the tree and more broad and lobed at the top, making them look almost like an umbrella. Bur oaks produce fruit called acorns that provide food for many different species.

Click here for more details on our Maintenance Program

Welcome to our New NST Book Club!

We love to read books about our natural world, and want to share our favorites with you! Every few months we will feature three books in our newsletter with dates where we will discuss them on our Facebook Page .

Here are next two!