Tanya Nova

In my research, Tansy consistently comes up as a repellant to ants, flies of all kinds and mosquitoes. I like how Tansy's properties are summarized in the book "Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening" by Louise Riotte:

"Tansy is considered poisonous to humans and to cattle ... but planted under fruit trees, particularly peach, it repels borers, and is a good companion to roses, raspberries, blackberries, grapes and other cane fruits. It deters flying insects, Japanese beetles, striped cucumber beetles and squash bugs, helps repel flies and ants. The dried leaves are useful for storing woolens and furs. ... The plant contains volatile oil, wax, stearine, chlorophyll, bitter resin, yellow coloring matter, tannin and gallic acid, bitter extractive gum and tanacetic acid (which is crystallizable) and precipitated lime, baryta and oxide of lead.  Because of its concentration of potassium, tansy is useful on the compost pile."

Is anyone growing Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) in the SouthEast region, zone 7-8, NC/SC? Tansy is supposed to be a good companion plant for basically any fruit tree you can think of, as well as a number of ornamentals that suffer from pests. I am reading that it's deemed invasive in some states, and otherwise is said to be aggressive spreader. However, I read the same things about both Yarrow and Valerian, and my experience with them has not been that dramatic at all. In my heavy clay soil, Yarrow seems to crawl around a bit, but it is extremely shallow rooted and is very easy to pull if needed.  I was worried a bit about Valerian when planting it about 1.5 years ago, but none of the worries came true. While it maybe an aggressive spreader up North, here in Zone 7b it is pushing its tolerance for heat (I think). My three original plants produced two very shingly new ones this year within a foot from their base, that's it.  I did allow it to go to seed last year, but found not one new seedlings so far..

So I was looking to see if anyone has experience growing Tansy as a companion plant for their fruit and berry plants in this climate, and how big of a "spreader" it actually proved to be? Does it seek new grounds to spread out, and if so, how far and how fast does it move? Once established in the spot, is it difficult to remove?

Hello fellow growers.

I am hoping that with a few photos and some information I found about this tree, someone might be able to recognize the three and know more about it's growing characteristics, mature size, preference for sight as well as sunlight, etc.  Below are a few photos. This is a one year old seedling that came up in a pile of gravel which was moved from its original location by the shed and into a pile on the driveway. (I have three or four more of these seedlings around my small plot, normally found at the foot of large pine trees or along the chain link fence - i.e., likely brought in by birds). I am in zone 7b, Piedmont area of North Carolina.

Using books, I have tentatively IDed the tree as a Wild Sour Cherry, except for the fact that no mentioning about the weeping growing habit is noted/documented. Generally,, there is not much information about it, other than "likely escaped cultivation" and especially about this unusual weeping form that it seems to be growing in. It is very beautiful - the branches are bending gently down, retaining the rounded form, almost like the arm's of a bowing ballerina, and handing so low they are touching "below" the ground - I had to elevate the pot by placing it on a few bricks to prevent me stepping on the branches by accident.

What puzzles me also is that neither in my neighborhood, no in the nearby parks, have I seen any tree resembling this growing habit (other thn some commercial cultivars other species). It should be mentioned that deer is very fond of them and the poor seedling does not stand a chance unless protected/fenced.  Same goes for rabbits. So in the wild, the tree saplings have no chance of developing into a tree because of heavy browse.

Does this tree looks familiar to anyone? Any information would be greatly appreciated! Is it native? Rare or common? What species?

PS: This is a *very* thirsty tree and a big "drinker" Dries up in half a day. It has me trained by now to water it twice a day :-)

To add to Dan's info regarding attracting Cardinals to your land, they are ground feeders and hang out and nest in dense shrubbery. I have a row of old and overgrown azalea bushes planted along the pine line, and I always see them in those azaleas. They love sunflower seeds. And they are VERY aware of your blueberry bushes :-) I have about 10 blueberry plants that are still in pots as I am yet to clear the patch where they will go. Last summer, to protect them from deer browse, I moved blueberry pots into the fenced veggie area, lining them up against the fence. They were within 10-15 fit of the tomato plants. At any given time, I had 4 to 6 Cardinals trying to get the berries. Cardinals and Robins seemed to spy blueberries VERY quickly, no matter where I moved them. The thing is, pretty much all birds are territorial, and any time you see more than one pair of the same species in close proximity, an "argument" ensues, and males start getting into each other's way and chasing one another rather than eating blueberries.. in the end, it's the Robin that got the berries lol. But both are larger birds able to handle larger insects. So if you want to attract birds to a specific area and not bother with having to maintain/stock a bird feeder, plant a couple of blueberries for them, one early season, one late.. I find that, if undisturbed, birds tend to hop around and investigate immediate surroundings...

And I second, I had no horn worm issue in this patch at all this summer (and horn worms are a big pest here too). For full disclosure, I did find two tomatoes that were pecked into, but it happened only once, so I will write it off as an accident :-)  One of the gardening books said that when birds peck into tomatoes they are seeking water/moisture, not the tomato itself. So having a source of water for them/birdbath should eliminate this problem. I wonder if this is also the case with other juicy edibles, such as peaches, for example.

Ian, I have not heard about the geraniums.. if you continue the experiment, let us know the results.

I have not seen robber flies around. It doesn't mean they are not around of course.. I will read up more about them. From initial research on wiki, it states that they prefer dry climates, which ours is not. But hey, if there is lots of food around, maybe I could coax them in!

The rabbits that I "have" are wild eastern cottontails that about devastated my winter garden. I thought it might be of interest to note which plants they went for, since they are the wild ancestors and presumably know what's best for them and how to take care of themselves, right? This is winter time and most of the plants I mention below stay evergreen in zone 7, i.e. available year round. So here we go, the "Top 10" on the winter diet of eastern cottontail rabbit in my garden:

1. Parsley. Parsley. Did I mention parsley? To the ground. Like it has never been there.
2. Kale. All kinds and varieties of kale, especially younger, tender leaves.
3. Red sorrel - they are very, very fond of it!
4. Green onions (I thought it was odd, but they absolutely mowed all of them to less than half height)
5. Yarrow foliage (not the colored cultivars of yarrow, which I also have growing and which they did not touch, but the native wild white yarrow, Achillea Millefolium)
6. Leaves of wild mulberry tree seedlings
7. Rose stems/branches - thorns, leaves and all. I was supposed to do my winter pruning in January but alas, there is not much left to prune. They got all stems within their reach that were new growth of the summer.
8. Entire canes of blackberries and raspberries. Blackberries seem to be preferred somewhat, but now both are gone.
9. Branches of young blueberry shrubs.
10. Chickweed (I don't cultivate it, it grows on its own around here and is considered a weed, albeit edible, and they seem to like it quite a lot)

I am a little mad, to say the least.. but I digress.

So it looks like during the winter months, a lot of fruit and berry plant prunings could be put to a good use!

Bird predators and distraction plants for Japanese Beetles - my two discoveries from summer of 2020.

Hello everyone! I am new and here is my first contribution :-)

I have previously read that native birds were not interested in Japanese beetles, which was a disappointment. HOWEVER! This summer, to my big surprise, I personally witnessed a male Cardinal gobbling them up from a branch on a young tree in my backyard (an elm, I believe). I am not sure if that was an "opportunistic lunch", or if Cardinals actively seek them out, but who cares, at least there is a creature in the natural world that will eat them! I talked to my gardening neighbors and confirmed that they too saw Cardinals feeding on Japanese beetles. One of them said she kept a feeder in the middle of her rose shrubs stocked even in the summer, and once the birds were there, they took care of the bugs to her satisfaction. It should be noted that Cardinals are not very "acrobatic" as compared to, say, chickadees or nuthatches, so a feeder with a flat feeding surface is needed to make sure they are able to hang out at the feeder for some time. Has anyone seen any other birds feed on Japanese beetles?

In addition, last spring I happened to plant a few native flowers around my rose shrubs, and one of them seemed to act as a "sacrifice/distraction/trap" crop, in that if the year before all of the Japanese beetles were piled up in rose flowers, this year there were hardly any on the roses growing next to this flower. Instead, the beetles were mostly on this flower plant, which is a White Gaura (see photo). I am planning on planting more of all kinds of Gauras! It proved to be a very happy-go-lucky plant. The base crown forms a roundish ball of attractive blue/green foliage and stays evergreen in my Zone 7 climate (the bunnies did a number of it this winter though; but they did not bother it in the summer). It flowered profusely from early spring to mid/late summer, and was teaming with all kinds of small-ish bees and other insects feeding on nectar. The flowers are long stemmed, small, flat and white, so the beetles are very visible on them and it was very easy to grab a cup with some soapy water and shake the beetles off into it with precision difficult to achieve with rosebuds and flowers as beetles bury themselves in all those petals. With all these beetles hanging out on the Gaura, the plant itself did not seem to incur any damage or show any stress; it never slowed down flowering and there were no signs of chewing on stems or leaves..  

From what I could observe, another rose shrub within 10-15 feet of Gaura planting also benefited and was mostly beetle-free.  However, roses planted in the backyard (about 50+ feet away) lost the protection -  there were loads of beetles on them.