Cut Garlic Stem To Stop Bulbs On Top Of Bulbs

Q: My garlic has bulbs hanging in the air at the top of the plant. Any idea what they are or what it means?

A: As you seem to suspect, they are tiny garlic bulbs. What it means is that you didn't prune out the "flower" stalk. When garlic starts to bolt, gardeners usually cut off the flower stalk. Left to grow, they take part of the plant's energy and result in smaller cloves underground at harvest time.

The flowers are quite interesting. The stalk is often as twisted as a piglet's tail. A pointy bud cover slowly splits open and drops. The ball of tiny flowers revealed eventually grows to four or five inches in diameter. They look good in dried arrangements. They attract lots of bees and beneficial insects.

Curiously, some garlic varieties tend to make tiny bulblets on the stalk instead of flowers. ("Italian Silverskin" or "Rocambole" are likely to do it.) This is just another way for the plant to reproduce itself. If planted, these bulblets will produce garlic plants, but cloves are a much better method of propagation. Breaking off the stem that produces these bulblets will redirect the plant's effort to making nice big cloves.

Q: My blue spruce is turning brown. The tips of the branches are fine but the rest of the plant is dropping needles. Should I dump the tree?

A: Spruces in the maritime Northwest are often attacked by an insidious insect, the spruce aphid. This is a very small, dull green aphid that infests the plant and damages the needles during winter, often as early as mid-January and into February, increasing in March and April.

They feed on the underside of the needles, causing yellowing and dropping of the older needles. Check for the presence of this aphid in winter by holding a piece of white paper under a branch and tapping the branch firmly to knock the small greenish aphids off.

There are no cultural controls; it's important to treat the tree early in the season, because by the time damage is noticed, it's too late to do anything about the problem. The aphids migrate off the plants before the new growth unfolds, creating the odd look of bare or defoliated twigs with fresh new tip growth.

An insecticide registered for use on spruce must be sprayed when the aphids are first detected. One that is often used is acephate (sold as Orthene.) Insecticidal soap can also be used, but it requires more frequent application and may not be feasible for a large tree.

This pest is so common, and such a recurrent problem, that many gardeners have concluded it's too difficult to keep blue spruce (and other spruce) looking healthy in maritime Northwest gardens. They give up, and visit blue spruce in the Rocky Mountains where they look magnificent.

----------------------------------------------------------------- Gardening runs Friday in Scene and Sunday in Home/Real Estate, as space is available. It is prepared by Mary Robson, area horticulture agent; Holly Kennell, Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension agent, Susan Miller, integrated-pest-management specialist, and volunteer Master Gardeners.