With Thanksgiving bearing down upon us, it will soon be time for the Christmas Tree lots. For many families, the Christmas Tree is the main symbol of the holidays. Several have gone to the artificial trees for convenience, allergies, or other reasons, but many still prefer to get a cut or live tree for their symbol. Here are some helpful hints to make your purchase a cut tree and then keep your tree safely through the holiday season.

Freshness is the key to having an enduring symbol of the holidays. Freshness is directly related to the moisture content in the needles. Once the tree is cut, its life functions quit. However, it will continue to function much like a wick as it absorbs moisture through the stem if placed in water. If adequate water is not available for the tree, the moisture content of the needles (moisture is lost by transpiration in your house) drops by about 35 – 50%. Trees that drop below 85% moisture will not regain their freshness.

When identifying a fresh tree, one obvious way is to cut your own (or observe it being cut). Many families make a ritual out of selecting their own tree, and you know that it is fresh that way. If you buy from a "lot" you need to buy from a reliable dealer that can give information on how long the trees have been cut. You then need to determine freshness for yourself.

Fresh trees have needles that are needles that are relatively supple and firmly attached to the twigs. All trees will have brown needles that will fall, but the green ones are the ones that count! If the green needles tend to snap when bent between your fingers the tree is probably quite dry. If temperatures are low (around zero), then all needles will snap since they are brittle. Fresh trees will have a fragrance to them. They also will have a waxy, natural green appearance, but some trees are sprayed with a needle colorant to make them greener.

When caring for your freshly cut tree, start with trying to avoid hauling the tree over a long distance where it will be exposed to the wind. Air moving across the needles is what actually dries them out. If you purchase your tree from a sales lot, buying the tree early will help insure better freshness and selection. You can then take the tree home and give it the proper attention.

Once you get the tree home, you should make a fresh cut on the trunk of the tree, place it immediately in water, and store it in a cool place (like your garage). Avoid putting the tree on the ground since it could freeze in place and be difficult to move. The cut you make at home is important. You should make a straight cut to make it easier on you and the tree will take up just as much water as if you made an angled cut.

Water is then the rule! Make sure your stand will hold enough water for your tree. A fresh tree may use up to two quarts of water the first 24 hours, and up to a quart a day for the first week. You also have to have the water level above the cut surface of the trunk to keep your tree fresh. Live trees also have critical water needs, especially since you want to plant them after the holidays.

When you locate your tree, make sure it is not by a fireplace, furnace outlet, or other heat source as they will dry it out. Closing a heat register in the area of your tree will help keep warm drafts from drying out one side of the tree.

A properly cared for cut tree, that was fresh to start with, can safely be displayed in the home for at least two weeks. The tree is actually your best indicator. If needles start dropping, and water use stops, there could be problems developing.

Hopefully these tips will help you enjoy your holiday season. This will be the last column of the season, and hopefully you've enjoyed them. For off-season horticulture information, you can check out the "In the Backyard" blog on our website at www.extension.uiuc.edu/logan

Fall is definitely upon us, and we know the season coming next! While the weather is somewhat cooperative, it is time to take care of some of those final outside chores. At least you'll feel prepared when the weather turns cold, and the main gardening activity is watching your favorite gardening show on public television.

Leaves have been one of the main clean-up items this past week. They will continue to be an item, so here are a few options for you. Mulch them where they aren't too thick. You can mulch with a mower, blower vacuum, or a chipper. This will reduce the volume greatly. Then the mulched leaves can be used as a mulch, but they may best be used on beds away from the house. The decaying organic matter tends to increase the millipedes, pill bugs, and other nuisance pests around the house. Composting is also a great option. Composting leaves isn't tricky, it just takes a little bit of formulation. The rule of thumb is to add about one-fourth of a cup of commercial fertilizer per compressed bushel of leaves, or to use one part leaves and 2 parts of green material such as grass clippings or green material removed from the garden. Mulching before composting is a double-edged sword. The finer material will decompose quicker, but it will also compact more and reduces the oxygen need to make compost. For more information on composting, check the website at http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/homecompost/

Tender bulbs, roots, or corms should be dug, if you already haven't done so. These would include dahlia, cannas, caladium, tuberous begonia, and gladiolus. Many of these will actually have rotting problems from frost. Be careful when digging so the bulbs are not cut, as any wound usually means a rot will begin. Any bulbs that look diseased should be thrown away. Most can be dried at room temperature, but gladiolus should be dried at a higher temperature (70-80 degrees) and dusted with malathion to protect against thrips. Store all the bulbs in a cool, dry place.

Plants which are completely dormant, such as peonies can be cut back. Leave a couple inches above ground on many such as mums since they store food above ground as well as below. The couple inches will also help catch snow and leaves to help create a "self mulched area" to help them survive the winter. Clean up around fruit trees, the garden area, and flower beds. Materials may be composted as long as they are not severely diseased.

December through February are the best months to apply the plugs to pin oaks and other trees which show iron chlorosis. You are best to not do any pruning at this time. Wait at least until December for the non-evergreens, with December being the best month for oaks (due to oak wilt) and maples and other trees with a high sap flow. The December to February time period is the best for pruning most non-evergreens. Do those in late June.

Someone told me I didn't talk about knockout roses in my winter rose care column last week, and there is a reason for that. Generally knockout roses don't require special care in hardiness zone 5 or south. We are in zone 5b. If you do want to do something because of prior problems, you can much the crown area. Some go to the extreme and burlap them or put wire around them and fill with leaves, but that is entirely up to you. The basic care is a pruning, if needed, in the early spring to size or shape.

Enjoy fall while it is here. As the sign along Lake Superior says: " Enjoy the day, we are one day closer to winter."

What an unusual year! That seems to be the understatement of the year. We haven't even had a killing frost in many locations yet as of November. The hosta foliage is golden, potted annuals are still thriving, peonies are just turning brown, and roses are still blooming. Following are the basics of rose care for fall and spring, but make sure you are dealing with dormant plants. This may mean you are doing these chores in December.

Many of the roses that are classified as old garden roses are extremely tolerant of cold temperatures, while others like hybrid teas experience considerable damage. Also, budded roses stand a greater chance of injury or death due to severe cold than do own-root roses. When selecting roses, always select cultivars that are able to tolerate the coldest temperatures in your area based on USDA hardiness zone maps. One of the ways to protect roses for the winter is to be sure they go completely dormant. To accomplish this, stop fertilizing early enough so growth slows down. No fertilizer should be applied after August 15. To further encourage dormancy, stop dead-heading or cutting flowers after October 1 and allow the plant to form hips.

There are many methods to provide winter protection for roses. The whole idea of winter protection is to keep the plant uniformly cold and frozen all winter and prevent the damaging effects of alternate freezing and thawing. Whatever the method, don't begin covering plants too early. Wait until a hard killing frost has caused most of the leaves to fall, and the temperature has dropped into the teens for several nights. Prior to covering, remove any foliage or other debris that might harbor disease for the next season.

Before covering, some tall roses may need minor pruning to reduce their height, and tie canes together to prevent wind whipping. Pruning at this point should be kept to a minimum. Most pruning will be done in the spring to remove dead and diseased canes.

The most common way to provide winter protection is to pile or "hill-up" a loose, soil and compost mix around and over the plant about 10-12 inches deep. A variety of hilling materials can be used, but the key is to be sure that the material is well drained. Wet and cold is far more damaging than dry and cold. Soil that is used to "hill-up" plants should be brought in from outside the rose garden. After the soil mound has frozen, the mound can be covered with evergreen boughs, hardwood leaves, or straw to help insulate and keep the soil frozen.

A variation of the "hilling" method is one utilizing collars. An 18-inch-high circle of hardware cloth or chicken wire is placed around the plant. The collar is filled with soil, allowed to freeze, then mulched with straw. The benefit of the collar is that it holds the soil in place all winter and prevents it from being washed or eroded away.

Another popular method of winter protection for roses is the use of styrofoam rose cones. If these are used, they need to be used properly. First, don't cover the plants too early. Follow the general timing guidelines. Second, cones need to be well ventilated by cutting holes around the top and bottom of the cones. This helps prevent heat build-up on the inside during sunny winter days. It is also advisable to mound soil around the crown of the plant before putting the cone in place. For extremely tender varieties, some rose growers cut the top off the cone and stuff it full of straw for added protection. It is also a good idea to weight the cone down with a brick or stone to keep it from blowing away.

Climbing roses offer more challenges. For marginal varieties, climbers may need to be removed from their supports and bent to the ground, then covered with six inches of soil and mulched. When laying climbers on the ground for covering, one needs to be very careful not to injure or crack the stems. As the weather gets colder their long stems are more rigid, and they are easily broken.

Another method that can be used is to physically pack straw around the canes while they are still attached to the trellis or support. The straw is held in place with twine to keep it in place over the winter.

Just when leaves were starting to look colorful, we were hit with the double whammy of wind and rain. With the weakened attachment of the leaf stems as leaf color changes, there are leaves on the ground everywhere. This brings up one of those age old questions "What do I do with all those leaves?" The simple answer is to give you three options: leave them (no pun intended), remove them, or chop them up.

If you decide to let nature take its course, letting leaves lie brings benefits and some problems. Many of the benefits are associated with your labor, or lack of it. The major non-labor benefit is when leaves collect in flower beds and around shrubs to provide a mulch for those plants. Problems generally develop where deep piles of leaves may smother grass or harbor diseases, causing large dead areas to deal with next spring. Of course if you are the only resident in a neighborhood who doesn't rake leaves, you may be talked about at many get-togethers this fall.

Removing leaves is generally done by raking or bagging with a mower attachment. This makes your lawn look neat, prevents problems for lawns, and gives you a workout if you are manually raking. The main problems are the time, labor, and disposal of the leaves when they are piled.

Chopping leaves means reducing the size. Benefits include less smothering, quicker breakdown, and less labor. The main drawback comes with deep piles that still should be removed because of trouble in shredding and smothering.

One thing to consider is the type of leaves. There is a huge difference in oak leaves and silver maple leaves. It's difficult to have smothering problems with oak leaves, while silver maple leaves may smother with a very thin layer. These green leaves will tend to smother more than the dry, rigid types will. Add to this the very wet conditions of leaves and soils, and we will have to wait for things to dry out a little bit before being able to chop effectively.

What do you do with the leaves you've accumulated? There are several possibilities. Many municipalities, Lincoln included, prohibit burning for the most part. Besides the fire risk, the respiratory issues for affected people can be life threatening. Raking leaves into the street, unless requested by the city for cleanup, usually results in clogging storm sewers. Options remaining include composting, using as a mulch, tilling into garden and bed areas, and hauling to the city landscape recycling dump. There may even be some private collection services that will take bagged or bulk leaves to a recycling center. Partial composting, and the subsequent use as a mulch, is one of the best solutions. Simply construct an enclosure at least two feet cubed, place leaves in it, and cover the top with hardware cloth or wire laid on it and weighted down. The resulting much may be used next spring on flower beds, gardens, around trees and shrubs, or spread back on gardens or lawns. More information on recycling leaves can be found online at http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0692/

One thing to consider is removing the leaves from around the foundation of the house. The decaying leaves provide a hiding place or food sources for nuisance pests such as lady bugs and millipedes. The removal from directly around the house may reduce the number of these insects making their way into your home.

The last week has found the lowly millipede taking homes by storm. If millipedes were insects, they would deserve insect of the week honors. Since they are not insects, we'll just dub them "pest of the week."

What are millipedes? They belong to the arthropod class Diplododa, which means double footed. The reason is simple: they have two legs per body segment. There are many different types of millipedes, over 1000 actually. They prefer to live in moist places, such as under mulch, in flower beds, in good quality lawns, and under wood. They feed on decaying organic matter, and occasionally on tender leaves or roots.

Millipedes lay eggs in the soil in spring and summer months, and usually overwinter as the adults that we are seeing now. The big problem with millipedes is that they migrate. Right now they may be migrating through your living room. Nobody knows for sure why they migrate, but the best guesses involve searching for food sources and seeking moisture.

Unlike centipedes, millipedes don't bite or sting. They do give off a bad odor when disturbed or smashed. Be careful crushing them on carpeting, as they can cause a stain. If you're not sure whether you have millipedes or centipedes, here are some differences: centipedes have on leg per body segment while millipedes have two, centipedes normally have much longer legs than millipedes, and centipedes move rapidly while millipedes move slowly.

Now that we know a little about millipedes, How do we get rid of them? Well, there isn't a simple answer (or I'd be rich), but an integrated program gives the best results. A program that uses both chemical and non-chemical methods is usually most effective.

Non-chemical controls aim at removing the moist resting places. Dethatch your lawn to reduce that damp thatch layer just above the soil surface, closely mow and edge the lawn to allow it to dry quickly, remove debris that provides hiding places, pull mulch away from the house, water grass in the early morning, and keep leaves from piling up along the foundation. That's one of the reasons we tend to have so many millipedes this time of year. The crumbling leaf material is an ideal cover and food source for millipedes. Use of glue boards for mice will also catch an amazing number of millipedes.

If millipedes get inside the house, the vacuum cleaner is probably the best control. It is non-chemical and prevents stains from smashed millipedes. Other controls in the home include the sticky boards, aerosol sprays that are used for flying insects (check the active ingredient as some contain permethrin which will last several weeks), and baseboard spays used for ants.

Outside the house, start with a foundation spray of something such as propoxur, bifenthrin, permethrin, or Sevin. Spray the foundation and the adjacent foot or so of soil and plants or lawn. Make sure you treat doorways and other openings as well. Since millipedes aren't insects to begin with, don't expect a complete wipe-out with a chemical spray program.

With the warmer weather, Asian ladybugs (technically the multi-colored Asian ladybeetle) are becoming more active. How did we come to have so many? Well.... the populations really climbed in early September as the populations of soybean aphids increased in soybean fields. The problem was the soybeans matured, and the aphids died. So now we have all these insects with no food source in the fields. They are traveling looking for food and a place to rest to gather warmth. We are also destroying their resting places by cleaning off flower beds and raking up piles of leaves. In Asia, the ladybugs climb the side of a cliff to gather sun. Since we don't have many cliffs around here, they use the side of your house, the car, a tree trunk in the sun, well you get it - about anything vertical and in the sun. These insects were actually imported to help control insects in pecan orchards. Once they succeeded there, they moved to other orchards, such as peaches, where they did more harm than good. Many people say the trend of more harm than good continues today, but they are mainly a nuisance pest.

The best control in the home is a vacuum cleaner. If you have numbers too large for that type of control, area sprays of an aerosol flying insect killer will knock down the ones it hits. If you are terribly bothered, try a perimeter spray of the foundation, door areas, siding, and window areas on the home with a pesticide that will last for a while. Color test the material on siding first, and hope for the best. The pesticides are effective, but they are sometimes overwhelmed by the number of ladybugs that you are trying to control. Permethrin and bifenthrin are probably the most commonly used pesticides for perimeter sprays, but don't expect a quick knock-out.

To start with, remove all the dead, short, and weak canes. The large remaining canes are thinned to 4 to 8 inches apart. The canes are cut back to 5-6 feet tall or if no support is provided 3 to 4 feet tall. The canes that produced last year should be removed anytime after harvest, or removed in the late fall. Canes are productive only one year and the new growth will produce the next year's harvest. The exception is the Heritage, or ever-bearing, raspberry which produce two crops of berries. One is in the fall, and the second is late spring or early summer. These berries should have the canes removed after the late spring or early summer crop.

Peonies are one of those "plant it and forget it" flowers. Many haven't been bothered for over 50 years, and still going strong. As with most plants, crowding can occur, and the time to dig and divide is late September through October. Peonies do best in soils with a slightly acid to neutral pH. The best time to add lime, if needed, is when you dig the plants.

When dividing, make sure you leave buds on each piece you plan to plant. These buds should be no deeper than an inch when replanted to allow for proper flowering. Mulching will help year-long on any plant, and peonies are no exception.

With impending frost, it is important to take care of a few items. For protection, you could always try the covers over the plants you want to protect. You will need to use something with a little bit of insulation value such as cardboard, blankets, or row covers. The row covers themselves don't have much of an r-value, but the air space between the cover and plant does. Just laying a cheap tarp on your plants will usually result in at least some damage to the top parts of the plant. And if there are windy conditions, it may be about impossible to keep much of anything covered.

If you are ready to have the season conclude, harvest what you can. The main things to harvest prior to a frost or freeze include squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, etc. Virtually everything in the garden will be affected except for frost tolerant crops such as lettuce, spinach, radishes, and the like. The main problem with any of the vining crops is the possibility of the vines rotting back to the vegetable. This in turn means they won't keep well. Unfortunately, vining crops harvested early won't continue to ripen. Green pumpkins tend to stay green.

For tomatoes, you may pick green tomatoes and they will ripen after a period of time. The best way is to pick firm, good quality fruit, and wash well with soapy water. After they are dry, wrap in newspaper or tissue paper and place on a rack or in a cardboard box in a single layer. Check periodically for tomatoes going out of condition, or becoming ripe. To speed things along, you can try putting a tomato in a paper lunch bag with a banana peel. Bananas are high in ethylene, which is the same thing used in a gas form to ripen tomatoes in transport during the winter. Of course, the flavor just isn't the same as a vine-ripened tomato, but tomatoes in the fall or winter are good regardless.

As for flowers, the same principals of protection apply to annuals. Of course if you have hanging baskets or potted plants, you can simply put them in a garage or shed until the danger of frost has passed. The key point is one or two nights of frost, followed by a week or two of good weather, probably justifies some protective measures. A frost every night for two weeks, or a long period of freezing temperatures, probably mean major efforts will produce very little gain.

Unlike lions, tigers, and bears, the grubs, skunks, and moles are not make-believe, and they can really cause some damage to your lawn. Let's start with the grubs, since most of the problems are associated with them. We are faced with a few different types of grubs, with the Japanese beetle larvae and the June bug larvae being the most common. These also are the grub types most damaging to your lawn.

Starting with the adult beetles, the life cycle goes something like this. The beetles mate, and lay eggs in a lush, grassy area. The eggs then hatch into a small grub. This grub will overwinter as a grub, diving deeper in the ground as temperatures cool. The grub will some back to the surface in the spring as temperatures warm. After a few weeks to a month, the grub will go into the pupa stage. Then the adult emerges from the pupa in May or June to start the cycle all over again.

It normally takes in the range of 10-12 grubs per square foot to cause damage to decent turf, and with the good growing conditions we have had this year that number can almost double. This means we probably won't see much actual grub damage unless we have a sudden drought. The other thing is the grubs will begin to go deeper in the soil as temperatures cool. Most of the damage is coming from four-legged critters seeking the grubs as a food source.

Moles traditionally eat grubs and earthworms. They have a long, straight, shallow tunnel they use for their main "run," and then have several short, curving tunnels off of this where they have sought food. Skunks will actually dig individual holes to get grubs. They have a wonderful sense of smell, and they tend to work in a specific area. The holes caused by skunks are usually about the size of a penny, and they go as deep as the grub was (usually less than an inch and a half).

As for your control options, that gets more difficult this time of year. A month ago, the best approach would have been to apply a grub control treatment. We are approaching the time when the grubs will go deeper into the ground, so the benefits of a grub control treatment will be minimal. Grub controls are best applied in August or September to control the small grubs. If the problem is grubs, you are probably out of luck for this year. If the problem is the animals eating the grubs, you are going to be reduced to individual elimination.

Mole control is best accomplished by trap or poison baits. There are three main types of traps including the jaw type, the plunger type, and the loop type. The plunger type is probably least effective, since it is hardest to get set to the proper depth. The folk remedy controls usually involve bubble gum or juicy fruit gum in the runs, but these don't work consistently enough to recommend them. You're better off chewing the gum yourself while you are setting the traps. There are also poison baits available that are effective. The soft baits, which are meant to imitate grubs or worms, are effective. Poison peanuts or milo are not, since moles don't eat seeds.

Skunk control is another ballgame. There are state trapping regulations covering skunks, so you are best to check those out yourself. There is no season on shooting them, if that is an option where you live. The best control in this case is really your defense, and that means reducing the grub population where you don't want the digging occurring. Of course, there may just be a 10 foot move to another area where grubs are available.