In our April issue, we picked Glenn Kopp‘s brain for tips and tricks to make our home gardens as fruitful as MoBOT’s William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening, where he serves as horticulture information manager. But Kopp isn’t the only helpful Master Gardener on staff. Each spring, a whole team of gardening experts at MoBOT’s Horticulture Answer Service fields hundreds of questions from St. Louis-area gardeners – including a few oddball ones that catch even these seasoned professionals off-guard. Here, the MoBOT team shares 14 of the strangest queries ever received:
1. What is the name of the plant that has pink flowers on it?
2. I don’t remember where the sun comes up – is it the east or the west?
3. Can I use birth control pills and put them on my plants to fertilize them?
4. Q: How do I kill a pine tree?
A: Why do you want to kill it?
Q: Because I want it taken away.
A: Why not have someone come in and cut it down and take it away?
Q: My brother-in-law will do that, but only after it has died.
5. Q: What is the round fuzzy thing growing on my red bud tree trunk? Maybe a bug? What to do?
A: Put on a pair of gloves and pull “things” off.
Q: Oh, I couldn’t do that! Couldn’t I just hit the things with a hammer?
6. My big black oak is dropping its acorns! Does that mean it is going to die?
7. Is it too late to bring my geraniums in? (Call date: Feb. 2)
8. Do you have reproduction facilities?
9. I put my poinsettia in the closet on Sept. 15. Can I take it out now? It doesn’t look good. Why doesn’t it bloom? (Call date: Dec. 8)
10. I have a hole in my yard. What do I do?
11. I have a plant that’s too tall. The bottom leaves fall off and it grows from the top. What is it? What do I do to make it shorter?
12. How do you keep birds out of trees?
13. Can you tell me when photosynthesis will occur this year?
14. I understand there’s a new spray for sweet gumball machines?
Do you have a pressing gardening question? Call MoBOT’s Horticultural Answer Service at 314.577.5143 to get one-on-one help from a Master Gardener.
This article appears in April 2015.