Garden Dilemmas, Delights & Discoveries, Ask Mary Stone, New Jersey Garden blog
an elongated center of a mauve coneflower with fasciation

Fascinating Anomaly of Fasciation

Hello fellow readers. I enjoy being stumped by mysterious and sometimes magnificent garden dilemmas. Dorrie of Lebanon, CT, found my previous column about Deformed Flowers on Black-eyed Susan. The culprit— insects and a pathogen named Aster Yellows Disease (link below). But I had neve
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Deformed Flowers on Black Eyed Susan

Hello Fellow Readers, I have an assortment of deformed and dwarfed flowers on my Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) and Coneflower (Echinacea). In addition to distorted petals, some flowers didn’t form at all.  Plus, the ends of others look like something nibbled them off. This year,
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Purple-Cone-Flower-Echinacea

Deer Resistant Butterfly Plants

Hello Fellow Readers, We spoke a few weeks back about Sarah’s mile-a-minute weedy dilemma in Hope, NJ. She proudly sent photos of the clear-out of her front foundation garden, poised to be a butterfly garden. Sarah asked if there was a list of native deer-resistant butterfly pla
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Johnsonburg-Camp-Retreat Center-butterfly- garden

A Butterfly Garden of Growth

Hello Fellow Readers, Admiration fills my heart for the children’s courage and young adults who attended last weekend’s Comfort Zone Camp. It was in partnership with A Little Hope Foundation to support those who have lost a loved one to suicide. In the center of the camp i
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