Ralph Snodsmith's Favorites, Banes and Goals

by Stephen Satrani

Favorite houseplants:

Davallia, Rabbits foot fern
Cissus antarctica, kangaroo ivy.
Its little tendrils react to heat and light. "When we entertain, there's always someone who wants one more drink for the road. I get them to back into the plant. In five minutes the little tendrils start to move. I guarantee you that in five minutes, he'll go home."

If a plant's not doing well or if it doesn't turn you on, give it a good name. Within three weeks the plant will do better. "Harry sits on osmunda and his little feet are now moist. Every day I say 'Good morning, Harry' and now he's doing well."

Favorite garden plants:

Crocosimia 'Lucifer.'
"I have a little patch right next to my water garden. I can sit under the dogwood and watch the hummingbirds take the nectar from the bright red flowers. Once a hummingbird quit flying and came to rest right on a little petiole. What a joy."

Rhododendron 'Great Eastern.'
"Everybody in the area knows when it's in bloom. Everybody smells the soft, sweet fragrance."

Rhododendron 'Cheer.'
"One-third of the blossoms open in the fall. The other two-thirds open in spring. You get a double whammy."

Viburnum 'carlesii.'
"I love the fragrance. The blossoms look so perfect, almost like a Hoya carnosa."

Marigold 'Inca II.'
They have five-inch diameter flowers, knee high. "They're deep green all summer. I've never seen a spider mite on them."

Dicentra eximia, fringed bleeding heart.
Found in northern Wisconsin, it blooms from the end of April to October. "This little guy with short, fringed foliage loves morning sun."

Bane:
He never uses bamboo, even those sold as non-invasive. "I've seen it come up through asphalt and won't even answer questions about it except how to kill it."

Goals:
Number one goal: the eradication of the Asian Longhorned Beetle. "If we do not eradicate it in its present quarantined areas, by 2020 there probably won't be a maple tree left in the Northeast. Its prime diet is maple and once it's in a tree, it's dead."

So far, quarantined areas include parts of Long Island and Manhattan and just outside the Lincoln Tunnel on the Jersey side. There are no chemical controls for the beetles and they can live inside a tree trunk for two years where no insecticides last long enough to kill them. The only control now is to chip and incinerate the tree and its entire root system.

The beetle came from China in the early '90s in green, raw lumber and packing crates for plumbing parts and antiques, and was found in 34 warehouses in the U.S.

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published June 01, 2003