Deborah Jordan contacted the newsroom with a sad story of plant thievery. Someone stole a Japanese laceleaf maple from her South Tacoma yard last week. The tree burglar sauntered up and yanked it right out of a prominent garden bed. The real sting? It was a Mother's Day gift from her children.

"I have 9 million plants in my yard and they had to take that one," said Jordan when I talked to her about the theft.

She took matters into her own hands and posted an open letter, or a tree manifesto of sorts, for the thieves telling them what kind of care the Japanese maple requires (vitamin B and rich, organic soil) and she also included a snarky little message that the universe will most certainly give a fun little payback for thievery (so take that!).

"If they drive by, yelling at them is going to do nothing, maybe guilting them will do something," she said, laughing about the note she posted. Well, at least she has a good sense of humor about it.

I called Watson's Nursery to see if they had heard of any other Japanese maple thefts. Guess what? It's not unusual.

"It's a continuing problem," said Connie Skager who works at the nursery. "Japanese maples are stolen all the time. They’re kind of expensive. People like to put them in their front yard because they’re attractive and unusual. That just makes them susceptible to being stolen," she said.

She added, "Tacoma's had a real problem this year. Between the Japanese maples and fountains and bird baths that are stolen out of front yards, someone is doing a heck of a business out there."

Advice for how to protect an expensive tree? Plant it in the backyard, said Skager with a half laugh. Short of that, stake it or make it impossible to rip out. "If it's not established or staked down, it's easy to steal. If it's been growing there for a few years, it's harder to take out."

So has anyone else had plant thievery? Let us know.

Reader Nan Maynard of Tacoma called me yesterday afternoon with a question about dahlia tubers. I was glad for the break. I was swamped, thanks to my fellow editor Craig Sailor being strapped with reader rep duty this week (call him at 253-597-8432 to complain about, well, anything. He deserves the torture).

"I got tubers from a friend, but they've been in a box for three years. Can I replant them?" Nan asked.

I paused. Dahlias in a box? For three years. Yikes. Then I remembered the summer of 2005 when I moved and lost a bag of tubers. I found them in a random box in my garage in 2007 and planted them. They came up just fine. I told Nan my previously lost dahlias are shooting out of the ground right now. They seem ok.

But what if I was just lucky? Can dahlias survive three years locked away in a lonely little box? Nan swears they have been stored outside and they haven't seen any light.

Your thoughts?

In the meantime, I've got a call in to Connell's Dahlias in Tacoma. We'll see what they say.

Reaching into the reader question bag this morning, and here's what I dug out:

Greetings from Eatonville!
Last year I bought a healthy yellow weeping willow with 3-inch caliper base and planted it our yard. It thrived all summer and came through winter in great shape.
Around March this year, I noticed some movement amidst the branches and when I went to investigate, a sapsucker(red-headed) flew out. In a matter of days he had a series of holes drilled, in a spiral, at the top of the trunk, I would estimate at least 100! Of course, I noticed a battery of ants as well. My solution was to:
1) Circle poultry netting as high up the trunk as I could
2) Cut tin plates into spirals and hang them from the lower branches(the sapsucker has not returned)
3) Place tanglefoot on the trunk of the trees to stop ants
4) Sprayed the ants and their aphid herds with soapy solution (branches are now clean of insects)
5) water profusely when it's hot out.
The leaves of the willow are slowly shedding and a third of the leaves have turned a light yellow. About half of the holes have "healed", but some remain open and
have a blackish interior. The trunk above the "holes" has bulged somewhat, while the trunk below seems diminutive. A fungus seems to be appearing on some leaves as well. Is this tree a "goner" despite all we have done? What might you suggest as an additional course of action?

Ugh ugh, ugh. It sounds to me as if our reader has done everything he can, doesn't it? And it's a lot more than I would have done to save a young willow (I would have just visited the Watson's fall tree sale and got a new one. Bad, I know). Anyone have any thoughts? I'll nose around with some of our arborists and ask them when they think.

Until then, post comments/thoughts here.

Update 7/29: I had a brief e-mail exchange with Dennis Tompkins, our former arborist columnist and our go-to tree guy. His opinion? Our reader has done everything he can to save the tree. Dennis officially gives us a shoulder shrug. Sigh.

Good luck, poor sick tree. Our thoughts are with you.

I interviewed Cynthia Johnson from Fox Farm on Vashon last week for a blog posting and story about lavender.

While we were chatting, she mentioned a great tip for lavender that I thought I would pass along:

(Lavender will) grow fine in acidic soil, but it will be fabulous if you add a little lime in the soil mix. But it’s difficult, (if you add) too much lime and it won’t grow. What we suggest is adding limestone chips and sprinkling them around the drip line of the plant. It is said that as it rains, the limestone will drip into the plant. Just sprinkle the chips around the plants. They can reflect the sun, which will cause the plant to get more heat. It causes alkalization of the soil.

Johnson said the chips also work for peonies, iris and hellebores.

So where do you find limestone chips? Well, that's a good question. It turns out you can't necessarily run down to McClendon's and buy a bag. Johnson buys them by the hundreds of pounds from people who install marble flooring. Want some? Johnson has the chips for sale in small bags for a few bucks each at her Vashon farm. Find Johnson's farm here.

News Tribune artist Fred Matamoros is our number one Get Growing blog groupie. He reads us religiously (let that be a lesson to you readers, if you read us regularly, we will post about you prolifically).

He read my post asking where locals find beautiful hostas and emailed me a few pics of the hostas growing in his Lacey yard. He also gave a hosta nursery tip. He bought his at Springhill Nursery.

Says Fred:

Normally mail order plants arrive wimpy or dead-looking. I bought these during one of their “9 for $29.99” sales and they arrive as tubers. They were slow to establish but after much babying they seem to be doing great. I will be dividing them this fall.

Watch for Jean Parietti's hosta story in the July 12 Home&Garden section.

Here, enjoy Fred's pics:

When Craig and I were at the Chinese Reconciliation Park on the waterfront Thursday, we noticed something that it seems everyone around here must contend with: dreaded horsetails.

It's a scourge in my neighborhood, for sure. I have spent days and days pulling them out. That is, until I heard Marianne Binetti talking at the Point Defiance Flower & Garden show.

Her advice? Keep a pair of scissors close to your garden bed. When you see a horsetail, cut it off to the ground. Don't yank, don't pull. She said it stimulates more growth. So I have been clipping, not pulling, for a month now. So far? Doesn't seem to be working. At all. Here, photographic evidence. Take a look at this giant one nestled under my California lilac.

They seem to be coming back stronger and even more, uh, vibrant and alive! It shouldn't surprise me, I guess. The little beasts are prehistoric. They've outlived everything. So me and my scissors? Totally no match, I guess.

Whats a green-thumb girl to do? Anyone have a proven way to get rid of horsetail that does not involve chemical removal? Post here! Let us know.

Next Saturday (July 12) in the News Tribune's Home&Garden section, we'll delve into the shady (haha) terrain of hostas. We even break a few myths about hostas (hint: shade loving vs. shade tolerant? We address it).

I'm curious, where do you get your hostas? Are there any nurseries around here that seem to carry a good selection?

We feature the Naylor Creek Nursery in our story this Saturday. They seem to be the go-to hosta people in the region, if not the entire Northwest. I saw firsthand the lure of Naylor Creek hostas at the Point Defiance Flower and Garden Show plant market. Gardeners lined up 10 deep to buy hostas at the Naylor Creek booth. In the garden world, that's akin to achieving rock star status.

So, faithful readers, tell us about your recent hosta purchases. Where did you buy yours? What did you buy? Do you have any questions about growing hostas? Post a comment here, or just e-mail me at sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com.

And don't forget to check out the July 12 Home&Garden section, especially if you're a newbie to hostas. You'll like what you read.

Yesterday afternoon in the newsroom, there was much talk among the gardening fanatics about the nuisance of moles. I could easily segue into an entire topic on just raccoons alone (yes, they are back... yes, they ate my cherries AGAIN. I swear I will never bake another cherry pie from that tree...but I digress).

So Managing Editor Karen Peterson was telling me about her mole problem. Then crime reporter diva slash green thumb girl Stacey Mulick chimed in on how frustrated she is with the little monsters.

Stacey and I had a shared moment where we were just in complete unison that moles... are evil little beasts.

For Karen, her mole dilemma is very focused on the ugly hills in her yard. For Stacey, the moles (she thinks) have destroyed her tulips. For me it's the evil raccoons. But that's another post, entirely.

We started talking control methods. Short of blowing them with dynamite (yes, we did go there, in conversation at least), it seems nothing works.

Stacey and Karen have both tried something similar to these things (for the lazy folks who don't want to click on the link, it's a spike that makes a beeping and/or weird little sonic noise, allegedly to scare away the moles). Have you tried them? Did they work for you? Stacey and Karen gave these beeping stake thingees big thumbs down. In fact, Karen told me that the moles seemed to take the spikes as a personal challenge and she could see the mole pathways straight to the spikes. Those are some aggressive and unruly moles.

Tell us, wise readers, what have you done to control moles? Get rid of them successfully? Is dynamite the clear solution? Post a comment here, let us know.

I am always talking with reporter Stacey Mulick, the star diva of our Crime & Breaking News Team, about various garden things. If her boss would let me, I'd poach her off the C&BN team and make her a full time SoundLifer and garden writer. As if that will ever happen, but a garden editor can dream, can't she?

This week, we've been talking repeatedly about our tulips. Until this week, mine were stilted and short (no sun!!) and hers have been MIA thanks to a few crazy critters in her yard.

So she poses the following as a question-slash-gripe for all of you, our faithful Get Growing readers:

I must admit I have tulip envy.

I drive around and see colorful clusters of red, yellow, pink and orange tulips. Then, I return to my house and see the scant few tulips that have survived in my yard. In previous years, I’ve planted dozens upon dozens of tulips in my flower beds.

Each spring, the numbers of tulips sprouting from the ground continue to be less and less. It’s hard not to get frustrated by the disappearing bulbs. I can now count on one hand the number of tulips blooming in my front AND back yard. (The only exception is the tulips in containers out back – they have come back.)

I’ve read that tulips are tasty snacks for many garden critters so I am thinking of giving up on tulips all together. My hyacinths continue to thrive and the rabbits didn’t munch the flowers off my spring crocuses this year. Victory!

Anyone else have tulip problems? I’d take suggestions about how to keep my tulips away from the critters.


-- Stacey Mulick

This just in....

How can you get lichens off fruit trees and keep them off? I don't see them in commercial orchards. Is there a spray you can use?

Anyone have advice? Comment away. Allegedly our comments are working again. If you have trouble, just e-mail me your snappy reply at sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com

As the person who sits closer to Craig Sailor than anyone in the newsroom (a mere 36 inches away), I can vouch that he does not stink. Usually. But it does bring up an interesting point, his use of his bathtub to grow seed starts (scroll down to read his posts on his current bathtub garden project).

I'm old school and grow my starts in my garage with a grow lamp (my neighbors were very suspicious of me at first). I wonder, where in your home do you keep your seed starts until they're ready to harden off? On a windowsill? In your bathtub? An upstairs bedroom that gets decent light? Tell us. Tell us! We want to know....

This just in, another reader question:

Do you know the best way to prune back large pampas grass and New Zealand flax?

Anyone have thoughts?

My neighbors and I attacked a gynormous flax last summer. It's on the west side of her yard. We tried to prune carefully, removing the dead stalks, then trying to reasonably trim the outer layers. The thing was just overgrown and taking up too much space. It wound up looking kind of funky. I have a flax in my back yard, sort of newish, but I imagine it will be a gigantic mess in the next few growing seasons. It is a large variety, not a dwarf. Advice appreciated.

Comment here, or e-mail me at sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com