Volume 3, Issue 2
Ask the Plant Answer Line:
Is Rhaphiolepis a host for apple codling moth?
researched by Jessica Anderson and Rebecca Alexander

Recently the Plant Answer Line fielded an interesting question about yedda hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis), and whether it is a host for apple codling moth. After doing some research, we found that the bush is not known to be a host for the apple codling moth, though both plants are in the rose family. However, it is a host for Epiphyas postvittana, light brown apple moth (LBAM), which is native to Europe and Asia, but has been seen in California from at least 2005 as noted in this link. While it is not a threat here in Washington, we could see it here in the future. This website from the UC Davis Integrated Pest Management covers quarantine, management, and potential impacts of LBAM in California. LBAM is also mentioned in this 2010 Orchard Pest & Disease Management Conference report on page 24.

To reduce the risk of damage, we concluded the apple grower might want to remove the hawthorn from her orchard to reduce the risk of hosting the moth. For more information on preventing damage from codling moth on your fruit trees, see this link to our Gardening Answers Knowledgebase.

  Share your work this spring
Student research exhibit on the horizon

The library's annual display of student work is scheduled for May this year. Take this opportunity to publicly present your work to a general audience. Present a poster highlighting your work (this doesn't have to be a major project; use anything interesting you've been doing recently) and help make the 2016 display, beginning in early May, the most diverse and interesting yet. To get an idea of the range of styles and topics, see past posters archived on our website. Just email us a 15x15-inch pdf of your poster by May 2, and we'll cover the printing and mounting costs.

We especially need a motivated student to take on a leadership role in organizing the event, including a casual evening gathering. Contact us for submission guidelines or to volunteer.

Natural Sampling
Oil paintings by Patty Haller
In the library February 18 through March 29

Patty Haller is a Seattle oil painter with a studio in nearby Magnuson Park. She enjoys applying visual concepts from art history to Pacific coastal woodland imagery. Patty Haller's work is included in the permanent collections of several area hospitals and the Anacortes Arts Festival organization. Of her work, she says:

“Every artist adopts and discards ideas until arriving at a personal artistic process that has traction. I’m an analyst. I study ideas and techniques of visual expression and recombine them, using my Pacific Northwest surroundings as a source for visual experiments. I’m constantly organizing the wildness of nature into different coherent designs. This freedom to investigate is the core of why I create art.”

The artist invites you to an opening reception at the Library on Thursday, February 18, from 5 to 7 pm.

New to the Library January 2016 

Potential organic fungicides for the control of powdery mildew on Chrysanthemum x morifolium : a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science / Michael Bradshaw. THESIS BRADSHAW