Beaufort

Found it. Acca Sellowiana, pineapple guava. Not a true guava, however. Native to South America. Reportedly will grow as far north as Scotland, requiring a bit of cooler weather to set fruit. Thanks to anyone who tried to help out on this.

Growing in central Georgia. It's stumped even local nursery staff.

I know it's been a long time since this question as posted, but I agree with one of the replies that it's a bald-faced hornets' nest. I've got one at least this big that I picked up from the ground somewhere off Pontiac Trail. After I brought it into the house (it was autumn), a trickle of bald-faced hornets came out of it over the next couple of weeks.

A hose works well, too.

On Facebook recently there's been a video of a great blue heron catching and eating a vole! I was amazed it could get the vole down its throat.

I have a large, perennially thick and healthy-blooming oakleaf hydrangea. I think I should prune it this year but have some questions. Do blooms occur on new or old growth? Should I prune the branches on which blooms appeared last year, or prune all old growth back generally? Thanks in advance.

The weather's still fairly temperate, so is there still time to divide my irises? Thanks.

Exactly like that. You could have photographed it in my yard. So maybe a coyote did come through. I've had insomnia for months and regularly sit out by the backyard pond in the dead black of night but have never heard a coyote call, only the occasional screech owl straying from the Rouge corridor. I'll keep listening. Thanks very much for the photo!

Aromatic. What does it smell like? Fuzzy leaves? Mint family? Flowers?

Dog-like poop high in the front yard, in a neighborhood in which dogs must be leashed (and 99% of them are) and any miscreant poopers always, as far as I've ever seen, drop near the sidewalks. Content was almost entirely hair. I would say coyote but nobody's ever seen a coyote in this neighborhood (West Dearborn, well-developed, 3/4-mile from the Rouge). No fox reports in 15 years, either. Lots of bunnies, raccoons, skunks and possums. Maybe a possum ate a mohair sweater. Sorry, no photo. It was old when I saw it and probably isn't still there. Ideas?

You can get barley-based preparations, as I recall, that might help, but barley balls never stopped the algae in my pond. Scott at Grass Roots Nursery should have something. For small bird-bathing containers, all I do is wash them out frequently with the hose and use a rough sponge to scrape off any crud that's forming. In fact, I should go do that now... But I'm reluctant to put anything in water for birds that I wouldn't want in my own water.

Janet, just for your records, no buggy problems on my fat and happy Baptisia. Yet.

Margaret, I like that better than Sudden Spruce Death Syndrome. I'm skeptical of the heat/drought, though, since I obsessed about keeping that corner of the garden well-watered this year. But the mites sound reasonable, if mites can ever be said to be reasonable. I'll investigate. Thanks much.

My wonderful bird's-nest spruce, which even Janet has admired, has developed an area of dead needles amidships. The area browning and losing needles seems to be growing, tho very slowly. But it looks to me as though eventually this thing is going to resemble a big green doughnut with a brown hole in the middle. It's a fixture in my front-yard landscaping and I'd like to take care of whatever this crud is. Help, please.

Yes, I saw that "shutter," too, but not till the second time I read it.