Make no mistake about it — News Leader readers always come up with some thought-provoking questions, including this inquiry from Nick M. of Staunton: "This is a crazy question, but how do you plant an ...

The fruit of the Osage orange tree. (Clay Wollney) Indeed they do, but you won't see them growing on hedges any more. Better known as the Osage orange, the gnarly green fruit that smells like the skin ...

Question: My sweet southern-raised grandmother, who is an avid gardener, called me a few days ago inquiring where she could find seeds or cuttings of a favorite tree from her childhood. Curious, I ...

You see them on the ground every fall, those grapefruit-sized green balls lying at the bottom of trees around Topeka or in the nearby countryside. It is doubtful you ever picked one up and ate it — a ...

Osage oranges? Bah, humbug! They’re totally useless. Even a salesperson with the advertising acumen of a PT Barnum would be hard-pressed to promote them. They’re a harbinger of fall, as sure a sign of ...

The heyday of living fences on farms lasted less than 30 years. But Osage orange trees, descendants of fence rows planted as early as the 1840s, still line country roads and fill hedge lines ...