Q: We are inundated with stinkhorn mushrooms. The smell is awful, and all we are able to do is dig them up and throw them away. Do you know if anything will stop these horrible things from growing?

MIMI RAGAN

CLINT WALTZ /Special (ENLARGE)

Stinkhorn mushrooms emerge from egg-shaped capsules before exuding their foul odor.

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North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

A: There are three common stinkhorn mushrooms that I'm aware of. Common stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus, has a white shaft and a brownish-green "head." Elegant stinkhorn, Mutinus elegans, has an orange-pink shaft and a dark, tapered head. Latticed stinkhorn, Clathrus ruber, is orange-pink and looks like a red bell pepper turned inside out. As their name implies, they all stink to high heaven. Stinkhorns grow in damp wood mulch, emerging from a whitish, semi-solid "egg." Once they take on their final shape, their spore sacs emit a green slime that attracts flies and beetles to the area. The insects feed on the mushroom and carry stinkhorn spores wherever they travel. Since the fungi depend on warm, damp mulch, the easiest way to control them would be to loosen the area with a rake and halt any nearby irrigation. I've put together a picture guide at http://xrl.us/STINKHORN.

Q: Two months ago I bought a large bromeliad with a spectacular pink flower. The plant has flourished; the flower has become a giant. Now it has a so-called "pup" at the base. I have been told that the pup will eventually kill my beautiful bromeliad. How can I prevent this from happening?

JOSIE KNOWLES

e-mail

A: The pup doesn't kill the mother plant — it is simply an attempt by the bromeliad to reproduce itself before dying, which will naturally occur after flowering. You can separate the pup now or wait several months until the original plant looks too bad to keep around. Use a serrated kitchen knife to cut the pup loose from the bigger plant. It may not have many roots, but push the base into a pot of moist potting soil and place it in a bright window. It will grow roots as it establishes and will eventually bloom like its mother.

Q: I know that loquat trees are hardy enough to fruit in southern and coastal Georgia, but do you know a loquat cultivar that will fruit in Atlanta?

DAVID TERMOTTO

e-mail

A: Loquat, Eriobotrya japonica, is cold hardy down to the lower teens, but the problem isn't the cold; it's the tree's habit of fruiting in winter. They bloom profusely in October and November and set multitudes of fruit, all of which is usually frozen in January. I think it would be possible to have a loquat produce fruit in Atlanta if it were in a very sheltered location, but I don't know of one that has consistently done so. I received a note from a gardener in Inman Park who had a loquat loaded with fruit after last year's mild winter, but one near Northlake Mall has fruit only once every 10 years or so.

Q: I have a zebra plant that I grow in the house. It is always getting new leaves, but as it grows, all the bottom leaves fall off. Is this normal?

LYNN CRITCHER

Dacula

A: Zebra plant, Aphelandra squarrosa 'Louisae', is native to Brazil. It requires warmth, high humidity and high light levels, plus soil that is kept neither too moist nor too dry. A bathroom with a big skylight or a kitchen greenhouse window on the east side of a house would be a good location for this plant. If it is unhappy, it drops lower leaves, just as you've observed. Try hanging a screw-in 1200-lumen fluorescent bulb in a fixture a few inches above the plant's foliage to give it more light. Conceal a trigger-operated misting sprayer behind its pot so you can mist the leaves a couple of times each day to raise the humidity.

Listen to Walter Reeves Saturday mornings on WSB-AM (750) from 6 to 10. Call 404-872-0750 or e-mail georgiagardener@yahoo.com to ask questions. Sign up for his free garden newsletter.