Proceedings Library

As we move into uncertain times concerning the use of energy, particularly as it relates to global warming, peak oil and rising costs, it is timely I believe that as an industry we should all be reviewing how each of our businesses can reduce our use of all of the forms of energy that we currently consume.

While many of us are locked into the use of electricity for instance, there are ways that we may be able to reduce our usage by partially supplementing this source of energy. I have attempted in this paper to explain a number of possibilities that I believe might be useful in reaching this goal.

The oil price shock of the 1970s gave the industry a wakeup call in regard to energy conservation, particularly to those that used heating oil exclusively to fire their boilers. As a direct result of this event, which probably now pales into insignificance with the more recent price rises for oil, many nurseries adopted at least some form of energy conservation and in many cases a switch from oil to gas.

To feed the growing world population irrigated lands have increased by 2% per year using more water. In the last few years droughts have been experienced in China, England, U.S.A., Brazil, Australia, India, etc. Parts of the Eastern Cape Province are currently experiencing the worst drought in 100 years. As more people seek greater amounts of water wars are predicted to erupt.

The world in general is becoming warmer. Between 1900 and 1990 the earth’s surface has warmed between 0.7 and 0.8 °C. The worst case scenario of global warming could result in sea levels rising by as much as 72 m. Between 1940 and 1989, average summer temperatures in South Africa increased between 0.8 °C and 2.7 °C negatively impacting on evaporation (Ashwell and Hoffman, 2001).

In many areas of Asia and Africa, demand for water has exceeded supply. Simply put the world and South Africa simply don’t have enough water to "feed" the ever expanding populations.

Production Nurseries in South Africa face many problems. When times are tough, it becomes clear that these problems have to be addressed to continue running a profitable business. Rising input costs, energy shortages, and poor demand impact the bottom line. We are in business to make a profit. Profit = sales price less costs.

The usual reaction to remain profitable is to cut costs. Purchase the cheapest raw materials, pay the lowest wages, and use less fertilizer, and so on. However, buying cheaper often means getting poor quality, and to stimulate sales, higher discounts are offered. This is a downward spiral, which over time is not sustainable.

Business owners and managers lose sight of what the biggest cost factors are:

• Production losses
• Over production
• Discounts
• Unproductive labour
• Poor inventory control, running out of raw materials or too high inventory levels
• Poor management, which contributes to costly inefficiencies

Umckaloabo is the name under which the ethanol extract of P. sidoides root is marketed in Europe. It is clear that the origin of the name is, however, not European but originated from two autonomous Zulu words: umkhuhlane (Fever and cough related diseases) and uhlabo (pleurisy-related chest pain). Both words refer to the symptoms for which the Zulu healers used this plant since before time began (Kolodziej and Kayser, 1998).

Present use in Germany, more than South Africa is centred on the treatment of acute and chronic infections of the ear, throat, nose and respiratory tract.

This product was available in Germany since the early 1980s on shelves carrying herbal remedies.

A national survey of nurseries belonging to the Nursery and Garden Industry Australia during 1999, covering subjects such as, average water use, water costs, maintenance costs and hand watering labour, determined that there was reform needed in the way in which we had been previously operating. These findings were despite the fact that the industry had entered into a program to better use a diminishing resource in the mid 80s. Subsequently, a series of new programs and workshops were created and then taken to the industry on a nationwide basis, the results have been pleasing.

The Australian state and federal governments continue to regulate each catchment so it is has become critical for nurseries to carry out regular water audits to ensure that they are able to supply information to the authorities on usage, run off and water sources.

How much do you know about your production irrigation system?

For step one, various agents are used and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. The general principle is that the fungi and bacteria which are on, and sometimes in, the plant tissue are being killed, while the plant material itself stays alive. There are no strict rules for this treatment; it depends on the size and structure of the desired plant material.

Once the material is growing without any visible infecting agents, the propagating of the material can start. This requires finding a culture medium that will encourage side-shoot formation and at a later stage, root-induction. The plant material will be "fed" by supplying macro and micro elements, vitamins and sugars in the culture medium.

The final product from the laboratory will need to be hardened off; which means that the plant material, that we so carefully manipulated to become free of micro-organisms, needs to be introduced to these organisms again, while at the same time it needs to be "taught" to use its own roots and photosynthesis for growth.

Western Australia possesses a rich and diverse flora comprising over 12,000 native taxa (Western Australian Herbarium, 2010) with most species (60%) being endemic to the state. The south-west region of the state is the most diverse, containing over 7,000 plant species, of which half are endemic to the region (Hopper and Gioia, 2004).

Associated with this species richness is a high number of rare, threatened, and poorly known species; currently Western Australia has 3,100 taxa listed as rare, threatened, or poorly known, with a further 13 taxa presumed to be extinct (Smith, 2010). Of these conservation taxa, 406 are protected under the state legislation and are referred to as Declared Rare Flora (DRF). The remaining taxa are known as Priority Flora. These are taxa that are poorly known and in need of further survey to ascertain their conservation status. The high numbers of threatened species, more than for other Australian States and most countries (Hopper and Gioia, 2004), in combination with high species endemism, has resulted in the south-western botanical region being listed as one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots (Mittermeiser et al., 2004). A biodiversity hotspot is defined as an area containing at least 1,500 endemic plant species but also having lost at least 70% of its original habitat (Mittermeiser et al., 2004).

Increasingly, local provenance plants are being requested to be used in local remnant restoration projects. This presentation will focus on what we as a nursery see as our contribution to the best possible outcome for restoration projects, the supply of an increasing number of species sourced from local provenance material.

LOCAL PROVENANCE

Local provenance plants are desirable as it is likely that locally adapted populations will have a higher survival and reproduction rate in their local environment than plants from the same species sourced from further away. Hereford (2009) reviewed many papers looking at local adaptation and showed that on average, plants from a local area will have approximately 1.5 times greater survival and reproduction compared to foreign populations of the same species grown at the same location.

The Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA) was established by the International Commission for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants (ICNCP) in 1962, to register and record the names and descriptions of Australian native plant cultivars. Over the years ACRA has registered over 400 cultivars thereby playing a major role in the preservation of their identity and history. However, these represent a very small proportion of the cultivars for which there are published names and descriptions.

The idea of having a single website which could be used to research Australian native plant cultivar names and descriptions has, until now, been a pipe dream. The Checklist of Australian Plant Cultivars Project aims to address this need.

We have to remember that a major reason for plant names — nomenclature — is to assist communication. The way plants are arranged or classified is taxonomy, and the names help to exchange information about both individual plants and the way they are classified. A scientific name (plant or animal) means the same thing anywhere in the world.

I am talking about what to do when the plant you are dealing with has more than one name, not new discoveries. And I am talking about the scientific names, not the common or vernacular names which are not governed by any rules and so can be used in whatever way you wish.

Because time is short, I’ll talk only about changes due to research and the application of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (the Code) (McNeill et al., 2006). The Code has been developed as an international "standard" over some 150 years. Essentially, it sets down rules for publishing scientific names. It is reviewed at an International Botanical Congress every 6 years when changes may be made, but the essential rules remain constant.

This year’s IPPS theme, "The Cradle of Creation", could not be more appropriate when describing the current state of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne (RBGC) nursery as we prepare for Stage 2 of the Australian Garden. It is not often that one is involved with the creation of a botanic garden, particularly one that sets out to showcase native plants from all over Australia that stretch across a wide range of growing requirements and climatic conditions. With regional water restrictions and a changing climate, the Australian Garden is a timely project with the ability to influence public perceptions on the beauty and diversity of Australian flora, and on the use of Australian plants to create sustainable home gardens.

Stage 1 of the Australian Garden was opened to the public in 2006, and shortly afterwards the funding for the second and final stage was secured, predominantly from the Victorian government. The design for Stage 2 was reviewed and refined in response to the continuing drought and prospect of a drier future. In the redesign process, invariably the full detail of plant selection for the landscape design is the last to be finalised, providing plenty of challenges for the nursery that has the task of sourcing and propagating the bulk of the plant material.

The Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) nursery specialises in the propagation of Western Australian species, and is responsible for producing approximately 80,000 plants annually for display in the Western Australian Botanic Garden and parkland areas of Kings Park; for restoration projects within the remnant bushland of Kings Park and Bold Park; for arboricultural specimen plantings; and for conservation purposes both within Kings Park and for the Department of Environment and Conservation’s translocation programs. A range of techniques including growing from seed and cuttings, and the use of grafted plants are utilised to provide healthy propagules for these display, research, conservation, and restoration activities.

Grafting programs began at BGPA in the late 1970s, with a focus on Corymbia ficifolia (see also Eucalyptus ficifolia). A progression to other genera began in the early 1980s, with the project expanding and developing to the present day.

The flora of Australia is one of the most diverse and floristically spectacular in the world with estimates of more than 20,000 species (Chapman, 2009), many of which are adapted to drought and soils with poor nutrients. The diversity of genera and species is well recognised, less so is the great diversity within species.

Much of the Australian continent is semi-arid to arid or with long periods where there is little or no rain. In Western Australia the climate is undergoing a sustained period of drying while average temperatures are increasing (Fig. 1), which has a number of implications including a reduction in the amount and frequency of watering allowed for home and public gardens, and landscapes.

The combination of diversity, floristic impact, and efficient water and nutrient use is the most important strategic advantage for the Kings Park and Botanic Garden (KPBG) breeding program, particularly when intraspecific diversity is taken into account.

Gija Jumulu ("Boab" in the Gija language) is the name of a giant boab (Adansonia gregorii) that the Gija people of the East Kimberley bestowed to the people of Western Australia and visitors to Kings Park and Botanic Garden in central Perth.

Due to the realignment of the Great Northern Highway in the Kimberley, Western Australia, a large boab tree located in a flood plain at Telegraph Creek (Fig. 1) was destined for removal. Between March and July 2008, a community-based initiative was planned to save this ancient tree. The work culminated on 19 and 20 July as the Gija Jumulu was successfully planted at Kings Park and Botanic Garden, over 3,200 km (Fig. 1) from where it originally sprouted almost 750 years ago.

The journey is the longest land journey of a tree of this size in history. Beyond all expectations the project, received broad local, national, and international media coverage with the tree even entering popular culture such as political cartoons and morning radio. A "boab phenomenon" also occurred on the journey down as people on the road and whole towns stopped to look, wave, and photograph the 36-tonne boab tree making its way through the vast Western Australian outback into metropolitan Perth.

Plant propagation has a useful role to play in disturbed land restoration. Alcoa of Australia (Alcoa) operates a nursery and tissue culture laboratory to produce plants for restoration following mining. This paper provides an overview of a 16-year program to develop ex situ propagation and large-scale production methods for plants absent from mine restoration. In Western Australia Alcoa operates two bauxite mines and Marrinup Nursery in the Darling Range south of Perth, and has three alumina refineries on the coastal plain. The principal vegetation of the Darling Range is Jarrah Forest. This forest has at least 784 plant species (Bell and Heddle, 1989) and is part of one of the world’s top 25 biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al., 2000). Alcoa aims to establish a self-sustaining jarrah forest ecosystem on its bauxite mine-sites (see Koch 2007a and 2007b for details on the general mining and restoration processes).

It is now 2010 and we live in a different world. The propagator who does not understand the consumer or how to market could be left with a batch of rooted cuttings and no customers.

Walt Disney started his business career with a vision. He was an entrepreneur who understood the market and knew how to create the excitement with the product he was dealing with.

Today’s propagator has to have the same mentality. The first critical question that should be asked is "How am I going to add value to my customer’s life?" According to research that key consumer today is a 35-year-old woman. To get your plant to your consumer may mean that the plant has to travel through a number of agencies in the supply chain before it reaches your consumer.

My study explores the limiting factors of growing Japanese maples and shows how small changes in the propagation and growing methods can improve the efficiency of growing this popular group of plants and increase the profit margins.

Firstly, let’s look at what we define as a Japanese maple. The term Japanese maple is used to describe all 23 species of plants in the genus Acer that are endemic to the islands of Japan. In the nursery industry and in the case of this study it is accepted that the term only includes the most popular and most ornamental species of A. palmatum and A. japonicum and all of their cultivars; this is due to their relevance in commerce and general garden popularity.

Japanese maples are deciduous trees and shrubs that are at their best in a cool temperate climate where they are valued for their beautiful foliage and outstanding autumn colour.

I’m not sure if anyone here realises how important this opportunity is for me. As you heard last night, I have never left South African shores and to have been invited by people far away from my home, to attend a conference dealing with something I am deeply passionate about as well as being welcomed and befriended by such warm, kind people is an absolute honour! As it is, while travelling from Johannesburg to Perth, without even blinking, Australia gave me 6 h of my life that I previously never had! I understand, of course, that I have to give it back when I leave but thank you for that so long. I have been in Australia for 4 days now and every one of you has made me feel completely at home.

My name is Dan Austin, I work for TAFESA at the Urrbrae Education Centre in horticultural facilities and more recently as a lecturer. In 2009 I was the IPPS Southern African Exchange participant. I was lucky enough to split my time on the exchange in S.A. staying in two very different climatic zones. After a quick stop at Johannesburg I was on to Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and Umpholozi for a week. This area has wet summers and dry winters and I found, has a much stronger African feel than Capetown where I spent the second leg of my journey. Finally, the conference was held an hour or so out of Capetown at a whale-watching town called Hermanus. I got to study many nurseries and sites of horticultural significance and the photographs have already been put to use as teaching resources for classes.

From 1 May to 21 May 2010 I visited South Africa as part of the IPPS exchange program. I had some idea of what I was in for before I left Australia, however I was still amazed at some of the things I saw and did.

South Africa has an official population of around 50 million; however I was told unofficially it would be closer to 70 million. The extra 20 million unaccounted comes from illegal immigrants coming over the border to find work. When I first arrived in Johannesburg I saw many wonderful housing developments, shopping centres, and other life style developments. At this point I thought this is a good sign; however I was then told that the global financial crisis (GFC) had hit the country quite hard. Many of these housing developments had come to a halt and very few people shopped at the new shopping centres.

The principles of bio-dynamics were first proposed by Rudolph Steiner in the early 1920s. Steiner is also well known for his philosophy on education — Steiner Schools.

He proposed that soil structure could be improved by placing green cow manure in a cow horn and burying it for a time. This burial takes place between April 21 and June 21 each year. In Western Australia approximately 150,000 cow horns are buried each year. The horns are filled manually with fresh green cow manure collected from the paddock where the cows have been bedded for the night. Each horn is filled to the brim with manure and carefully placed in a well drained pit. The horns do not touch each other and are positioned so that if any moisture were to seep through the ground it passes over the horn and doesn’t flow into it. The shape of the horn is such that the opening naturally slopes down. The horns are lifted in September/October. What happens during this time is amazing. The green sloppy cow manure undergoes a complete metamorphosis.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a method used to control insects and diseases in horticultural crops throughout the world. Manchil IPM Services Pty Ltd (Manchil) is a Western Australian company that produces three types of beneficial bugs and mites that are distributed to growers around Australia. The use of beneficial insects is significantly increasing as pest insects are becoming more resistant to older chemistry and safety issues related to the use of toxic chemicals gain greater public awareness.

Manchil also runs a crop monitoring service checking grower’s farms for pest insects.

Manchil is a member of the Australasian Biological Control Association (ABC), which seeks to encourage growers to gain accreditation that enables them to exhibit the IPM logo on their fruit and vegetable produce.

Many things in gardening and the nursery industry are done by tradition, but many of these practices are also based on availability of raw materials or local conditions. The available choice and use of rootstocks for magnolia grafting is no different. In this article I plan to discuss the extended observations originally developed in a paper I published in 1990 as well as current practices in magnolia grafting. The results of course are based on our conditions, but by extrapolation in plants exported from New Zealand, it has international implications.

REFINING THE ROOTSTOCK CHOICE

In 1987 I joined the New Developments Department at Duncan and Davies Nurseries in New Plymouth. At this time Magnolia taxa were undergoing a resurgence in popularity with the importation of new taxa as well as the locally produced hybrids. Many of these hybrids have a degree of M. campbellii type parentage, which means they have a tendency to outgrow the stem diameter of their rootstocks. Observing how the wide range of hybrids had different caliper growth rates due to their parentage, trials were undertaken to determine if it was possible to develop a set of recommended rootstocks to best suit the various hybrids.

The botanical naming of plants was established by Carolus Linnaeus around 1745, a Swedish scientist who invented a binomial system, published in his Species Plantarium, for the naming and classification of all organisms. This system was intended to cover animals, bacteria, and insects, as well as plants, but over time Linnaeus has become most closely associated with the plant kingdom. Linnaeus did not work alone in the classification of species but is credited with establishing the basis of today’s botanical nomenclature. Prior to the Linnaeus system, some botanical names had up to 10 words and were complicated, in effect mini descriptions of that plant. The system Linnaeus established has now been in use for over 250 years and to date, nothing better has arisen to replace it. The success of the system can be attributed in part to its simplicity and use of few conventions. A binomial system comprises two main parts, and for plant naming this is the genus and species.

Higher plants require light for growth. Sunlight, or solar radiation, arriving at the earth’s surface is electromagnetic radiation energy given off by the sun, and filtered through the earth?s atmosphere. It comprises visible light, as well as near infrared radiant heat and short wavelength ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The spectral characteristics of the sun coupled with selective absorption of different wavelengths in the atmosphere means there are unequal amounts of each wavelength reaching the earth’s surface. Light is characterised by its quality (i.e., wavelength) and its intensity.

The human eye is sensitive to visible light (i.e., what we see) in the spectrum of wavelengths from 380 nm (blue light) to 760 nm (red light) but is most sensitive to light in the green and yellow regions, peaking at 555 nm (Fig. 1). Plants perceive light differently from humans, wherein they use both visible and nonvisible solar radiation. Plants use photoreceptors to sense changes in light intensity, quality (wavelength), duration, and direction. They adapt their growth and development according to the light sensed. For instance, chlorophyll is a photoreceptor capturing the energy in light to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water into carbohydrates through photosynthesis. Carbohydrates are the building blocks for the amino acids, proteins, fats, and vitamins required by living organisms. Carbohydrates with oxygen are necessary for plant and animal respiration, with CO₂ and water produced as by-products. Other photoreceptors control plant photomorphogenesis, shading resulting in etiolation or lengthening of internodes.

I started in the nursery industry when I was 20. My first attempt at propagation was using some old windows I had borrowed from the neighbour, and some 8 ft × 1 in. timber, 2 high framing as a box edge. For medium I had read that sharp sand was required so I used crusher dust with a little peat. I had seen a really nice rhododendron at Ilam. It was a huge plant and yielded 400 cuttings. Also I did black currants and Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Boulevard’. I tried to rig up an irrigation system but that was incredibly uneven and all but a waste of time. The cold frame was placed under the Black Doris plum tree and bombarded with leaves and Black Doris plums from up to 6 m above. A couple of windows cracked and all were severely smudged purple.

Four rhododendrons rooted: 1% success. Most of the C. ‘Boulevard’ and all the black currants survived.

• I probably learnt 50? of what I know now then.
• I was in business.

Lyndale worked in conjunction with a plastic pot manufacturer to produce a biodegradable pot in which to supply its young liner plants. Young woody plant production in New Zealand is unique in that plants have over the last 40 years been supplied in plastic 4-, 5-, and 7-cm pots, which are charged on invoice but fully refundable on return. With legal restriction placed on the use of

For the past 3 years Southern Woods Nursery has been looking at different ways of controlling pests and diseases in the nursery. As a result we have now moved away from the calendar-based spray programme to a more preventative spraying system with an integrated pest management (IPM) approach.

There were several reasons for moving away from the calendar-based spraying approach, these being:

• To minimise environmental impact
• To be safer for the health of people in the nursery
• To reduce the costs of chemicals being used

HISTORY

The basic concepts of IPM have been practiced since the start of human civilisation. However, what really set the ball rolling was a book by Rachel Carson in 1962, "Silent Spring." She addressed a number of issues related to pesticide use in both agricultural settings and home landscapes. Prior to the publication of her book, the application of pesticides was often the only method used to manage insects, mites, and plant diseases. However, continued reliance on pesticides gave rise to resistant pest populations and undesirable environmental effects (Cloyd et al., 2004).

The mission of the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden is to build and maintain a comprehensive collection of species rhododendrons. This requires that we send collectors into the field to acquire plant material from the entire range and distribution of the genus that implies a great deal of plant variety. Rhododendrons grow from the tropical latitudes to the tundra of Siberia and most habitats in between. Much of the plant material that we grow is not in general cultivation and, therefore, not commonly propagated which has led to some difficulty in replicating many of them. As a result of this difficulty I have come to view the general rules of cutting propagation as variables. Looking at these variables individually has helped me develop practices that have increased our success rate with cutting propagation. By viewing each of these variables as something to be manipulated either individually or in combination and by keeping close records we have done pretty well with new plant material coming from lands far away. This is of course nothing more than a review of how to use standard propagation practices but I find that review of things such as this are often helpful and seldom done.

What follows is an outline of how to propagate ferns.

Prerequisite: Basic math, powder/liquid measurements, and common sense growing.

Background:

• Spore germination — Gametophyte (heart shaped and sometimes mossy looking)
• Sperm cells to eggs
• Male structures (antheridia / sperm cells) female structures (archegonia / eggs)
• Sporophyte emerges from gametophyte
• Sporophyte matures into parent fern and produces spore

Step 1: Collect your spore

• Spore matures at different rates
• Many types of spore
• Green spore should be refrigerated (short life span)
• Most spore keeps 1 to 2 years / even longer

Following is an overview of the major components of the system, followed by a brief summary of how the system functions. The radiant-heat delivery system is comprised of PEX (flexible tubing used in residential and commercial plumbing applications). The PEX is laid on the floor of the greenhouse, over styrofoam, insulating underneath the tubing and crushed rock over it, to produce a "heat bank."

• Selected in 2000 as a sport on P. glauca ‘Conica’ in Newberg, Oregon
• Propagated by rooted cuttings, vigorous on its own roots
• Compact, full bushy pyramidal habit. Suited to smaller landscapes

A rapid technique to rapidly increase the number of potato plants is by using the tissue culture method. The first step is getting clean plantlets. Mother plants may be purchased from universities or private tissue culture "banks." These are virus-free and ready to multiply. This is the fastest and easiest way to begin. Unfortunately, many of the new selections in field trials get viruses and have to be cleaned up before clean seed stock is available for multiplication. This is time consuming and may take more than a year.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Before starting with a potato plantlet you will need to make medium. This may be purchased from various labs in ready-made packages and all you do is add de-ionized water and agar. Alternatively, it may be made from scratch (Table 1). After cooking the medium until the agar dissolves, you pour 1/4 in. into Magenta^® vessels or baby food jars and cap them. They are then autoclaved and, once cooled, ready for new plantlets.

We have all heard of "no child left behind" in education, but there is now a national movement to "leave no child inside." This is currently a focus of the Obama Administration’s "A 21st Century Strategy for America’s Great Outdoors," <http: //www.doi.gov/americangreatoutdoors/>, also with Capitol Hill hearings, legislation on the state level, and grassroots organizations.

In the book "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv (2006), he brings together the studies showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for a child’s healthy physical and emotional development. They have recently linked the lack of nature in children’s lives with the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

We do most of our vegetative propagation ourselves, but due to space / facility limitations, leave the majority of the seed propagation and plug growing to others.

Problem: Finding space, space, and more space, especially in the spring when our shipping and planting are really rolling along.

When our plug tray shipments arrive, (usually 512 or 288 size) we need a bench / prime location to store them as we plant up over the week. Our best benches and growing conditions are in our shipping bay, so we used to take up order space with our plugs, defeating the purpose of the shipping benches.

This seemingly straightforward word "native" creates enough controversy to cause some real confusion. A simple web search will quickly demonstrate the problem, and a good place to start is this Wikipedia definition which states: "Native plant is a term to describe plants ‘endemic’ ‘indigenous’ or ‘naturalized’ to a given area in geologic time" (Wikipedia).

At first glance this doesn’t look too bad to most people; however, as is often the case, one size really doesn’t fit all. If we consider geologic time, the fossilized Ginkgo biloba forest in eastern Washington provides evidence of what once was a native plant in that region, of interest to a paleontologist, but not very useful for today’s native plant propagator or restoration ecologist.

Transportation impacts to aquatic resources are often unavoidable, since the area we have to work in is so limited and our state has so many wetlands, streams, and rivers. These unavoidable impacts must be mitigated, or compensated for, usually by creating or improving a similar resource nearby. This leads to a lot of native plants being installed in mitigation projects.

As well, our own policy requires us to repair or replace roadside elements disturbed or removed in the course of our work. That’s true for sidewalks, lights, or plants. Disturbed vegetation is restored to a self-sustainable plant community that will keep out weeds, hold the soil, block or enhance views, reduce noise levels, and perform a host of other roadside functions, as well as be low maintenance to save money. In most situations this means planting native plants.

As energy costs rise, resistance to it becoming a larger proportion of production cost increase. One option to consider in this battle is altering thermostat settings during initial crop growth stages early in the growing season.

The challenge is to reduce energy requirements in greenhouse crop production while maintaining quality and on-time delivery. Two concepts will be discussed with respect to greenhouse heating set points. These are Q10 factors (Q10 temperature coefficient is a measure of the rate of change of a biological or chemical system as a consequence of increasing the temperature by 10 °C) during seed germination and DIF (refers to the difference between day and night time temperatures) during active growth.

GROWING AND ENERGY

A plant is packaged energy. Like any organism it consumes energy to grow, protect, maintain, and reproduce itself. In native habitats, plant species evolve to accomplish this within the seasonal time frame utilizing "free" energy supplied by the sun. In nature success is defined as being there.

Over the past decade Heritage Seedlings production has moved significantly from a field operation to containerized production of both seedlings and grafts. High quality, expensive soilless media are readily available to facilitate this transition. So each year we found ourselves not only purchasing a mountain range of medium, but also producing one of used soil. We started with a very coarse mix and after a single growing season the structure of the mix was little changed. The mix would be perfectly functional for another year of our needs, but intuitively we knew the cast-off media were unusable. Like most nurseries there are weeds in our production system, though we wish there weren’t. We work hard to remove them, but the used mix has weed seed in it and is a source for the next generation of nursery weeds; that’s not something we wanted. Additionally, there were other problems that made a switch to using recycled potting media impossible.

Lean management requires that your finished product be observed from the customer’s point of view. Is the customer willing to pay for all the steps in your production process? Some of the steps that improve the product are things the customer wants and is willing to pay for. They are referred to as "Value Added." If some of the steps are a waste of time and money in the customer’s eye then they are considered "Non-Value Added." There are some "Non-Value Added but Necessary" steps that include such things as EPA regulation, accounting, taxes, OSHA guidelines, shipping, etc. All costs will fall into one of these three categories.

In Washington State the Department of Ecology sets strict limits on the amount of water that a farm can use. While the producer owns the land, the waters of the state collectively belong to the public. A Water Right Permit is the legal authorization to use a predefined quantity of water for beneficial use, including irrigation. The vast majority of Washington’s available water is legally spoken for. Farmers have seen population growth, conservation demands, shrinking snow packs, and demand by industry all put a strain on this limited resource. A water right is necessary if you plan to divert or withdraw any amount of water for any use from surface waters (water located above ground) such as lakes, rivers, streams, and springs, or from ground water.

While there are many Washington farms with valid Water Right Permits, obtaining a new one is very difficult. Currently there are 5,700 new Water Right applicants on file. Due to budget contractions Department of Ecology estimates that for the 2009–2011 budget cycle they will only be able to review 370 (down from 500) applications. There are cases where applicants have waited for years to have their application reviewed, let alone approved.

Nursery plants are in a period of high risk from the time they leave the protected environment of the nursery to when they are outplanted. During handling and shipping, nursery stock may be exposed to many damaging stresses, including extreme temperatures, desiccation, mechanical injuries, and storage molds. This is also the period of greatest financial risk, because nursery plants have reached their maximum value right before shipping (Paterson et al., 2001). Adams and Patterson (2004) concluded that improper handling of nursery stock had more impact on plant quality than the type of outplanting tool.

All the information in this paper is included in The Container Tree Nursery Manual Vol. 7: Seedling Processing, Storage, and Outplanting. It was published as Agriculture Handbook 674 by the USDA Forest Service (Landis et al., 2010) (Fig. 1).

The University of California recently released a promising, dual purpose,

Weston Nurseries is a 4th generation nursery that has recently gone through a transition from being a majority grow/sell operation to a majority buy/sell operation of plants and garden related goods. Our transition was particularly complicated because two brothers who were 50/50 owners differed significantly in their business philosophy. Only after my father succeeded in buying out his brother could our transition really take place. This painful experience made it all the more essential to run the business profitably by transitioning away from much of the growing and become a sales-driven organization that buys and sells plants and related products.

Over the years, this philosophy has worked well to grow our diversity as well as our customer base. As for so many others, business was great through 2007 when the bottom fell out of the economy. Like others we have experienced a reduction in sales but have developed a flexibility to respond to the needs of our customers.

In offering an invitation to speak at the Eastern Region conference I imagine there may have been an expectation on behalf of the conference organisers that I would be able to enthral Eastern Region members with a series of stunning photographs of new magnolia, coprosma, and skimmia cultivars, all of which do exist. However the international trade in ornamental plants is driven most often by the ability of an individual to maximise royalty returns and for the grower to gain the greatest profit margins.

Lean Flow is a business strategy that has been around for decades, dating back to Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. The Japanese took Ford?s concept improved it and added some key words like "Kanban," "Kaizen," and others that are now common words in Lean Flow. In recent years Lean Flow has become a buzz word in the green industry.

Typical Savings for Growers.

• Increased productivity: 15%–30% improvement.
• Optimized floor space: 3000 ft²–10,000 ft².
• Increased growing space turns: double the turns in the same space.
• Reduced shrink: up to 50% reduction.
• Improved sell-through: as high as 95%.

Doesn’t matter the size of your company, anyone can implement lean flow if they have a desire to improve their company. Lean flow is the desire to eliminate waste from all processes. Waste can take the following forms:

• Overproduction
• Waiting
• Unnecessary transport or conveyance
• Over-processing / incorrect processing / re-work
• Excess inventory
• Unnecessary movement
• Defects
• Unused employee creativity

One problem with going on a lean flow journey is that you are never "there" — there is always room for improvement.

I have been involved with commercial horticulture all my life and I am well aware that there have always been cycles of varying prosperity for commercial growers. I am around the same age as IPPS and it is noticeable that in the early years of our society the focus of meetings was mainly on improved techniques for propagating and growing plants. Improved methods generated better plants more efficiently and improved the profitability of growers.

However it is noticeable that despite the increase in knowledge there are some nurseries that prospered and some that did not. Conference organisers obviously made the same observation and adapted their subject matter accordingly. The subjects covered in later years show the recognition of the increasing importance of mechanisation, marketing, and business skills.

My period of service on the International Board has enabled me to see, and compare a wide range of management techniques in most of our member regions.

Growers are well aware that rooting hormones influence root formation when propagating plants from cuttings. Over the years we confirmed that healthy mother plants produce cuttings that rapidly produce quality roots. Among the questions that arose during my early research was, what makes the best cutting to use for plant propagation? My answer came in the past 20 years of testing. 2010 is called the "YEAR OF BIODIVERSITY." My conclusion is, "biodiversity" produces the best cuttings.

High microbial diversity in the rhizosphere and on the leaves of plants provides protection and optimal nourishment. These are critical parameters for high quality mother plants. The resulting cuttings have a population of diversity dynamics.

In 1998 I started research on the use of compost tea. The primary reason for this research has been to vitalize the plant’s above- and below-ground environment.

The application of hydroponic growing techniques for the production of plant propagules, across a range of genera, is a reasonably recent practice. The system is used widely in South America, Brazil, and Uruguay for the maintenance of stock plants and subsequent production of plant propagules of Eucalyptus hybrids, for use in the forestry plantation industry.

At Narromine Transplants, we have endeavored to broaden the range of genera that can be treated in this way and have had success with Prunus spp., in particular sweet cherry cultivars, and a range of cherry root stocks.

BACKGROUND

After two visits to South America, Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay, to investigate the propagation of Eucalyptus

Winter Moth ( Operophtera brumata). Winter moth, native to Europe was found in 1935 in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1950 it was discovered in Washington and Oregon and in 1977 in British Columbia. A new introduction was found in 1996 in Southeast Massachusetts which by 2004 spread to Rhode Island. North American hosts include: Norway maples (Acer platanoides), birches (Betula), apple (Malus), red oak (Quercus rubra), blueberry (Vaccinium), ash (Fraxinus), and rhododendron (Rhododendron).

The ornamental industry produces an abundance of flowers, nursery shrubs, and trees to beautify our environment and improve our lifestyle. This abundance is predicated on the use of pesticides to protect them from pests. However, the application efficiency of conventional pesticide spray technologies for crop protection is very low. Consequently, excessive pesticides are often applied to target and non-target areas, resulting in greater production costs, worker exposure to unnecessary pesticide risks, and adverse contamination of the environment. The industry has constantly demanded the development of new advanced intelligent sprayers that delivers pesticides economically and accurately and requires minimum human inputs during the entire spray application process.

The capabilities of conventional sprayers are limited and unable to optimize spray outputs and thus cannot compensate for the rapid changes of growth characteristics in nursery crops. Although traditional ultrasonic sensors coupled with variable-rate sprayers are an improvement (Giles et al., 1987; Molt et al., 2000; Solanelles et al., 2006; Gil et al., 2007; Balsari et al., 2008), they are usually used for relatively uniform orchard trees but cannot evaluate nursery trees with wide growth diversities.

Worse yet, what if it stuck and you couldn’t get it off?

I’d like to share our company’s experience with a local activist who tried to do just that. A young, determined individual who took a legitimate concern to a level that questioned the essential rightfulness of modern-day agriculture — while promoting himself and his cause. Fortunately, the target didn’t stick.

My story starts with a secluded local lake about 1 mile from our nursery that began to develop algae problems around 5 years ago. As is human nature, rightful concern by lakeside residents was soon channeled into an exercise of finger pointing — with the dogged guidance of this neighboring activist. The nursery industry became the scapegoat for what environmental consultants and the Department of Environmental Protection would go on to characterize as a complex problem with a multitude of potential causes. In other cases throughout the state — where lakes were experiencing far worse conditions — such factors as: geese, drought, natural contaminants, and septic systems were cited in addition to agriculture as contributing sources. But not here, we were the sole culprits. The target was positioned squarely on the back of our nursery and a neighboring grower.

There are numerous challenges to beginning a biocontrol program. First of all, at least one person on the farm must learn about all the beneficial insects and their behavior to determine which ones are right for your situation.

Over 75% of the world’s population relies on plant-based medicines for primary healthcare. Populations using pharmaceutical drugs obtain about 120 prescription drugs with origins from plants (Abelson, 1990). Used mostly by developing countries, 70%–90% of medicinal plants are still being harvested in the wild. If this trend continues, eventually these wild populations will no longer sustain the ever-increasing market demand. Examples of popular wild-harvested plants are Achillea millefolium (yarrow) and Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s wort). Yarrow flowers are used in treating colds, fevers, Crohn’s disease, and St. John’s wort for patients with mild to moderate depression (Foster and Duke, 2005). These two species can easily be propagated from seed and stem cuttings to avoid over harvesting in the wild.

Before the growing season begins, I photograph the taxa I will be sowing (Fig. 1). I do this for two reasons — one, I am building a visual virtual propagule database, detailing and magnifying the diversity of seed shape, color, and size. I cannot always commit this to memory. And two, I am also able at times to visually pinpoint disease or other phenomena in these seed batches.

The emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, was found in Detroit, Michigan, in July 2002. It established there and developed into a highly invasive pest within the urban landscape of Detroit. The adult beetles feed on ash foliage but cause little damage. Their larvae feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. As a result, healthy trees typically die or are reduced to a suckering coppice within a few years after the initial infestation.

Emerald ash borer probably arrived in North America in solid wood packing material from freight shipped from its native Asia. While the country of origin and year of arrival have not been determined, based on initial data, it is hypothesized that EAB may have been introduced from the Tianjin City area, a large municipal zone southeast of Beijing, China.

• Maintain a balanced and representative collection of global plant diversity, subject to the limitations of site, space, soil, and climate.
• Give priority to plants of known wild origin, recorded provenance, and known pedigree (in the case of cultivated plants), and to maintain their documentation by means of record keeping to a high standard.
• Serve the current scientific needs of researchers at UBC.
• Grow educationally useful plants, principally to serve the needs for live material of UBC undergraduate and postgraduate courses, but also to serve the needs of our community education programs.
• Maintain collections of rare and endangered plants for conservation and education.
• Include in the collections

The New England Invasive Plant Center was initiated in 2006 through a grant from USDA CSREES (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service). The University of Connecticut (UConn), the University of Vermont (UVM) and the University of Maine (UMaine) have established a multi-state, interdisciplinary program to develop novel and effective technologies to address problems caused by invasive plants that are economically and environmentally damaging to New England and to the nation as a whole. The Center faculty and staff provide expertise in the areas of horticulture, plant breeding, plant biotechnology, plant ecology, plant physiology, plant biochemistry, agricultural economics, and extension education. The main objectives of the Center are: (1) Development of non-invasive sterile landscape plants; (2) Assessment of the economic impact of invasive species in New England;

The University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Sciences has a long tradition of plant breeding and improvement of landscape plants. Our efforts balance the development of new plant introductions with mission-oriented research to solve problems and curiosity-driven discovery. Several publications review the history and productivity of the department’s programs (Meyer, 2000; Davis and Gregor, 2008; West, 2009; <http: //www.extension.umn.edu/>). This article will focus on our research efforts to produce non-invasive selections of popular plants used in the nursery industry.

Reichard and White (1997) define an invasive plant as "one that has or is likely to spread into native flora and managed plant systems, develop self-sustaining populations, and become dominant or disruptive (or both) to those systems." Invasive species are a primary threat to biodiversity on the planet, second only to habitat destruction, and are one of the least reversible of all human impacts on the environment. An invasive plant is one that is likely to spread to new areas and develop self-sustaining populations, which may disrupt the invaded ecosystem. Many non-native invaders have been intentionally introduced to new areas for cultivation as ornamental plants.

Conservation of critically endangered plant species is primarily the responsibility of CREW. The labs at CREW work with a number of plant species through tissue culture and other means. Tissue can be collected in both in situ and ex situ situations. Tissue can then be placed in culture and developed.

The CREW also oversees the CryoBioBank^™. Here, plant tissues are frozen at -320 °F to preserve the genetic material for future use. This genetic material is extremely important when it comes to saving our endangered species. For example, if a particular population of plant would disappear due to development, overgrazing, or other events, the genetic material could have been preserved in the CryBioBank.

Buddleja davidii ‘Summer Skies’

Panicum virgatum ‘RR1’, Ruby Ribbons^® switchgrass

Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Pixie Fountain’

Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus Superior’

Alchemilla sericata ‘Gold Strike’

Chaenomeles speciosa, Double Take^™ Orange Storm flowering quince ppaf, cbraf

Chaenomeles speciosa, Double Take^™ Pink Storm flowering quince ppaf, cbraf

Chaenomeles speciosa, Double Take^™ Scarlet Storm flowering quince ppaf, cbraf

Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Berner’, Let’s Dance^® Big Easy^™ bigleaf hydrangea ppaf; pbraf

Geum Cocktails^™ Series ‘Mai Tai’ ppaf

Polemonium ‘Heven Scent’

Sedum ‘Thundercloud’

Gordlinia grandiflora ‘Sweet Tea’

When propagating plants from cuttings, plant hormones called auxins can be applied to induce root formation. The auxin most used in plant propagation is indolebutyric acid (IBA). Basal application of auxins, done all year, has been done at the time of sticking using dry powders or solutions. Foliar application of auxin in aqueous solutions has been done in the growing season on leafy plant cuttings either before or after sticking. The applied auxin enters the plant’s vascular system through open stomata. The auxin solutions travel with the natural auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), by polar transport, to the basal end of cuttings where they can induce root formation.

The present study is to find out if there is a difference in root numbers on cuttings of the annual plant Begonia ‘Red Wing’, if an indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) in aqueous solution is foliar applied at time of sticking or several days later. Commercially, Aris Green Leaf Plants, on perennials, and Bailey Nurseries, on woody ornamentals, both recommend an IBA in aqueous solution foliar treatment within the day after sticking. Using foliar applied IBA in aqueous solutions on the woody plant Ficus pumila (creeping ficus) by Dr. Fred T. Davies, all treated cuttings (both mature and juvenile), had higher root numbers than untreated cuttings.

Spring Meadow Nursery, a propagation nursery with over 20 acres of greenhouses, is located in Grand Haven, Michigan. All propagation is done asexually, by cuttings, in-house. Much of our production involves direct sticking cuttings in their finish tray sizes of 32 or 18 cells.

In 2009, we had a goal to increase labor efficiency to stick cuttings by 15%. We had a good system with trained, hard-working employees, mechanization that included a flat filler and a dual-line conveyor system that supplied medium-filled trays to workers and transported stuck trays through a watering tunnel. So where was the 15% gain in efficiencies to come from?

Aficionados of muffins, pancakes, and pies are very familiar with Maine’s lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton). However, Maine can boast another outstanding Vaccinium, the lingonberry. Lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. subsp. minus (Lodd.) Hultén, also known as mountain cranberry, is found growing in North America from northwestern Greenland, south to Connecticut, and west across Canada to the Aleutian Islands (Vander Kloet, 1988). It has somewhat smaller morphological features than its European counterpart V. vitis-idaea subsp. vitis-idaea (Ritchie, 1955). Lingonberry grows as a prostrate shrub, spreading by rhizomes. It bears densely arranged small waxy evergreen leaves. Its attractive white to pink bell shaped flowers often appear twice during the year in Maine, late spring and again in the summer. Lingonberry fruit is a bright red tart edible berry, which also provides attractive late season color. These attributes validate its use as a native groundcover.

There is a desire to increase the use of native plants for landscaping as alternatives to exotic species, some of which are invasive. Comptonia peregrine (sweet fern), an attractive, low-growing shrub, native to northeastern North America, is a prime candidate for development as a landscape plant due to its adaptability to exposed sites with dry, infertile soil (Dirr, 2009). Stem cuttings and seed are not viable propagation methods (Dirr and Heuser, 1987). Some propagation success has been found using dormant rhizome cuttings (5-cm sections) taken in fall, and provided a cold stratification of 2 to 3 months at 4 °C (Ruchala et al., 2002). Rhizome cutting methods must be optimized if sweet fern is to reach a level of production where it is readily available to landscapers and homeowners. This work looked at media and effect on success of rhizome cuttings. An additional objective was to find out what size plant could be obtained in one growing season from rhizome cuttings.

Storage period had a significant effect on several O. triangularis subsp. popilionacea growth parameters. Days to leaf emergence decreased by nearly a week as storage duration increased from 0 weeks to 5 weeks; while time to flower was unaffected. The number of leaves and flower cymes increased as storage period increased, along with leaf dry weight, more than doubling from 0.33 g with zero storage weeks to 0.85 g after 5 storage weeks.

Whole, intact rhizome propagules produced fuller plants compared to both basal and apical rhizome sections, producing 30% more leaves. Twice as many flower cymes were produced from intact rhizome propagules. Basal rhizome portions emerged between 4 and 6 days later than other rhizome propagules and flowered at least 8 days later than all other rhizome treatments. Dry weights were greatest from plants grown from whole rhizomes, 0.44 g, but were not different than plants grown from basal rhizome pieces, 0.34 g.

Capturing the sun’s radiant energy to control or suppress weed seeds and soil-borne pathogens has long been a tool by farmers throughout the world. As far back as 1939 farmers in India were trapping the sun’s heat to control Thielaviopsis in the sand. Other work was presented to the Phytopathological Society of Israel in February 1975. In 1976 California scientists at U.C. Davis reported control of Verticillium in cotton with solarization techniques.

Spray Drip-Down Method. Spray solution enters the plant through stomata to the vascular system and the hormone reaches the base of the cutting by mass flow and releases slowly, inducing rooting.

BENEFITS

• Save time on dipping of cuttings into hormone.
• Saves money through minimal use of PPE.
• Workers are not exposed to chemicals all day.
• The hormone is water based and will have zero plant mortality, unlike alcohol based hormones.

A. × prunifolia ‘Viking’ (syn. A. melanocarpa ‘Viking’) is one of several cultivars that have been selected for their large fruits, robust habits, and cold hardiness. The cultivar and its relatives are a nearly homogenous group possessing a unique phenotype distinct from the wild North American species. ‘Viking’ was named as a cultivar in Finland in the early 1980s, but can trace its origins to Russian horticulturalist Ivan Michurin nearly a century before. Michurin built his reputation by hybridizing various pome-fruited genera including I>Aronia.

Traditional softwood propagation has generally involved the use of single or blended media components such as peat, perlite, pumice, sand, coir, rice hulls, and liquid fertilizer. Often in greenhouse and propagation settings, conventional growers use liquid fertilizer as a source of nutrition for their crops. The process of rooting a cutting producing a quality liner is as much a science as an art. To create uniform crops, growers generally wait until all cuttings are rooted before making a fertilizer application. However, demand for premium rooted-liners has put pressure on growers to look for innovative ways to produce the same high-quality plants in less time.

Objectives.

1. The primary objective of this study was to incorporate controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) into media of Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bailmer’, Endless Summer^® hydrangea The Original, providing nutrition as required by the liner.
2. Our second objective was to find a CRF product that stops releasing nutrients during the fall and winter, yet provides adequate amounts of nutrients during the following spring.
3. Thirdly, we were looking for a product that provided a consistent rooting and overwintering success rate of at least 90%.

My earliest exposure to the world of horticulture was brought on by my childhood years growing up in North Florida, inland from the coast and at the logical terminus of the orange grove growing regions. Much of Volusia, Putnam, St. Johns, and Alachua Counties in north Florida are heavily agricultural and horticultural which included such crops as citrus, leatherleaf fern (for the florist trade), peaches, wild collected hearts of palm (known colloquially as swamp cabbage), deer tongue (a wild-collected herb used in the production of tobacco products, $0.50 for a bushel of leaves, I still do not know what it is botanically), pecans, truck farming, beef cattle, chickens, pork production, pulp wood, lumbering, and commercial fishing.

Invasive plants are an important issue for the nursery industry. Although the vast majority of plants sold by the nursery industry are not invasive, some of these economically important crops can be weedy and naturalize to the point where they can cause environmental harm. Considering that many of these plants are economically, aesthetically, and environmentally important, development of seedless/non-invasive cultivars is an ideal solution whereby these valuable plants can be grown and utilized without detriment.

There are a number of approaches that can be used to develop seedless cultivars. One of the most effective means for developing seedless plants is to create triploids — plants with three complete sets of chromosomes. Although triploids typically grow and function normally, they have an inherent reproductive barrier in that the three sets of chromosomes cannot be divided evenly during meiosis yielding unequal chromosome segregation (aneuploids) or complete meiotic failure.

Hazelnuts are a highly underutilized plant in the U.S.A. primarily due to the presence of eastern filbert blight (EFB), a disease caused by the fungus Anisogramma anomala. Eastern filbert blight is a native North American disease that is tolerated by Corylus americana, the wild American hazel, but is lethal to C. avellana, the European hazel grown for nut production and ornamental use. Eastern filbert blight causes cankers with conspicuous stromata to form along stems, causing dieback from the tips and eventual girdling of the stem (Fig. 1). Eastern filbert blight can kill susceptible plants in 2–5 years, although some possess various degrees of tolerance.

Breeding at Rutgers University began in 1996, when Dr. C. Reed Funk and Thomas Molnar began a genetic improvement program for underutilized perennial crops. Hazelnuts were chosen for their hardiness, wide adaptive range, valuable nut crop, and ornamental value, among other characteristics (Fig. 2).

Seed is a fundamental agriculture input and access to locally adapted, quality seed is an essential component of sustainable crop production. In much of the developing world, informal seed systems are important sources of seed for small farmers (Almekinders et al., 1994). Indeed, planted seed in many regions of the world are not improved varieties, but come from farmer-to-farmer seed exchanges or from farmer self-saved seed and often comprise the majority of planted acreage. This local seed production and distribution facilitates maintenance of crop bio-diversity by preserving in situ locally adapted varieties and by broadening the genetic base of production with multiple varieties adapted to specific production systems and microclimates. These informal seed systems are also critical for seed and food security during periods of instability or natural disaster, including changing environmental conditions (Chapman et al., 1997).

Research into alternatives to pesticides has been extensive over many decades, numerous and diverse alternative control methods have been developed and there is a vast literature. Biological control, including the use of introduced predators and parasites and the use of microbial biocontrol agents and nematodes, is perhaps the most widely exploited. There are several well known and important established uses of introduced natural enemies to control pests of soft fruit crops in the U.K. — such as use of the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis to control two spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) and the predatory mite Amblyseius cucumeris to control strawberry mite (Phytonemus pallidus subsp. fragariae) and western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) — and the number and extent of use of these has increased in recent years in response to the increase in protected cropping, the development of pesticide resistance, loss of pesticides, and other factors.

The Horticulture Development Company (HDC) is a levy funded body that serves the commercial horticultural industry in England, Scotland, and Wales. The levy is based on sales value and is currently set at 0.5%. It is collected to fund "near market" — that is, applied — research, development, and technology transfer and encompasses more than 300 different crops.

The research projects are set by the members of eight grower panels which cover field vegetables, soft fruit, tree fruit, mushrooms, protected edible crops, protected ornamentals, bulbs and outdoor flowers, and hardy nursery stock. "Cross-sector" projects are also funded to give members access to research that can be used on a wide range of crops in topic areas such as biological control; lighting; developments in crop hygiene; pest and disease identification, forecasting, and the use of appropriate controls; translation of European research; alternatives to revoked pesticides and the use of novel pesticide active ingredients; biopesticides; photoselective plastics; winter protection; and peat alternatives.

The Guernsey Clematis Nursery Ltd (GCN) is a wholesale nursery that specialises in propagating and raising young clematis plants for export to other wholesale nurseries. Production is exported to 18 countries worldwide although a large proportion of the market is in the U.K., E.U., and North America. Typically a GCN customer will buy either a 13-week-old "rooted cutting" or a 9-month-old 7-cm liner that will be potted and grown on for another 9 to 12 months before being ready for retail sale.

Over the last 10 to 12 years, GCN has modernised its propagation facility from traditional floor-level sand beds with constant manual input to control the environment, to a fully computer-controlled, purpose-built facility with ebb-and-flow benches, a re-circulated water system, top and bottom heat, assimilation lighting, and both shade and blackout screens. The unit allows for good heat and humidity control, while the use of lights and screens enables the nursery to dictate the day-length, shortening the days in the summer to keep the plants vegetative and lengthening in the "shoulder months" to extend the propagation season. The propagation season for GCN now extends from February to October.

Gunnar Christensens’ nursery was started on farmland more than 40 years ago by Nina and Gunnar Christensen. It is now run by the second generation of the family, Lotte and Henrik. The nursery covers 11 ha and has 25 employees during the season. Production is approximately 600,000 flowering shrubs and perennials in containers ranging from 2 L to 10 L and the main market is garden centres in Denmark and southern Sweden. Production has been streamlined in the last few years, including the use of Visser’s potting and spacing systems. The dispatch systems are currently being developed with the aim of reducing labour input by at least 30% and to improve the working environment significantly, with less harmful lifting and poor posture.

Reducing the environmental impact of production is an important consideration in the Danish market. During 2010 the area of the standing beds has been expanded and the area of roads and paths reduced so that productivity can be increased without necessarily increasing use of water or fertiliser. It also means there is less space to keep free of weeds and the opportunity to either produce more plants or produce a better quality by increasing plant spacing — we have chosen the latter.

Liverwort growing on the surface of growing media is a major problem in nursery stock production, affecting both protected and outdoor-grown crops: removal has been estimated at 4% of total annual production costs (Scott and Hutchinson, 2001), equivalent to £1,763 per hectare based on Horticultural Business Data 2008?9 figures (Crane and Vaughan, 2009). Zero tolerance of liverwort in certification schemes and a lack of approved chemical products make its control a technical priority for growers. This paper reports on a project funded by the Horticultural Development Company (HDC) to investigate the herbicidal effect on liverwort of glucosinolate hydrolysis products found in oil seeds, and the suppression of liverwort growth by unknown biological or physical factors within certain growing media components.

Seed Meal Suppressive Effect. Glucosinolates (GSLs) and their hydrolysis products (isothiocyanates and ITCs) are responsible for the distinctive pungent smell and hot taste of cabbages, mustards, and other brassicas and have shown toxicity against root knot nematodes, fungal species, and plants (Bialy et al., 1990).

A programme of herbicide screening is important for the ornamentals sector in the U.K. to replace withdrawn herbicides and tackle resistant weeds. Over the last 5 years the number of herbicide active ingredients available to the ornamentals sector has been considerably reduced (Table 1). Many of these have been lost or their use restricted as a result of the review process within European Council Directive 91/414/EEC. Further restrictions will occur as the criteria for E.U. approval switch from risk management to hazard based. Meeting the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/E) for water quality by 2015 will also affect pesticide use with particular implications for residual herbicides.

In addition, new weed problems continue to emerge. For container nurseries the distribution of bittercress species has changed in recent years. Hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta L.) used to be the predominant species, but it is increasingly being replaced by flexuous bittercress (C. flexuosa With.) and New Zealand bittercress (C. corymbosa Hook. f.), the former being more prevalent.

When I started work at Palmstead Nurseries, I was amazed at the amount of time spent hand weeding. The only herbicide used on the crop was Ronstar 2G TRS^® (oxadiazon) after potting. As a result, oxadiazon-resistant weeds such as chickweed and pearlwort flourished out of control and we were fighting a loosing battle.

Most of the herbicides available for nursery stock are developed for agricultural crops use because of the size of the potential market over which the agrochemical companies have to spread their development and registration costs. Horticulture has very few specific products for weed control. As a result, we have to use agricultural herbicides to achieve a good level of weed control on the nursery. With no recommendations in place for our specific crops, they have to be used at growers own risk in terms of phytotoxicity.

In the U.K., growers are fortunate that the Horticultural Development Council (HDC) has directed industry levy funds to commission ADAS (formerly Agricultural Development and Advisory Service) to conduct trials on herbicides for nursery stock (see paper by Atwood in this volume) resulting in the very useful publication Practical Weed Control For Nursery Stock.

In 2009 the production area of field-grown ornamental trees in England was estimated to be around 1000 ha, valued at ?19.8 million (ADAS, unpublished data). Several of the subjects grown are susceptible to the serious, soil-borne fungal disease verticillium wilt, notable examples being some species of Acer, Tilia, Fraxinus, and Catalpa. The causal fungus, Verticillium dahliae, is widespread in U.K. soils. Until 2004, around 15 ha of land were treated each year with methyl bromide prior to planting trees, primarily to reduce the risk of verticillium wilt.

From 1 Jan. 2007, methyl bromide was no longer permitted in the U.K. for pre-plant soil disinfestation for tree production. This led to concern among growers that without an effective alternative the losses incurred to verticillium wilt were likely to increase substantially, effectively preventing the production of certain tree species in the U.K. on a commercial scale. Container production is not a viable option for growing trees to a large size.

Estimating V. dahliae levels in field soils in order to give advice on strawberry production has been an established procedure in the U.K. for many years.

Water is a valuable resource which will become scarcer in south east England with changes in climate and increased pressure from population, housing development, and industry. The U.K. Environment Agency is therefore promoting alternatives to using clean mains water or abstracting from aquifers and rivers. Nurseries have a unique opportunity to recycle or capture their own water and to become self sufficient. For nurseries currently relying on mains supply there are significant financial drivers and rapid payback periods on investment in water capture, storage, and recycling. For those using boreholes the drivers are water quality and crop benefits. In both cases, investment will also help growers to stay ahead of legislative developments. For example, closed irrigation systems help prevent nitrate release into ground waters.

In 2010 the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) appointed the author to undertake the role of "water champion, " funded by the Environment Agency. The aim of the role was to look at the future of water for horticulture in the U.K., assess the impact of irrigation water use on future supplies, and to see whether there are better ways in which water can be sourced and used by growers and what reductions in use can be gained by changing application methods.

Although green compost, derived from garden waste collected by local authorities, is too nutrient rich to be used as the main component of growing media, improvements in quality, availability, and understanding have recently led to significant use of the material. Indeed, its nutrient content can replace some fertiliser additives and thus reduce manufacturing cost. Being high in woody material, it has high structural stability and is rich in beneficial microorganisms, notably bacteria and fungi, which suppress plant diseases and enhance nutrient availability. Its high humus content binds and buffers nutrients and holds water.

Established by royal decree in 2006 and currently under construction, the Oman Botanic Garden (OBG) will be a new and iconic botanic garden in the Sultanate of Oman. The mission of the Sultanate is "to conserve the unique botanical and ethnobotanical heritage of Oman and to ensure that its flora, heritage, and ecosystems are valued by all" and this will be achieved through the construction of a botanic garden aspiring to be world renowned in terms of its living collections, science, conservation work, and education programmes.

The 423-ha site lies near the village of Al Khoud in the north of Oman. It is beautiful, bordered by low hills, crossed by seasonal wadis, and with a healthy population of small trees such as Acacia and Ziziphus species. Oman Botanic Garden will only cultivate native plant species and the garden has the unique aim of propagating the complete indigenous flora of Oman (1,200 plant species including 78 endemics) and displaying it within seven defined major habitat zones. Two of these zones (the plants of the northern and southern mountains) will be housed in climate-controlled display greenhouses or "biomes" similar to those at the Eden Project in Cornwall, U.K.; the rest (central fog desert, northern gravel desert, sabkha, sand desert, and wadi) being irrigated habitat landscapes in the open.

Program Chair Donna Fare welcomed all members, guests and students. She thanked the membership for the opportunity to serve them, and then reviewed the scheduled program, including the silent and live auction, new comer?s reception and banquet.

Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia Bartr.) is an ornamental shrub that is native to the southeastern U.S.A. (McClintock, 1957). Most plants grow 2 m (6 ft) or taller in height with an equal to wider spread (Dirr, 2004), but two compact selections (‘Pee Wee’ and ‘Sike’s Dwarf’) are commonly available in the trade. Both reach approximately 1 to 1.2 m (3 to 4 ft) in height and width at maturity, but lack some of the ornamental traits found among the more attractive standard-sized oakleaf hydrangea cultivars. The oakleaf hydrangea breeding program at the U.S. National Arboretum’s worksite in McMinnville, Tennessee, was started in 1996 for the purpose of developing attractive, compact oakleaf hydrangea cultivars suitable for use in small residential gardens. During the course of this breeding project, we have gained experience in both seed and cutting propagation of oakleaf hydrangea. This report describes the development of two new compact cultivars of oakleaf hydrangea along with techniques used for propagating the species from both seeds and cuttings.

Breeding new plants is an adventure. There is a lot to consider and learn, from the objective to the subjective. There are, of course, issues of genetics, reproductive biology, adaptability, and disease and insect resistance. Productions considerations are important as well. Does it root easily, is it fast in production, does it look good in a container, etc.? And then there are consumer and marketing issues. Does it have sales appeal, will it be in bloom during spring sales, does it re-bloom, is the color right, is it fragrant, will it get too big, etc.? Ultimately, we want it to perform in the landscape with little care and maintenance. We want it all!

Breeding landscape plants is like being a kid in a candy store. So many genera and species to work with, and unlike many other crops, our customers typically value diversity and novelty and like to try something new. This provides endless opportunities for plant breeders and, as a result, we are always on the lookout for new plants with unusual and desirable traits that become our genetic building blocks. Thus, plant exploring, collecting, trading, evaluating, and breeding all go hand-in-hand. As part of our adventure, here are a few new plants, some from the wild and some from the lab, and the background behind them.

My name is Alex Neubauer. My father and I own and operate Hidden Hollow Nursery in Belvidere, Tennessee. One of the goals of our nursery is to propagate new and/or hard to propagate plant material. In order to reproduce new and superior plant cultivars selected for specific traits that may include flower or leaf color, improved architecture, or disease resistance, the plants must be asexually propagated by any number of methods. Many plants we grow do not root easily from cuttings or other methods, so our approach is budding and grafting. Budding and grafting is a skill (or maybe an art form) that has been practiced since before 2,000 B.C. in China and has persisted through today as an effective method to reproduce desirable plant clones. Grafting is a blanket term for many different techniques of attaching the tissue of one plant to another and then forcing it to grow. Today my talk will focus on the propagation of Cercis Canadensis or Eastern redbud by budding at our Nursery in Middle Tennessee. Cercis is a difficult genus to propagate, and there are many new selections that have been made in the last decade or so with many more under evaluation for the future.

Stephen F. Austin Gardens (SFA) comprises 52 ha (128 acres) of on-campus property at Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas. Stephen F. Austin Gardens is the umbrella organization responsible for the activities, growth, and development of four gardens. Stephen F. Austin Mast Arboretum was the first phase of the SFA Garden and is composed of 17 ha (10 acres). The SFA Mast Arboretum was initiated in 1985 and includes the horticulture facility of the Agriculture Department. The Ruby M. Mize Azalea garden is a 3.2-ha (8-acre) garden of primarily azaleas, camellias, and Japanese maples and was dedicated in April 2000. The 17-ha (42-acre) Pineywoods Native Plant Center (PNPC) was dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson in April 2000. Finally, the newest land resource, SFA ’s Recreational Trail and Gardens was dedicated in March 2010 and comprises 27.5 ha (68 acres) of mostly undisturbed forest. As the result of a donor with a vision, SFA Gardens is currently responsible for the development of a new 3.2-ha (8-acre) garden in the SW portion of this property, directly across from the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden.

Topsoil was used in container plants in the greenhouse and nursery industry until the 1960s when new soilless substrate alternatives were developed. One of the pioneers in this new soilless substrate was Cornell University with their peat-lite mixes. The peat-lite mix was a combination of peatmoss, used for its fine particles to hold water, and perlite and vermiculite were used to create air spaces in the substrate (Boodle and Sheldrake, 1977). Peatmoss is derived from the decomposition of mosses, sedges and sphagnum’s under acidic and wet conditions (Bunt, 1987). Vermiculite, an aluminum-iron-magnesium silicate is produced by heating the rock to 1,000 °C (Bunt, 1987). Perlite an igneous glassy rock that is mined and heated to 1,600 °C to remove all water and expand the rock (Moore, 1987). While perlite has no known health hazards it is considered a nuisance causing lung and eye irritation (Evans and Gachukia, 2004).

Growers are interested in alternatives to perlite that provide the same functions without the nuisance of the fine dust particles. Some of these alternatives have included pumice, parboiled rice hulls, and expanded polystyrene. Pumice is a naturally occurring mineral from aluminum silicate, potassium, and sodium oxides often developed from volcanic eruptions. When compared to perlite pumice was found to have similar chemical and physical characteristics (Noland et al., 1992).

By definition, ornamental herbaceous plants known as "annuals" complete their life cycle in a single growing season (e.g., Cosmos sulphureus), but not all commercially available "annuals" fit this definition. In some cases, it is only relevant that these plants are used for a single growing season in cultivated landscapes rather than expecting them to set seed and die before the onset of winter (e.g., Impatiens walleriana). For the purpose of this paper, the term "annuals " is used for plants characterized by either of the above situations. It is empirically interesting that among plant materials and landscape design professionals, annuals are often held in lower esteem than their herbaceous perennial and woody counterparts, despite their vast economic value. While the reasons may not be easily documented, this assessment may relate directly back to the fact that annuals have a useful landscape value limited to only a single season, whereas herbaceous perennials and hardy woody species last for many years.

Contemporary cultivars and hybrids of ornamental annuals are far removed from their species origins, but several species have routinely ranked as the most popular since the start of the 1950s, including (in no particular order) zinnias (Zinnia spp.), marigolds (Tagetes spp.), portulacas (Portulaca spp.), petunias (Petunia spp.), begonias (Begonia spp.), impatiens (Impatiens spp.), cosmos (Cosmos spp.), pansies (Viola spp.), and geraniums (Pelargonium spp.).

De novo adventitious root formation is composed of four stages: 1) dedifferentiation of parenchyma cells in the phloem ray area, 2) formation of root initials, 3) formation of a fully developed meristematic area — the root primordia, and 4) elongation of the root primordial through the cortex and periderm (Hartmann et al., 2011). What separates out an easy vs. difficult-to-root species is the ability to complete the first two stages: dedifferentiation and root initial formation (early organization of the root primordia). If a cutting can complete these first two steps, it will successfully root — provided the proper environmental conditions are maintained.

While we have gotten to be pretty good at manipulating stock plants, using auxins and controlling environmental conditions to maximize commercial rooting of cuttings — there are still many woody plant species that are too difficult to root in acceptable numbers. It would be great if we could manipulate a single gene to enhance rooting, but we know that adventitious root formation of cuttings is a complex process involving many genes. It was recently reported that some 220 genes are differentially expressed during adventitious root development in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) hypocotyls cuttings (Brinker et al., 2004).

It probably began in the late 1970s to early 1980s when Dr. J.C. Raulston started making the nursery industry more aware of the importance of new species and cultivar introductions that would broaden the market for the ornamental plant industry. No one ever comes into a garden center and asks, "What’s old?" Now with increased breeding of annuals, perennials, and "woodies," this has become even more important. But other sources of new introductions can come from exploring foreign markets as well as local hobbyists. We will examine some selections that will increase the plant palette of southern growers.

DISCUSSION

Akebia trifoliate ‘Silver Dust’ is a new selection found in Japan and hardy to Zone 5. This species is not as well known as A. quinata, which also has a variegated form, but this variegation is more stable. It has deep burgundy-red flowers in hanging panicles. It is easily propagated from semihardwood cuttings. It climbs by twining and does well in either full sun to fairly dense shade. Fruit is edible.

Fifty years ago gasoline was $0.35 a gallon and the minimum wage was $1.25. A 40-h week at minimum wage earned a take home pay of about $45.00. Many people aspired to make $15,000 per year. A new car was between $1,500 and $2,000. Fast forward to today, the minimum wage is around $8, a new car costs around $25,000, and many people aspire to make $50,000 per year.

Back in the day, container stock became a staple 50 years ago and the containers of choice were two types: 1-gal food cans, which were cheap and plentiful, and 5-gal egg cans or nut cans from India that were dipped in tar to retard rusting. Nursery flats were either made of wood or heavy gauge zinc. Plastics were rarely used. Fertilizer came in two forms: either a quick-acting field-grade fertilizer with obvious dangers to container plants due to burning, or very limited organic nutrition in the form of dried animal manure.

Controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs) labeled with more than 3% P₂O₅ are often applied to container-grown plants. Soluble phosphorus (P) leaches rapidly in substrates composed mostly of pine bark (Yeager and Barrett, 1984). Thus, one approach to achieving a reduction in P loss from the nursery is to reduce the amount of P applied. Midcap (2004) determined that application of CRFs labeled as 2% or 6% P₂O₅ and applied at P rates of 71 or 136 g·m³ (54 or 104 g/yd³) of substrate, respectively, resulted in similar growth of Hydrangea macrophylla (Thunb.) Ser. (‘Nikko Blue’ and ‘Bailmer’, Endless Summer^™ hydrangea). The purpose of this research was to evaluate holly plant growth response when the substrate was amended with CRF containing different amounts of P.

Back in the mid-1990s American Nurseryman magazine ran a series of articles utilizing conifer experts from around the country, but only one of those experts was from the southeastern United States. In the Coastal Plain region, conifers are often thought of as pine trees for forestry or junipers for landscaping, that is it. Due to a lack of information on conifer adaptability for the Lower South, in 1996 I started collecting germplasm for an evaluation project at The University of Georgia campus located in Tifton, Georgia. The Tifton Campus is located 103 km (64 miles) north of the Florida border in south-central Georgia. The station is located in USDA Hardiness Zone 8a and Tifton averages about 100 days per year at or above 32 °C (90 °F).

The initial plantings were installed in January 1997. Individual plants were planted every 3.8 m (12.5 ft) within rows with 6 m (20 ft) between rows. Composted pecan shells were applied as mulch and drip irrigation was installed with an emitter at each plant. Fertilizer is applied at the rate of 50 lbs N per acre in the spring and 25 lbs N per acre in August using 16–4–8 soluble granular fertilizer with micronutrients. The pH of the site at time of planting was 5.5. Weeds were controlled with preemergent applications of simazine and oryzalin in February and September. Glyphosate was applied as needed as a post-emergent herbicide.

The Southern Highlands Reserve (<http: //www.southernhighlandsreserve.org >), Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, is a 49-ha (120-acre) private, nonprofit native plant reserve located at an elevation of 1,377 m (4,500 ft) in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. The 8-ha (20-acre) "Core Park " is intensively cultivated while the remaining 41 ha (100 acre) are maintained primarily in a natural state. The objective of the Southern Highlands Reserve is to preserve the various plant communities extant on the property plus to preserve and display a collection of native plants and cultivars of these natives to the Southern Appalachian Highlands.

The Southern Highlands Reserve was never farmed or involved in active horticulture. There is evidence of some logging in the early 20th century but no agricultural activity beyond collecting firewood and wildcrafting. The Core Park forest is primarily high elevation red oak forest (Schafle and Weakley, 1990).

I installed my first irrigation system in 1976 and have been learning more about the industry ever since. I am here to share my experience with smart controllers and when and how to use them.

What is SWAT? It refers to "smart water application technologies" which encompasses a national initiative with water purveyors and industry representatives that promote new technology and increased efficiency. This includes controllers, sprinkler heads, nozzles, pressure reducers, as well as, non-irrigation-related items.

There are two types of smart (dynamic) controllers; evapotranspiration (ET) based controllers and soil moisture sensors. What is ET? Evapotranspiration stands for the total amount of water transferred from the earth and plants to the atmosphere as a result of local weather.

This talk will present ideas, innovations, and equipment in use at Mortellaro’s Nursery. The ideas and equipment used are useful for our operation and should be useful for most other operations. Some of the equipment may need modification for use by other nurseries in order to fit within their cultural practices. As with all ideas that were used to create the equipment and methods in use at Mortellaro’s, the main purpose of this presentation is to stimulate thought on how our ideas can be applied to other operations.

DRAMM PORTABLE PULSEFOG

This unit was purchased so that we could more easily treat for insect and diseases during the winter when our houses were covered. It allows our spray applicator to treat a single house and move on to the next house in about 5 min.

Bark has been a major component of container substrate since the 1960s. In recent years with the continuous rise in energy prices, the demand for bark as a clean fuel has increased. In 2010 the nursery industry faced a new threat to pine bark availability due to a proposed rule for USDA’s Farm Security Administrations Biomass Crops Assistance Program (BCAP). Although pine bark supplies used for container potting substrates were not intended to be included in this program to utilize wood-mill-based residuals, it was not exempted and placed nursery pine bark supplies in jeopardy. One of the most popular areas of university research in recent years has been focused on evaluating alternatives and supplements to pine bark potting substrates since the quantity of timber harvested in the United States has decreased since 1986. Farm Security Administrations Biomass Crops Assistance Program accelerated the quest for new substitutes for commercial growing horticultural crops.

Pine bark (PB) continues to be the industry standard material for container grown plant production of woody ornamentals throughout the Southeast U.S.A. (Yeager, 2007). However, because of the closing and relocation of timber mills, as well as increased use of PB as a fuel source for power mills, PB has become less available and more costly for use in the nursery industry (Laiche and Nash, 1986; Lu et al., 2006). This has lead to a demand for alternative substrates to supplement PB particularly in regions that lack indigenous pine species (such as the Great Plains). Abundant tree species in the Great Plains could potentially be used in a similar manner to Clean Chip Residual (CCR) and WholeTree (WT) which have been used in the Southeast U.S.A. Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) grows in most areas of the Great Plains. Once held back by grazing and wild fires from fully entering the grasslands, community development and farming have reduced these natural control measures. Additionally, the use eastern red cedar as windbreaks, erosion control, and wildlife cover since the 1960s has increased the seed population (Ganguli et al., 2008; Ownesby et al., 1973).

Many new woody and herbaceous plants are introduced every year with extensive marketing programs, exclusive growing agreements, protective plant patents, and extensive distribution. However, there also exists a wide range of plants that fall outside of this circle that, although lesser known, may be quite worthy of use in the landscape for specific regions. When information is not available on the performance of these plants in different regions, a coordinated system of independent evaluation, along with dissemination of the resulting information to nursery and landscape professionals, becomes invaluable. In the southeastern U.S.A., the SERA-27 group was formed to serve this purpose.

The Southern Extension and Research Activities/Information Exchange Group 27 (SERA-27) for Nursery and Landscape Systems was established in 1994. The group is composed of research and extension faculty working in the commercial nursery and landscape disciplines from among fourteen 1862 land grant universities in the southeastern U.S.A., along with scientists from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service.

Seed dormancy is a condition where seeds will not germinate even when the environmental conditions (water, temperature, light, and aeration) are permissive for germination (Hartmann et al., 2011). Not only does seed dormancy prevents immediate germination, it also regulates the time, conditions, and location where germination will occur. In nature, different kinds of dormancy have evolved to aid the survival of a species by programming germination for particularly favorable times in the annual seasonal cycles (Baskin et al., 1998).

The major seed dormancy categories include:

• Primary dormancy
• exogenous dormancy (physical)
• endogenous dormancy (physiological and morphological)
• combination dormancy (physical plus physiological)
• Secondary dormancy

The focus of this paper will be to describe the morphological characteristics associated with physical dormancy and indicate how specialized structures on the seed called water gaps function to coordinate dormancy release.

In the case of industrial products, if the necessary materials are supplied to a manufacturing plant under appropriate conditions, products of constant quantity and quality are systematically produced at planned timings. But in the case of field-crop agriculture, even if materials such as seeds and seedlings, agrochemicals, and fertilizers are supplied to a field, the crop is greatly influenced by climate, soil quality, coexisting organisms, etc., resulting in a variation in the harvesting season, production volume, and product quality. In addition, agricultural products are highly perishable. To solve these problems, it is necessary to cultivate crops under a protected production environment like factory production, and further development of greenhouse horticulture and plant factories is expected.

1. Production of delphinidin, a pigment that most blue flowers contain
2. Modification of pigments by aromatic acyl groups
3. Accumulation of flavones or flavonols that cause bluing of pigments
4. Elevation of vacuolar pH where pigments localize
5. Accumulation of ferrous or aluminum ion

We have developed cutting propagation of kaki (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) by using single-node stem cuttings (Tetsumura et al., 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009), although it was thought to be difficult to propagate kaki by cuttings (Tao and Sugiura, 1992). The single-node stem cuttings collected from root suckers rooted easily when put in a greenhouse installed with a mist system.

Kaki tends to grow to a large tree. Therefore, the necessity of vegetative propagation of dwarfing rootstocks has been urged for 60 years (Ito, 1988), but nursery stocks grafted on the dwarfing rootstocks have not been available yet. We collected the single-node stem cuttings from root suckers of the ‘Saijyo’ tree showing sub-dwarfing habit (1 m in height) in the orchard of Okayama Prefectural Agriculture Center, in which the height of normal-sized ‘Saijyo’ trees were 4.5 m, and propagated them by using a propagation fame (Tetsumura et al., 2003). The rooted cuttings were grafted with the scions of ‘Fuyu’ and ‘Hiratanenashi’, and then the investigation for over 7 years on the growth, flowering, and fruiting showed that the rootstock, ‘Rootstock-b’ (R-b), made both cultivars’ trees dwarfed and improved their flowering and yield efficiencies (Tetsumura et al., 2010). Hence, we plan to develop sustainable mass-propagation of R-b for its practical use supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.

A Japanese leading and monoembryonic mango (Mangifera indica L.) cultivar, ‘Irwin’, is propagated by grafting onto seedling of polyembryonic mango. The grafted nursery stocks of tropical fruit trees sold in Japan are very expensive mainly because of heating cost in winter. Hence, in vitro propagation of mango will provide a stable supply of nursery stocks and a shortening of raising period possible. However, establishment of tissue culture of mango has been very difficult because of browning of medium and contamination. Therefore, reports on tissue culture of mango are few. Thomus and Ravindra (1997) reported that the solidified medium caused better survival of explants than a liquid medium and the longer explants established better. We made preliminary experiments by using explants from seedlings and succeeded in proliferation of shoots without browning of medium. The objective of this study was to explore the best basal medium for propagation of in vitro shoots from mango seedlings. In addition, we tried to minimize contamination of in vitro culture establishment of explants from mature trees.

The disease caused by chrysanthemum stunt viroid (CSVd) is the most important viral disease in chrysanthemum plants. It causes stunting of growth and reduced flower quality (Fig. 1). Damage caused by CSVd has been increasing since its discovery in Japan in 1977.

A viroid is the minimum pathogen composed of only RNA. Chemical treatments are ineffective against the solid molecular structure. Growers must improve production by preventing infection in plants, thus, maintaining the concentration of CSVd at low level in the environment. Viroid-free plants and resistant cultivars are required for the study.

DETECTION OF CHRYSANTHEMUM STUNT VIROID

The symptoms of the disease caused by CSVd in chrysanthemum plants include stunted growth, chlorosis in the leaves, and a change in the time of flowering (early in many case).

The genus Rosa belongs to Rosaceae and is widely distributed throughout the temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, from Ethiopia to Siberia. Number of species is between 150 and 200, although there is much variation in number of species by taxonomists. Among these species, there are 12 species and three varieties native to Japan.

Plant culture experiments using coconut husks in a bag (coco-bag culture) were started in 2002 at our company research farm. Many hydroponic systems were available at that time, and they had advantages of pest control and stable harvests. However, we started development of coco-bag culture with the following goals:

1. Low costs
2. Easy set up
3. Availability of current culture techniques

By this process, for the stabilization of company management, I felt the necessity for both the standardization of the pot soil and the establishment of the method of plant factory production, and started hydroculture production (method of growing plants without the use of soil). Our business came to a turning point 22 years ago, and using hydrocultured plants, I diversified into a number of enterprises, such as rental, indoor tree planting, and wholesale for retail stores. Currently, I am developing an environmental tree-planting enterprise in cooperation with growers for rooftop gardening and "eco-walls."

Kaneya Co., Ltd. Japan has produced and sold plastic flowerpots and trays for 40 years in Japan. These days, the floricultural industry is changing rapidly. We would like to introduce our efforts that we are undertaking in both the domestic and foreign markets during this period of change in the markets.

OUR EFFORTS IN THE DOMESTIC MARKET

For the Pot-Plant Growers. In the pot-plants market, we are recommending the use of the "slit pot" to Japanese growers (Fig. 1A). We have been supplying the slit pot to Japanese markets for more than 10 years. If you use and grow plants using the slit pots, the root systems of the plants will grow very well and you will get better shaped plants. You will avoid the root circling problem and damage during the growing period for a long time and your plants growth will be healthy (Fig. 1B). Specially, many growers who are growing fruit in

In greenhouse horticulture heating a greenhouse during winter costs quite a lot and has become a serious problem for growers due to the steep rise in heavy oil price. To heat a greenhouse by burning heavy oil emits CO₂ to the air and this causes environment problems. By applying two layers of roof covering material for higher heat insulation we were able to demonstrate a reduction in the usage of heavy oil and CO₂ emission.

The IPPS conference was held in Blenheim. From 27 to 30 May there was a workshop in the morning and a nursery tour in the afternoon. The workshop was a valuable experience for me because I first studied at a workshop abroad. I was particularly interested in many presentations on the plants native to New Zealand (NZ), which were very different in species diversity and growth environment from those in Japan.

Toyoake flower auction market trades only pot plants and the volume of trade is the largest in Asia. On this day there were about 880,000 pots traded. The market uses the reverse Dutch flower auction system. Many buyers bid silently, looking at the images of the plant on five separate screens (Fig. 1). In addition, the market has worked on not only trading of plants but also to recycle the plastic trays used in transporting the pot plants. The plants traded in the market are sold all over Japan.

I am glad to introduce and share the results of my learning along with the other members of IPPS. Together with my brother, I grow roses, chrysanthemum, and hypericum, among other flowers. This year we started with about 400 ha for growing grains at 23° latitude and 630 m altitude, where the subtropical climate predominates with annual pluviometric indexes (pluviometer = instrument for measuring the amount of precipitation at a given location over a specified period of time) around 1500 mm, mostly during the summer. The soil is a red latosoil, typically acid and poor in phosphorus; thus some corrections have to be made to bring the soil to an appropriated status for plant growth. Therefore, I am not able to guarantee the efficiency of this method to other members of IPPS due to the variability in the growth conditions. However, for those who are experiencing problems with their plant growth or development and with frequent infestation by pests such as spider mites or thrips, it is worthwhile to try this method mostly due to its easiness to work out and low cost. Additionally, in my view, the method allows me to partially restore the earlier organic conditions present in the soil that were spoiled by the continuous and systematic use of soluble fertilizers and pesticides.