The scholarship committee will select about a dozen students for the $1,500 awards.
The Sidney B. Meadows Scholarship Endowment Fund has announced it is
now accepting applications for its 2014 awards. Industry members are
asked to advise all eligible students of the availability of this
scholarship award. This information is currently available from the
Fund’s website (www.sbmsef.org). Horticultural students who are eligible are encouraged to apply for this year’s scholarship awards.
The deadline for application is May 30, 2014. The Scholarship
Selection Committee will make its selections by July 1, 2014 and
recipients will be notified soon thereafter. Awards will be made on July
23, in Atlanta, during SNA 2014.
Danny Summers, Executive Vice President of the fund said, “Last year,
the Fund awarded a total of $18,000 to 12 students. This year, we
expect to again award approximately twelve $1,500 scholarships. We are
very proud of our accomplishment in building the Fund over the past 25
years. Since its inception, the fund has awarded $419,000 in
scholarships and today the Fund’s balance is now over $800,000.”
Summers added, “We would like to express our appreciation to all our
industry for supporting the Fund’s growth and development and your
willingness to help us spread the word about this beneficial
scholarship.”
Created in 1989 by the Southern Nursery Association (SNA), the Sidney
B. Meadows Scholarship Endowment Fund is a 501 (c) 3 charitable
foundation providing academic scholarships to students in the 16
southeastern states.
For more information, visit www.sbmsef.org or email info@sbsmsef.org.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Book Review: Lawn Gone!
Book Review: Lawn Gone!
What
is it about your lawn that you find so desirable? Whatever it is you
may think differently about your lawn after you read Pam Penick’s book, Lawn Gone!
The concept of lawns flowing through a neighborhood from one property
to the next may be appealing but as Penick points out, lawns are
unsuited to large regions of our country and are wasteful, expensive,
and are not beneficial to wildlife. Good alternatives are available and
Penick’s book shows you how to create an eco-friendly landscape from the
removal of the old lawn to dealing the HOAs and designing a whole new
landscape that will save you time and money without damaging
environment.
There are three major parts to the book. The first considers the different options for covering your yard such as low ground-covering plants, patios, paths, ponds, firepit or garden pavilion. Helpful before- and after-pictures and diagrams show how the possibilities can look. One of my favorites was a no-mow lawn of mixed fescues; the shaggy grasses asked to be touched.
The second section introduces you to the various methods of lawn removal and explains how to install hardscape and plant a new garden. The pros and cons of six different methods of removing grass from a lawn are discussed with specific suggestions for using each. General directions are given for installing hardscape such as paths, patios, decks, and water features and suggestions are included for preparing, planting, and maintain garden beds.
Unfortunately, property owners can not always do what they want with their lawn. Communities often have enforceable standards for front-yard landscaping, HOA’s have landscape rules, and neighbors can be skeptical and critical. Penick deals with these issues in section three suggesting ways of contending with both city hall and HOA’s as well as winning over neighbors. Other problems faced by lawnless home owners, such as four legged friends and fire are also treated.
At the end of the book, Penick provides plant and hardscape recommendations for eleven regions in the United States. This section has tremendous potential but unfortunately only included five plants for each region. This part of the book gives you some idea of the kinds of plants that would do well as lawn substitutes but should be expanded.
Lawn Gone! is a good introduction to switching from a traditional lawn to a low maintenance, sustainable yard with lots of pictures to encourage and inspire you to try a new approach. You will not get detailed directions but you will get a good idea of the scope of the endeavor so you can decide if the approach is for you. Ideas about lawns are changing and reading a book like this will help you embrace the change however quickly or slow you are able to accept it.
Book Review: Lawn Gone!
What
is it about your lawn that you find so desirable? Whatever it is you
may think differently about your lawn after you read Pam Penick’s book, Lawn Gone!
The concept of lawns flowing through a neighborhood from one property
to the next may be appealing but as Penick points out, lawns are
unsuited to large regions of our country and are wasteful, expensive,
and are not beneficial to wildlife. Good alternatives are available and
Penick’s book shows you how to create an eco-friendly landscape from the
removal of the old lawn to dealing the HOAs and designing a whole new
landscape that will save you time and money without damaging
environment.There are three major parts to the book. The first considers the different options for covering your yard such as low ground-covering plants, patios, paths, ponds, firepit or garden pavilion. Helpful before- and after-pictures and diagrams show how the possibilities can look. One of my favorites was a no-mow lawn of mixed fescues; the shaggy grasses asked to be touched.
The second section introduces you to the various methods of lawn removal and explains how to install hardscape and plant a new garden. The pros and cons of six different methods of removing grass from a lawn are discussed with specific suggestions for using each. General directions are given for installing hardscape such as paths, patios, decks, and water features and suggestions are included for preparing, planting, and maintain garden beds.
Unfortunately, property owners can not always do what they want with their lawn. Communities often have enforceable standards for front-yard landscaping, HOA’s have landscape rules, and neighbors can be skeptical and critical. Penick deals with these issues in section three suggesting ways of contending with both city hall and HOA’s as well as winning over neighbors. Other problems faced by lawnless home owners, such as four legged friends and fire are also treated.
At the end of the book, Penick provides plant and hardscape recommendations for eleven regions in the United States. This section has tremendous potential but unfortunately only included five plants for each region. This part of the book gives you some idea of the kinds of plants that would do well as lawn substitutes but should be expanded.
Lawn Gone! is a good introduction to switching from a traditional lawn to a low maintenance, sustainable yard with lots of pictures to encourage and inspire you to try a new approach. You will not get detailed directions but you will get a good idea of the scope of the endeavor so you can decide if the approach is for you. Ideas about lawns are changing and reading a book like this will help you embrace the change however quickly or slow you are able to accept it.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Monday, December 2, 2013
Garden Apps for Smart Phones
Now that most of us have put our gardens to bed, have we forgotten about them?
No!
Are we already making plans for our next experiment in growing? Yes! (well, we hope you are)
Would I like to use technology to make the planning easier? Yes!
Based on that, we recently did some crowd sourcing to find out what gardening apps are out there and which ones people are using. The short list below is just that, a short list, but it is intended to give you a place to start if you are looking for apps to help plan your garden, or identify what's in the garden, especially if you're a newbie. To assist in finding these apps, we have included pricing and links to iTunes should you wish to download one or two. And if you want advice from some other sources, here are a few links to other lists:
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Global Garden Friends
Phoenix New Times
Gardenista.com
Are we already making plans for our next experiment in growing? Yes! (well, we hope you are)
Would I like to use technology to make the planning easier? Yes!
Based on that, we recently did some crowd sourcing to find out what gardening apps are out there and which ones people are using. The short list below is just that, a short list, but it is intended to give you a place to start if you are looking for apps to help plan your garden, or identify what's in the garden, especially if you're a newbie. To assist in finding these apps, we have included pricing and links to iTunes should you wish to download one or two. And if you want advice from some other sources, here are a few links to other lists:
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Global Garden Friends
Phoenix New Times
Gardenista.com
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Monday, April 1, 2013
Monday, January 23, 2012
Tissue cultured daylilies
Your Garden: Daylily didn't meet expectations
Dear Roger: I bought one of your registered daylilies from Lowe's. I had seen it in your garden about five years ago but couldn't afford the $85 price you had on it. So I found it at Lowe's two springs ago for $18.99 and bought it.
The problem is the plant does not look at all like it did in your garden. I have enclosed a photo. Is this the correct plant? It's the right color but not as bright. And the ruffling I liked so much is completely absent. The flower count seems much lower than it should be and the flower stalks are much shorter. I am growing this with plenty of water and fertilizer and the plant looks very healthy.
Your opinion would be much appreciated.- Joan
Dear Joan: Your growing abilities are not the problem. I have been hearing an increasing number of similar complaints in recent years about daylilies that don't look right. "That isn't the daylily I paid for," is the usual complaint. And the complaints are completely justified.
The plant you have, while it was produced from mine, is not genetically identical to mine.
How could that happen? Chances are, the plant you bought is tissue-cultured. This is a process by which daylilies are sliced into thousands of tiny pieces, and the pieces are grown in test tubes. This allows a grower to produce thousands of daylilies from a single original plant or two. This helps meet the incredible demand for increasingly fantastical-looking newer daylilies. There is a problem, however.
Daylilies are extremely variable when tissue cultured, however. Daylily breeding is highly complex and most tetraploid daylilies are first-or second-generation offspring of clonal conversions, meaning they may not be genetically consistent and may contain chimeric material of variable genetics.
The technique works well with orchids and hostas, which are easily sorted and variant forms discarded. Hostas don't seem to be exceedingly variable when tissue cultured. So not many discards are required.
Daylilies produced from tiny bits of such variable material will have differences in appearance ranging from small and subtle to great and startling. Most daylilies sold in chain stores are tissue-cultured and so are greatly variable. It is best to buy such daylilies only when they are in bloom so that you'll know what the flower will look like. Just because it has the same name as its parent doesn't mean it will be identical to its parent when tissue cultured.
It would be nice if all daylily sellers listed tissue-cultured material as such. But many sellers, such as chain store outlets, may not know what tissue culture is. It would also be nice if people asked the breeder's permission to tissue culture his plants. That will never happen. Daylily breeders almost never patent or even trademark their daylilies. So we have no residual rights to control how our varieties are increased or sold.
If you will arrange to come by my garden, I will be glad to replace the daylily you have with one that will be true to appearance and growth habit because it has not been tissue cultured.
I should also point out that some of the best, most successful daylily breeders tissue culture their own cultivars. However, such breeders carefully check each plant for conformity to the qualities of the original. They rigorously discard all plants that differ from the original in any apparent way. So, when you buy from the breeder, or from daylily growers who buy only from breeders, you are assured of getting the correct plant, unless there has been a labeling mistake, of course.
The problem is the plant does not look at all like it did in your garden. I have enclosed a photo. Is this the correct plant? It's the right color but not as bright. And the ruffling I liked so much is completely absent. The flower count seems much lower than it should be and the flower stalks are much shorter. I am growing this with plenty of water and fertilizer and the plant looks very healthy.
Your opinion would be much appreciated.- Joan
Dear Joan: Your growing abilities are not the problem. I have been hearing an increasing number of similar complaints in recent years about daylilies that don't look right. "That isn't the daylily I paid for," is the usual complaint. And the complaints are completely justified.
The plant you have, while it was produced from mine, is not genetically identical to mine.
How could that happen? Chances are, the plant you bought is tissue-cultured. This is a process by which daylilies are sliced into thousands of tiny pieces, and the pieces are grown in test tubes. This allows a grower to produce thousands of daylilies from a single original plant or two. This helps meet the incredible demand for increasingly fantastical-looking newer daylilies. There is a problem, however.
Daylilies are extremely variable when tissue cultured, however. Daylily breeding is highly complex and most tetraploid daylilies are first-or second-generation offspring of clonal conversions, meaning they may not be genetically consistent and may contain chimeric material of variable genetics.
The technique works well with orchids and hostas, which are easily sorted and variant forms discarded. Hostas don't seem to be exceedingly variable when tissue cultured. So not many discards are required.
Daylilies produced from tiny bits of such variable material will have differences in appearance ranging from small and subtle to great and startling. Most daylilies sold in chain stores are tissue-cultured and so are greatly variable. It is best to buy such daylilies only when they are in bloom so that you'll know what the flower will look like. Just because it has the same name as its parent doesn't mean it will be identical to its parent when tissue cultured.
It would be nice if all daylily sellers listed tissue-cultured material as such. But many sellers, such as chain store outlets, may not know what tissue culture is. It would also be nice if people asked the breeder's permission to tissue culture his plants. That will never happen. Daylily breeders almost never patent or even trademark their daylilies. So we have no residual rights to control how our varieties are increased or sold.
If you will arrange to come by my garden, I will be glad to replace the daylily you have with one that will be true to appearance and growth habit because it has not been tissue cultured.
I should also point out that some of the best, most successful daylily breeders tissue culture their own cultivars. However, such breeders carefully check each plant for conformity to the qualities of the original. They rigorously discard all plants that differ from the original in any apparent way. So, when you buy from the breeder, or from daylily growers who buy only from breeders, you are assured of getting the correct plant, unless there has been a labeling mistake, of course.
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