Proceedings Library

1. In 1934 Professor Knudsen grew orchid seedlings on a sterile nutrient augar. From this small beginning came the study of plant tissues, knowledge on the use of auxins and other hormones, tissue culture propagation, and now to the point where we are doing genetic engineering.
2. In 1951 the International Plant Propagators' Society was formed with its motto, "To Seek and to Share." No longer were propagation houses

Slow-release fertilizers can be placed in two categories: slowly degraded, and coated.

Some fertilizers that degrade slowly release nutrients gradually because the fertilizer formulation has low solubility; IBDU is an example. Others, such as urea-formaldehyde, degrade slowly because they require microbial activity to release the nutrients. Most fertilizers in the slowly degraded group are formulated to last effectively for 8 to 12 weeks and are usually surfaced-applied.

The other group of slow-release fertilizers, coated materials, contains soluble fertilizers encapsulated with either sulfur or resin. Typically, they are formulated to release nutrients for 3 to 12 months and vary in type, quality, longevity, and cost.

Sulfur-coated fertilizers contain

South Jersey is in the center of the Bos-Wash megalopolis, and for the purpose of this discussion, includes approximately the southern 50 miles of New Jersey. The nursery industry is mostly located in a North-South strip in the center of the state. The production area is located in the center of the USDA Zone 7, which results in a climate similar to that of central to western North Carolina. On a calendar year basis, the season starts with propagation in January, and concludes in late December with the last digging of field stock.

Soils in the area are relatively light and well drained. The soil types in the area establish a critical need for irrigation in order to effectively produce nursery stock. Fortunately, the southern part of New Jersey sits upon the Cohansey aquifer. The aquifer water comes out of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, which is a protected area, and results in one of the largest aquifers on the East Coast. Water in Cumberland County is generally found approximately 15

In designing any laboratory, big or small, certain elements are essential for a successful operation. The correct design of a laboratory will not help maintain asepsis, but it will also achieve a high standard of work.

This work reflects research done by the Arnold Arboretum and sponsored by the Center for Plant Conservation. I would like to thank intern Laurie Sullivan for her assistance in these trials.

The rarest conifer in North America is probably the stinking cedar, Torreya taxifolia. A member of the yew family, it is found in only four counties of the Florida panhandle and possibly southwestern Georgia. Trees of 40 ft were reported previously but now, due to a blight, adult trees are dying in native stands and extinction is a real possibility. Determining the effective propagation of this species might be a matter of some importance if the species is to survive at all.

‘Silver Mist’ is similar to J. conferta ‘Blue Pacific’, however, it has distinctly grayer foliage. Additionally the needles are shorter which gives the plant a thicker and denser appearance. It is more compact than the species. This clone has been around for quite a while. The U.S. National Arboretum has it in the Gotelli collection and some nurserymen may have this plant under another name.

Monrovia Nursery has shown a great deal of interest in this plant. We have distributed it to them and it should be showing up in the trade under this name soon. It is also being tested by Weyerhauser Research Program so Hines Nursery may be carrying it soon as well. Additionally we have also distributed it to

The size and climatic diversity of Australia are frequently misunderstood. A comparison of size shows that Australia has a land mass of 2.9 million square miles and the continental United States has 3 million square miles. The two countries are comparable in size.

A study of the latitudes of the major cities of Australia will help to understand the climatic diversity. A comparison with northern hemisphere cities on similar latitudes is given in Table 1.

Both the classical and the quonset designs had a maximum exposure of the glass or plastic covering to the elements. As a result of the very low insulating values, heat loss was tremendous. Conventional design generally had the advantage of roof and side vents to provide natural convection cooling. On the other hand, double polyfilm quonset-style greenhouses could be very tight

Up until then, my nursery's efforts were almost exclusively to produce citrus in several sizes for dooryard sales through retail outlets. Planned expansion of woody ornamental production on 25 acres mandated the development of efficient buildings and production tools for the specific purpose of propagation. At this time (1977) most woody ornamental propagation in Florida was done in open sun under mist using a peat bed or rose pots with a peat:perlite medium.

As recently as 1970, there was opposition to including a propagation unit inside greenhouses at Florida vocational schools as county commissioners felt putting a propagation unit inside a greenhouse was a huge waste. However, seeing production problems throughout the state convinced me that efficient climate control

The increasing interest being shown by growers in the direct rooting of cuttings in pots makes the sweat box worth thinking about. One of the main drawbacks to direct rooting is the increased propagation area required to handle all these pots. If this area has to be placed under a mist system or in greenhouses, costs begin to increase proportionately.

With the sweat box there are no greenhouses, mist heads, or any other mechanical parts required. Basically, the system involves enclosing a ground bed or liner bed in an airtight environment, thereby creating a

Before talking about propagation perhaps we should say something about the plants.

Calluna vulgaris. (Ling) is indigenous to the northern, western, and southern moorlands of the British Isles, as well as other parts of Europe and Asia Minor. As a garden plant it is easily grown in an open situation but most must be planted in acid soil. There are some, however, that will stand a certain amount of alkalinity. The plants are both attractive as flowering plants from July to November and as foliage plants for early spring and autumn colour. There are literally hundreds of cultivars now available from British nurseries.

Erica. (Heath)—Several species and again several hundred cultivars are propagated and grown in the United Kingdom. In fact, it is possible to have ericas in flower most months of the year. The species of particular significance are:

When we identify a plant with "potential", resources have to be allocated to produce a required number. Given a production limit something has to be sacrificed—what not to grow. The two species discussed in this paper add to the dilemma of what not to grow.

In identifying what criteria are necessary for shrubs of commercial promise or significance the demands of the market are paramount. The market specified for these plants is for flowering shrubs with end use as patio plants in pots, or in rockeries and small courtyard gardens.

These requirements are:

1. A long flowering period.
2. Good shape and form, irrespective of flowers.
3. Good colour of flower contrasting with foliage.
4. A height of under two meters and

Hence we have a good place to start identifying

The vigor of the stocks plant is important. They should be healthy, turgid, free of insects, diseases, and nutritional deficiencies (Table 1). Single-eye cuttings of Ficus elatica ‘Decora’ stock plants grown in full sun and fertilized with 21 grams of 18–6–12 per 12–in. pot had 97% survival rate while 70% was obtained from stock plants fertilized with 7 grams and grown in 30% shade. Maximum leaf surface should be left on cuttings since reduction in leaf surface reduces production of carbohydrates and natural

At the Hines (Houston) facility, we grow four cultivars of dwarf nandinas: ‘Compacta Nana’ (‘Purpurea Nana’), Harbour Dwarf, ‘Gulf Stream’ (Plant Patent 5656), and ‘Moon Bay’ (Plant Patent 5659). We use the same propagation techniques for all four.

All of the propagation wood is collected from container-grown material which is a very time consuming job. We use the tips only with no brown wood. Usually the stem part of the cutting will be ½ to 1½in. long. The wood is stored in a walk-in cooler at about 50°F to up to 48 hours, but preferably no longer than 24 hours.

The cuttings are prepared indoors. All we do is strip off a few bottom leaves, just enough so that the foliage

The objective of this work was to develop a digital computer control system (DCCS) as an aid for irrigation system management such that: 1) its cost is of the order of magnitude of a low-cost microcomputer; 2) all system components are readily available from local outlets, or they are low cost so that they can be kept in stock; and 3) the system operates in manual,

This is case history report on our progress in recycling irrigation runoff water over container ornamentals. In 1974, at the 15th Annual Meeting of IPPS, Western Region, I described a minor system of filtration of water for reuse. Later that year, we began more intensive research in the study of recycling water. This report describes the increase in knowledge gained since the original project was conceived, the culmination of this research, and the resulting construction of a 2.0 million gallon per day (MGD) (7571m³) water processing plant, and the results since we began recycling in 1979.

Early in 1983 after hearing Dr. Carl Whitcomb present a program on field growing in root-control containers, we decided to try some for ourselves. We planted 1200 trees in 14- and 16-in. Gro-bags. We planted some in our potting soil mix consisting of pine bark, native peat, and coarse sand; some in a blend of potting soil and native peat, and coarse sand; some in a blend of potting soil and native sand, and the majority in just native sand. In the first winter the 1983 Christmas freeze devastated about 30% of our container stock, but we had no damage or loss in our bag tree area. The trees planted in native sand grew off much better than the others.

We have to think WEATHER in everything we do in our area. Our winter temperatures have dropped as much as 70° to 80°F overnight and to lows of 8° to 12°F. The cold-damage risk is high when we have trees and shrubs that are unprotected. So we spend a lot of time and money on winter protection. Our annual dilemma is that our ideal stocking time is from February 15 through March 15. If we stock earlier, we worry about cold damage; if we stock later, growth is beginning. If it is too wet for growers to harvest during that 30 days, we may not get our orders. If we bring in plants

Our second step of fungicide use is spraying right after the cuttings have been planted in the propagation beds. This is done every seven days as a general spraying. It is done in the afternoon 30 to 40 minutes after the mist clocks have been cut off. We wait this long to allow the cuttings to dry before spraying. We spray with a Bean 200-gallon,

The majority of our crops are propagated in either outside mist areas or greenhouses. The medium we use is pine bark: sand, 4:1(v/v). We do not use composted bark, it is green. In addition to these areas we produce one crop a year of bare root conifers in sandy ground beds at our river Division.

Over the years our nursery has used methyl bromide as the fumigant for seedbed areas, with varying degrees of weed control. We had this product applied by private applicators, and the price per acre has steadily increased for the past six years. Our quotation for spring, 1987 was $1,100 per acre! In addition to the product cost there still remained a labor cost incurred in the removal and disposal of the polythene sheeting. This is very distasteful and time-consuming. Weed control has been less than perfect. Weeds started appearing in late June on October-treated areas.

Margaret Scott, IPPS G.B.&I. Region, and Wayne Lovelace, Eastern Region, shared information on an Orbit-Air Gandy Spreader to apply Basamid. Based

The nursery was rapidly expanding and the demands of our loading system were changing. After many discussions, the idea of a mobile loading dock on a truck that could be moved from trailer to trailer as loading required was considered. A 50-ft. conveyer was considered necessary to load 40-to-45-ft. trailers used in shipping efficiently. We felt a moveable dock 50-ft. long would be at best very awkward and inefficient, but a 25-ft. truck would be very easy to move. We began to look into a way to build a 50-ft. conveyer that would slide together into 25 feet.

Our conveyer consists of three main components. The first is two conveyer sections, the top one 25 feet in length and the second 28

Powell farms of Troup, Texas, a bedding plant grower since 1958, started considering a high-tech facility in 1982. Their existing facility was too extensive and productive to replace, so the facility of range was designed to integrate with it.

In the process of design to accommodate the two type production systems, Powells avoided one of the major pitfalls facing growers switching to high-tech automation—automation bottlenecks.

An example of a common bottleneck is having one rolling table unloader with a capacity of 1000 flats per hour as the sole source of a supply for a conveyer truck-loading system with capacity of 3000 flats per hour, which would be needed during peak season. Unless the capacity of this table unloading system is increased,

This year the Curtis J. Alley Merit Award recipient is a person we all admire and respect because of his vision, his "young ideas" compassion, understanding, and leadership.

He is a charter member of The International Plant Propagators, Western Region, serving as President of the Western Region in 1967, and International president in 1970.

He has served on many committees, including the Finance Committee, Long Range Planning and Nomination Committee, Site Committee, Research and Scholarship Committee, Education Award Committee, and the Awards Committee.

When I was told who the recipient of this award would be, I was thrilled and honored that I was going to make this presentation. He is a man that I admire and respect, a man that showed me how to seek and share, who questioned my decisions and made me think again. He was a pioneer in the development of the U.C. system of

Computer programs have been written to assist in the calculation of rooting hormone formulations, calculation of dilution ratios for fertilizer injection into an irrigation system, and for storage and retrieval of propagation techniques for selected landscape plants. Landscape Plant Propagation Information (LPPI) is an interactive computer application developed for retrieval of propagation

During the winter of 1986–1987, a 108 ft. × 41 ft. propagation greenhouse was constructed at IFSCO's nursery near Odenville, Alabama, to root cuttings from the rust-resistant selections. Loblolly pine is a difficult species to root. The best rooting reported in the literature is 68% (2).

Greenwood et al. (1) reported that the distribution of mist accounted for 75% of the variation observed in rooting loblolly cuttings. For this reason we decided to use a fog system for propagation. The use of fog for propagation has been addressed several times in this and other publications so will be treated briefly here. We have been satisfied with a Mee system in operation for several years and decided to use the Mee II Cloud

QUESTION FOR CARL WHITCOMB: How are plants in the Gro-bags fertilized?

CARL WHITCOMB: The key is the development of roots through the fabric. The way it works is different from above ground. We want to encourage the nurse roots so fertilizer should be spread both inside and outside the bag. If liquid is used through the drip system be sure a sizeable area is wetted and fertilized outside the fabric.

RALPH SHUGERT: Is drip irrigation important with Gro-bags?

CARL WHITCOMB: Not really. Usually natural rainfall is enough to carry the fertilizer into the feeder roots. The quality of the liner affects results in the same way that putting more money in the bank affects the balance. It has the advantage of getting more interest as well as being bigger in the first place. There is a multiplication factor involved.

BRYSON JAMES: Why are you fertilizing the 10 percent of the root system that is

At our nursery, air layering has been a great help in building the inventory of many rare or slow-growing trees. Along the way we have picked up a number of ideas that have helped to make this method more effective and safe. It is used primarily in the propagation of litchi, longan, mango, macadamia, and guava. We can produce a well developed and saleable tree in less than a year where other methods could take 2 or 3 years.

Following are refinements that have been of assistance to us:

1. To remove the bark section in the girdling process, we have found a

Well, is there a lot of differences between rooting tissue-cultured shoots and standard cutting propagation? I would like to show that by applying the fundamental principles of propagation very few, if any, changes have to be made. I am going to briefly outline our procedure for rooting stage IV shoots from our Tissue Culture Lab at Briggs Nursery. I am not going to compare different systems, methods, or ideas as each propagator has made adaptations for his own crops, location, and climate. Our primary concern is to provide conditions that meet the requirements of the micro-cuttings until they root. Of course, weather and time of year are the most changeable, especially in sunny weather.

Briggs Nursery roots 95%

Grape hardwood cuttings are buried upside down, in moist sand for two months to allow callusing, and often initiation of roots, prior to planting. The sun warms the two to three in. of sand covering the basal ends of the cuttings, enhancing callusing. This method of burying the cuttings upside down in sand is also used, sometimes in combination with

Layering can be defined as a method to clonally regenerate plants by allowing the development of adventitious roots while the stems are still attached to the parent plant. The shoots are then severed from the parent plant when sufficient roots have formed for successful establishment following containerization or planting in the open ground. There are two physiological principles to encourage root initiation and development on the stem. The first principle is the restriction of

Until 10 years ago, nearly all orchard-bound avocado trees raised in California were on seedling rootstocks. Clones were used only for fruiting scions such as Hass, Fuerte, and Bacon. Since 1977, however, some half million trees have been planted on clonal rootstocks. It's my guess that avocado tree production today is split about fifty-fifty between seedling and clonal rootstocks. How has this come about?

The stimulus for the newer commercial technologies came from Dr. George Zentmyer who was working toward the solution of a serious disease, avocado root rot, which first came to avocado growers' attention during the late 1940's. During the 1950's it occurred to industry leaders that this disease, caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi (Pc), was a serious threat to the entire avocado industry. Zentmyer, in a search for tolerant rootstocks, found that a factor for Pc tolerance occurred in the Duke cultivar, and that the tolerance factor was transmitted through a certain proportion (25%,

The boundaries of this Northern California area include the entire coastline from Point Arena to Cape Mendocino. This is a land area resembling a bench. The ocean is to the west and a mountain range is a few miles to the east. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 75°F and the coldest winter temperatures normally do not drop below 15°F. A great portion of the area directly along the coast will not even have a frost. Giant redwoods [Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.] have grown in this area for thousands of years.

Before the turn of the century, this entire coastal area was a vast grove of prime redwood. (Strangely, however, the initial major forest crop was tanbark.] In this area there were formerly many

Within the last five years nurserymen have seen literally an explosion of new introductions. This is partially due to market demands, but also it is due to the ability to dependably propagate Kalmia in large volume. The 1980 paper by Lloyd and McCown (1) presented a protocol for successful micropropagation of Kalmia. The nursery industry has benefited greatly from these and other researchers.

Within the last 5 years, Richard Jaynes has produced several new introductions of mountain laurel with improved flower, foliage, and plant characteristics.

Why micropropagate or use tissue culture to propagate Kalmia? Micropropagated Kalmia are own-rooted, true-to-name, vigorous, and have superior branching. Large numbers of Kalmia

We know how to do many things in the nursery business but someone is always coming up with a different idea or a new need arises. Often an idea which may have been impractical at the time can come to life because of new materials. Rooting hormones, misting, plastic materials, etc. are some of the developments which have made older ideas more practical.

For many years I have worked at propagation (mostly roses) and have come up with several innovations...some original, some borrowed. Some ideas come about by accident and others out of necessity. Now I would like to go down my list of helpful ideas for the propagation of

IBA was purchased from two suppliers, United States Biochemical (USB) (Cleveland, Ohio) and Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, Missouri). A bulk quantity of IBA was prepared for each concentration (5,000, 1,000, 0 ppm) and chemical supplier; 50% (v/v) isopropyl alcohol was used as the solvent since it is readily available to the public. The color of freshly prepared solutions depended on the chemical supplier. A 5,000 ppm solution of IBA prepared using the USB product was a light-yellow color. The intensity of this color is

Plant propagation classes at the University of Hawaii have experimented with different media as alternative to the use of sphagnum moss. In addition, some new technologies have created potentially interesting materials which require evaluation.

One of the early substitute substances was called "Red

An experiment was conducted to compare xylem water potential (XWP) of seedlings grown in the RMC

Our citrus plants take from 9 to 10 months to develop and most of the trees are sold within 24 months. Seasons are important to the orchardists who plant the trees.

The medium used in our propagation is 80% eucalyptus hardwood sawdust and 20% sand, plus Nutricote and other nutrients required for normal plant growth. Containers are both overhead and hand-watered.

The Problem. A problem developed in our production so that trees were not meeting our sales schedule. There was no lack of bud burst, but there was a following lack of shoot length and development.

Often 3 or 4 leaves would shoot out from a bud, and one month later these leaves would begin to show chlorosis and nutritional disorders, often followed by tip abortion and senescence for long

This plant has proved difficult to propagate in the past, so we have developed the following method for its propagation.

Squat pots (175mm) are used for the propagation of the cuttings. A layer of charcoal about one centimeter in depth is placed in the bottom of the pots, and a 15mm layer of perlite is placed on top of this. A 75mm pot is placed in the centre of the larger pot on the perlite. The larger pot is then filled with a propagating medium of 2 parts sterilised coarse river sand, 2 parts perlite, and 1 part vermiculite. The small centre pot is then three quarters filled with sterile river sand (Figure 1).

Properties of a diatomite. Diatomite is a sedimentary rock which consists of siliceous skeletal remains of tiny freshwater or marine organisms called diatoms. The microscopic organisms measured only a few microns in length and when they died the skeletons sank to the bottom of the sea or fresh water lake where very thick deposits gradually accumulated. Geological movements of the earth's crust have relocated the deposits into a accessible situations from which the diatomite can be mined. The New South Wales deposit was laid down in a freshwater lake and is rich in a diatom

To find out how much water was used by Oregon nurseries, a survey was conducted of six crop groups by Bluhm, et al (2) in 1978 and 1979. Water use in acre-inches was: container nurserystock 53–170, forcing azaleas 86–114, miscellaneous greenhouse crops 33–87, field rhododendrons 19–36, deciduous trees 21–34, and conifer seedlings 8–164. Summer cooling and frost protection were responsible for the very high use in container nurserystock and conifer seedlings.

Water use in container

I have concluded that there is some truth in his statement with the following qualifications. There is no problem if the necessary elements can be applied in the correct form to sustain plant growth without becoming fixed, and thus unavailable to the plant. However, for more practical purposes, such as growing commercial quantities of blue-flowering hydrangeas at a pH of 7.5 to 8.0 it is probably much easier and cheaper to achieve good plants at a pH of 5.5 to 6.5.

Here we had the situation of a university professor questioning one of the traditions of nursery practice.

This suggested to me that everything was open to question and this led to my assault on the claim that plants from the

In late February, 1986, a rapid deterioration of the fuchsia cuttings occurred, affecting first the stem tips and leaves, then the stem, and much later, the roots. Nearly 80% of all

A large number of ingenious methods have been tried, both in the raising and establishment of trees with varying degrees of success to support these programs. There appear to be three major problems to be overcome for these programs to succeed.

Firstly, plants must have a very low cost so that farmers, reserve managers, and other interested groups with limited budgets can afford to plant and establish significant numbers of trees.

Secondly, these plants must be easily handled and transported in the field, be inexpensive to plant but still with sufficient growth potential to establish quickly when planted out.

Thirdly, it

The persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is native to China and Japan. Most of the development of the crop has been done in Japan where the persimmon has been considered as its national fruit. In 1987, domestic production of the persimmon in Japan was 309,000 tonnes; the fruit is consumed both as a fresh fruit and a processed product. Persimmon industries are now being developed in Australia, New Zealand, California, Israel, and Italy.

Evaluation of the persimmon in southeast Queensland has primarily been aimed at making better use of frost-prone, marginal, horticultural land unsuited to most other tree crops. There is the potential for exporting "out-of-season fruit" to Japan, other Asian countries, and Europe as the fruit is much sought after in these countries.

At this stage there are approximately 15,000 trees planted in southeast Queensland and market prices in Brisbane for 1987 have been firm. The use of top quality, uniform planting material is critical in

This has meant better structures and, most of all, better coverings. The more efficient the covering the better the product, enabling us to force it along in cold weather, protect it from cold winds, excess rain, hot sun, heavy frost and hail.

For this paper I would like to describe two weatherproof films and one woven fabric that we use in our nursery.
     PVC Hyperlyte
     Polyethylene woven fabrics.
     Knitted polyethylene shaded cloth

PVC "Hyperlyte" greenhouse film. "Hyperlyte" greenhouse films are formulated from P.V.C. and have been developed in New Zealand to provide a greenhouse covering of the highest possible strength. They are available in two standard light transmission formulations: the clear formulation, providing 89% transmission of

There are other good reasons why these countries are seriously looking into flower production, especially the Caribbean basin countries. Growing flowers gives a better return per square meter or per hectare when compared to other agricultural products. Flower production is labor intensive, thereby providing more employment for the local work force.

The work on Lapageria rosea (red and pink), and L. rosea var. albaiflora Hook., was undertaken between 1981 and 1984 in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Origins—Perlite is found worldwide as a naturally occurring igneous glassy rock (an amorphous silicate) similar to obsidian and rhyolite. It is distinguished from them by possessing 2 to 6% combined water collected from free surface or atmospheric moisture present as it cooled. The raw rock ranges from translucent to gray or black and is quite friable, with a loose density of 60 to 70 lbs./ft.³.

Perlite ore is generally surface mined via tractor ripping and scaping. The ore is then crushed, dried and screened, to size segregate it, before being transported by truck, railcar, or barge to expansion plants.

Processing—Precision expansion of a variety of finished products is

That Plant Variety Rights are viewed in the same manner (in legislation at least) as patents, is important in a commercial atmosphere. New plant varieties should be viewed as any other product, the development of which incorporates a large amount of time, effort and money. As with new products it is essential that the developer recovers his investment by obtaining sole rights to the production, marketing, and licencing of the product and, perhaps, obtaining a trade mark for the product.

There are of course differences between plants and "standard inventions". Standard inventions do not reproduce themselves, nor do they continually produce saleable merchandise (e.g. fruit, flowers). It is because of these differences that

We are now in a position to be able to sell all we can produce, including many plants that only a short while ago were either despised as weeds or never considered as suitable plant material for amenity horticulture. The public seek us out from all over the country, and increasingly from overseas. We do not advertise, but do carry out some direct promotion by giving talks to

Genus—Pseudopanax

OUTLINE OF THE PSEUDOPANAX SPECIES

There are approximately 20 species of this genus of which about 14 are endemic to New Zealand. Species that were previously classified in the genus Neopanax are now included in the genus Pseudopanax, which are glabrous shrubs or small trees with very variable leaves which may be simple, digitately compound or palmately lobed. The juvenile leaves of young plants often differ greatly from those of the adult.

Some of the species, particularly Pseudopanax crassifolius are excellent plants from a landscape point of view with a great variety of foliage type and plant form not found in any other hardy exotic trees. In other species, particularly Pseudopanax laetus and P.lessonii, the plant form is not so characteristic but they are excellent foliage plants and are

The study was undertaken to find the best combination of agar, Gelrite, and BAP to give the greatest multiplication of shoots without vitrification.

Nerine, a genus belonging to the Amaryllidaceae family, is becoming an important ornamental bulbous plant in New Zealand. Already there have been large plantings of Nerine in New Zealand. Nerine species have a high potential as export cut flowers. However the natural multiplication rate of Nerines is fairly low. Although seed propagation can increase plantlet production by 1,000-fold, such a method does not maintain hybrid traits important for commercial crop production (5).

Large bulbs may only produce only a few daughter bulbs each year. To raise this multiplication rate growers have used a method known as "twin-scaling". This technique involves dividing the bulb into small portions, each consisting of a section of the basal plate. Grootaarts, et al. (2), showed that Nerine bowdenii bulblet regeneration always occurred at places where scales contained basal-plate tissue. This technique can be used in vitro, for the most bulbous species including Nerine

Salt-affected soils cover 10 percent of the globe and a further 20 per cent are of marginal use (10). Furthermore, the world demand for timber is reducing the amount of forest cover globally by 0.6% (11,303,000 ha per annum) (13)or, in equivalent terms, an amount of afforested land equivalent to the size of Kew Gardens (120 ha) ceases to exist every six minutes. These are frightening statistics by any standards and, perhaps because we in Western Europe are not directly concerned, we view them with some complacency.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to view many of these problems first hand when I attended two international Symposia in India, one on this topic and one on "Agroforestry for Rural Needs". This paper largely reports the ways that were discussed of combating problems of growing trees in salt-affected soils, and particularly the immediate problems raised by the high population pressures and arid conditions in India.

Harlow Car Gardens is the headquarters of the Northern Horticultural Society (NHS), an organization established just after World War Two to serve home gardeners in the north of England—its traditional area of activity having been "twixt Trent and Tweed". Today the NHS has a wider remit and its gardens fill a more extensive role than could have ever been envisaged by the founders.

The original concept of a trial garden for the north of England remains, but Harlow Car is also of international stature and maintains an important living collection of horticultural and botanical subjects. A member of the International Association of Botanic Gardens and a centre for the teaching and examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute and The Royal Horticultural Society, Harlow Car is a remarkable hybrid without parallel in the United Kingdom.

Situated some 150 metres above the sea level on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and on a heavy acid clay soil,

Flexiheat is the trade name for low voltage electrically heated mats, distributed by Foil Engineering, Ltd of London. They operate at a safe 24 volts, and generate 14 watts for each 300mm length of foil element. The elements consists of aluminum or nickel foil, laid out in an intricate winding pattern, similar to the original printed circuit boards which revolutionised the electronics industry. For horticultural use, the elements are mainly aluminum foil, and the electrical connections consist of cold copper tails soldered onto a pair of foil busbars, running down each side of the active heating element. The resultant mat is then encapsulated between two layers of polyester film, making it impervious to moisture or chemical fluids.

Each mat has a total width of 380mm, with a foil width of 350mm, including the two busbar strips. The active heating section of the element in the centre is 250mm wide, and designed to form a complete circuit module every 600mm. Table 1 shows

The system. At the heart of the system is an ordinary, domestic 100,000 BTU boiler, fired by liquid petroleum gas. The warm water is heated to about 30°C, and pumped along a flow header. This then feeds a flow sub-header, which feeds four 20mm alkathene pipes, which run the length of the bed. These four pipes turn at the end of the bed, to become four returns. These flow and return pipes alternate in the bed, to give even heat distribution. The warm water from the return alkathene pipes flows into a return sub-header, and from there into the return header, and back into the boiler.

The construction. The flow and return pipes are in copper for the first two metres to and from the boiler, but then change to 50mm P.V.C. pipe. The temperature in these plastic

Cultivars. Current production levels consist of about twenty cultivars totaling 50,000 plants. The majority of this production is in flowering cherries with the remainder being globular and pendulous forms of ornamental tree, (See Table 1).

Materials. The grafting process requires some basic tools and supplies. Those used at Carlton consist of a good knife, sharpening stone, leather strap,

During the six week trip, which began in Boston, Massachusetts, and finished in Olympia, Washington State, I travelled some 7,000 miles and viewed 20 production nurseries in reasonable depth. The nurseries, of varying size and composition were selected to provide a cross section of approaches to contrast, compare, and make comment on.

Is it not surprising, therefore, to learn that 50 per cent of all new businesses fail within five years? Those that survive the first five struggle on for a few years more. The accepted business wisdom is that successful companies rarely show successful characteristics in the early stages. Most come about in the seventh or eighth year.

One attribute of those successful in new ventures is their ability to analyse their

Thinking that the right candidate might not have applied because, let's face it, who wants to travel 400 miles north to the backwoods for a job. We re-wrote the advertisement and placed it again without the banner of Barguillean, simply inviting the right man or woman to name a salary and apply to an anonymous box number. In fact, the advertisement sounded very positive and we were bitterly disappointed with the response. Three replies. Same story.

Curious about the lack of response and anxious to see whether other nurseries had had similar disappointments, I contacted David Clark at Notcutts and John Hedger at Fargro, along with several other nurseries

In contrast to this, courses in arboriculture, landscape, and countryside recreation at diploma level are oversubscribed.

The question may well be asked, ‘is this a true decline or only a decline in comparison with the 1982 and 1984 peaks?’ If the decline is a real one, then why is it that young people fail to see the prospect of a worthwhile career Within the nursery business? Do they not realise that someone has to propagate the trees which are to be climbed; the ‘soft’ landscape material which is to be planted, and the forest species which are to play such an important part of leisure and recreation in the future?

My thoughts go back to a college industrial liaison day in 1982, when 44

When collecting plants of a genus the faint-hearted would do well to stick to Belamcanda, Acorus, or Paradisea, all two-specied genera. Contrariwise, there are around 600 alliums world-wide. Some would say that the only good ones appear on plates—not so.

Most alliums would love life in a Greek meadow, few relish rain-soaked Cumbria. A. amabile, (10cm) deep pink, dodging the slug packs, does well; A. mairei is a pale pink look-alike. A. polyastrum (50cm), purple, and A. tuberosum (Chinese chives, 40cm), white, are quite hardy and brighten the September border. A. macranthum (40cm), purple, flowers a little earlier.

A. splendens (20cm), lilac, is not spectacular but dries to a pleasant

The climate at Inshriach is as near Himalayan as you will find in Britain, although the rainfall is much less than you would imagine, on average between 750 mm and 900 mm per year. It is the cool climate rather than a heavy rainfall which enables us to grow meconopsis so well.

For simplicity I divide the genus into two groups, the perennial species and the monocarpic species. The word perennial needs no explanation, it simply means that the plants come up year after year producing flowers every year. Monocarpic means that the plant will only flower once, although taking one, two or three or maybe four years to do so. The rosette of leaves which is formed over these years can be very attractive and decorative, especially Meconopsis nepaulensis, M. regia, M. paniculata, and M. superba, with

The genus has considerable ornamental value which is not widely recognised. Eryngium alpinum and E. tripartitum are perhaps the commonest, but only the largest garden centres would be likely to stock both.

The merits of the genus lie in the ornamental flowers and foliage. The long lasting thistle-like flowers are usually blue or purple and very striking in appearance. The flowers can provide display from June to October and are well suited to drying for winter display. There may even be some potential in their use as cut flowers. The foliage of most species is attractive and often sharp or thorny. The American species have evergreen, long, narrow leaves often forming a basal rosette, whereas the European species have rounded or

Stonecrops (Sedum spp.) for the herbaceous border, are accommodating plants that are widely grown, some of which are regular items in nurserymen's catalogues. The ease of production and cultivation may lead to a dismissive attitude among those who grow them but a number of attractive garden plants are to be found in the genus. This account, however, discusses only two species and their cultural descendents, namely Sedum telephium and S. spectabile, the orpines, both frequently cultivated.

Sedum telephium. This is a species with one of the largest natural distributions of any flowering plant, from Western Europe across temperate Asia to Japan [11], and with an introduced population in the northeast United States and adjacent areas of Canada [2]. Many variants have been named, from nature and from cultivation; in particular, the taxon Sedum maximum is used for robust plants frequent in gardens.

In the present botanical climate, in which related species are subsumed into a

Acer campestre is the only native maple, having come into the country from Europe after the Ice Age across the land bridge between Dover and Calais before the sea level rose.

The next maple to arrive was the sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, which probably arrived in Scotland in about 1480, where it was known as the plane tree. The first mention of it in literature is by Turner in his Herbal of 1551. Later, Sir T. D. Lauder writes "It is a favourite Scotch tree having been much planted about old aristocratic residences in Scotland and if the doubt of it being a native of Britain is true … then it is probably the long intimacy which has subsisted between France and Scotland that may be the cause of it being so prevalent in the latter country".

In Scotland, the sycamore was also known as the dool, or grief tree, because powerful barons

As trees mature, they frequently cause insidious but widespread destruction to adjacent sidewalks. Contrary to popular belief, the soil environment beneath sidewalks apparently favors tree-root growth. The sidewalk, made of concrete, functions as a barrier against soil moisture loss by either evaporation or transpiration. In addition, the high moisture content of the soil, compared to the concrete, confers upon the soil a high specific heat. When the sidewalk warms, some of the heat radiates to the soil beneath it. Conversely, when the sidewalk cools, the temperature drops more rapidly than the soil, and the underside of the sidewalk becomes a surface for condensation of soil moisture which

Winter temperatures regularly go down to -12°C and in most springs we

The von Siebold introductions to Holland and Belgium led to nomenclatural confusion when the hostas were later introduced to

Primulas start to flower as early as January. One of the first we have on the nursery is a form of Primula megasaeafolia collected recently by George Smith. It has large, deep magenta flowers, and comes from Turkey.

The first excuse is that they are poisonous. That's my excuse anyway. I used to grow nearly 50 different kinds, and my garden is only small, but having so many poisonous plants was a problem and I gave a lot of them away.

The truth is that they are not very poisonous. They're not like aconites, where one bite on a root and whoops—you've had it! The poisonous part of a euphorbia plant is the white, milky juice which every part of the plant contains. This juice is also a good method of identification. If it has white milky juice its likely to be a euphorbia. If it hasn't, it isn't.

The effect of euphorbia juice is to cause severe inflammation

The popularity of the rose declined during the 70's for a number of reasons, the most significant being (a), the need to spray regularly against mildew, blackspot and rust and, (b) the loss of two larger than life rosarians and promoters of roses by the death of Harry Wheatcroft and by emigration to New Zealand of Sam McGredy. I believe the popularity of the rose is due for revival, and sales may again reach 40 million per year. These increases will be brought

Most of the equipment was very large, often expensive, and in many cases used only on a large scale and was, therefore, not seriously considered by propagators, particularly those with comparatively small facilities. Recent developments in the range of equipment available have changed all this.

Now we have not only the ongoing fog versus mist debate, which in itself is not new, (over 20 years ago Warner (2) recognised this in his paper

In the spring of 1984, with the help of MacPenny we installed a compressed air and water fogging system in a single 4.2 × 20 metre polythene tunnel. We have expanded, and now have a fog system in three tunnels.

The original cost of the whole fog unit seemed at the time to be very expensive at £1,100 so the choice of structure had to be cheap, hence the tunnels. The tunnels in fact are double clad for energy saving and winter protection, and they are as well-built as possible with tightly fitting, fog proof, doors. The air to inflate the tunnel skins comes from a small fan situated in the building where the cuttings are made. This means that warm dry air from the working area is used, thus giving greater frost protection

This paper describes how the specification for Neo Plants' new propagating house was drawn up. Decisions have to be influenced by existing circumstances, so while the ideal would be a bare field site and unlimited finances, few small companies would be so fortunate.

Neo Plants needed to expand its facilities in 1983 and bought a typical west Lancashire tomato nursery at Freckleton. It consisted of a 6ha site with a large bungalow, 1ha of venlo glass and two large sheds. Both laboratories and offices were housed in the bungalow and the nursery had good growing facilities which could be adapted into weaning and growing houses.

Fog works because the small droplets, with very little mass, stay in suspension drifting with any air movement until they evaporate. Large water droplets must not be formed as these will fall in the immediate area of the nozzle causing overwetting.

Sonicore atomising nozzles can produce much smaller droplets than conventional nozzles. The nozzles are air-driven "acoustic oscillators" which break up water into tiny droplets by passing it through a field of high frequency sound waves. The air expands through a convergent/divergent section (rather like a whistle) into a resonator cap where it is reflected back to complement and amplify the primary shock wave. The result is an intense field of sonic energy,

Growers depend upon the seedsman to be a reliable and consistent source for seeds and information. Ability to meet grower needs without fault is our reputation.

Collection Sources. Much of the parent stock for regional outdoor ornamentals is available locally. Locations may be fields, nurseries, parks, schools, street plantings, or residences. Best times for locating plant material are often when the plant is highly conspicuous in bloom. Good record keeping and keen observation enable you to catalog an area on file cards and maps. A hand tape recorder allows hands-free data collection while traveling.

Habitat. Seed source should be appropriate for ultimate growing conditions. Collection

The use of "fog" or humidification systems is becoming increasingly popular for propagation in the UK and is producing encouraging results.

The objective is to raise the humidity of the growing environment. This is done by producing water droplets that are sufficiently small to remain in suspension in the air long enough for them to evaporate and increase the relative humidity.

There are two basic forms of fog system, the air and water system which requires a compressor, and the high pressure water-only system, the Micron 5 Fog system being the latter type.

How ‘Fog’ is Produced. In high pressure water-only fog systems the droplets are produced by forcing water at high pressure through a specially designed nozzle.

The stainless steel nozzle used in the ‘Micron 5’ fog system operates by channelling the incoming water through a small orifice producing a fine jet of water. This is shattered on impact with an &qout;anvil&qout;, positioned

Our first house was installed in 1979, and our first installation was a simple hot water system using alkathene pipe and a secondhand 120,000 B.T.U. boiler for which we paid only £10. This original system is still working well and we find it generally satisfactory. The main drawbacks are the considerable work involved with the installation. The other disadvantage we have noted over the years is the uneven temperature. There can be as much as five and sometimes 10 degrees drop, with the highest temperature near the boiler, dropping away at the farthest point.

Early in 1986 we prepared a new site and erected a 12m by 21m aluminum glasshouse. Our original hot water system had generally worked well for us and running costs had compared very favourably with other possibilities. Electricity on this scale would be easy to install but very expensive

During the first year of this program, small rooted plantlets were potted in 3 in. cell packs and placed in trays. The trays were placed on pallets on the ground and lights were strung over them. Presently, all rooted cuttings are potted in 14×16×13×½ in. trays and placed on 3 ft high benches. These trays retain water more evenly than the cell packs and the plants perform better in them.

The soil mix consists of two yd³ softwood bark, 1 yd³ each of sand, peat, and hardwood bark, to which is added dolomite lime, triple superphosphate, and Osmocote 18–6–12 (8 to 9 month formulation).

The plantlets

The cooperation between the UBG botanical Garden (here after referred to as Garden) and the nursery and landscape industries has been the major factor in the program's success. Currently, there are some 26 participator nurseries in British Columbia and well over 1,500,000 plants have been produced from the first six public releases

In Rehder's Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs, Davidia

Flowers and Fruiting. In July, highly conspicuous upright panicles of flowers develop above the plant

Of four types of papermill sludge (primary, secondary, mixture of primary and secondary from Ontario Paper Co., and a mixture of primary and secondary from Fraser Paper Co.) added at 33% by volume to bark, secondary sludge which has the highest N content provided the best growth of spiraea (Spiraea × bumalda); however, foliage of plants was dark blue-green in color reflecting high N. Unacceptably poor growth occurred in Fraser-amended media because of low N.

Semi-hardwood cuttings, i.e. rhododendron, begin mid-July and end in August. Direct sticking of cuttings of easy-to-root species was started the summer of 1986 as an experiment and is being continued today.

The seedsperson must do his part by,

1. harvesting mature seeds from plants which will produce uniform seedlings,
2. processing the seed for long storage and easy sowing, without damaging the seed, and
3. delivering the seed with good vitality at the time needed by the propagator (2, 7, 10). Many germination problems are the result of improper seed handling.

The importance of harvesting mature seed cannot be over-stated. After a seed pod or fruit has reached its maximum fresh weight there are still many changes taking place: (3, 5, 6, 7).

1. carbohydrate reserves are

Although the use of these blended products is not new to agribusiness (the amended EPA Form is dated 1980), they have not been in common use in the nursery industry—maybe due to unavailability.

When we first looked at this program in 1983 we were intrigued with the possibility of applying fertilizer and herbicide in one application. However, being a new program we

There are, it turns out, two related problems with this waste water. The first problem is most readily apparent in the form of the surplus water running across the surface of the ground or puddling in the low spots. Through proper grading of the surface the puddling can be eliminated, and the flow can be channeled into areas where its presence can be more easily accepted. The second problem is much more difficult to

As a technique, chip budding is simple, easy to learn, and yields a high percentage of successful grafts. Close matching of stock and scion diameters is not necessary, permitting flexibility in rootstock utilization. Callusing of chip buds is rapid, and the graft unions are strong. Growth from the scion is vigorous, strongly upright, and of good form, frequently branching the first season. While these positive inducements apply generally to many species of broadleaved

During my 27 years on the staff of the American Association of Nurserymen I maintained contact with the state and federal nursery inspection agencies. During that time I observed many changes in both the nursery industry and the inspection services. Now as I look back I have to conclude the nursery industry and the general public is not benefiting as much as either should from the state and federal plant inspection services. Too many nurseries tolerate the plant inspection regulations and do not really try to understand what the system can do for them. Unfortunately, a few nurseries are uncooperative or outright antagonistic. These few give the whole nursery industry a black eye. And lest you think I am unjustly placing the full responsibility on the

By using fog in conjunction with direct-sticking of softwood cuttings into flats, production time has decreased, two greenhouses that were vacant all summer long are now being used for propagation, and rooting plants with which I had difficulty are much easier to propagate.

After a couple of years of experimenting with fog propagation, I am currently using fog in three ways. First, fog is used for propagating easy to root plants to decrease production time. Second, it is used for rooting plants that do not overwinter very well if their root systems are disturbed after rooting. Thirdly, fog is used for experimenting with plants that I have had little or no success with by other means.

Four different media types have been tried at Weston Nurseries

A mist boom, as we call it at Spring Meadow Nursery, is actually a traveling irrigator. Traveling irrigators were developed to water seeded plug trays in the bedding plant industry. A long greenhouse can be watered or misted so that each plug cell or cutting receives the same amount of water because the spray pattern is exactly the same all along the width of a boom. Uniformity is the key in producing quality bedding plants and also for us in using a mist system.

A mist boom is

In the strictest sense, alpines are considered to be plants that grow above the timberline. They may be evergreen or deciduous shrubs, or they may be herbaceous perennials, but they are never annuals as the growing season is too short to manage a full life cycle in one season.

Alpines are characterized most often by foliage pressed very close to the ground, which is a result of the severe climate in the high mountains. In addition, their flowers are quite large in proportion to their foliage. In part this is because their foliage grows so slowly and is so tightly compressed that their flowers seem overly large

Some nurserymen in California may think that pest problems cannot be managed because of the nature of their business and with pesticide regulations being what they are in California today. We have learned, however, that with time and patience, a solution can always be found. Consider the following facts about Monrovia Nursery:

1. We do not use any restricted pesticides, except for methyl bromide.
2. We do not use any pesticide with the word "Danger" on the label, except for methyl bromide.
3. We do not use any pesticides that have an established reentry interval other than "stay out of treated areas until the spray has dried."
4. We do not use pesticides that produce strong odors in the field.
5. We border an elementary

The very nature of the selection process that we followed up to the advent of micropropagation provided a pace and built-in discipline, which helps assure a fair amount of test and evaluation time in the climates into which we market our plants. The typical starting point would be a single, small plant or a half dozen cuttings, a couple of progeny of which would go into the garden or stock area for observation. If, over the next few years, we liked what we saw, we would run a couple of dozen plants through our production system to see how they performed.

I am delighted to serve on this panel because I find I have somewhat ambiguous thoughts on naming and releasing new plants. On an intellectual level I am conservative and would argue for thorough testing before release. However, in the real world I am more pragmatic and, quite frankly, have been willing to release material without acquiring some of the information it would be nice to have.

The criteria for selecting and naming a new cultivar is going to vary somewhat

A corollary of this principle is to avoid too many new clones of a given species or group of hybrids. Plant breeders are like the proud parents of many children. Far too often each new creation has special merit and distinction (no matter how small) and the result is a needless and

When I told Kathy Freeland that I was considering saying something on the topic of "re-inventing the wheel," she was kind enough to send me a sampling of topics that some of you requested for this year's program. From her list I selected three plant genera about which people had asked for more information: Daphne Kalmia, and Sciadopitys. Then I checked our Proceedings for the past 35 years to see what you

Reasons for using this method of propagation include: less labor may be involved; the work load may be distributed to periods of reduced demand; less time and space in the propagating facilities, or even none, may be required; and lower crop rollover time may be necessary. For these and other lesser reasons, well managed nurseries still continue using piece root propagation for certain crops.

The source of the root materials is from the growing fields after the crops have been removed. Occasionally, small quantities are dug with a sharpened spade from growing plants in the nursery. All roots are dug in late October and November.

For root recovery until the 1950's, the empty fields were plowed to a

MODERATOR SHUGERT: Question for Robert Gouveia. How often and how do you change media in your sunken beds? It seems that it would be quite difficult to do. From our experience, sunken beds like yours are great for ground heat effects but pose some problems when either treating the medium or changing it.

ROBERT GOUVEIA: It is pure sand and we change it every two years. We just wheelbarrow it in and out. We are thinking of adding perlite to the medium. We do not treat it chemically but simply remove the top 1 to 2 in. of sand at the end of the first season.

MODERATOR SHUGERT: Question for Gary Koller. Why should the horticulture industry concentrate on providing dwarf and slow growing cultivars to customers who typically prefer quick establishment and immediate impact. Homeowner

The Award of Merit is the highest award the Eastern Region of the I.P.P.S. can bestow. To receive this award is indeed a great honor.

The recipient of the year's award is truly deserving. He started his nursery career at the young age of 6 years. Between 6 and 12 years of age he worked on an estate owned by a Miss Case who also allowed the recipient's parents, Peter and Anna, to grow rootstocks and have cows and chickens on the farm. Peter and Anna Olga Puren were childhood sweethearts in Latvia and Russia. They emigrated to America where they married and had two children—the recipient, and a daughter, Laura.

The recipient's job as a young boy was to maintain the peony and wildflower gardens of the estate, which are presently combined into the perennial display area at the Arnold Arboretum in Weston, Mass.

His other duties, along with his sister Laura, were to deliver door to door through the neighborhood the milk and eggs that