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July 10, 2003
FloraStar, in cooperation with the University of Florida,
has selected the winners of the first FloraStar Elite Performer trials that are
designed to evaluate how well a variety performs for the grower. The program
will focus on vegetative annuals,...
July 10, 2003
The following report of diascia and nemesia trials conducted
at the University of Florida trial gardens in Gainesville, Fla., was conducted
in the winter of 2002. Gainesville is in USDA Zone 8b and is part of an ongoing
research program to evaluate...
July 10, 2003
Have you noticed how popular calibrachoas have become? It is
an interesting crop. They can either look very nice or very straggly. The
flowers are small, and unless there are lots of them, the plant does not give
much of a show. In terms of...
July 10, 2003
Bare root perennials are dormant plants with the soil
removed from the roots. They are typically field grown for a period of time,
usually one year, and harvested. Once the plants are dug, the tops are trimmed
down to approximately 1 inch from the...
July 03, 2003
Methyl bromide is an important part of ornamental
production. The combination of methyl bromide and chloropicrin has long been
used to control weeds, nematodes and plant pathogens like Pythium. The majority
of this fumigant is used for strawberries...
July 03, 2003
The Lamiaceae (mint) family is a relatively small family, containing about 180 genera of herbs and shrubs, only about 68 of which are produced commercially. These cultivated genera include many of our culinary (Mentha, Ocimum, Origanum, Perilla,...
July 03, 2003
Now that the 2003 spring season is behind us, it's time to
recap problem areas. Working with my clients and traveling around the United
States giving talks, I can narrow down the number of areas that need work to
five. There are obviously more...
July 02, 2003
Hardy hibiscus is an old-time garden favorite riding a new wave of popularity. Hibiscus moscheutos is a marshland native of the eastern United States and has hardiness in USDA Zones 4-9. With new developments in plant breeding, today's hibiscus...
June 12, 2003
Pack trials this year seemed a lot like our national
outlook: cautious and playing to its strengths. There was a lot of wonderful
material, but it was toned down a bit from last year. There seemed to be more
improvements on existing series, and...
June 12, 2003
Veronica 'Royal Candles' is a clump-forming, bushy cultivar often utilized in rock gardens, as a border plant or in containers. This cultivar has many distinguishing characteristics such as a compact growth habit, reaching only 10-12 inches tall;...
June 12, 2003
Can you imagine a 17-acre greenhouse range that produces
multiple varieties of bedding plants and has all-material movement into and out
of the greenhouse done by one person? Can you imagine having transplanting
integrated with material movement?...
June 12, 2003
Osmosis is the passing of a liquid through a membrane from a
lesser concentration to a greater concentration. Eventually, both liquids would
be of equal concentrations. Figure 1, page 48, demonstrates how this reaction
takes place. A good example of...
June 12, 2003
The benefits of using composts as soil amendments have been
well documented. Composted biosolids (BS), municipal solid waste (MSW) and yard
trimmings (YT), when appropriately applied to soil, have been shown to improve
vegetable, fruit and field...
May 08, 2003
Lavender 'Hidcote Superior' is an improved version of the very popular cultivar lavender 'Hidcote'. The improvements over its predecessor include enhanced uniformity, consistent quality and improved flower power. This cultivar of English Lavender...
May 08, 2003
Fall is the time when the weather turns cooler, the leaves
start to fall from the trees and all of the summer flowers begin to die. There
goes the color until next year. Right? Wrong. In the past decade, fall has
become a time when growers have been...
May 08, 2003
The award-winning varieties selected by All-America Selections
(AAS), All-America Rose Selections (AARS), Fleuroselect and FloraStar embody
all the desirable characteristics growers want. Every new variety released on
the market does not undergo...
April 22, 2003
Herbs are used throughout the United States for culinary and
medicinal purposes. Total sales of culinary herbs were $30.9 million in 1998.
The annual retail sales of medicinal herbs in the United States in 1994 was
$1.6 billion and nearly $4.0...
March 18, 2003
Salvia 'Caradonna' is a unique cultivar of the reliable genus and species Salvia nemorosa. The violet-blue flowers are similar to other cultivars of this species except they are held on purple stems that provide an added element of texture....
March 18, 2003
You probably know it as the best growing medium you can buy.
Among its many benefits, sphagnum peat moss offers excellent water and air exchange
capacity; provides ideal cation-exchange capacity; enhances root growth;
provides excellent buffering...
March 18, 2003
On a bright, sunny summer day, a 30- x 100-foot greenhouse
will gather about 32 million British Thermal Units (Btus) of heat. This is
equivalent to burning 32 gallons of fuel oil or 320 therms of natural gas. If
the greenhouse is full of plants,...
