6 minute read
Louisiana’s Own Plant Whisperer
by Mimi Greenwood Knight
The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station
DR. JEB FIELDS READILY ADMITS to being a plant nerd. “Everyone here is,” he says. “We could talk about plants all day.” The “everyone” he’s referring to is the team he heads up at the LSU AgCenter Research Station in Hammond. As an assistant professor and extension specialist for the college and director of the Hammond research facility, Dr. Fields is absolutely in his element. “The real purpose of the station is to teach and promote horticulture any way we can,” he says. They do this in myriad ways. “One of our goals is that when you buy a plant at a local nursery or when you hire someone to design and plant your landscape, the plants you buy are those that will thrive in our climate.”
By working with local nurseries and landscapers, the research team seeks to ensure that whatever you as a South Louisiana gardener buy has been university-tested and industry-approved for the unique characteristics and challenges of our South Louisiana environment. Another goal is to partner with those same landscapers and nurseries to keep their industries growing and thriving.
The research station that once focused on fruit and vegetable crops—with an emphasis on strawberries—transitioned about 18 years ago to concentrate on ornamental plants. The 140-acre campus on Old Covington Highway in Hammond includes walking gardens. Although, first COVID and then Hurricane Ida closed the gardens to the public, Dr. Fields is happy to announce they’ll be reopening on weekdays this month, just in time for all those glorious spring blooms.
Although the layout of the gardens predates his tenure, Dr. Fields says it’s one of the things that attracted him to his current position. “Ours is one of the largest trial gardens in the Southeast U.S. Most other trial gardens are laid out in rows, but we do ours in an aesthetic landscape form, the way you’d do at home. So, you have the appeal of a public garden, but every plant here is being tested.”
In fact, Dr. Fields and his team test over four thousands plants a year. “We have plants sent to us from around the state, around the country and around the world,” he says. “If a plant does well in our incredibly hot and wet weather, we know it will do well throughout the Gulf States. Basically, what’s harsh for people is great for these plants.”
Although they do fertilize their gardens, Dr. Fields says they don’t prune or manicure them or use any insecticide. “We let nature take its course, then watch to see what it will do. Sometimes a visitor will find one of us to tell us a plant is dead. We assure them it’s supposed to be dead. That’s data.” Meanwhile, they’re researching all those things we Louisiana gardeners struggle with, including pest management, plant diseases, weed control, watering, fertilizing, irrigation and substrates (soil).
The research station is more than a garden and a laboratory. It’s a classroom. “We employ between 15 and 20 full-time employees, but we also have students and interns, some of whom live on the property,” Dr. Fields says. “We hire five or so paid interns each summer, from LSU and other colleges. The real purpose of the station is teaching and promoting horticulture any way we can.”
Starting in April, another way they’ll do this is through a biannual plant sale. “Our first one was scheduled for last fall, but we were hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ida and had to cancel. So, our actual first sale is scheduled for April 22nd and 23rd. The public is invited to come and shop for plants that are on our super plant list, and we’ll also have educational sessions and activities. We’re hoping the event will get kids and adults to the station to generate an interest in horticulture. Of course, it will also generate funds for the station, but it’s mostly about education and outreach and interacting with the public—letting them know we’re here and letting them see what we’re doing.”
Dr. Fields himself grew up in Winter Haven, Florida, in an agricultural area. “My father runs the local John Deere dealership, and my family owned a retail nursery. I grew up surrounded by plants.” He went on to earn his horticulture degree from the University of Florida; however, he realized he didn’t want to work in the family business, but in horticulture research. So, he continued on and earned his masters from North Carolina State University, where he focused on container plant production and greenhouse floriculture, and his doctorate from Virginia Tech, where he conducted research with the state nursery extension specialist with growers in mind and helping nurseries and farmers solve problems.
After he finished his doctorate in 2016, Dr. Fields considered job offers from several universities. “I’m a soil scientist and an irrigation scientist, and I love gardening,” he says. “This job combined everything I love. I’m able to support the Louisiana nursery industry, but I also get to manage the garden. I didn’t have to choose.” In fact, at the end of the day, when he leaves his ornamental garden, there’s more gardening ahead, as he returns home to a backyard filled with fruit trees and vegetables.
The word “aptronym” is defined as “a person’s name that’s regarded as amusingly appropriate to their occupation.” Famous examples include William Wordsworth, the poet; Margaret Court, the tennis player; Emily Wines, the celebrated sommelier; Rosalind Brewer, a senior executive at Starbucks; English appellate court judge, John Laws; and South African golfer, Gary Player. (I could go on.) Here’s one more aptronym to add to the list: Dr. Jeb Fields, who spends his days happily lost in fields of flowers making sure when you and I don our gardening gloves and sink our spade into the earth this spring, chances are good the things we plant have been thoroughly researched and studied and are ready to grace us with color and beauty and aroma all summer long. We can’t thank him enough!
The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station is located at 21549 Old Covington Hwy. in Hammond, Louisiana. (985) 543-4125, lsuagcenter.com/portals/ our_offices/research_stations/hammond.
