The Scoop Online – January 2015

How to Protect Your Trade Secrets

Also Inside

Quantifying Tree Health

Winds of Change Member Profile Foundation Report

LIFELONG LEARNING MNLA makes it easy with online and in-person events available when you are!

NEW DATES!

Incredible educational value for one low price.

January 14–16, 2015 Minneapolis Convention Center

Vol: 38 No: 1 Jan 2015 t h e o f f i c i a l p u b l i c at i o n o f t h e M i n n e s o ta N u r s e r y & L a n d s c a p e A s s o c i at i o n

Volume 38 No. 1 Jan 2015

contents 14

43 23

IN THIS ISSUE 8

Events

10 From the President Winds of Change

54

14 New Labeling Laws for Protecting Bees Vera Krischik brings us up to speed on the legal issues surrounding product labeling in regards to pollinators.    

23 Quantifying Tree Health Brandon Gallagher Watson talks about how to define and rate the health of trees, and methods of collecting the data to determine it.  

29 A Sustainable, Cost-Effective Water Treatment System Jim Calkins wants plant growers and sellers to consider constructed wetlands as a way to prevent groundwater contamination.   

35 Are You Giving Customers What They Want?

What do your customers really want to know about the people in your company? 

54 Fishing and Seclusion: A Metaphor for Design This in-depth article explores the Master-of-Nets Garden in the Chinese city of Suzhou.  

69 Your MNLA Foundation at Work Bert Swanson reports on the activities and foci of the MNLA Foundation.   Landscape & Hardscape Install & Design  Garden Services & Landscape Management  Garden Centers  Growers: Nursery & Greenhouse  Irrigation & Water Management  Arborists & Tree Services  All

12 Member Profile Northway Irrigation 43 MNLA Foundation Section Thank you donors, sponsors, and event participants; and congratulations to all scholarship winners!

51 How to Protect Your Trade Secrets Zlimen & McGuiness shares how to keep your valuable secrets safe.

75 Member News Bailey Nurseries receives the Legacy Family Business Award from Twin Cities Business magazine.

76 Member-Only Resources The Scoop Archive is online, as is impervious cover requirements for cities in the MCWD. 76 Welcome New MNLA Members

The Scoop, January 2015, Issue 1, is issued monthly, 12 times per year. All original works, articles or formats published in The Scoop are © Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association, 2014, and may not be used without written permission of MNLA, 1813 Lexington Ave N., Roseville, MN 55113. Subscription price is $99 for one year, which is included with member dues. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Scoop, MNLA, 1813 Lexington Ave N., Roseville, MN 55113.

Editorial Contributions. You are invited to share your expertise and perspective. Article ideas and manuscripts should, whenever possible, reflect real and specific experiences. When submitting an article, please contact the publisher at jon@mnla.biz or 651-633-4987.

MNLA reserves the right to edit all Scoop content.

january 15

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5

Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association Successful Businesses Grow Here!

1813 Lexington Ave. N. Roseville, MN 55113 651-633-4987 • Fax: 651-633-4986 Outside the metro area, toll free: 888-886-MNLA, Fax: 888-266-4986 www.MNLA.biz • www.NorthernGreenExpo.org

MNLA Mission: The mission of the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association is to help members grow successful businesses.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

heidi heiland, mnla-cp, president Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens 612-366-7766 • heidi@BloomOnMN.com

herman roerick, vice-president

A Top Notch Equipment .................................................................................. 50 Allstate Peterbilt Group .................................................................................... 22 Anchor Block Company .................................................................................... 38 Ancom Communication & Technical Center .................................................... 67 Anderson Nurseries, Inc. .................................................................................. 33 Arborjet ............................................................................................................ 36 Aspen Equipment ............................................................................................... 4 BioForest Technologies Inc. ............................................................................. 42 Bridgewater Tree Farms ................................................................................... 65 Bullis Insurance Agency .................................................................................... 28 Carlin Horticultural Supplies/ProGreen Plus ..................................................... 28 Central Landscape Supply ................................................................................ 21 Ceres Environmental ........................................................................................ 64

Central Landscape Supply 320-252-1601 • hermanr@centrallandscape.com

Cowsmo Inc. ..................................................................................................... 71

scott frampton, secretary-treasurer

D. Hill Nursery Co. ............................................................................................ 39

Landscape Renovations 651-769-0010 • sframpton@landscaperenovations.com

debbie lonnee, mnla-cp, past president

Cushman Motor Co. Inc ................................................................................... 16 Dayton Bag & Burlap ........................................................................................ 33 Edney Distributing Co., Inc. ............................................................................. 67

Bailey Nurseries, Inc. 651-768-3375 • debbie.lonnee@baileynursery.com

Farber Bag & Supply Co. .................................................................................. 26

randy berg, mnla-cp

Fury Motors ...................................................................................................... 68

Berg’s Nursery, Landscape/Garden Center 507-433-2823 • rberg@smig.net

tim malooly, cid, clia, cic

Water in Motion 763-559-7771 • timm@watermotion.com

patrick mcguiness

Zlimen & McGuiness PLLC 651-331-6500 • pmcguiness@zmattorneys.com

mike mcnamara

Hoffman & McNamara Nursery & Landscaping 651-437-9463 • mike.mcnamara@hoffmanandmcnamara.com

jeff pilla, mnla-cp

Bachman’s Inc. 612-861-7600 • jpilla@bachmans.com

cassie larson, cae

Frost Services Inc. ............................................................................................. 28 Gardenworld Inc. .............................................................................................. 39 Gertens Wholesale / JRK Seed .......................................................................... 2 Glacial Ridge Growers ...................................................................................... 21 GM Fleet and Commercial ................................................................................. 3 Hedberg Landscape & Masonry Supplies ........................................................ 74 Jeff Belzer Chevrolet .................................................................................. 40–41 Jokela Power Equipment .................................................................................. 65 Kline Nissan ...................................................................................................... 57 Maguire Agency ............................................................................................... 33 McKay Nurseries ............................................................................................... 71 Minnesota Propane Association ....................................................................... 77 North Star Stone & Masonry ............................................................................ 16

MNLA Executive Director 651-633-4987 • cassie@mnla.biz

Northern Family Farms ..................................................................................... 28

Staff Directory

Plaisted Companies ............................................................................................ 7

executive director:

Cassie Larson, CAE • cassie@mnla.biz

membership director & trade show manager:

Out Back Nursery ............................................................................................. 26 Resultants for Business, Inc. (RFB) .................................................................... 52 RDO Equipment Co. ........................................................................................ 52

Mary Dunn, CEM • mary@mnla.biz

Rock Hard Landscape Supply division of Brian’s Lawn & Landscaping, Inc. .... 33

communications director: Jon Horsman • jon@mnla.biz education/cert manager: Susan Flynn • susan@mnla.biz government affairs director: Tim Power • tim@mnla.biz administrative assistant: Jessica Pratt • jessica@mnla.biz accountant: Norman Liston • norman@mnla.biz advertising sales: 952-934-2891 / 763-295-5420

Specialty Turf & Ag ........................................................................................... 27

Faith Jensen, Advertising Rep • faith@pierreproductions.com Betsy Pierre, Advertising Mgr • betsy@pierreproductions.com

legislative affairs consultant: Doug Carnival 6

ad list

Volume 38 No. 1 Jan 2015

➾ sect i on title

mnla .biz

january 15

Stonebrooke Equipment Inc. ............................................................................ 77 The Builders Group .......................................................................................... 22 Tri-State Bobcat, Inc. ............................................................................ 20, 38, 71 Truck Utilities & Mfg. Co. .................................................................................. 53 Unilock .............................................................................................................. 11 Versa-Lok Midwest ........................................................................................... 73 Walters Gardens ............................................................................................... 30 Ziegler CAT ......................................................................................... Back Cover

➾ calendar

MNLA & MTGF Event

Generously supported by:

SSIO

Generously supported by:

CERTIFICATION EXAM TIES Event Center, St. Paul Increase your industry professionalism and sit for the exam to become an MNLA Certified Professional. New digital format!

Northern Green Expo MPLS Convention Center Northerngreenexpo.org Attend the premier event for green industry professionals in the northern region. Exhibit Contracts are available.

JAN27 or mar10 MNLA.biz

➾

5:30 pm Millennium Hotel Minneapolis MNLA.biz Minnesota’s green industry will gather to celebrate the year’s award winners. Join the best of the best for a night filled with great food and fun.

FE

➾

AL

MNLA Awards Gala

TIFIE

N

O PR

jan14

C

MNLA Event

ER

D

jan 14–16

MNLA Event

MNLA Event

➾

mar 17–18 Pesticide Certification Workshop and Exam TIES Event Center, St. Paul MNLA.biz Prepare for the category A & E pesticide applicator certification exam by attending this 1 ½ day study program. Day 2 includes testing, if desired.

Key:

Generously supported by:

Event Education ➾ ➾ 8

All information on these and other industry events are online at MNLA.biz.

Did you miss a webinar? ALL of our webinars are recorded and available for viewing afterwards. Login to MNLA.biz to learn more! mnla .biz

january 15

2015 MNLA seminars generously supported by John Deere Landscapes

MNLA Event

mar4 MNLA Event MNLA Event

mar5

feb9–10 Ziegler CAT Columbus, MN Golmn.com Taught by actual landscape contractors, this hands-on, two-day seminar will help you build the systems you need to create a more predictable, profitable future.

Webinar

➾ ➾

➾

Landscape Contractors: Build a Better Landscape Business

Social Media Marketing Basics MNLA.biz Join 2015 Northern Green Expo Speaker, Oscar Stuttgen, GlueBug LLC., as he continues the discussion on the topic of social media. In this live webinar, you will learn Facebook and Twitter tips and tricks to help your business grow online.

Green Industry Day on the Hill Kelly Inn, St. Paul MNLA.biz This annual government affairs event is an opportunity to make personal connections with legislators that will provide greater political strength to MNLA as an organization and, thus, ultimately to your business.

MNLA Event

mar31

MNLA Event

mar24 ➾

Low Voltage Lighting Design, Installation & Advanced Controlling (PLT Relicensure) Roseville Oval MNLA.biz This class provides eight hours of Power Limited Training credit orientated specifically towards the landscape lighting specialist.

➾

Popular Perennials for Local Landscapes Heritage Room, Bachman’s on Lyndale MNLA.biz Our local area is blessed with a cadre of experts on perennial plants.

Attend this seminar and learn about the latest in popular perennials for our local landscapes.

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9

➾ from the PRESIDEN T

Winds Of Change January typically marks the date stamp where we begin again. We plunge into a new year with fresh vision and energy.

Heidi Heiland

Quantifying Tree Health

How to Protect Your Trade Secrets

Also Inside

Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens

our northern green expo education track is an impressive demonstration of our collective future, highlighting regenerative BMPs, structural soils, water management, TMDLs (Total Maximum Daily Load is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant a water body can receive without violating water quality standards.), food forests, biomimicry, and even spirituality.

Our original green industry not only offers engineered innovation, we can also lean on the wisdom of the ages, acknowledging the resources available and utilizing only what is required.

As the winter has its grasp on us we question, “Are we ready for these winds of change?” Is our company prepared to remain relevant for the next generation of clientele and employees? In what ways can we take steps to branch out while still maintaining our roots? What is old is new again!

I recently received my Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC), a creative design process that is based on ethics and design principles. We have always utilized our home landscape as an experimental laboratory for new initiatives. This fall we installed two hugelkultur beds on our land, a no-dig, low-input raised garden that utilizes

available resources to make a difference. Hugels hold moisture, build fertility, maximize surface volume and are great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs.

Permaculture’s ethics of earth care, people care and fair share suggest another way for our industry to align with Mother Nature. The people-plant connection is paramount in this approach, which is a great business opportunity for our industry! What is your experimental lab?

Winter is the season in our dynamic year when we have time to dream about our next business opportunities.

Until the earth thaws, we polish and present designs, maintain equipment, fine tune budgets, page through reports, hire additional staff and prepare to hit the ground running come spring. If 2015 is anything like the crazy cadence of 2014, we must organize our companies in this off-season for continued success. Let us not forget to insert rest and recharge into that long laundry list of items we call “winter work!”

May continued success be yours in this New Year and beyond!

MNLA President Heidi Heiland

can be reached at:

612.366.7766 or Heidi@BloomOnMN.com

Winds of Change Member Profile Foundation Report

LIFELONG LEARNING MNLA makes it easy with online and in-person events available when you are!

DoN’T MISS

Incredible educational value for one low price.

January 14–16, 2015 Minneapolis Convention Center

Vol: 38 No: 1 Jan 2015

t h e o f f i c i a l p u b l i c at i o n o f t h e M i n n e s o ta n u r s e r y & l a n d s c a p e a s s o c i at i o n

on the cover

Every year, MNLA volunteers and staff are listening to you and preparing the education you need to help you grow a successful business.

To highlight two specifically, this year we have an online session about how social media can help you market your business, and an in-person session that helps you create planning and estimating systems for your company. See pages 8 and 9 for more details, or visit www.MNLA.biz to find out about all upcoming sessions!

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PUT A

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ON THAT NEXT JOB. Give yourself an edge the next time you quote a landscaping project.

Give yourself the Unilock® advantage. As the leader in the industry, Unilock’s distinctive products will grab your client’s attention and never let go, with leading edge designs that will help you blow the competition away.

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Unilock’s unique line of pavers and walls available at:

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ARTLINE™ WITH SERIES 3000® ACCENTS.

VERSA-LOK Contractor Sales Yard Oakdale: 651-773-7444 Burnsville: 952-894-4401 Brooklyn Park: 763-488-1310 versa-lok-midwest.com

Recommend Artline™ as part of your next project bid to stand apart from the competition and lock up the job. For sizes, colors and other details for Artline™, please visit Unilock.com

UNILOCK.COM

1-800-UNILOCK

➾ Member Profile

member profile N orthway Irri gati on Molly Altorfer

Photos courtesy of Northway Irrigation

State Capitol.

N orthway Irri gati on

Owner: Rick Walter Date company started: 1986 Location: Ham Lake, Minnesota Key Employees: “All of them” Number of Employees in Peak Season: 25 Areas Served: St. Paul and St. Paul suburbs, western Wisconsin Member Category: Irrigation Contractor Website: www.northwayirrigation.com

Rick Walter started his career in the landscaping and snowmobile business. In the mid-1980s, he noticed a new industry trend: commercial and residential irrigation. He recognized that it was time for his business to pivot and to take a personal and professional risk. In 1987, he sold his snowmobile business and started focusing on irrigation, doing business as Northway Irrigation.

Question: Rick, thanks for taking the time to talk with The Scoop.

Can you tell us how you started your career in landscaping?

Answer: “We started with a wheelbarrow and a pickup truck doing landscaping. We started doing irrigation in 1987. It was a good fit for us because we had a landscaping background, so we did both irrigation and landscaping for a number of years, then we moved solely to irrigation.”

Question: Describe Northway Irrigation’s business currently.

Answer: “We mostly work with larger landscaping companies, doing the commercial and residential irrigation that they require.

Instead of competing against them for contracts, we work with them. Most ponds are fed by irrigation systems, and although pond work is not a large part of our business, we do clean and service them.”

Question: Was Northway Irrigation impacted by the recent economic downturn?

Answer: “The economy is turning around. We had some bad years after 2011. Our contractors were not getting paid on some

12 mnla mnla mnla .biz .biz august .biz january january 14 13 15

“ A professional company should belong to professional organizations — both the MNLA and nationally. It benefits your business.”

Blaine School.

projects, so we were not getting paid.

Last year was better and this year we are very busy.”

Question: How does a company survive an economic downturn like the one we experienced?

Answer: “You survive it through dedication to the business. We have good employees who stuck with us. We gritted our teeth and made some cutbacks with the help of our suppliers and our banks.”

Question: How do most people learn about Northway Irrigation? Do you do any specialty marketing?

Answer: “Most of our business is through word of mouth. And the majority of our business is through contractors — both residential and commercial jobs. We don’t have to do a lot of advertising, which is nice.”

Question: Can you offer some examples of professionalism or operations that help distinguish Northway Irrigation from its competitors?

Answer: “Customers and repeat business is key. We have a lot of loyal customers.

Chris Ross (left), Anne Wigdahl (front), Rick Walter (way in the background).

The key to retaining customers is after the sale — not just during the installation. We give people good and courteous service.

And we pay our employees well, which reflects in our service.”

Question: Is there a recent commercial or residential project that has been memorable or of which you are extremely proud?

Answer: “We have recently done a lot of cool projects, including the family military project at the State Capitol. We also have done athletic fields for the City of Fridley and the City of New Richland, Wisconsin.

Over the years we have done projects at the Guthrie Theatre and other projects in Lino Lakes, Shoreview, Richfield and Edina.”

Question: What is the number one mistake people make when they try to do their own irrigation work?

Answer: “They try to save a dollar by doing it themselves or they don’t hire a real professional. Irrigation is a lot like landscaping — some people think they can start a business and make a lot of money, but they don’t necessarily have the skills or training. So some people looking to

save money on a project will go with one of these businesses that is not professional.”

Question: How has the MNLA helped Northway Irrigation during its years of operation?

Answer: “A professional company should belong to professional organizations — both the MNLA and nationally. It benefits your business. I really enjoyed the time when we had the MNLA irrigation committee. You learn a lot by talking to your peers and other contractors. And the MNLA saved me $3,000 on a new vehicle through its Fleet Discount. I have been able to take advantage of some of the discounts offered through MNLA.”

Interested in being profiled in The Scoop?

Our writer is always looking for a good story. Email jon@mnla.biz and we’ll add you to our pool of members to be profiled.

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New EPA and Minnesota Labeling Laws for

Protecting Bees This information is relevant to professional nursery and greenhouse growers.

A shorter version is available for distribution to garden center visitors.

Vera Krischik | Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota

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IPM promotes multiple tactics to manage pests and to suppress the population size below levels that will damage the plant.

I

n March 2014 the EPA released new bee protection guidelines on neonicotinoid insecticide products (imidacloprid, dinotefuran, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin) to protect bees and other insect pollinators. The bee icon signals that the pesticide has potential to harm bees. The language in the new bee advisory and directions for use sections of the label explains application restrictions to protect bees. This information is presented below in a separate section.

In addition, as of July 1, 2014, Minnesota has a new plant labeling law in effect to protect pollinators. The new law requires that plants sold as bee friendly cannot have certain insecticides used during their cultivation. This information is presented below in a separate section.

Why are conserving pollinators and other beneficial insects important to Integrated Pest Management (IPM)?

The conservation of beneficial insects, including bees, insect predators, parasitic wasps, and butterflies, is an essential part of Integrated Pest management (IPM) programs. IPM promotes multiple tactics to manage pests and to suppress the population size below levels that will damage the plant. IPM tactics include cultural control, sanitation, biological control, and finally the use of insecticides. IPM recognizes that the few remaining pest insects will support beneficial predators and parasitic wasps. Use spot treatments of contact insecticides, not systemic insecticides, which will help conserve pollen and nectarfeeding beneficial insects.

Flowers that open after spraying with contact insecticides do not contain insecticide residue. Use contact insecticides on pest insects, such as bifenthrin, cyfluthrin, flonicamid, and chlorantraniliprole.

Toxicity lasts 1–3 weeks. Never spray open flowers or foraging bees.

However, flowers that open after systemic insecticides are sprayed or applied to the soil can contain the insecticide residue in pollen and nectar for months.

There are few systemic insecticides, while there are many systemic herbicides and fungicides. Systemic, neonicotinoid insecticides are the most widely used insecticides in the world, due to their low mammalian toxicity and the ability of the insecticide to move systemically from soil into the entire plant, including pollen and nectar. Systemic, neonicotinoid insecticides can be applied to seeds,

sprayed on foliage, or applied to the soil. After application, pollen and nectar in flowers can contain systemic insecticides for months.

There are six neonicotinoid active ingredients, imidacloprid, dinotefuran, thiamethoxam, clothianidin, acetamiprid and thiacloprid. Acetamiprid and thiacloprid are least toxic to bees. There is another systemic insecticide, fipronil, that is used around structures that is also toxic to bees.

Neonicotinoid systemic insecticides have been implicated in the decline of bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. The European Union suspended the use of neonicotinoid insecticides from 2014–2016 on crops and plants that bees’ visit. The concern was that the residue in pollen and nectar caused a negative effect on survival and foraging behavior of bees. The neonicotinoid class of insecticides is highly toxic to bees and kills bees at around 180 ppb in flower nectar or pollen. However, sublethal doses of neonicotinoid insecticide starting around 5 ppb, cause bees to lose navigation and foraging skills. The longevity and amount of the neonicotinoid in the pollen and nectar will depend on application method, concentration applied, and binding capacity of the soil.

The use of neonicotinoid insecticides as trunk injections and soil drenches for ash trees is important to slow the spread of the exotic, invasive Emerald Ash Borer and other invasive pests. As bees do not collect ash pollen in quantities, the risk to bee pollinators is low. In contrast, the use of neonicotinoid insecticides on flowering garden plants, shrubs and trees, including linden and basswood trees can potentially kill bees and beneficial insects that utilize the flowers for pollen and nectar. It is wise to avoid using systemic neonicotinoid insecticides on flowering plants that bees visit regularly. Instead use spot treatments of contact insecticides.

Creating a federal strategy to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators

As of October 2014 a federal task force suggests that systemic insecticides should not be used on bee friendly plants according to the 51 page document entitled “Supporting the Health of Honey Bees and Others Pollinator” developed by the Council on Environmental Quality and Government Services Agency to address the requirement january 15

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➾ labeling laws

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of the presidential memorandum of June 20, 2014. The wording on page 15 states «5. Acquire seeds and plants from nurseries that do not treat their plants with systemic insecticides”. You can find the document at the url: www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/ files/docs/supporting_the_health_of_honey_bees_and_other_pollinators.pdf The presidential memorandum of June 20, 2014 states that: “Given the breadth, severity, and persistence of pollinator losses, it is critical to expand Federal efforts and take new steps to reverse pollinator losses and help restore populations to healthy levels. …Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following: …. hereby established the Pollinator Health Task Force, to be cochaired by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to the CoChairs, the Task Force shall also include”…. members from the various federal departments. …The mission is to develop a pollinator research action plan, public education plan, increase pollinator habitat, and collect and share data on pollinator issues.

You can find the document at the url: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/ 2014/06/20/presidential-memorandumcreating-federal-strategy-promote-healthhoney-b The new EPA bee icon and bee advisory box on labels

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In March 2014 the EPA released bee protection guidelines on systemic neonicotinoid insecticide products (imidacloprid, dinotefuran, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin) to protect bees.

The above icon signals that the insecticide has potential to harm bees. The language in

the new bee advisory box explains application restrictions to protect bees. Also, bee cautions can be found in the “Directions for Use” section of the insecticide label. You can find the document at the url: www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-11/documents/beelabel-info-graphic.pdf The bee advisory box states, “Protection of pollinators.”

Application restrictions exist for this product because of risk to bees and other insect pollinators. Follow application restrictions found in Directions for Use to protect pollinators. Look for the bee hazard icon in the Directions for Use for each application site, for specific use restrictions and instructions to protect bees and other insect pollinators. This product can kill bees and other insect pollinators.

Bees and other insect pollinators will forage on plants when they flower, shed pollen, or produce nectar.

Bees and other insect pollinators can be exposed to this pesticide from: 1. Direct contact during foliar application or contact with residues on plant surfaces after foliar application.

2. Ingestion of residues in nectar and pollen when the pesticide is applied as a seed treatment, tree injection, as well as foliar and soil applications.

When using this product take steps to: 1. Minimize exposure of this product to bees and other insect pollinators when they are foraging on pollinator attractive plants around the application site.

2. Minimize drift of this product onto beehives or to off-site pollinator attractive habitat. Drift of this product onto beehives can result in bee kills.

Also, there is new language in the “Directions for use” section of the label that states: “Do not apply this product while bees are foraging. Do not apply this product until flowering is complete and all petals have fallen unless one of the following conditions….”

Information on protecting bees and other pollinators can be found at the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship website at: pesticide stewardship.org/pollinatorprotection/Pages/default.aspx Minnesota’s new plant labelling law is in effect to protect pollinators

As of July 1 2014 a new plant labeling law is now in effect in Minnesota to protect pollinators from exposure to toxic levels of

insecticides. The new law requires that plants advertised as “beneficial to pollinators” must be free of detectable levels of certain systemic insecticides.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) Plant Protection Division (PPD) will enforce the law. The law is meant to protect plant pollinators from exposure to detectable levels of insecticide residues that may persist in flowering plants sold in Minnesota nurseries.

The new law does not allow labeling or advertising of plants as “beneficial to pollinators” if the plants have been treated with certain systemic insecticides. Systemic insecticides are compounds that move within the tissues of a plant which means they can potentially reach the plant flowers where pollinators may be feeding or collecting pollen.

The MDA has developed a fact sheet about the new law that is posted on the agency’s website at www.mda.state.mn.us/labelfactsheet and http://www.mda.state.mn.us/en/news/releases/2014/ nr20140715-bees.aspx In addition, Minnesota business owners and residents with questions about the new law can send an email to mda.nursery@ state.mn.us for information about the law, compliance, and labeling options. CONTACT: Margaret Hart, MDA Commun., 651-2016131, margaret.hart@state.mn.us Nursery stock advertised as being beneficial to pollinators must now meet specific requirements according to a new law in Minnesota statute 18H.14

(e) A person may not label or advertise an annual plant, bedding plant, or other plant, plant material, or nursery stock as beneficial to pollinators if the annual plant, bedding plant, plant material, or nursery stock has been treated with and has a detectable level of systemic insecticide that: (1) has a pollinator protection box on the label; or (2) has a pollinator, bee, or honey bee precautionary statement in the environmental hazards section of the insecticide product label. The commissioner shall enforce this paragraph as provided in chapter 18J. • Advertising is defined as an effort to bring public attention to promote something. Calling attention to an attribute or a characteristic of a plant would therefore be considered advertising. Any claims about attracting butterflies or other pollinators are considered advertising. Therefore nurseries should avoid using terms or symbols to indicate that a particular species or variety is attractive or beneficial for pollinators if they have been treated with a systemic insecticide as defined january 15

mnla .biz

17

âžž labeling laws

Bee Toxicity

Chemical class

Examples of common names

Carbamates

carbaryl , methomyl

All x

imidacloprid thiamethoxam clothianidin dinotefuran imid+bifenthrin

All x

Neonicotinoids

Non

Less toxic: acetamiprid (A) thiacloprid (T)

Low

Mod

High

All x

Organophosphates

acephate , chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, malathion, phosmet

All x

Pyrethroids

bifenthrin, cyfluthrin, fenpropathrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, permethrin

All x

Botanical

pyrethrum/pyrethrins azadirachtin diflubenzuron tebufenozide

Insect growth regulators

azadirachtin buprofezin pyriproxyfen

x All x x x x

novaluron

x

cyromazine

x

Juvenile hormone

s-kinoprene

Diamides

chlorantraniliprole cyantraniliprole

Macrocyclic lactones

abamectin/avermectin acequinocyl, extoxazole, fenpyroximate, fenbutatin-oxide clofentezine, hexythiazox

x

x x x All x x,x

bifenazate

x

Miticides pyridaben

x

chlorfenapyr spiromesiifen Spinosyns

spinosad, less toxic when dry

Tetronic acids

spirotetramat

GABA-channel

fipronil

Pyridine carboxamide

flonicamid

Pyridine azomethines

pymetrozine

Avermectin

emamectin benzoate

Other insecticides

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x x x x x x x x

Bacillus thuringiensis,

x

potassium salts fatty acids soaps

x

horticultural mineral oils, neem oil

x



About the Chart

Information on insecticide toxicity to bees In gray are insecticides not permitted by the MDA on bee-friendlylabelled plants. Systemic neonicotinoidl insecticides (imidacloprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, and thiamethoxam) are translocated to pollen and nectar of flowers for some time after application.

Contact insecticides are not translocated to pollen and nectar and are not present in new flowers. Many contact insecticides are toxic to bees and should not be sprayed directly on foraging bees or flowers. In structures use contact insecticides during cultivation; when plants are sold, they will not contain residues of systemic insecticides in flowers. Modified from “Protecting honeybees from pesticides”, Purdue Extension, E-53W, Krupke, C., G. Hunt, and R. Foster, June 2014 and “How to reduce bee poisoning from pesticides”, A Pacific Northwest Extension Publication, OSU, UI, WSU, PNW 591, Hooven, L., Sagili, and E. Johansen.

The information given herein is supplied with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the University of Minnesota Extension. Remember, the label is the law.

in the statute. Company catalogs that include characteristics of the plant species offered for sale are subject to the provisions of this law.

• All insecticides that act systemically and that have a “bee box” or a pollinator, bee or honey bee precautionary statement in the environmental hazards section of the product label are affected by the law. The MDA will coordinate the development of a list of nursery/landscape insecticides potentially affected by the law.

• A nursery that advertises plants as beneficial to pollinators (including, for example, the terms “attracts” or “is attractive to” pollinators) will be expected to provide documentation on all insecticides used in the production of those plants. In addition, the MDA may initiate sampling of the plant to determine if there are detectable levels of systemic insecticides.

• The MDA intends to enforce this new statute using a phased approach. The initial focus of the MDA will be to inform and educate the nursery industry about the requirements of this new law. We will also begin conducting initial inspections with a focus on non-regulatory compliance assistance, and the possible collection of random samples of plants advertised as pollinator beneficial for the presence of systemic insecticides.

Send questions to: MDA.Nursery@state.mn.us.

Note that the legislation does not disallow the use of insecticides that act systemically (whether whole-plant via plant vascular systems, or locally via translaminar uptake); rather, plants cannot be advertised as beneficial to pollinators only if they are treated with and have a detectable level of a systemic insecticide that: 1. Has a pollinator protection box on the label; or 2. Has a pollinator, bee, or honey bee precautionary statement in the environmental hazards section of the product label.

Therefore, it is how the plant material is labelled, in conjunction with the residue level of certain systemic insecticides in plant tissue,

that establish whether nurseries are in compliance with the law, irrespective of the actual insecticide used.

In other words, the law does not mandate nor direct the development of a specific list of insecticides that may or may not be used.

It simply says that if nursery stock and other defined plants are advertised as beneficial to pollinators then those plants must not have detectable levels of systemic insecticides.

Enforcement of this statute by MDA PPD will therefore focus on verifying that nursery stock and other designated plants that are advertised as being “pollinator friendly” do not have detectable levels of systemic insecticide.

The following list of potential systemic insecticides affected by the law, the use of which (depending on their product labels) may render the labelling of plants as non-compliant with the law if residues are detected in the plant material, include: On the list, but not registered for use on nursery, greenhouse, and landscape plants by the EPA (24 insecticides): aldicarb, bendiocarb, demeton-s-methyl, ethoprop, dichlorvos, dicrotophos (cotton only), fensulfothion (field crops), fenthiom (mosquitoes in Florida), fipronil, methamidophos, methomyl, methyl bromide, mevinphos, oxydemeton-methyl phosphamidon, sulfoxaflor, terbufos, tralomethrin (roach), carbofuran (U.S. cancelled), dimethoate (U.S. cancelled), disulfoton (U.S. cancelled), mexacarbate (U.S. cancelled), phorate (U.S. cancelled), ronnel (U.S. cancelled).

Here is the list of systemic insecticides affected by the law and not approved on bee-friendly-labeled plants. These insecticides are registered for use on nursery, greenhouse, and landscape plants by the EPA (18 insecticides): abamectin, acephate, acetamiprid, avermectin, bifenazate, carbaryl, chlorfenapyr, clothianidin, cyantraniliprole, dinotefuran, emamectin benzoate, imidacloprid, milbemectin, oxamyl, pymetrozine, spinosad, thiacloprid, thiamethoxam. Of these 18 insecticides, four are systemic neonicotinoid insecticides and of the remaining 14 only 7 (abamectin, acephate, bifenazate, carbaryl, chlorfenapyr, pymetrozine, spinosad) are commonly used in greenhouse and nursery production.

The MDA has developed the following fact sheets: 1. MDA Agricultural Landscapes www.mda.state.mn.us/protecting/bmps/~/media/Files/protecting/bmps/pollinators/ pollinatorsagland.pdf 2. MDA Yards and Gardens www.mda.state.mn.us/protecting/ bmps/~/media/Files/protecting/bmps/pollinators/pollinatoryardbmps.pdf.

Which flowers do not attract bees?

Plant lists that identify plants not attractive to bees are not available.

Bees usually do not visit wind pollinated plants. Bees usually do not use double flowers, as male parts are bred to make additional petals, and the flower does not produce pollen and nectar. Most double flowers that show no pollen will not be fed on by bees. However, older varieties of zinnia, marigold, and dahlia, especially those that have visible yellow pollen, will be fed on by bees. Most annual bedding plants do not contain pollen and nectar and consequently are not attractive to bees. Bees will probe and visit flowers of plants that do not provide food. A feeding bee has a pulsating abdomen. january 15

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➾ LAB E L IN G LAWS

Many annual bedding plants are not attractive to bees, such as Begonia, CalIbrachoa, Chrysanthemum, Cyclamen, Geranium, Coleus leaves, Easter lilies, Fuchsia, Gerbera, Impatiens (New Guinea and common), Petunia, Pansy, Poinsettia, marigold, and tea roses with closed buds.

Which flowers attract bees?

Perennial plants attractive to bees are all flowering crabapple, apple, pear, hawthorn, and serviceberry, Potentilla, linden, basswood, pussy willow, Asclepias (butterfly, common, and swamp milkweed), Angelica gigas (Korean Angelica), Campanula (bellflower), clover, Delphinium, Digitalis (foxglove), Echinacea (cone flower), Echinops (globe thistle), honeysuckle, Agastache (anise hyssop), Liatris (blazing star), ninebarks, Nepeta (catnip and catmint), New England aster, Penstemon, Salvia nemorsa ‘Maynight’, Salvia verticillata ‘Purple Rain’, Sedum, Solidago (goldenrod), Rosa rugosa, Scabious, Chelone (turtlehead), Verbascum, and Viburnum.

Annual plants attractive to bees are basal, borage, dill, fennel, heather, lavender, rosemary, thyme, Alyssum, tropical Asclepias (Mexican milkweed), Buddleia, Gaillardia, Ganzania, Lantana, Portulaca, snapdragons, Tithonia, and Verbena.

There are numerous lists identifying plants attractive to bees.

Some lists only contain native plants, while other lists contain heirloom garden varieties of plants:

1. University of MN Bee Lab bulletin, Plants for Minnesota bees — www.beelab.umn.edu/prod/groups/cfans/@pub/@ cfans/@bees/documents/article/cfans_article_451478.pdf 2. Xerces Society bulletin, Pollinator Plants Midwest Region — www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MidwestPlantList_web.pdf 3. CUES bulletin: Pollinator Conservation, plants for bees and other pollinators — www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/pollinators/plants.html 4. CUES poster: Save the Bees Plant Flowers and Trees — www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/pollinators/plantsposter.pdf 5. CUES bulletin: Plants for butterfly gardening — www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/landscaping/butterflygardening/ 6. CUES bulletin: Plants that provide pollen and nectar for beneficial insects — www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/gervais/keytable.htm Vera Krischik is a tenured Faculty in the Entomology Department of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota and can be reached at krisc001@umn.edu, or cues.cfans.umn.edu. She is director of CUES: Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems which promotes natural resource management, online at www.entomology.umn.edu/cues.

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Quantifying Tree Health Simply put, the point of tree health care is to promote the health of trees.

Easy, right? Except for one minor point of contention — what do we mean by ‘health’ and how do we know if we achieve it?

Brandon Gallagher Watson | Rainbow Treecare Scientific Advancements

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➾ tree health

New tech improves data collection methods.

Ash tree in a parking lot environment.

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hese questions appear simple but start to peel it back and you realize that the definition or even the existence of health has been a hotly debated topic by doctors, scientists, and philosophers for thousands of years. To avoid getting into an existential debate on ‘The Meaning of Health,” for our purposes here we will define health somewhere between ‘a state of being free from illness or injury’ and ‘a tree’s ability to fulfill on its genetic potential.’ Now, what data can we collect that would show if our actions as tree health professions is making a difference?

Before we get into that, first let’s define another term. When we talk about human fitness, we often use the terms ‘health’ and ‘condition’ interchangeably, but with trees these are two different things. Good health means the tree has all the air, water, light, and nutrients it needs to perform photosynthesis, grow, and reproduce.

Good condition means the tree is structurally sound and is a low risk to fail either partially or completely. A tree can be in great health but in poor condition and, conversely, a tree can be in good physical condition but if, say, the tree was suffering from chlorosis we would say the tree has a health issue to address. Tree owners tend to collapse these two terms together and can be surprised when an arborist recommends a removal for a tree seen by the professional as in poor condition while the homeowner just sees green leaves and thinks the tree is just fine.

Assessing a tree’s condition is most often done subjectively through various condition rating systems. Commonly these systems use a scale with ‘flawless specimen” on one end and “dead” on the other. The number of increments on the scale will vary and can be adjusted depending on the purpose. The International Society of Arboriculture’s (ISA) version uses a 1–10 rating that ranks trees Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Critical, and Dead. The ISA provides definitions for each category making determination fairly simple. Other systems may use fewer categories, such as a 1–4 rating, with four being ‘excellent condition’ and one being ‘remove.’ No mater how many condition categories are used, the most important factor for successfully using these systems is consistency ensuring every evaluator is rating the trees the same.

Certain condition criteria are readily apparent when simply looking at a tree. Red flags such as splits, leaning, and large dead limbs are obvious, but other factors may not be easily seen. Using simple tools like tapping the trunk with a rubber mallet to detect decay cavities can be useful. If a more empirical method is needed, more advanced tools such as a Resistograph can give you some real data regarding the thickness of the walls or the extent of a decay column.

Other tools, such as clinometer, can be used to measure not just tree height, but also the angle or severity of the tree’s lean.

There are ways we can attempt to quantify a tree’s health as well.

Some measurements require specialized equipment or even a laboratory, but others can be simple. Observational rating systems can be useful in quantifying health just as they were when addressing condition. A common leaf color-rating chart, first developed in the 1970’s, is a very useful system for visually assessing a leaf ’s chlorophyll content. The scale goes from 1–10, but uses the number 7 as ‘normal’ for that species. For example, say we are doing research on optimal rates for an injectable nutrient supplement used to correct

Observational readings are one way to measure results of trials.

an issue such as chlorosis. We would take baseline data on the color of each tree, assigning a number based on how yellow or how green the tree is. Treatments of various rates would be applied to the trees and follow-up observation ratings would be made. Comparing to the baseline data, we can determine which rates improved the trees to their ‘normal’ color, which were not strong enough, and which rates caused the tree to be abnormally green.

This exact trial could utilize more empirical data by taking leaf samples into a lab and determining the precise quantity of chlorophyll molecules by chemical analysis. Lab work can also yield data regarding nutrient content, secondary metabolites, or even the presence of toxins. Root samples can be analyzed for stored starch content. All of this data can be used as a proxy measurement for a tree’s health. While collecting samples and having them analyzed may yield more accurate results, it also adds to the labor, time, and cost of the trial. Researchers are constantly evaluating what type of data collection methods give the most accurate and pertinent information while balancing that with the time and budget allotted for the trial.

Evaluating the fullness, or density of a tree’s canopy is another common way researchers and arborists evaluate tree health. Measurements like percent of fine twig dieback can give an indication

of how stressed a tree’s canopy is. Subjective ratings, like percentcanopy, are frequently used in tree health care. For example, it is commonly said that an infested ash tree can be saved from emerald ash borer if the tree has less than 30% canopy decline. There have been visual guides developed to help establish guidelines for what a 10, 20, or 30% decline looks like and can help create some consistency with this subjective method.

If a more objective measurement is needed, canopy density can be assessed through more empirical methods. Imaging tools like hemispheric photos taken from below the tree can give data on the fullness of a canopy. Leaf area index (LAI) is a canopy density metric that is frequently used in forestry as a way to predict forest productivity but it can be used in arboriculture as well. LAI is quantified as the average leaf area per unit of ground surface area, and can be measured by taking a statistically significant number of leaves from four sides of the tree. Area is then either measured manually, by using an electronic area meter, or by using specialized scanning software. The leaf area is then divided by the area under the tree, measured from drip line to drip line, to give you the LAI. This index can be useful for measuring health as trees that are performing well tend to have normal sized leaves for that species while trees that are struggling tend to produce smaller leaves. Using LAI, researchers january 15

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➾ tree health

(Top): Setting up hemispherical photo.

(Bottom): Software is used to analyze hemisphere photo data.

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can evaluate the responses to different treatments, but as most trees only produce one set of leaves per year, this can be a difficult metric for more immediate responses.

Measuring how the health of a tree is varying day to day can be more challenging, but with the right equipment it can yield valuable data. Just as your doctor measures your vital signs — blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing — plants have metabolic processes that can be measured, too. Chlorophyll florescence is one of the more common measurements taken to assess overall tree vigor. One of the most pronounced physiological responses to stress is a reduction in net photosynthesis and using a chlorophyll florescence meter can be a quick way to determine the photosynthetic potential of a leaf.

Chlorophyll can also be measured in the field using a handheld SPAD meter that quickly reads the chlorophyll content of leaves.

Tree health professionals of the future will, of course, simply scan the tree with their ArborTron 3000 Healthometer and get instant info on the current health and remedies for every malady conceivable, but until then we will continue to measure health in all these different ways. There are many other ways not mentioned here that scientists can use to attempt and quantify health, but no matter how or what data is collected, turning that data into actions that help improve the life and vitality of trees is the ultimate goal. Tree health care is still an emerging science and new analysis tools are being created, tested, and adopted all the time. Keeping up with the current ways we can quantify tree health can help make you a better tree health professional, at least until the ArborTron 3000 comes out…

Brandon Gallagher Watson is Creative Director for Rainbow Treecare Scientific Advancements and can be reached at BGallagher@treecarescience.com.

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➾ research for the real world

Constructed Wetlands: Sustainable, Cost Effective Water Treatment As a member of the Board of Managers of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) which includes Lake Minnetonka and Minnehaha Creek, I have a strong interest in watershed management water quality issues. Of course, one of those issues is stormwater runoff and the negative effects of excess nutrient loading to surface waters.

Dr. James Calkins

Research Information Director MNLA Foundation

RESEARCH FOR THE REAL WORLD

Information compiled by the MNLA Foundation to help the success of your business today MNLA.biz _________ The Scoop _________ MNLA eNews

nutrients and other pollutants are delivered to surface waters through two primary pathways — point sources and nonpoint sources. In very general terms, point sources are typically discrete sources of pollutants and involve pipes while nonpoint sources tend to be diffuse in nature and do not involve pipes. Many definitions that are variously more complex can be easily found including definitions created by the agency charged with overseeing the Clean Water Act (more precisely the Federal Water Pollution Control Act; originally passed in 1948 and amended in 1972, 1977, and 1987), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Examples include: • Point Source — a stationary location or fixed facility from which pollutants are discharged; any single identifiable source of pollution, such as a pipe, ditch, ship, ore pit, or factory smokestack.

• Nonpoint Source — a diffuse pollution source; a source without a single point of origin or not introduced into a receiving stream from a specific outlet. The pollutants are generally carried off the land by stormwater. Common nonpoint sources are agriculture, forestry, urban areas, mining, construction, dams, channels, land disposal, saltwater intrusion, and city streets.

Historically, urban runoff and runoff from agricultural lands have typically been considered nonpoint sources.

One could argue, however, that when urban runoff is collected and concentrated by storm sewer systems and agricultural lands are drained by drain tile and extensive ditch systems the outlets of these drainage systems become point sources. In fact, although they were not

initially included in the law, municipal stormwater discharges (commonly called MS4’s — municipal separate storm sewer systems) are now covered under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting requirements for regulating sources of water pollution. Alternatively, with the exception of runoff from animal feedlots, stormwater and irrigation runoff from agricultural lands are generally still considered non-point sources. Being non-point sources doesn’t, however, mean these sources are not problematic from a water resource perspective; research indicates agricultural lands are a significant contributor to pollutant loading including sediment, nutrients, and pesticides.

Personally, I am also interested in these issues as a horticulturist and, to their credit, nursery and landscape professionals have, in general, become increasingly aware of the potential negative effects our industry can have on water quality as a result of production and the development and management of commercial and residential landscapes. When I think about the potential impacts of nursery production systems, field or container, on runoff and water quality, I am reminded of a large container production nursery I had the opportunity to visit with a group of nursery production professionals a number of years ago. I will not name the nursery or the surface water that was ultimately impacted by runoff generated from irrigation and stormwater runoff, but it was a large, state-of-the-art operation and the receiving water body was a well-known, and treasured resource.

Given that it was a planned tour for visitors from across the county, the operation was in tip-top shape — weedfree and uncluttered with perfectly-aligned blocks and rows of beautiful, high-quality container stock. The site january 15

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➾ research for the real world

Figure 1. Although significantly impacted by development and increased stormwater runoff and the pollutants it carries, this natural wetland remains an important resource that is home to a variety of wetland plants, reduces flooding, filters sediment, absorbs nutrients, degrades pollutants, and provides valuable wildlife habitat; combined with other common-sense nursery production practices like enhanced fertility and irrigation management, carefully designed and constructed wetlands for the purpose of treating runoff from nursery production areas can provide many of the same benefits. (Photo Credit: Jim Calkins).

was very well organized from a production standpoint and included careful grading designed to capture and direct runoff into a wellengineered network of drainage channels (again debris and weed free).

The nursery property was located in a very lovely area immediately adjacent to a large, man-made lake (a river-fed reservoir created by a dam designed and constructed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers) that was a valued local resource and important tourist destination.

During some free time, I ventured off to view the lake from the top of the bluff where the nursery was located where I came across a charming little stream with a waterfall cascading over the rock bluffs that surrounded the lake. To my surprise, but as you may have already guessed, as I followed the stream back toward the nursery, it became apparent that the stream wasn’t a natural watercourse; it was the outlet of the nursery’s runoff collection system which discharged directly into the lake, nutrients and all.

As a result of our industry’s increased awareness of the relationships between nursery runoff and water quality, combined with the benefits of minimizing fertilizer and water expenditures, I trust that this environmentally-flawed situation has been rectified in the years since my visit when the waters of the lake were green with algae as a consequence of excess nutrients from upstream and local sources.

Regardless if the runoff from this nursery was a significant contributor to the nutrient levels and water quality of the lake, this situation reflected very poorly on our industry; an industry that takes pride in being “green” and can only benefit by being a leader in protecting and enhancing the environment. Out of curiosity I checked on the water quality of the lake involved and was pleased to learn that nutrient levels have been declining in recent years although algae blooms and other runoff-related water quality concerns continue to be problematic.

Again, I’m sure the bad situation outlined above has been at least partially rectified. Based on cost and environmental factors,

it is likely that fertility programs and irrigation systems have been improved to increase fertilizer and water use efficiencies and reduce runoff and runoff nutrient levels. Retention ponds designed to capture and treat contaminated runoff prior to release or reuse may also be present. It is also possible that vegetated swales and buffers have been created to reduce the impacts associated with runoff.

These and other practices are supported by a growing body of research and research-based design specifications focused on reducing the negative effects of runoff from agricultural operations. And more recently, perhaps constructed wetlands like those outlined in a recent publication entitled Constructed Wetlands: A How to Guide for Nurseries have been added to the mix. The development of this resource was supported by the nursery and landscape industry through the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI), publisher of the Journal of Environmental Horticulture and the research arm of the former American Nursery and Landscape Association, now AmericanHort (created on January, 1, 2014, by the consolidation of the ANLA and the OFA), through the Floriculture & Nursery Research Initiative (FNRI; a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and the Society of American Florists (SAF).

The information included in the constructed wetlands guide was developed based on research performed at a facility operated by a nationally recognized container production nursery (Monrovia) as well as research conducted in other locations and does a good job of introducing the concept of constructed wetlands and how constructed wetlands can be designed and integrated into nursery production facilities.

Some highlights from the publication include: • Sediment, excess nutrients, and pesticides can be carried to surface waters in stormwater and irrigation runoff where they can degrade water quality and have negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems, recreation, and human health; some nutrients and pesticides can also leach into groundwater.

• The efficient use of fertilizers, water, and pesticides can reduce production costs and can reduce the effects of nursery production practices on the environment especially when combined with best management practices (BMP’s) designed to capture, treat, and manage nursery runoff.

• Based on the ability of natural wetlands to filter and clean stormwater runoff, constructed wetlands were initially researched and developed in Germany primarily for the treatment of sewage, but have since been investigated and successfully used to treat other sources of wastewater including agricultural runoff.

• Understanding the fairly complicated nature of nutrient cycling — mainly nitrogen and phosphorus — in constructed wetlands and designing constructed wetlands accordingly is key to the success of constructed wetland runoff treatment facilities.

• There are three primary types of constructed wetlands: surface-flow (shallow, open-water wetlands; most similar to the natural wetlands most of us are familiar with), january 15

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➾ research for the real world

Effective phosphorus removal (on average more than 80%) was achieved with experimental, subsurface-flow constructed wetlands filled with clay aggregates (calcined clay or crushed brick) through binding of phosphorus to the clay aggregates; calcined clay proved to be the aggregate that performed best. subsurface-flow (wetlands where most of the water flows through a substrate below the surface), and floating (open water systems with floating mats of vegetation) wetlands; of these, surface-flow and subsurface-flow wetlands are most commonly used to treat agricultural runoff.

• A typical constructed wetland system includes runoff collection channels with aerification structures designed to capture runoff from irrigation and a predetermined precipitation event, a retention pond (runoff retention and sedimentation), a pumping system for pumping water from the retention pond to the wetland cells (all other flows within the system are typically gravity-mediated), vegetated wetland treatment cells, flow control structures to control water levels within the wetland cells, a discharge channel, a stilling basin (sediment removal), and an outlet.

• Properly constructed and managed surface-flow wetlands can effectively remove an average of 80% to nearly 100% of the annual nitrogen load in nursery runoff and are most efficient when temperatures are warm and irrigation and fertility levels are at peak levels.

• Phosphorus removal by constructed surface-flow wetlands was highly variable and was not effectively removed by surface-flow wetlands; phosphorus tended to be removed when wetland plants were actively growing, but tended to export phosphorus as loading rates decreased; reducing phosphorus fertilization rates as feasible significantly reduced phosphorus levels in runoff and much more effectively than treatment in surface flow wetlands.

• Effective phosphorus removal (on average more than 80%) was achieved with experimental, subsurface-flow constructed wetlands filled with clay aggregates (calcined clay or crushed brick) through binding of phosphorus to the clay aggregates; calcined clay proved to be the aggregate that performed best.

• The binding ability of clay aggregates in subsurface-flow systems will eventually decrease over time as all of the potential binding sites become saturated; once the system becomes saturated, phosphorus levels in the effluent will increase; proper maintenance of subsurface-flow wetlands will require replacement of the clay aggregates once saturation occurs.

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• Although not specifically addressed, it would seem a combination of surface-flow and clay aggregate-based, subsurface-flow wetlands might have the potential to effectively remove both nitrogen and phosphorus from nursery runoff.

Different than raingardens (I prefer the term infiltration depressions) which are engineered to infiltrate stormwater, and are increasingly being included in landscape design solutions as a best management practice (BMP) to manage stormwater runoff in designed landscapes, constructed wetlands are typically designed to prevent significant infiltration to prevent groundwater contamination by using clay or synthetic liners. The ultimate goal — reduced runoff volumes and pollutant loading to surface waters — is the same, but the treatment methods are different.

In addition to research information on the effectiveness of constructed wetlands, the publication also provides detailed guidance related to the planning (site selection, sizing, future expansion needs, etc.), construction (excavation, installation of pipes and valves, etc.), establishment (plant establishment, water level management, etc.), and operation (monitoring and maintenance) of constructed surface-flow wetlands.

If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to take a look at this publication and consider constructed wetlands for your nursery production or garden center operation. It is an example of the benefits that can result from nursery and landscape research in general and specifically research supported by the Horticultural Research Institute. Contributions to the Horticultural Research Institute are tax deductible and support research that will benefit the future success of the nursery and landscape industry. Sixteen research projects related to horticultural production, pest management, environmental stewardship, and business and marketing were granted funding by the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) in 2014; further details can be found on the HRI website.

Citations: White, S.A., M.D. Taylor, R.F. Polomski, and J.P. Albano. 2011. Constructed Wetlands: A How to Guide for Nurseries. http://www.hriresearch.org/Docs/HRI/Constructed%20Wetlands%20A%20How%20 to%20Guide%20for%20Nurseries.pdf U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2008. Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters – Glossary. Accessed November 7, 2014. http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/ upload/2008_04_18_NPS_watershed_handbook_glossary.pdf Horticultural Research Institute. 2014. Horticultural Research Institute Invests $400,000 in Solutions: Supported Research to Produce New Knowledge for Industry. http://hriresearch.org/index.cfm?page=Conten t&categoryID=162

To comment on this research update,

suggest research topics of interest, or pass along a piece of research-based information that might be of interest to your industry colleagues, please email us at research@ MNLA.biz.

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www.MNLA.biz | february 2012

Page

TAKE PART IN THE

GREEN INDUSTRY DAY ON THE HILL Wednesday, March 4, 2015 State Capitol, St. Paul

All Minnesota green industry professionals are invited to attend this event. In order for MNLA to coordinate appointments with your legislators, please register no later than February 20.

“I’ve never done this before. What can I expect?”

• A friendly face-to-face conversation with someone who can make a real impact in your business • To partner with other experienced green industry professionals • To be equipped with the information you need to talk intelligently about the issues

DAY ON THE HILL SUCCESS STORIES FROM PAST YEARS

• Helped fix subcontractor indemnification loophole in construction contracts.

• Protected nursery interests in invasive species discussion.

• Protected Green Acres status for nurseries, greenhouses.

• Gained EAB rapid response money plus tree removal and replacement money.

• Reduced update intervals for pesticide applicator training manuals.

• Held back anti-business immigration enforcement measures.

To register, go to the MNLA.biz event calendar and download the form on the Day on the Hill event page. Please reserve your spot by February 20th for the March 4th event.

Questions? Call Tim Power at 651-633-4987, or e-mail tim@mnla.biz.

Are You Giving Your Customers

What They Really Want?

Some years ago, Delta Airlines commissioned a study about customer satisfaction.

The results were so startling that it became quickly obvious that the outcome could apply to all types and sizes of businesses and organizations, including the green industry. The study centered on what their customers really wanted to know about the people from whom they were buying.

Tom Borg Š2015 | Reprinted with permission from Irrigation Green Industry http://www.igin.com

january 15

mnla .biz

35

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mong other things, the research revealed that their customers wanted to know the answers to four questions they had about the person serving them.

1. Do you like me?

2. Do you care about me?

3. Can I trust you?

4. Do you know what you are talking about?

Let’s take a look and see how this would apply to your green industry company.

Do you like me?

The first thing your customers want to know is if they are sincerely liked by your employee or manager that they encounter. Does your representative use their name, do they really listen, do they have sincere understanding in their voice?

Let’s face it. Being in business is not really about you or your team, as much as it is all about the customer you are trying to serve.

As the late Peter Drucker taught us, the purpose of any company for being in business is to find and keep customers. And since it is the customer who ultimately signs our paycheck, it would be extremely important to create an atmosphere where your customers feel they are liked and appreciated. If your customers do not get the impression that they are respected and genuinely liked by you and your employees, it will be hard to keep them.

Do you care about me?

The second question customers want to know the answer to is, did the representative sincerely care about them? It has been said that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much they care.” Your customer will get a pretty good idea whether or not they are liked from the type of questions they are asked by your managers or employees. The tone of voice, body language, the little

things they say or do, and how helpful they try to be in solving the customers problems all indicate if and how much they do care about the person they are serving.

A good example of this is one of my clients, Tuff Turf Molebusters, located near Grand Rapids, MI. This green business makes it a point to train their technicians to sincerely listen to their customers when they are on the phone or on site servicing the account.

Even when the customer just wants to discuss the weather or some other trivia, the technician purposely spends an extra few minutes to just simply listen to the person.

When people really know that you care about them, they are much more forgiving when an error is made. It is like a scale. An analogy I like to use in my consulting or seminars is like when you weigh beans. More beans on one side of the scale will tip it in that direction. In your business the beans are the little things you and your team do to show the customer that you like and care about them. So when there is a lot of extra beans on the right side of the scale, you have the advantage at keeping your customers satisfied.

Can I trust you?

The third question customers want answered is, can they trust the representative. Indications of trust can be seen in how confident your team member is and if they follow through as promised. One example of how trust can be lost happened to our family. A well known lawn fertilization company that was servicing us at that time violated my trust by misdiagnosing a problem we were having with some vegetation in a section of our yard. As a result, I made a decision that we no longer needed the services from this company.

It was easy to make that decision because I no longer believed the technician servicing our property had our best interest at heart. I received the impression he was trying to sell us something we did not need or want. In the past, like most people, I have been sold something I did not need or want, and once discovered, regretted january 15

mnla .biz

37

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it. The people we serve are the same. They are wary of misleading advice that can cost them unnecessary expense and embarrassment.

Once your customers begin to doubt your employee’s ability to tell the truth, you are in great danger of losing that person’s trust forever. We call that the final five yards. It doesn’t matter how well everyone else in your company performs. When that frontline employee who is interacting with that customer fails, the entire company is judged. Many times this judgment will lead to a loss of confidence, leading to the customer going to one of your competitors for service or products.

Do you know what you are talking about?

Finally, the fourth thing the people who buy from you want to know is if the person servicing them is knowledgeable and competent.

Some years ago when we had a new home built, we hired a company to install our irrigation system. The installation technicians showed up before the underground utilities had been flagged.

Since we were not home to stop them, they proceeded to install the system and cut our telephone line in two places, rendering our phone system useless. They installed the irrigation system, but in their haste to do so, created an enormous amount of annoyance and aggravation to my wife and me. In our eyes, these technicians had crossed the line of incompetence.

When your personnel can consistently demonstrate that they are knowledgeable and competent, it will build confidence in your

customers. When your team is able to solve problems and successfully exceed the expectations of the people they are serving, only good things can happen. The customer will come to expect and rely on you and your team’s professionalism and experience. When your customers believe in your company, repeat business and referrals are almost always certain.

Commit to Training

Of course, in order for these four questions to be answered, your team needs to be trained properly. The responsibility of whether or not they are trained ultimately rests with the owner and management.

Proper employee selection, and a consistent commitment to implementing the training processes will insure your long term success.

So, in summary, to build lifetime customer satisfaction, make sure your green industry company is able to provide the kind of customer service training that will help your employees answer these four questions on a regular basis with all of the customers they serve.

When you are able to do this, you will be separating your business from the sea of mediocrity of green industry companies with whom you’re competing.

Tom Borg is

a business expert who works with small and midsize Green Industry companies to profitably gain and retain customers. Contact Tom at: (734) 404-5909, tom@tomborg.com, or www.tomborgconsulting.com.

january 15

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MNLA FOUNDATION Improving the Environment by Investing in Research and Education

1813 LEXINGTON AVE. N | ROSEVILLE, MN 55113 | 651-633-4987 | F: 651-633-4986 | MNLA@MNLA.BIZ | MNLAFOUNDATION.COM

Research for the Real World

You need knowledge to improve your business and operations – and in turn increase your profitability as part of our industry’s aim to improve the outdoor living environment. The MNLA Foundation promises to deliver to you the research-based information and insights you need for your environmental horticulture and landscape business. Our Research Information Director will compile, distill and disseminate easy-toread information on topics such as: • New plant materials and plant hardiness trials.

• Sustainable landscape design, tree care and lawn maintenance practices.

• Marketing and consumer preferences.

• Plant insect/disease/weed control.

• Water management.

• Nursery and greenhouse production.

Scholarships

Career Development

Our industry, your business, and even the environment are facing a crisis because so few young people are choosing green industry careers. The MNLA Foundation promises to deliver tools and promotion to enhance the image of nursery, greenhouse, landscape, irrigation, and tree care professions. The Foundation’s Career Development Program will: • Provide educational materials for students at various grade levels and help members establish relationships with schools.

• Inform teachers, guidance counselors, parents, and students about the legitimate career paths available in the green industry.

• Promote horticulture and landscape programs at area colleges.

The MNLA Foundation Academic Awards Scholarship Program makes it possible for outstanding students who have made Horticulture or Landscaping their career choice to enter and/or complete their college degree programs. This very important Foundation activity also greatly enhances our industry’s relationships with these students and their colleges.

MNLA FOUNDATION Thank You

to each of you that have supported the MNLA Foundation over this last fiscal year, September 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014. Your generous contributions enable us to continue to provide research information, scholarships, and career outreach that support the green industry in this region both now and into the future. Thank you for showing your dedication through your time and donations.

Individual and Company Donors Senator John Pederson, Amcon Block Dale Bachman, Bachman’s, Inc. Bailey Nursery Foundation Laverne & Barb Dunsmore, Countryside Gardens Elwood Lohthammer, Glacial Ridge Heidi Heiland, Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens Denny McNamara, Hoffman & McNamara Foundation Mike McNamara, Hoffman & McNamara Nursery and Landscape Instant Green Tree Planting Inc. Scott Frampton, Landscape Renovations Larry Bachman Memorial Fund Doug Carnival, McGrann Shea Carnival Straughn & Lamb Suzette Nordstrom, Monrovia Bob Fitch, Nonprofit Solutions Mike Laine, Northern Minnesota Nursery Kerry Glader, Plaisted Companies Todd Plaisted, Plaisted Companies Tony Guggisberg, River Creek Nursery Sargent’s Landscape Nursery Chad Hagman, Stars & Stripes Lawn & Landscape The Mustard Seed Mary Meyer, University of Minnesota Eric Nooker, University of Minnesota Terry Ferriss, University of Wisconsin - River Falls Tim Malooly, Water in Motion Craig Chilstrom Tim Power Raymond Rumpca Gregory Stone Harold Wilkins Scholarship Sponsors Bachman’s, Inc. Bailey Nurseries, Inc. Countryside Gardens, Inc. Gertens Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens Hoffman & McNamara Nursery and Landscape Lakeside Lawn & Landscape, Inc. Law’s Nursery, Inc. Malmborg’s, Inc. Mickman Brothers, Inc. Natural Creations Otten Bros. Nursery and Landscaping, Inc Robin D. Linder Memorial Scholarship Rochester Arborist Workshop St. Croix Tree Service Tangletown Gardens LLC Wilson’s Nursery, Inc.

A great number of companies have shown their support by contributing ¼ of 1% of their purchases at participating industry suppliers in the Research and Education Partners Fund program. This investment into the industry’s future is greatly appreciated.

Contributors

101 Market; 2nd Nature; A Growing Family Business; A&J Landscape; Above All Landscapes LLC; Abrahamson Nurseries; Al Gomez; Alan Whidby Landscapes; Alliant Engineering Inc; Aloha Landscaping; Arborgate Horticultural; Artistic Landscapes; Artscape; Attractive Landscape LLC; Austin Lake Greenhouse; B & B Landscape; Bachman’s Nursery Wholesale; Baker Garden & Gift; Barck Residential Lawn; Bartlett Tree Experts; Bear Path Golf Course; Beier’s Greenhouse @ Quality Nursery; Belt Line Properties Inc; Bent Creek Golf Club Inc; Bergeson Nursery; Berg’s Nursery; Bills Lawn & Landscape; Bob’s Lawn and Landscape; Boss Homes Inc; Botanize Inc; Branch Landscape Nursery; Bridgewater Construction Inc; Brother’s Tree & Landscape; Bunswick Properties LLC; Burdick Properties; Bush Barber; By the Wood LLC; C&L Outdoor Services; Cardinal Landscape; Carefree Services; Carver County Parks; Cattail Corner Inc; Cedar Ridge Landscaping; Cenco Farms; Cerneco Landscape; Check-It-Off; Cherry Greenhouses; City of Mendota Heights; City of Moorhead; Clark Smith Construction Inc; Classic Tree; Clearwater Tree Farm LLC; Clem Home & Lawn; Complete Landscape; Cooper’s Landscaping; Corbin’s Custom Landscape; Cornerstone Industries Inc; Countryside Gardens; Creative Concepts Contractors; Creative Landscape; Creekside Inc; Cut Above Wood Company; Daisy Designs; Dan Devereaux; Dan’s Maintenance Inc; Deerbrook Homes by Mark; Derek Radde; Design Fence; Design-A-Scapes Inc; Ditch Creek Landscape; Down to Earth; Dundee Nursery; Durance Corporation; Earthstone Environments; Earthworks; Eden Trace Corporations; Elizabeth Herrington Designs; Elmore Nursery; Enchanted Forests Inc; Energyscapes Inc; Envirodesign; Environmental Design Inc; Environmental Landform; Essig’s Tree & Landscape Inc; Estes and Associates; Euflora; Expert Construction; Fairborn Inc; Fair’s Nursery & Garden Center; Field Outdoor Spaces Inc; Forest & Floral Garden Center; Four Season Tree Service; Fox Landscaping ; Frank’s Gardening; G & M Tree Moving; Garden & Landscape; Garden Expressions LLC; Gardeneer; Gerten’s Greenhouse; Gethsemane Gardens; Good Shepherd Gardens; Gordon’s Landscape; Gray Gardens Inc; Green Barn Garden Center Inc; Green Lake Nursery; Greenside Inc; Greenway Lawn & Landscape; Greenworld Inc; Ground Effects; Growing Wild; Guaranteed Green; Hay Creek; Hedberg Aggregates; Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens; Heliotrope Gardens; Hexum Peterson Services LLC; Highland Nursery; Hoffman & McNamara Co; Hughes Nursery & Landscaping LLC; I & M Landscaping; Ideal Landscaping; Inside Out; Instant Green Tree Planting; Irrigation By Design; JB Lawn and Landscape; Jeff Reisinger Lawn; Jeff Schafer Landscaping; JJ’s Outdoor Service; John Duff Tree Trimming; Johnson Creek; Johnson RSR Inc; Justin Malecha Landscape Design; Karen Woestehoff Garden Design; Karls Landscape Inc; Katrinas Gardens; Kerber Homes Inc; Kerker Inc; Kleinman Companies; Klingelhutz Constrution; Knecht’s Nurseries & Landscaping; Kobers Nursery Inc; Kokesh Landscape; Kottke Lawn and Landscape; Krueger Wright Design Inc; L & R Suburban Landscaping; Lake Superior Garden Center; Lakeland Landscape Inc; Land De Con; Landcrafters Inc; Landmark Design Inc; Landsburg Landscape Nursery; Landscape 2000 Inc; Landscape Inc; Landscape Renovations; Landscape Techniques; Landscape Technologies; Landshapes Inc; Landstyle Design & Construction; Landworks Inc; Lano Equipment; Lawn and Landscape Gardens; Lawn Pro Landscape; Leaf and Limb Landscaping; Lecy Construction; Lifestyle Creations; Lilydale Garden Center; Linders Greenhouses; Link Construction Inc; Living Sculpture; Lowes Creek Tree Farm; Lowe’s Nursery; Lynde Greenhouse & Nursery Inc; Lynn’s Garden Party; Main Street Builders; Majestic Lawn & Landscape; Malmborg’s Inc; Mankato Landshapes; Margolis Company Inc; Marins Gardens; McCulough Landscaping; McGuire Landscaping; Mickman Brothers, Inc; Midland Nursery Inc; Midwest Turf Specialists; Mierow Landscapes; Mike Pass Contracting; Miller Maintenance Inc; Minneapolis Golf Club; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Minnesota Green Landscapes; Minnesota Grounds Maintenance; Minnesota Valley Garden; Missinne Greenhouse & Landscape Inc; Mom’s Landscaping; Morningside Tree & Landscapes; Mother Nature’s Exterior; MR Designs; Natural Landscpae Minnesota; Natural Surroundings; Nature’s Way Lawn Service; New Sight Landscape & Design; No Mow / No Snow; Northeast Tree Inc; NTC Homes Inc; Ohland Lawn Service LLC; Ostvig Tree Inc; Otten Bros Inc; Outdoor Dimensions LLC; Pal Al Hardware; Parkway Lawn Service Inc; Patty’s plant Designs; Perkin’s Landscape Contractor; Picture Perfect Homes Inc; Pinnacle Lawn and Landscape; Pioneer Trail Landscape; PQT Co; Prairie Landscaping & Tree; Prairie Restorations; Precision Landscaping & Irrigation; Precision Outdoor Services; Precision Yard Services; Property Upkeep Services; Prospect Hill Gardens Inc; Quality Seasons; R L Reynolds Construction; R S Inc; Redwood Falls Nursery Inc; Rich’s Lawn Service; River City Lawnscape; River Creek Nursery; River Road Greenhouse; Rosch Enterprises Inc; Roses Garden Gate; S & S Landscaping; S & S Tree Specialists; Saatzer Management Grower; Sam’s Lawn Care; Sargent’s Landscape Nursery Inc; Sargent’s Nursery Inc; Sargent’s Rochester; Savanna Designs Inc; Scape Creations LLC; Schafer Landscaping; Schalow’s Nursery; Schrader Enterprises Lawn; Schulte’s Greenhouse; Schultz Farming; Scott Gunter Landscape; Shery’s Gardening Inc; Shields Landscaping; Smith Massman Landscape & Design Co; Southview Garden Center; Spectrum Sales; Sterling Lawn and Snow; Steve’s Elk River Nursery; Sticks & Stones Design; Stockmen’s Greenhouse & Landscaping; Stone Arch Landscapes; Stone Creations Landscaping; Stonepocket Inc; Stone’s Edge Landscaping Inc.; Stonescapes; Sunbelt Sales; Swanson Greenhouse; Swedberg Nursery; Sytherland’s Nursery; T.J. Designs; Tamarack Landscaping; Tangletown Gardens LLC; TCO LLC; Tending Your Garden; Terraform Construction Services; Terrapin Landscape; The Ivy Garden; The Potted Fig; The Tree House Inc; Tim Oas; Timeless Gardens; Tim’s Lawn & Landscaping; TLC Landscape; Todds; Tom Mahler; Tony Desantis; Total-Green Inc.; Tucker Farms; U of M Duluth Facility Management; Vineland Landscape; VIP Design & Construction; VIPROPERTY; Wagner Greenhouses Inc; Wall Gardens; Weis Landscaping & Design LLC; West Lake Landscape Inc; Westside Outdoor Maintenance; Wewers Tree Spading Inc; Wheeler Lumber LLC; Wild Orchid Native Garden; Winona Nursery; Winona Nursery & Landscape; Winter Greenhouse; Winterland Nursery, Inc; Yardscapes Inc

We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this list. If your information is incorrect, please contact the MNLA office at 651-633-4987 or mnla@mnla.biz.

Improving the Environment by Investing in Research and Education 1813 LEXINGTON AVE. N | ROSEVILLE, MN 55113 | 651-633-4987 | F: 651-633-4986 | MNLA@MNLA.BIZ | MNLAFOUNDATION.COM

PARTNERS FUND

You are encouraged to participate in the Research & Education Partners Fund at one of the participating suppliers recognized below. Your voluntary donation of Âź of 1% (0.25%) on purchases of plants and other nursery, greenhouse and landscape products at these suppliers is used by the MNLA Foundation to grow a brighter future for the industry.

On an invoice totaling $1,000 at one of these suppliers, your contribution will be only $2.50.

Your individual contribution is small, but collectively these small contributions will add up to make a real difference!

Research for the Real World

Career Development & Promotion

Scholarships

➾ MNLA FOUN DATION

SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS 2 0 1 4 –1 5 scholarsh i p rec i p i ents

The MNLA Foundation partnered with 18 member companies to present 24 academic scholarships for the 2014–2015 school year. Here is a look at this year’s collegiate recipients.

Ryan Brick

Jeremy Garner

Sponsored by: Rochester Arborist Workshop

Sponsored by: Rochester Arborist Workshop

School: Rochester Community and Technical College Major: Horticulture Science Expected Graduation: May 2015

School: Rochester Community and Technical College Major: Horticultural Technology Expected Graduation: 2016

Future plans: I currently work in the green industry as a member of a tree care company and I plan to continue working with them and advancing my skills and experience within tree care.

Future plans: I have two paths that could be a fit for me. First, owning my own business doing landscapes, hardscapes and waterscapes. I have a big imagination and feel it would be best put to use on custom residential work. Secondly, if the opportunity arises, would be working for a larger company designing and managing the installation crews.

Kim Carlson

Alex Giese

Sponsored by: Countryside Gardens, Inc.

Sponsored by: Natural Creations

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: Landscape Design and Construction Expected Graduation: May 2015

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: Landscape Construction/Design Expected Graduation: December 2015

Future plans: As of now, I plan on working for my current company and hopefully growing with them.

Future plans: I plan on starting out anywhere within a company and know that I need to work my way up. I hope to become a designer and maybe one day I could own my own company and grow all of my own plant material.

Caleb Dirckx

Scott Herbst

Sponsored by: Greenwood Nursery

Sponsored by: Mickman Brothers, Inc.

School: Southeast Technical College Major: Landscape Design Technology Expected Graduation: December 2017

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: Landscape/Horticulture and Landscape Design Expected Graduation: May 2015

Future plans: After graduation, I would like to keep working in the nursery and landscape business. I plan to work on a landscape crew and eventually obtain my dream job of being a landscape designer so that I can keep doing what I love and am passionate about.

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january 15

Future plans: I am fortunate to be one of those who gets to say “I was hired before I graduated.” I started with Wagner Greenhouses in January of 2014 in their shipping department. Having a strong work ethic is what I feel helped me to recently be promoted to the position of Assistant Grower within the company.

John Holmberg

Sarah Kachmarek

Sponsored by: Wilson’s Nursery, Inc.

Sponsored by: Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: L andscape Design, Horticulture and Urban Forestry Expected Graduation: May 2016

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: Greenhouse Management Expected Graduation: Fall 2015

Future plans: I hope to work in a green house or for a tree service.

Future plans: My future plans consist of being a grower at a greenhouse near the Twin Cities or Duluth area. Later on, I would love to have my own greenhouses and grow local food for food desert areas and perhaps even sell food to local restaurants as well.

Nathanael Holmes

Karen Kelley

Sponsored by: Bachman’s, Inc.

Sponsored by: Robin D. Linder Memorial

School: University of Wisconsin – River Falls Major: Horticulture-Landscape Design and Management Expected Graduation: May 2016

Scholarship

Future plans: I plan to pursue a career in the landscape management industry, with my goal being a management position in a progressive landscape company. With this position, I would be able to influence adherence to high quality maintenance practices to create healthier, more beautiful landscapes.

Future plans: My goal is to get a full time job in the green industry. I would love to find a job working with house plants and teaching customers how to keep their plants alive.

Victoria Housewright

Betsy Kitslaar

Sponsored by: Gertens

Sponsored by: Otten Bros. Garden Center &

School: University of Minnesota – St. Paul Major: Horticulture and History Expected Graduation: May 2015

Landscaping

Future plans: My dream is to work in a public garden and have already completed a summer internship at Longwood Gardens. I really feel that public gardens are important for society today, especially in urban centers where families don’t have as much access to nature.

School: Century College Major: Horticulture Expected Graduation: Spring 2016

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: Landscape Design and Construction Expected Graduation: May 2015 Future plans: To obtain a full time landscape design position and make the world a more beautiful place!

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➾ MNLA FOUN DATION

SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS 2 0 1 4 –1 5 scholarsh i p rec i p i ents

The MNLA Foundation partnered with 18 member companies to present 24 academic scholarships for the 2014–2015 school year. Here is a look at this year’s collegiate recipients.

Beth Lande

Nicholas Peter

Sponsored by: Robin D. Linder Memorial

Sponsored by: Instant Green Tree Planting

Scholarship

School: University of Minnesota – St. Paul Major: Horticulture Expected Graduation: Spring 2015 Future plans: First, I hope to gain more hands-on experience by securing employment within the green industry. I will be completing my internship in Spring 2015 and hope that will result in full-time long term employment. In addition, I have started growing native plants on the farm and hope to one day establish my own nursery production operation.

Future plans: After graduating, I plan to work at a design/build firm as a full time landscape designer. I would love to work at a company that values customer interaction and customer satisfaction. It has always been a thought of mine to pursue my Masters Degree in Public Horticulture. I would love to then work at a public garden working in collaboration with the public on service projects.

Brandon Miller

Aaron Pingel

Sponsored by: Bailey Nurseries, Inc.

Sponsored by: Bailey Nurseries, Inc.

School: Iowa State University Major: Agronomy & Horticulture Expected Graduation: May 2015

School: University of Wisconsin – River Falls Major: Horticulture Expected Graduation: May 2015

Future plans: I plan on continuing my education by attending graduate school and earning a Master of Science degree. I then plan to go back to work in the nursery industry. It has long been my dream to open a nursery of my own, and I plan to work until I can make that dream a reality.

Future plans: I hope to get a job in the landscape design/maintenance industry or in a public garden setting and show off my talents. If I get hired at a landscape firm, I would work there for a few years and establish myself, and hopefully work my way up in the company.

Dawn O’Connor

Stephanie Reko

Sponsored by: Malmborg’s, Inc.

Sponsored by: Hoffman & McNamara Nursery

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: Landscape/Horticulture Expected Graduation: December 2015

and Landscape

Future plans: At Hennepin Technical College, I currently have a work study position in the greenhouse. I love the work and would like to be employed in a greenhouse. My interests are also in greenwalls and interior foliage.

Some day, I would like to have my own greenhouse where I can incorporate it all.

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School: University of Wisconsin – River Falls Major: Horticulture – Landscape Design Expected Graduation: May 2016

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School: University of Minnesota – Crookston Major: Horticulture Expected Graduation: May 2015 Future plans: Upon graduation, I plan to seek a job in the field of horticulture.

Brittany Rootes

Ashley Trout

Sponsored by: Robin D. Linder Memorial

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Scholarship

School: University of Minnesota – St. Paul Major: Landscape Architecture Expected Graduation: May 2015

School: University of Wisconsin – River Falls Major: Horticulture Expected Graduation: May 2015 Future plans: This summer, I am seeking an internship in Florida working in tropical foliage plant production. I feel that working in plant production will give me a completely different view on the houseplant industry and advantageous insight to prepare myself for my future career.

Future plans: I believe there is a need for landscape architects that can help organize and think about designs in new ways to solve global problems such as climate change, pollution, and decrease in quality water.

I want to be able to preserve the already existing native landscapes but I also want to restore areas that are not being used by the public and create natural community areas for people to revel in.

Leyna Spiller

Molly Williamson

Sponsored by: Southview Design

Sponsored by: Hoffman & McNamara Nursery

School: Hennepin Technical College Major: Landscape Design and Construction Expected Graduation: June 2015

and Landscape

Future plans: I would like to work as a landscape designer for an established company in the Twin Cities area. I look forward to learning and growing as I move in my career, always keeping up on current trends, learning from others in the industry and keeping involved in green initiatives.

School: Dakota County Technical College Major: Landscape Horticulture Expected Graduation: December 2015 Future plans: My goal is to be a landscape designer. I believe outdoor spaces can be beautiful regardless of the size of the space or amount of money you spend. Families should be outside playing, breathing fresh air, growing vegetables, and enjoying their time together.

Rebecca Splichal

Drew Zagala

Sponsored by: Wilson’s Nursery, Inc.

Sponsored by: Tangletown Gardens LLC

School: University of Minnesota – St. Paul Major: Horticulture Expected Graduation: May 2016

School: University of Minnesota – St. Paul Major: Plant Science Expected Graduation: May 2016

Future plans: This past summer I worked at a public garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and really enjoyed it. After college, I would like to work at a public garden again. I would like to work in the greenhouses doing propagation and choosing and buying plants from greenhouses for the following years’ selection.

Future plans: Immediately after graduation, I plan to join the Peace Corps. for two years.

Then, I want to come back to the Twin Cities and pursue graduate school in something related to either plant breeding or plant production.

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➾ legal iss ues

How to Protect Your Company’s Trade Secrets Victoria Lewis

Law Clerk, Zlimen and McGuiness, PLLC

The Minnesota Trade Secrets Act is designed to protect certain information within a company that is meant to be kept a secret. According to this Act, a trade secret is defined as “information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process” that derives its economic value from being kept a secret and is reasonably protected by its owner. This means that information is likely to be a trade secret if it is known only within the business, has value, and is protected to maintain secrecy.

How to protect your trade secrets?

In order for a trade secret to be protected the most essential thing is that the information must actually be a secret. The information cannot be generally known to competitors and cannot be shared with people outside of the company. So a business seeking to keep information private under this law must be careful about what they share with third parties. Information on websites and provided to customers cannot be protected as a trade secret unless a confidentiality agreement is signed.

An owner of a trade secret should restrict the access to the information to only those who need it. Using locks and passwords are good ways to secure this information and ensure that only people who need the information will have access to it. Another way to ensure that information is protected as a trade secret is to designate the information as “Confidential.” A way to do this is to use the word “Confidential” on each page of the trade secret information.

Finally, the most important thing an employer can do to ensure the safety of trade secrets is to have everyone with access to the secret sign confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements. These documents can protect trade secrets because it allows the confidential information to be shared between parties for certain purposes, but restricts access to third parties not included in the agreement.

Employers can also have employees sign non-compete agreements to ensure that former employees do not share trade secrets with a competing company. A non-

compete agreement generally is a contract that prohibits an employee from working for a competing business of their former employer for a period after the employment relationship ends. The enforceability of these types of contracts are based on several factors. To be enforceable under Minnesota law, the non-compete agreement must serve a legitimate employer interest, which includes the protection of the employer’s confidential information or trade secrets. Adequate consideration for the agreement must also exist, meaning that the party agreeing not to compete must be given something of value in exchange for the agreement. Monetary consideration is the most common. Other factors that will be considered when determining whether the non-compete agreement is enforceable are whether the agreement is reasonable in scope, duration, and geographic area. This means that the non-compete agreement cannot restrict the former employee from working broadly in an area, it must be specifically tailored to only restrict work in an area that is actual competition. The non-compete must also not be for an indefinite or unreasonable amount of time and cannot include a geographic area that is too large.

Violations of the Trade Secrets Act

Minnesota defines a violation of the Minnesota Trade Secrets Act as “misappropriation.” Under the Act, misappropriation is defined as “acquiring the trade secret of another person who knows or has reason to know the secret was gained by improper means.” These improper january 15

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âžž legal iss ues

With all of this in mind, the most important thing an employer can do to keep confidential information secret is to design a plan to protect trade secrets, and then make sure to implement that plan. means can include theft, bribery, misrepresentation, breach, or inducement of breach of duty to maintain secrecy. Misappropriation can also include disclosure or use of the trade secret without consent of the owner.

If someone has violated the Act, the owner of the trade secret has three years in which they can bring action under the Minnesota Trade Secrets Act. The owner of the trade secret may seek injunctive relief from the court, meaning that the court can order the person to stop using the trade secrets. The injunction against the violator will continue for a reasonable time after the violation is discovered to eliminate the advantage the violator was getting from the misappropriation. However, the injunction may also be terminated when the trade secret no longer exists or the information is no longer considered a trade secret.

If the court finds that a violation occurs, the owner of the trade secret may be entitled to damages. The damages can include the actual financial loss caused by the misappropriation, as well as compensation because the violator was able to benefit unfairly from the misappropriation. If the misappropriation was willful and malicious, the court may also award additional damages.

With all of this in mind, the most important thing an employer can do to keep confidential information secret is to design a plan to protect trade secrets, and then make sure to implement that plan.

This article provides general information on employment law and should not be relied upon as legal advice. A qualified attorney must analyze all relevant facts and apply the applicable law to any matter before legal advice can be given. If you would like more information regarding employment law or other legal matters, please contact Patrick McGuiness at Zlimen & McGuiness, PLLC at 651-206-3203 or pmcguiness@zmattorneys.com

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âžž master of nets

A Metaphor for Design:

Fishing and Sec

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Dr. Chunqing Liu. Dr. Jon Bryan Burley, and Shawn Partin | Originally published in the Michigan Nursery & Landscape Association’s magazine The Michigan Landscape.

clusion

The Master-of-Nets Garden, Suzhou, China

Introduction: Since Western cultures have had extensive historical contact with Japan, many people know about Japanese Gardens and enjoy experiencing the Japanese style of creating environments. Despite the fact that Chinese gardens (yuan) are the precedent for Japanese gardens and the tradition of gardening is much older in China, until recently, few people knew much about Chinese gardens. This was because China was much more closed and difficult to access for many Westerners. Academic knowledge in the West about Chinese garden traditions is currently being diffused and described in Western literature.

Figure 1. Traditional view of the pond at the Master-of-Nets Garden, Suzhou, P.R. of China (copyright Š 2009 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

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Figure 2. A map of the central portion of the Master-of-Nets Garden, Suzhou, Jiangsu, P.R. of China residing in the entrance to the garden (copyright © 2009 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

M

any great Chinese gardens have been destroyed in revolutions and war. Yet, somehow, the City of Suzhou, in the Jiangsu Province, a city somewhat near both Shanghai and Nanjing, was able to retain and preserve its private residential gardens. There are numerous gardens to visit and each garden usually requires at least several hours to experience. To see all that Suzhou has to offer may take a full week of visitation. Many of these gardens are part of the listed World Cultural Heritage sites by UNESCO. One outstanding example of a classical and traditional Chinese garden in Suzhou is the Master-of-Nets Garden (Figure 1). The Master-of-Nets Garden is located in Kuojietou Alley in the southeast of Suzhou. It is relatively small at only 8 mu (1.33 acres), but demonstrates the splendid technique, meticulous design and admirable creativity of Chinese garden designers and their ability to create unique and exquisite masterpieces. This space masters the techniques of borrowed scenery and is known for appropriately combining the juxtaposing qualities of unity, diversity, contrast, and harmony, while tying in rhyme, rhythm, sequence, and depth to create a unified whole. The garden is an exemplary integration of art with nature and the embodied philosophy, representing the harmony between nature and people.

In 1980, the re-creation of the Chinese classical garden “Ming Xuan” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (modeled on the Peony Court in the Master-of-Nets Garden) is the first time that Chinese garden culture was featured overseas. So, knowledge about Chinese gardens in the West is quite new. Writers in the West have popularized Chinese artifacts and design style, such as William Chambers’ book Dissertation on Oriental Gardens (1772). However, this book is philosophical in character and Chambers may have only observed paintings of these gardens. This article will provide greater insight into the specific character and techniques found in traditional Chinese gardens.

History

Master-of-Nets Garden history can be traced as far back as eight hundred years, at a time when Suzhou was being extensively rebuilt.

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The city was being revitalized due to the Song government having to relocate from the northern portion of the country, which was lost to the Jin. Thus, relocated resources were being invested in Suzhou.

The garden was first constructed in 1140 by Shi Zhengzhi, a retired high official in the Southern Song Dynasty government who retained ownership of the garden for the remainder of his life. Shi Zhengzhi admired the simple and idyllic life of a Chinese fisherman, entailing great learning and moral quality (fisherman in philosophical writings have the qualities of a hermit). He used several names and called the garden “Ten Thousand Volume Hall” and named “Fisherman’s Seclusion”. Naming places, features (such as bridges), and gardens is common in Chinese culture. The names are often romantic, hinting at ideas that take understanding and reflection to comprehend, such as Lingering Garden or Humble Administrator’s Garden. A famous example of this tradition is found in Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. There, a famous stroll garden exists call Xi Hu (West Lake). One of the bridges along the causeways through Xi Hu is known as Snow Covered Broken Bridge, representing a tragic love story associated with the bridge.

Chinese like these hidden, thoughtful and short messages.

Following Shi Zhengzhi’s death, the ownership of Master-of-Nets Garden was passed on several times and eventually fell into disrepair until around 1785 when it was renovated by Song Zongyuan, another government official seeking to withdraw from society and place himself above the secular world in the Qing Dynasty. He drastically redesigned the garden and formed the current expression and overall layout while still retaining the spirit of the site. Song Zongyuan named the garden the Master-of-Nets Garden, in order to show his respect for hermits and admiration for the peaceful life of a fisherman.

Often, educated Chinese men followed a philosophy where reading, learning, music, drawing, painting, writing, and gardening were combined to form a lifestyle. This is the case at the Master-of-Nets Garden. Dr. Liu, a visiting scholar to Michigan State University of landscape architecture from Jiangxi Agricultural University, notes, “In Michigan there are people who live their life similar to the traditional Chinese scholar. I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. [Jon Bryan] Burley from MSU. He has his magnolia and butterfly garden in Gratiot County as an escape from a very busy academic life. He paints, writes, has a very big library, and plays his guitar.

I believe he understands the ambitions of the traditional Chinese educated man.”

The garden changed ownership several times during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Those owners, including merchant Qu Yuancun, imperial official and master calligrapher Li Hongyi, and cultural connoisseur and collector He Yanong, all remodeled buildings, planted trees, and arranged stones, but kept the old name and continued the “Fisherman” theme. During the 1930s, Chinese painting master Zhang Shanzi, and his brother Zhang Daqian lived in the garden. In 1958, He Yanong’s daughter He Zehui donated the garden to the Suzhou government. Up to this point, the development of the garden had spanned nearly eight centuries and had been intimately involved in the daily lives of each owner, evolving all the while.

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➾ master of nets

Today, most of the garden is a representation of the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, from about 1736–1795. The garden, through numerous reconstructions and embellishments, has become one of the most popular and most skillfully arranged gardens in China. The famous architectural historian from Tongji University in Shanghai, Chen Congzhou (1918–2000) even believed the Masterof-Nets Garden was the best representation of all classical Chinese garden art, which he noted in great detail in his book On Chinese Gardens (Figure 2).

The Design Concept: Fishing and Seclusion

Figure 3. A revealed view of the pond from the Water-side Pavilion of Washing Hat Tassel looking towards the point of the pond that is supposed to represent the best place for fishing, a location that is also suitable for ducks. Ducks are supposed to be a sign of where the fish are located. The view represents the subtle revelation of the design’s concept (copyright © 2009 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

Figure 4. A view of a rock formation and Huangshan pine (Pinus hwangshanensis W.Y. Hsia) at Yellow Mountain (Huangshan in Anhui Province).

The image is an example illustrating Chinese love for nature. There is no direct connection between Yellow Mountain and the Master-of-Nets Garden. Instead, Yellow Mountain is a place loved by the Chinese for its pine, rocks, sea of clouds, and hot springs (copyright © 2007 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

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Like many great Western design gardens, each Chinese garden has a concept driving its design. With Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and the seclusion-like thinking as the source of philosophy, the Master-of-Nets Garden is the embodiment of water-associated culture as well as reclusive culture. In classic Chinese gardens, no water feature means no garden. The garden took great studious observation on the part of the designer to reproduce the beauty of natural mountains and water. In addition, it took great skill to recreate nature’s naturally occurring seclusion in an unfolding landscape revealed through poetic couplets. The pond, the buildings around the pond, the Peony Court, sculpted scenes, and other artifacts in and around the house all strive to depict the garden motif: fishing and seclusion. Even the ornate brick-carved doorway, elaborate furnishings, delicate flower window, fine artwork, and decorations all add to the notion of the retired fisherman. These adornments serve to complement the poetic ease and leisure in appreciation of the “mountains and forests” and idealized nature in the urban surroundings (Jin 2003: 7).

Water is the quintessence and soul of the culture in Suzhou. There are intricate webs of waterways and canals throughout the ancient city, many of which connect to the Great Canal, an inland waterway from Beijing to Hangzhou. Near to the city is Taihu, a great circular lake famous for its washed limestone often used in landscaping.

So, it’s easy to appreciate that being a fisherman is considered the optimum profession among the classic Four Gentlemen “fishing, forester, farming, and reading” in Chinese culture. As observed by Jin, “The poet Hong Liangji, in his Master-of-Nets Garden, thus addresses the owner of the garden in envious tones: ‘On the mighty Lake Taihu, you and I shared the pleasure of rowing on the waves, yet now you beat me you’re your delicate cove of waters, in which to enjoy the ease of the fisherman.’ The poem artfully reveals that water is not only the cultural background of the region, but also the underlying theme of the garden.” (Jin 2003: 5–6).

Within the city walls of historical Suzhou, buildings are required to maintain a low profile in keeping with the traditional city. Only the pagoda towers of temples rise above this height requirement.

Outside of the city walls, modern Suzhou and large skyscrapers surround the inner city. This appearance adds to the interest of the city to the visual quality of the Masters-of-Nets Garden.

Aside from the theme of seclusion, Master-of-Nets Garden has romantic charm as well. The literati-recluses that owned and cared for this garden were not just severing relations with the world, but embracing seclusion as well as the soul of freedom and serenity.

Though the theme of “fishing and seclusion” was determined by the initial owner Shi Zhengzhi, it was powerful enough that subsequent owners remained true to this theme, and while the quality of the garden has risen and fallen and the ownership changed hands several times over, the search for serenity, seclusion and simplicity has remained intact (Figure 3). Depicting the pastoral life and expressing the appeal of seclusion have become a perpetual pursuit for these scholarly gentry in their combined landscape creation.

Dr. Liu states, “This is even true in Dr. Burley’s Gratiot County Garden. He drives a long way to get away from the city to listen to birds and the wind in the trees. He has no cable TV or satellite TV. Even his mobile phone does not work very reliably at his home. He is cut off from the technical modern world. He takes walks to watch the stars. He watches dragonflies, bees, bats, and butterflies. He seems to love the smell of the earth. It is precious to him. I think many people in Michigan are like this,” comments Dr. Liu. “They love their great lakes, forests, wildlife, and natural scenery,” she adds.

She also notes, “I can understand how the people of Michigan admire their state and their gardens. In China, so many people never have a chance to have land or plant trees. But, in Michigan the strong individual spirit and attachment to the land is quite prevalent.”

Figure 5. This is an image of the famous karst topography along the Li Jiang (Li River) on the way from Guilin to Yangshou, in south China.

Along the river one will view the scene of the 20 RMB note in Chinese money. The image presents a flotilla of tourist boats facilitating peoples’ desire to experience this breathtaking river scenery of mountains, vegetation, and water. Like Figure 4, the image has no direct connection with the Master-of-Nets Garden, but the image also indicates Chinese enjoyment and preference for hills, water, vegetation, and naturalness (copyright © 2009 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

The Design Techniques

To create this special garden, several design approaches guided the design. The Master-of-Nets Garden is a combination of the enjoyment of natural beauty, borrowing scenes, revealing scenery, integrating the garden and architecture, and weaving the garden together with poetry.

Enjoying the Beauty of Nature: The traditional Chinese residential garden is different from many formal European gardens. The distinguishing features of China’s classical gardens are imitating nature, reproducing nature, and surpassing nature (Figures 4 and 5).

Garden construction is too often expected to meet the aesthetic need of people’s appreciation of nature. As a special genre of art, China’s classical gardens developed from a need to present the figure of the nature in such a way as to exhibit humanism, to pursue faithfulness, and finally to apply nature to inspire faithfulness within humanity. In other words, it seems to be initially the imitation and reproduction of nature, but upon deeper examination, it is essentially the exploration of the world. Chinese classical gardens exhibit a high taste in pursuit of nature, connotation, and artistic conception to emphasize the natural beauty and harmonious relationship between man and his environment (Figure 6). Intended activities in the Chinese garden include strolling through the garden, enjoying true nature complete with blue sky, green trees, clean water, and seasonal changes, listening to the songs of birds, bathing in the sun, or enjoying shade in the forest. The ancient scholars and literati sensed the harmony between themselves and nature, thus the desire for seclusion within nature away from the troubles of the world. This lifestyle gave them sustenance. This, and the pursuit of emotional and aesthetic freedom, pushed the design of the classical gardens to their current artistic peak.

Ji Cheng (1582–1642), a famous garden designer of the Ming dynasty, defined the essence of Chinese garden design with a single

Figure 6. A framed scenery window of the Bamboo-Flanked Pavilion, illustrating the nature inspired landscape and how the landscape is revealed from inside structures. (copyright © 2009 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

statement, “Though man-made, the garden looks like it is springing from nature.” His definition demonstrates that garden building is a creative process based on the high degree of extraction and artistic generalization of nature (Liu 2012:27).

The Master-of-Nets Garden is no exception. The natural characteristics are evident everywhere in this garden. It strives to create a near-natural environment in a limited space, which is filled with an echo of philosophical ideas, the morphology of which was in direct relation with the peaceful and natural mentality of the creator. The garden is not large in size, but nevertheless manages to create the natural landscape spirit, make full use of hills, creeks, and naturally rich vegetation while combining halls, corridors, terraced houses, and an array of fascinating pavilions. Through intricacy and precision of design, the overall character appears to be formed by nature, january 15

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Figure 7. The scene of Duck-Shooting Veranda with yellow stones and green trees turning the dull white wall into a landscape painting.

Notice how the bridge and water suggest a source beyond the scene of the image (copyright © 2012 Xuan Luo, all rights reserved, used by permission).

Figure 8. The winding corridor outside the Hall of Harmony empathizes the deep and secluded space of the garden, prolonging the tour.

Notice the zigzag pathway system and the indoor/outdoor experience (copyright © 2012 Xuan Luo, all rights reserved, used by permission).

imitating the White Lotus Pool at Tiger Hill (a place with a leaning pagoda in Suzhou). The composition of the rockery and the pond together make the garden closely resemble the natural world. A small bridge in the northwest divides the ponds into two bodies, a large pond and a small bay. The small bay and rockery symbolizes a water source.

The southeast of the pond features a small creek, where the water seems to disappear (Figure 7). Endless flowing water, natural winding shores and irregular banks and stones leave an image of freedom and boundlessness, as though there is no end to the landscape.

Another embodiment of naturalness is the winding pavement and zigzagging corridors (Figure 8). The design is quite different from the many straight paths that are characteristic of western Italian gardens. Pathways in Chinese culture are often not straight to ensure proper Feng Shui (wind and water). A winding path prevents evil spirits from entering.

Paths in the garden not only connect all scenic spots and areas, but also wind naturally up and down the slopes, creating a variety of scenes, both while standing on the path or looking toward it.

Pavement and corridors have no fixed patterns. Some paths are inserted among the flower gardens. Some paths are undulating along ascending steps, while others are built along a waterside, with long corridors offering shelter to keep out wind and rain. Winding corridors, which accompany trees and shrubs, are good travel guides leading to beautiful views of the garden, as well as a nice place to rest. Each action along the path offers the visitors fresh visual surprises, creating constantly changing scenes along the way. While the garden is relatively small, with ever-changing charm, the garden seems expansive.

Layout and Space — The Few Outshine the Many: Ideal gardens are like superb lines of verse. They are so designed as to make the “few” seem to surpass the “many” and to evoke a sense of infinity (Chen 2007: 12). Scattered in layout and flexible in spaces without a stereotype, the Master-of-Nets Garden, acknowledged as being the classic model for delicate classical gardens, through reasonable space arrangement and interpretation to natural life exemplifies the concept of “the few outshine the many” in landscape gardening.

Layout of the Garden: Flowing Naturalness and Changed Scenes: Designing a garden is like composing an essay or a poem,

to achieve a lyrical and picturesque “natural portrayal”. The garden creates harmony and integration between man and nature through artistic imagination, reflecting an artistic conception created from nature, but supposedly exceeding nature.

Confucius said that, “The wise enjoy water, the benevolent enjoy mountains. The wise are active, the benevolent are quiet.” Water and mountain represent the concurrency of wisdom and humaneness.

Digging a pond to create hills is a realization of the pursuit of natural beauty. Mountains add spirit, and water adds liveliness to the scenery. The layout of one pond surrounded by three hills is the origin of the Chinese classical garden. The Summer Palace (near Beijing), West Lake (in Hangzhou) as well as several other popular scenic spots have all adopted this kind of formation. The relationship between hills and water in the garden is imitating natural landscapes.

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requiring thoughtful planning and harmonious spatial proportions in a compact layout, all the while keeping in mind that the design should be a reasonable arrangement of coherent and well-integrated features. As is typical of the layout of privately owned residences, each garden is an organic merge of the regular living quarters found in traditional Chinese homes. In terms of the overall design of the space, the Masters-of-Nets Garden consists chiefly of three parts: 1. The eastern section is composed of a residential quarter in symmetrical structure of three courts along a central axis; four halls are positioned on the central axis. The buildings embody rank (status), with elegant and delicate interior decoration and exquisite and meaningful external brickcarved doorways. Winding corridors, the windows in the wall and the man-made rockery with vegetation connect the courtyards and buildings and the clusters of courtyards are full of tranquility and are elegant.

2. The focal point of the garden is a central lake sitting at the center of the western part of the garden. The lake is twenty meters long on each of its four sides and not substantial in terms of total area. It is surrounded on all sides by different types of buildings and one small yellow stone mountain (available at several sites north and south of Suzhou), which, while compact, are meticulous in design. On the east side of the lake exists an octagonal “Pavilion of Breeze in Moon-lit Night” protruding over the bank, forming the major architectural feature of the space (this is the most representative view of the Master-of-Nets Garden). The water, like a still mirror, easily captures the reflection of the sky, buildings, and vegetation to form an aesthetic landscape mixing myth and fact together.

3. The Northwest corner contains the elaborate and quaint inner garden named Peony Court, which is named for the Chinese herbaceous peony that inhabit this corner of the space. A master’s study built in a Ming Dynasty style, a half pavilion, a chilly spring, towering rockeries and randomly dotted trees form the wellrenowned courtyard. On the southwest side is the Hall of Dewy Grace structure, where tree peony flowers dominate the scene (Figures 9 and 10).

These three parts combine to form the garden. The garden layout is compact, but not congested. Water and rockery surrounded by halls, chambers, pavilions, and corridors work together to create a dynamic and dramatic landscape atmosphere.

Spaces of the Garden: The Grand in the Miniature: The principles of Chinese painting — achieving the best contrast between densely and loosely laid scenes — deeply inspire Chinese garden construction.

Chinese have known for centuries how to create an emotive infinite garden from a limited space. The garden is compact and exquisite, but the spatial relationship of every element is intricate and beautiful, attempting to create rich landscape views in the limited space. In doing so, the garden space is divided into smaller scenic units, each with its own distinctive character denoted by a particular feature.

The main scenic sectors emphasize the key scene, with subordinate spaces adjoining them, achieving the proper balance and natural transitions from dense and loose space so as to enrich and extend the artistic space of the whole garden (Engel 1986:44-45). As a result, the central lake, though it is small (measuring only about half a mu — approximately 333.33 square meters) with rockeries, a flagstone bridge decorating the shoreline, and the bay and brook all seem linked to an endless source, giving the visitor an impression of a vast pond. Thus, strolling through the garden’s poetic scene and natural elements evoke a lyrical mood in the visitor and, despite the boundary wall that restricts the size of the space, creates the feeling of a larger setting outside the garden’s architectural framework.

A common technique used in Chinese garden design is putting a smaller space within or beside a larger space, thus creating “a garden within a garden”. The contrast in size makes the garden rich in spatial structure (Liu 2012:39). The Peony Court area of the garden was specifically designed to be a garden within a garden. In this way, the garden designer heightens one’s imagination so as to turn the limited space into an infinite dreamland of experiences.

Figure 9. The tree peony flowerbed combined with rocks in front of the Hall of Dewy Grace (copyright © 2009 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

Figure 10. A drawing of the tree peony garden in winter (copyright © 2007 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

Principles of Garden Aesthetics: Following the general Principles of Chinese Garden Aesthetics, the visual effect of Master-of-Nets Gardens has been praised all through the ages. The design contains broad landscapes to fine vignettes. Height, density, distance, brightness, materials, and color are varied, creating an elaborate and sophisticated experience from one scene to the next.

Borrowing Scenes: The essence of Chinese garden design lies in revealing the inner beauty of natural form instead of imitating the outer beauty. This kind of inner beauty is exactly the “nature” depicted in the Taoist concept of “letting things take their own course” advocated by Laozi and Zhuangzi (both ancient Taoist writers and philosophers). This is why, in Chinese garden design, special attention is paid to the borrowing of scenery, arrangement from top to bottom, compliance with physical features of a place, and the removal of traces of man-made embellishment (Liu 2012:25). “Scenery outside gardens” depends on “borrowing” (such as borrowing the view of North Temple Pagoda into the Humble

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Administrator’s Garden), and “scenery outside scenery” on “time” (clouds, sound, seasons, weather, birds, etc.). “Borrowing scenes” in a Chinese garden often means borrowing distant hills, temples and pavilions outside the garden into the visual scope of the garden’s total composition. But, in the Master-of-Nets Garden, there is no distant landscape worth borrowing. Instead, the garden is planned so as to put the reflection in the water, the shadows of trees, the sound of wind, the singing of birds, the fragrance of flowers, and the change of seasons to join the visible physical objects of the garden. The pavilion, porch, chair, and terrace are designed so the vantage points from these borrow desirable views. Sitting in the pavilion at the pond’s edge, the borrowed scenes, rich with poetic sentiment and artistic conception, greatly broaden the imagery of the space, making one feel as if they are within infinite space and perfect harmony, forming an integral whole (a strongly Taoist philosophy).

Figure 11. Calligraphy, poetry and painting decorated in the Hall of Ten Thousand Volumes, an important aspect of the traditional Chinese garden to reveal and interpret the intentions of the owners/designers (copyright © 2012 Chunqing Liu, all rights reserved, used by permission).

Revealing the Scenery: The garden employs the technique of separation to enrich the landscapes they create. In Chinese garden design, such features as walls, corridors, bridges, screens, curtains, and partition boards are used to divide the space into separate quarters, to receive the depth, and to add complexity to the space. The usual decorative walls and long corridors do not obstruct the user’s view completely, even though they are built to separate, they also help to increase the depth of the view (Lou 2011:148). Walls and corridors connected with patterned glass windows, lattice windows, or empty windows not only “reveal and draw out the scenery,” but offer tantalizing visual penetration to hint at what lies beyond, enhancing the sense of openness and implying deep cultural connotations and aesthetical charm. This is the origin of indoor/outdoor design adopted by the Japanese, Latin, and Californian landscape design. A famous example of this is the picture windows facing the back court of the Peony Cottage. The landscapes framed with wood carvings — creating, in essence, a window — are a classic pictorial scene which are frequently seen in traditional painting often expressed with banana trees, bamboo, or plum trees. They change with the seasons and elaborate the beauty of dynamic-static and the need to appreciate and enjoy silence.

The weaving of indoor and outdoor experiences is important in the Chinese garden experience. And in truth, the garden and architecture are inseparable. For the resident of the place, the garden, and the structures are one. The garden experience and the library, poems, writing and reading are united.

Figure 12. The interior decoration of the Hall of Accumulated Void was executed in accordance with the owner’s realizing of “Tao” (copyright © 2009 Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).

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Prominent in the Scenery: Banners, couplets, and inscriptions are a special type of Chinese literature. They are widely used in the Master-of-Nets Garden for seeking artistic conception and imagery patterns (Figure 11). Chinese believe, “If no inscriptions on tablets are made for the several pavilions and halls in the garden with such splendid views, even flowers, willows, hills and ponds will fail to add color to it.” (Excerpt from Chapter 17 of A Dream of Red Mansions, one of four

classic books in Chinese culture). Through the fusion of art and culture, literary connotations and artistic ambience are illustrated completely in the name of the garden itself, the names of the buildings, and in all of the banners, couplets and inscriptions. The inscriptions of this garden are mostly quoted directly or adapted from the Chinese classical poetry.

For example, the Pavilion of Breeze in Moon-lit Night is adapted from a poem by famous Tang Dynasty poet Han Yu entitled “The twilight brings autumn and the breeze sends here the moon”. The intent of the pavilion is to enjoy the cool breeze and a view of the moon, and especially of three moons at the Mid-Autumn Festival: one in the sky, one in the water, and another one reflected in the mirror. Another couplet in the garden is written by Zheng Banqiao (a famous painter in Qing Dynasty), it comments on four virtuous men in history, carrying deep implications about virtues.

The splendor of the scenery and profound history and culture are unveiled and appreciated, affording a heightened artistic delight to the visitor.

Compatibility of Architecture and Nature: Integration of architectural beauty and natural beauty is one of the main characteristics of China’s classical gardens. In order to satisfy the multiple functions of daily life and pursuit of art, the architectural features in the Master-of-Nets Garden are numerous and frequent. They can be divided into two types, residential architecture and landscape architecture. The residential architecture in the Master-of-Nets Garden appears in a certain symmetrical layout along a central axis, offering stability, contentment, and ease of life. Courtyards between these buildings are combined with windows and doors and with natural elements such as rocks, flowerbeds, and vegetation forming a natural environment. Landscape architectural elements are positioned according to the terrain, view and relation between each element.

They are somewhat independent with individual styles yet interconnected with covered corridors, stone bridges and paths (it rains for 1/3 of the year in Suzhou, so almost all buildings in the garden are connected by covered corridors). The nearby rockery, water, and plants establish a poetic scene together. These natural elements reflect an art of living as well as the approaches to ideas about life and aesthetic tastes. Despite having many buildings in the garden, the garden obtains the elegance and taste of the natural scene.

Chinese traditional landscape architectural design must contain three specific characteristics to achieve a kind of harmony with nature. First, they must be made entirely of natural materials such as wood, stone or bamboo to name a few. Second, due to the unique structural systems of ancient Chinese architecture, columns are typically the only load bearing structural components. The indoor and outdoor spaces are formed into a coherent entity to attain visual harmony. Finally, the third characteristic pertains to the roofs of structures. Roofs always have an incline or a sweeping curvature that rises at the corners of the roof, visually or physically permeating into and blending with the surrounding trees, hills, or remote mountains. Furthermore, the structures and landscape are designed to both “make scenery” and “frame scenery”. They are an integral part of the most enjoyable scene, and at the same time offer additional

In Chinese garden design, such features as walls, corridors, bridges, screens, curtains, and partition boards are used to divide the space into separate quarters, to receive the depth, and to add complexity to the space. views and opportunities to sit and rest and enjoy the garden. For example, the Pavilion of Breeze in Moon-lit Night is the main scenic spot of the lake area and also offers a splendid view of the buildings on the eastern side of the garden. At the northern and southern ends of the lake are respectively the Hall of Viewing Pines and Contemplating Paintings and the Rectangular Hall of Osmanthus Hill. As these are larger scale buildings and could dominate the scene, the artificial hills were designed in front of these buildings, so as not to let the large buildings dominate the pond. On the east bank of the lake, the Duck-Shooting Veranda and four residential halls are decorated by colorful ornamental plants and rocks, forming an impressive picture against the whitewashed walls. In this way, architecture is intended to be harmonious with the peripheral environment.

Poetic Mood and Deep Implication: All of the owners of the Master-of-Nets Garden were scholars or Literati. From the first name “Fisherman’s Seclusion” to the last name “Master-of-Nets”, all represent the idea to live in the city while enjoying the natural landscape (seclusion lifestyle), the ideal and poetic circumstances, and satisfying their spiritual pursuits: forgoing materialistic and monetary interests. So, they used landscape elements to create artistic and poetic garden scenery, integrating artistic ingredients of traditional poetry, painting, sculpture, calligraphy, music, and drama (to be comprehensive in the spatial arts, the Chinese garden has a close relationship with those arts, and thus one can easily see those artistic expressions in the garden, and they share certain similarities in artistic techniques). They took the natural landscape as the model for creating a series of “poetic landscapes consisting of mountains and water within the city” and an ideal living environment of liveliness and artistic enjoyment. This approach has also been employed in China by many emperors. The theme of “Fishing and Seclusion” is essential and important for the Masters-of- Nets Garden. Various scenic spots are built around the theme. Meanwhile, each special scenic spot indicates the designer’s distinctive pursuit to communicate the “Fishing and Seclusion” ambience. The garden designer pays great attention to the artistic realm behind the scenes and profound implications that are supposed to be thought provoking. For example, the four cardinal points of the central pool — the DuckShooting Veranda, the Water-side Pavilion of Washing Hat Tassel, the Pavilion of Breeze in Moon-lit Night, and the Hall of Viewing Pines and Contemplating Paintings—respectively represent the characteristics of each of the four different seasons. Some evergreens, such as bamboo (Bambuseae sp. Kunth ex Dumfort), Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis L.), and lacebark pine (Pinus bungeana Zucc.), were chosen because they symbolize a fortitude-like character (Chinese regard pine, bamboo and plum blossoms to be the three friends in frostiness). The name of Water-side Pavilion of january 15

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Washing Hat Tassel is taken from the Song of Surging Waves: “Be the surging water clean, I wash my hat tassel; Be the surging water turbid, I wash my foot.� The song is a classic metaphor of the persistent attitude and a reclusive life. The implied philosophy of couplets, a melodious sound of birds and insects, a reflection of the sky in the pond, a bright moon in the sky, and cool breeze resound over the bamboo; the shadows of flowers moving on the wall, are all important components of the garden scenery. The garden is overflowing with a poetic mood, pictorial beauty, and imaginary charm.

The design is simple but elegant, pure and fresh. If one cannot understand the spiritual significance affiliated to the landscape scene, then one cannot achieve a sympathetic touch and an emotional resonance.

Garden Features

The Master-of-Nets Garden is composed of a series of framed glimpses of scenery, a 41 peaceful pond, a jagged rock, an ornate brick-carved doorway, a grove of banana, a slender bamboo, a well-designed pavilion, or an elaborate furnishing. These fragments constitute a landscape of harmonious coexistence of humans and nature.

Rockery and Pond: The Chinese believe that rock is the backbone and water is the soul of the garden (It is rare to find a Chinese classic garden without these two elements).

Rock is a symbol of virtue, stability, and endurance; water represents lightness and communication. The combining of mountains and water in a garden is an expression of YIN and YANG, the Taoist view of the balancing of opposites, the harmony and duality pervading all things (Engel 1986:5).

The Master-of-Nets Garden is famous for managing the relationship of rock and water. The focal point of the garden is a somewhat rectangular central pond. The buildings have different heights and features surrounding the pond. The roughly edged rocks blur the line between the artificial and the natural. The bays and creeks in the northwest and the southeast are designed to hide the edges of the pond, heighten the illusion of a natural flow from the hidden outside source, thereby, seemingly enlarging the landscape space. As you walk around the pond, you are always in a magnificent january 15

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viewing position no matter which angle you face. But, in the Peony Court, water (a natural gushing spring called Green Spring) turns into subordinate status, the rockery cave and the mosaic paving with the pattern of cracked ice (regarded as a fishing net pattern, bringing forth the “fishing and seclusion” theme) dominate the scene of the court. The softness of the water contrasts with the solidity of the rocks.

Architecture: Since the garden is an integral part of the residence, there are usually a number of building features in a garden, such as halls, pavilions and corridors. They not only satisfy the needs of many Chinese traditional cultural activities such as “music, chess, calligraphy, and painting”, but also create a unique style of art to enjoy the landscape and enjoy activities. The buildings in the garden are delicate, elegant and natural. Buildings are varied in type and flexible in structure, the pavilions and corridors around the pond are relatively small in size, rocks or piers directly adjoin the water

Since the garden is an integral part of the residence, there are usually a number of building features in a garden, such as halls, pavilions and corridors. They not only satisfy the needs of many Chinese traditional cultural activities such as “music, chess, calligraphy, and painting”, but also create a unique style of art to enjoy the landscape and enjoy activities.

surface, giving the pool the illusion of great size. While larger scale buildings are set back from the water, separated from the pool by a courtyard planted with trees or artificial hills in such a way as to be half hidden behind the stones and water. All of these comprise the natural environment of the garden features.

Interior Decoration: A garden without furnishing and decoration is just like a man without knowledge. Furnishings in the garden have various purposes and include: beds, desks, chairs, and tea-stands.

There are a variety of decorations such as screens, jade objects (sculpture/stones), fossil stones, natural picture stone (slabs of stone that look like pictures), painting, calligraphy, and other artwork.

Beyond satisfying the need of daily life and aesthetic appreciation, these elaborate furnishings and meticulous pieces of artwork contain cultural connotations, themes, and interest (Figure 12).

The majority of the past owners of the Master-of-Nets Garden were art connoisseurs and collectors (some of them were poets while others were calligraphers or painters). During the garden construction, their impressions concerning the conventional Chinese concepts of philosophy, literature, and arts as well as the local Wu customs (Wu is a southern region of China, often being an independent kingdom during times of dynastic revolution. Wu culture 66

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is a distinctive folk culture.) are eloquently reflected in the layout of furnishings and decorations. The composition brings a multicultural aspect to the garden. The furnishings and decorations are integrated with the plants, paving, designed window openings, and patterns, complementing the poetic ease and leisure in appreciation of fishing and seclusion and idealized nature in the urban surroundings.

Vegetation: Flowers and trees are important features of the natural/ ecological environment; they soften the stiff lines of the architecture and the rugged edges of rocks. In contrast with Western Italian and French gardens, vegetation in the Master-ofNets Garden is planted in naturalistic arrangements, mostly in groundcover beds, sometimes in association with rocks, sometimes alone in pure stands. There are over fifty different species of plants that are combined with rocks to create views which represent each of the four seasons: Spring (bamboo tribe: Bambuseae Kunth ex Dumfort), winter (jasmine: Jasminium nudiflorum Lindl.; wisteria: Wisteria sp. Nutt.), summer (osmanthus: Osmanthus sp. Lour.; magnolia: Magnolia sp. L.; Chinese parasol: Firmiana simplex L. W. F. Wight), autumn (Maple: Acer sp. L.; Lotus Nelumbo sp. Adans.), winter (Chinese juniper: Junierpus chinensis L.; lacebark pine: Pinus bungeana Zucc. ex Endl.; podcarpus: Podocarpus sp. Persoon.).

They display the vitality and seasonal changes, and provide pleasant sounds as the breeze flows through the bamboo or the rain drops on the pond or banana leaves (Chinese enjoy the sound of rain drops on banana leaves, portraying a life of serenity and leisure for ancient scholars and literati). The plants in the garden are associated with cultural values; each tree and flower in the garden has its own historic association and symbolic meaning, defined theme, mood, and style for each section of the garden.

Concluding Remarks

The Master-of-Nets Garden is derived from nature and takes advantage of nature’s hand in forming an art of its own, being on par with the many great gardens in the West. Visiting the gardens of Suzhou is an outstanding experience for Westerners. Today, one can visit the Peony Court as it appeared in the 1930s depicting the life scenes and intellectual activities of Chinese scholars.

The garden may suggest to designers the beauty of nature, displaying the efforts of nature as well as the harmonious relationship between man and nature.

is Vice Dean of the College Of Landscape Architecture And Art, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, P. R. Of China, and 2013 visiting scholar to Michigan State University, 515189191@qq.com. She has visited the Masters-of-Nets Garden six times between 1995 and 2012.

Dr. Chunqing Liu

is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, School Of Planning, Design, and Construction, Human Ecology Building, Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA, burleyj@msu.edu.

He has visited the Masters-of-Nets Garden three times in 2007 and once in 2009.

Dr. Jon Bryan Burley

Shawn Partin is a graduate of the Landscape Architecture major and Environmental Design Masters at Michigan State University and currently

professionally practices design in New York.

He is often a co-author collaborating with Dr. Burley on papers addressing planning and design.

References and further reading: Chambers, W. 1772 (2010). Dissertation on Oriental Gardening. Gale ECCO, Print Editions, eleven edition.

Chen, C. Z. 2005. Yuan Zong (Garden Synthesis). Shanghai, China: Tongji University Publishing House.

Chen, C. Z. 2007. On Chinese Gardens. Better Link Press.

David H Engel. 1986. Creating a Chinese Garden. Timber Press.

Fang, X.F. 2010. The Great Gardens of China: History, Concepts, and Techniques. The Monacelli Press.

Henderson, R. 2012. The Gardens of Suzhou (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture).

University of Pennsylvania Press.

Hu, J. 2012. The Splendid Chinese Garden.

Shanghai Press, Better Link Press.

Jin, X.Z. 2003. The garden with grace of waters. Pan Y.X.(ed.). In: World Cultural Heritage: The Masters-of-the-Nets Garden.

Guwuxuan Publishing House.

Johnston, R.S. 1991. Scholar Gardens of China: a Study and Analysis of the Spatial Design of the Chinese Private Garden.

Cambridge University Press.

Keswick M. 1995. The Chinese Garden.

Academy Editions (2nd Edition).

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED

Li, Z.W. 2006. The Classical Gardens of Suzhou (Cultural China). Better Link Press.

Pan Y.X.(ed.). 2003. World Cultural Heritage: The Masters-of-the-Nets Garden. Guwuxuan Publishing House.

When you need to give your crew direction.

Pan Y.X. 2003. The classic model of delicate gardens. Pan Y.X.(ed.). In: World Cultural Heritage: The Masters-of-the-Nets Garden.

Guwuxuan Publishing House.

Liu, T. 2012. Classical Gardens in China.

Better Link Press.

Lou, Q.X. 2011. Chinese Gardens. Cambridge University Press.

When project coordination helps you meet a deadline.

SALES: 952-808-0033 RENTALS: 952-890-7570 SERVICE: 952-808-7699

Tong J. 2006. Yuan Lun (Garden Discussion).

Baihua Literature Publishing House.

Valder, P. 1999. Garden Plants of China.

Portland Oregon, USA: Timber Press.

sales @ ancom.org

WWW.ANCOM.ORG

Valder, P. 2002. Gardens in China. Portland Oregon, USA: Timber Press.

Yue, Z., Wei, S.L., and Burley, J. B. 2012.

Non- Euclidian methods to replicate urban and garden patterns in P.R. of China. ternational Journal of Energy, 6(3): 105-114.

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Your Foundation At Work To the MNLA Membership: Your MNLA Foundation has been blessed with many generous contributors and active participants in several successful fundraising events. The Foundation Board of Trustees is extremely grateful for all of you who have become involved in the Foundation through one or more activities. Thank you for your time, sponsorships, dollars, and many “in kind” donations for several events as discussed below.

Bert T. Swanson, II, Ph.D.

Swanson’s Nursery Consulting, Inc.

Garden Party AT WALLACE GARDENS

THE PRIVATE GARDENS OF WALLY MARX

Fundraising Events

A cooperative event with the MNLA Networking Committee and the Foundation hosted 62 MNLA Members at Summit Brewery and netted $700 for the Foundation Scholarship Fund. The Widmer Golf tournament attracted 100 golfers for a net revenue of $10,000 for the Foundation Research Fund. The very successful Garden Party at the Wally Marx Formal Gardens in Medina, MN enticed 320 professionals at every level to the afternoon Open Garden session, plus 160 professionals at the dinner following the Garden Tours. This event netted $12,000 for the Green Industries Careers Promotion work. We are grateful to Wally Marx for his first-time opening of the garden to any outside visitors, wherein the MNLA Membership and the Foundation were chosen for this first-time event. We are also extremely grateful to Dean and Jill Engelmann of Tangletown Gardens and their employee Christine Chovan, who spearheaded this event and made it successful. Tangletown Gardens also donated most of the food for the evening dinner.

It was a beautiful fall day for the Foundation Shootout which hosted 55 shooters and netted almost $7,000 for the Scholarship Fund. Unfortunately, the date of this event conflicted with several other Green Industry events resulting in many regular shooters that could not attend and who could not take advantage of the many and significant prizes that were awarded that day. We have a new Foundation Shootout Task team that did a tremendous job of obtaining high-value prizes for the benefit of all attendees. This new Shootout Task Team consists of Andy Petersen (Chair) from Spectrum Sales, Rod Bailey

from Bailey Nurseries, Inc., Tom Callahan from Unique Lighting Systems, Chuck Klinefelter from Lan De Con, Inc., Herman Roerick from Central Landscape Supply, Inc., George Stockburger from Rainmaster Irrigation, Inc., and Bert Swanson from Swanson’s Nursery Consulting, Inc. Please contact any of these members with your comments and ideas to further enhance this event.

Please read the Scoop write-ups about all of these events and thank the Task Team Members for their work on behalf of the Foundation. Also, please thank and patronize the MNLA Members that sponsor and donate to these events.

Research and Education Partners Fund

The Research and Education Partners Fund, which gives you the opportunity to give ¼ of 1% of your purchases of supplies and plants to the Foundation, now has six active collectors: Bachman’s, Bailey Nurseries, Inc., Central Landscape Supply, Inc., Cross Nursery, Inc., Gertens Wholesale and Wilson’s Nursery, Inc. This is a convenient and efficient method for all MNLA members and non-members to contribute to green industry research, plus your contribution is matched by some collectors. BFG, a previous collector, has dropped its collector partnership this past year due to some computer issues which they hope to have resolved early in 2015, wherein they will continue collecting. If you are a BFG customer, perhaps you could encourage and convince BFG to resume their collections as soon as possible as they were a significant source of revenue for the Foundation. january 15

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➾ MNLA fo undation

MNLA has also made it possible to contribute to the Foundation when you renew your MNLA membership. You can do this with conventional renewal or online renewal.

Putting your contribution to work has provided a busy and meaningful year for the Foundation. The Foundation has again matched 20 $500 individual industry member scholarships for students at an institution chosen by the industry sponsor. In addition, the scholarship team has proposed, and the Board has approved, providing scholarships to high-achieving green industry-oriented high school students. The selection guidelines for these students shall be the same as that used for college students. This provides an opportunity to attract students to the industry at the career planning stage of their lives. Please contact the MNLA office if you wish to sponsor a scholarship at an institution of your choice.

The scholarship team, chaired by Dr. Mary Meyer (UM Horticultural Science), including three adjunct Trustees, has been working on an event to integrate and honor scholarship recipients, their sponsors, and higher education institutions into the mainstream industry at the Northern Green Expo. This event shall be a cooperative reunion of the UM St. Paul, UM Crookston, Hennepin Technical College, UW River Falls, Dakota Technical College and all other colleges that wish to participate. This event will not only pay tribute to scholarship winners and sponsors from several institutions and industry segments, but it shall also provide a networking opportunity for students, alumni, industry and faculty, as well as help promote this scholarship venue to future students and sponsors.

Careers Promotion

The Foundation Board of Trustees has tasked the Green Industry Careers Team (GICT) to develop a marketing plan to promote green industry careers at educational institutions. As part of this plan, an energetic and knowledgeable representative of horticulture and the industry will canvass institutions with and without an industry associate to promote green industry careers. A position description for this person is being developed by the GICT. All of this is in addition to the Foundation’s curriculum development and promotion, as well as various visitations to elementary schools. The Foundation has also developed digital and hard copy green industry promotional materials.

Research Grants

A Research Advisory Panel has been established and consists of the following members: Dr. Terry Ferriss (Chair), UW River Fall; Dr. James Calkins, MNLA Research Director; Dean Engelmann, Tangletown Gardens; David Kleinhuizen, Margolis Co.; Dr. Mary Meyer, UM St. Paul; Eric Nordlie, Bachman’s; Vickie Pondell, Bailey Nurseries, Inc.; Rod Saline, Engwall Greenhouse; and Dr. Bert Swanson, Swanson’s Nursery Consulting, Inc., plus eleven Resource Members that provide input to the panel. All of these professionals have been very active and as a result have recommended that the Foundation provide $20,000 in research grants each year for applied research for the green industry. The Board approved this recommenmnla .biz

1. Horticultural Marketing and Sales.

2. New Cultivar Development.

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dation to fund applied research with the following priority topics listed in random order:

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3. Sustainable Landscape Management Practices.

4. Sustainable Production Practices.

A request for proposals was sent out in October and they were due December 1, 2014. Upon review of the proposals by the Research Advisory Panel, the Board will make the final approval for the awards to be presented in January 2015. If you have research needs or ideas for the upcoming year, please provide them to Dr. Ferriss or any panel or Board member so they can be acted on.

Personnel Changes

Some personnel changes have occurred within the Foundation. Due to some medical issues within the family, Susie Johnson of Gertens Wholesale had to resign from the Board of Trustees. This is a significant loss to the Foundation, but she will remain active as a collector for the Research and Education Partners Fund, and in the promotion of other events. We are very fortunate to have Seth Midura, owner of Natural Creations step forward and become a Foundation Trustee.

Seth brings a host of energy, youth, plus industry and MNLA experience to the Board. He has already stepped into the scholarship team activities and has taken the leadership for the Foundation’s “Give to the Max” program. Please welcome Seth and involve him in your thoughts and needs relative to the Foundation. Jodi Larson, Foundation Staff Liaison has resigned and the search for a highly qualified person for this position should be completed by the time this article is printed. This person’s name shall be announced as soon as it is known.

Your Trustees at Work

The “Personal Touch” effort of each Trustee has been stepped up a notch this year in that each Trustee has set a goal for themselves to reach in obtaining $25 or more from 25 of their colleagues. This is a very efficient fund raising effort as very little staff time is required and if each Trustee’s 25 colleagues would contribute $50 to $100, the Foundation would have gained as much or more revenue than from any of the other fund raising events with little or no actual expenditures. So please respond generously when your Trustee calls or emails you, or better yet, call your favorite Trustee and offer a contribution. Another attribute of this campaign is that it gets many more MNLA members involved in the Foundation and eliminates the need for anyone having to give a large contribution. This is critical for you and the Foundation as it involves research needed by the industry, it involves career development, it involves scholarships, and it involves your future employees as well as many other aspects of how you and the Foundation can work together. Please respond to your “Personal Touch” call or make it yourself. Therefore, if a Trustee contacts you via phone, email, fax, social media or a personal conversation, please help him or her reach their goals with your direct personal contribution. Remember, your contributions all go toward the improvement of your industry.

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Hudson Location 745 Exchange Drive Hudson, WI 54016 (715) 531-0801

COMING SOON! NEW Hudson Location Hwy 12 and I94 Hudson, WI

➾ MNLA fo undation

Also, this year, each Trustee has accepted a liaison position to establish a working relationship with an educational institution of their choice. This will facilitate our career development efforts with twelve different educational institutions.

Also, this year, each Trustee has accepted a liaison position to establish a working relationship with an educational institution of their choice. This will facilitate our career development efforts with twelve different educational institutions. Each Trustee has also accepted liaison positions with each MNLA committee and each networking group. This will facilitate Foundation communication within MNLA for additional cooperative efforts.

Each Trustee also takes leadership in one or more of the Foundation events. These leadership positions are listed below, so if you have a concern or question about an event, you will know who to contact. If more than one Trustee is listed, the underlined name listed is the lead person. In addition to the Trustee, several additional MNLA Members also facilitate the development and execution of these events. These members are referred to as Adjunct Trustees to whom we are extremely grateful for their knowledge and work concerning these events.

Research and Education Partners Fund:

Mike McNamara, Dale Bachman and Bert Swanson.

Garden Party: Dean Engelmann and Bert Swanson, plus various Adjunct Trustees.

Widmer Golf Tournament: Debbie Lonnee, plus three Adjunct Trustees.

MNLA Shootout: Bert Swanson, plus Shootout team as Adjunct Trustees.

Scholarships:

Mary Meyer, Mike McNamara, Seth Midura, Jay Siedschlaw, Dennis Ullom, Bert Swanson, plus one Adjunct Trustee.

Academic/Industry Event: Mary Meyer, Seth Midura, Jay Siedschlaw, plus one Adjunct Trustee and Higher Education Representatives.

Family/Staff Fun Event: Mary Meyer, Bert Swanson, plus various Adjunct Trustees.

Investments:

Dennis Ullom, Dean Engelmann, Bert Swanson.

Grants: Mary Meyer, Dennis Ullom, Dean Engelmann.

Give to the Max: Seth Midura, plus one Adjunct Trustee.

Estate Planning

The opportunity for MNLA members to consider the MNLA Foundation in their personal and professional estate planning and wills or trusts has always been available, but detailed information regarding this process has not been readily publicized or available. A protocol for this process is now being formalized to make this opportunity readily available. Please inquire of any Trustee or MNLA Foundation Executive Secretary Cassie Larson for details of this process.

Please consider the MNLA Foundation in your estate planning and encourage your colleagues and friends to do that as well.

Give to the Max

In 2013, the MNLA Foundation began a familiarization and initial involvement effort with the “Give to the Max Minnesota” program.

In 2014, a specific webpage was developed and updated with the new tag line of “Growing Minds for a Greener Tomorrow.” In 2013, $700 was received via “GiveMN,” however, in 2014 only $125 was received. Seth Midura and Laverne Dunsmore will provide new leadership in this area with the goal of using the new tag line to obtain contributions from beyond the MNLA membership.

MNLA members can contribute via “GiveMN”, as a convenient way to contribute online, but it is also easy for them to contribute directly to the Foundation and thereby avoid the “GiveMN” 5% surcharge. The “GiveMN” vehicle does make it possible for non-members and the general public, including your friends and relatives, to contribute online to the MNLA Foundation. Watch for additional information on this program.

Silent Auction

You will have the opportunity at the 2015 Northern Green Expo to visit the Foundation’s silent auction all day Wednesday and Thursday morning. You can place your bid for some high value items, gifts and services, and at the same time promote education and research within our industry.

Informational Links

The following information provides links for you to readily access key Foundation activities on line: Scholarships Sponsor a Scholarship Online:

https://www.mnla.biz/store/ListProducts.aspx?catid=397255

http://www.mnla.biz/resource/resmgr/scholarships/ScholarshipBrochure2014-15.pdf

Download Scholarship Sponsor Form:

Donations

Personal Touch: Bert Swanson, all Trustees, Cassie Larson.

Donate Online: https://www.mnla.biz/donations/

Silent Auction: Debbie Lonnee, Dennis Ullom, Bert Swanson.

Download Donation Form:

Research Information Sales: Bert Swanson, Cassie Larson.

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Membership Renewal Contributions: Dale Bachman.

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http:www.mnla.biz/resource/resmgr/foundation/FoundationPromoFlyer_2.pdf

VERSA-LOK

®

See us at the Northern Green Expo, Booths 940 and 841

Contractor Sales Yards

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NEW Slatestone Color: MOCHA See it at the Northern Green Expo!

• VERSA-LOK retaining walls • Willow Creek pavers and kits • Unilock pavers • Natural stone, flagstone, steppers, wall stone and more • Accessories, including lights, sealers, polymeric sand, edging and geogrid • Easy-in-and-out yards with knowledgeable staff and convenient hours

BROOKLYN PARK (763) 488-1310

OAKDALE (651) 773-7444

BURNSVILLE (952) 894-4401

KIMBALL (320) 398-5415

VERSA-LOK-MIDWEST.COM

FARIBAULT (507) 331-3198

ONALASKA, WI (800) 770-4525

COME HOME TO HEDBERG

25th Annual

Serving Our Contractor Family For 28 Years.

Contractor Education Day

March 12, 2015 RG SUP

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1990 CONTRACTOR EDUCATION DAY 2015

hedbergsupply.com

➾ MNLA fo undation

Research for the Real World Access the Research for the Real World Blog:

http://www.mnla.biz/blogpost/1142836/ Research-for-the-Real-World Have a comment or a suggested Research Item?

Email: Research@MNLA.biz Resources for Schools:

www.MNLASchoolhouse.org Thank You

If you have any questions or comments for any Trustee as we work through our 20+ page Work Plan, please contact any of us at any time. We have many events and continuous activities in process at all times so please lend us your insights and provide your thoughts, ideas and generosity. Thank you for all your assistance and support as we move forward.

Respectfully, Bert T. Swanson, II, Ph.D. Chair, MNLA Foundation

member news BAILEY NURSERIES RECEIVES TWIN CITIES BUSINESS AWARD On November 19, 2014, Bailey Nurseries received the Legacy Family Business Award from Twin Cities Business magazine. An annual celebration of family businesses in Minnesota, the regional publication examines how family-­owned companies “handle the joys and challenges of maintaining a family-­ owned, family-­run company.” Bailey Nurseries was chosen for its continued success through five generations of family over the past 110 years, a commitment to a high standard of quality products, and continued contributions to the local community and industry at large.

“We are incredibly honored to have been chosen by Twin Cities Business and their esteemed selection committee,” said Terri McEnaney, President of Bailey Nurseries. “Being a part of a family business is a special privilege that comes with great responsibility that we truly take to heart. This is a wonderful tribute to our founder J.V. Bailey, the leaders of the second and third generation, my partners in the fourth and fifth generations, and all of our dedicated employees that make this great company what it is today.”

NEW MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY TIMING Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association

MNLA Membership Directory 2015

One Resource For All Your Green Industry Needs

Featuring MNLA member companies and Northern Green Expo exhibitors in one directory!

MINNESOTA NURSERY & LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATION • 1813 Lexington Ave. N, Roseville, MN 55113 651-633-4987 • Fax 651-633-4986 • Toll Free 888-886-6652 • Toll Free Fax 888-266-4986 www.MNLA.biz • www.NorthernGreenExpo.org • Successful Businesses Grow Here!

Better timing to suit your needs; same valuable information. With the publication of the 2015 MNLA Membership Directory, we have changed the timing of this important resource so it lands in your mailbox when you need it most — the spring!

Watch for the MNLA Member Directory to arrive with your April issue of The Scoop.

Now accepting applications for the 2015 Green Industry Leadership Institute Are you looking for help developing the next leader in your green industry business? After a successful launch with a full class in 2014, MNLA is now accepting applications for the 2015 Green Industry Leadership Institute, a year-long learning experience aimed at the up-and-coming next leaders within MNLA companies.

This unique program, professionally facilitated

by Steve and Terri Wilcox, is grounded in leadership development best practices and aims for students to leave the class taking ownership of their company’s mission and bottom line, having greater confidence in decision making, and with new skills in identifying and facilitating solutions within their company.

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN JANUARY 20, 2015.

To apply, fill out the application included with this month’s Scoop, visit www.MNLA.biz to download an application, or contact Jon Horsman at 651-633-4987 or jon@mnla.biz. Only 15 participants are accepted into the program each year, so don’t delay!

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➾ MNLA MEMBERS

Welcome new MNLA members!

Blue Earth Gardening, Inc.; Golden Valley, MN; Barb Busick, 763-300-3139

Jubert Tree; Saint Paul, MN; Phil Jubert, 763-898-0095

Brikstone LLC; Andover, MN; Marc Heisenfelt, 763-862-3589

Kenco; Anoka, MN; Kent Roessler, 763-753-9354

Century Concrete; Oak Grove, MN; Forrest Webber, 612-919-5907

Kohls-Weelborg Ford, Inc.; Redwood Falls, MN Ron Kohls, 507-644-2931

Crosstown Mechanical, Inc.; Roseville, MN; David Junglen, 651-645-7020

Letendre Concrete & Design LLC; Inver Grove Heights, MN Crystal/Shawn Letendre, 651-455-0730

Designer Pools Inc.; Prior Lake, MN; James Vossen, 952-457-1640

Marine Dock & Lifts; Center City, MN Dwight Rajdl, 651-257-4265

Diamond Cut Lawn Care; Minneapolis, MN; Adam St. Pierre, 952-929-2000

Park & Prairie; Excelsior, MN Scott Lavold, 612-217-3717

Dixie Chopper; Goodhue, MN; Ross Gnotke, 612-805-2385

Unique Landscapes, Inc.; Lakeville, MN Cody Weise, 651-285-1453

DIY Landscape Design; Oakdale, MN; Nona Cummings, 651-270-5979

Voight Home Improvements Inc.; Nerstrand, MN Amy Voight, 507-581-6886

Jirik Sod Farms; Farmington, MN; Pat Jirik, 651-460-6555

EXCLUSIVE MEMBER CONTENT Did you know that there are many member-only resources available to you for FREE? You may come across a printed promotion for these member-only resources from time to time in the Scoop but you can access all this great material anytime online once you log in to www.MNLA.biz.

Browse the MEMBERS ONLY dropdown on the far right of the menu bar!

 MISSED LAST MONTH’S SCOOP? READ IT IN The Scoop Archive In fact, if you missed any issue in the last five years, you’ll find links to it from these pages. All issues since 2010 are available in our online magazine format!

 Impervious Cover Requirements for MCWD Cities This resource from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) lists all the cities in the region and their requirements for impervious cover on shoreland, in usage for single family homes outside the shoreland zone, the number of variances the city has approved, and other notes on various topics like BMPs, rate of stormwater runoff, Low Impact Design (LID), innovative stormwater management techniques, pervious and non-pervious pavers, drainage, rain barrels, and hardcover credits.

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SEE US IN BOOTH 947 AT THE NORTHERN GREEN EXPO.

Dump Bodies Service Bodies Flat Beds Hook Lifts

Shelving Flooring/Walls Ladder Racks Ramps/Lifts

Plows Ice Control Warning Lights In-Stock Parts

FLEET

FOR

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FOR

TRUCKS

Specialty Solutions: Irrigation Fertilizing Spraying Utilities

www.StonebrookeEquipment.com 952-224-4440 info@StonebrookeEquipment.com 14311 Ewing Avenue, Burnsville, MN 55306

Go Propane and SAVE!!

Up to a $3500 Incentive

• On the purchase of a new propane powered commercial mower. $1750 incentive available for conversion of existing gasoline powered mower. ($1500 from MPA, 2000 available from PERC - go to http://www.propane.com/ commercial-landscape/ to apply.)

Up to a $3000 Incentive

• On the purchase of a new propane or dual-fueled pickup or conversion of a 2010 or newer model. Lesser amounts available on older models. Call the MPA for details.

Talk to your dealer about going propane today!! Offer ends March 31, 2015 For more information call the Minnesota Propane Association at 763-633-4271

➾ last word

HAPPY 90th Anniversary MNLA! There are several events happening Expo week to help celebrate MNLA’s 90th year in 2015. You are invited to joins us for these activities and events.

Where: Millennium Hotel, Minneapolis When: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 beginning at 4:00 pm.

Who: Executive and managerial level employees of MNLA member companies

Stickers.indd 5

Cost: $129 (includes a drink ticket, reception, dinner, and seminar)

THURSDAY, JAN. 15: 90th Anniversary Party Let your hair down and celebrate with us!

Where: Ballroom A, Minneapolis Convention Center When: Thursday, January 15, 2015 beginning at 5:30pm Who: All Northern Green Expo attendees are invited to attend

T ED IN HE 60 IN

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The MNLA CEO Symposium has become the “place to be” on Tuesday night. This is an opportunity for CEO-level members to connect and network. The evening includes drinks, dinner, and a presentation. This year, in coordination with the MNLA 90th anniversary celebration, our presenters will be the veterans of this great industry. They will share what they wish they knew when they were first starting out, lessons learned, and ‘aha’ moments from their careers.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14 – FRIDAY, JAN. 16: Display, Stickers, and Video Interviews at the Northern Green Expo JO

TUESDAY, JAN. 13: CEO Symposium

Look for a display in Lobby C at the Minneapolis Convention Center that will highlight MNLA activities throughout the decades. It will also feature member contributed memorabilia.

1960’s

Each decade will feature its own color and associated sticker. Be sure to stop by and pick up a sticker at the display and wear it proudly to let Expo attendees know the year your company joined the MNLA! Not sure when your company joined? Stop by MNLA Member Central and staff will tell you!

10/13/2014 5:06:10 PM

In addition, there will be a board where we encourage you to stop by and write your hopes and dreams for the green industry and MNLA for the year 2025. We hope to pull these wishes back out when MNLA turns 100 years old to see how many came true.

MNLA partnered with a local company, Video My Story, to produce interviews with several long-time members. We’ll be releasing short versions of these videos online in the coming weeks and the full videos will be featured onsite at the Northern Green Expo.

Cost: Entrance, concert, and snacks are all FREE (while supplies last)!

Relax and catch up with green industry colleagues or get your dance moves on with entertainment provided by the local band Slip Twister! Cash bars will be available and snacks provided.

Entertainment Sponsored by:

Watch the full version and other interviews at www.mnla.biz!

Event Celebration Sponsors:

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MINNESOTA NURSERY & LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATION

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EXAMINATION now in a new format

Prove what you know.

Become a Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association Certified Professional.

When and where are the 2015 exams?

January 27, 2015, and March 10, 2015. Both will be held at the TIES Event Center, 1667 Snelling Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108.

When & Where?

Who is eligible?

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Who? You are eligible to register for the exam if you meet the following requirements: • Have either two years of study in an accredited post-secondary nursery and/or landscape program that includes a structured internship, OR • A minimum of 2000 hours in nursery or landscape-related employment.

A signature of an educational advisor or work supervisor is required on the exam registration form to verify completion of the prerequisite.

SSIO

What’s new about the Certification Exam?

What?

The exam will now be given in a brand new electronic format with immediate results and integrated photos and videos. The MNLA Certification Exam is still a two-part exam: you must pass a Basic Knowledge Exam and a specialty of your choosing (Landscape, Garden Center or Grower) to become MNLA Certified. To maintain their certification status, all individuals must compile at least 18 continuing education points every three years.

HOW TO PREPARE USE THESE RESOURCES TO PREPARE FOR THE EXAM

• • • •

Online chapters Practice test Plant I.D. webinar Watch for more online training modules coming soon!