The Buckeye, January/February 2014 Volume 25, Issue 1

January / February 2014

The Official Publication of the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association

Vol. 25, Issue 1

PROTECT YOURSELF before

you

WRECK YOURSELF

WHY OCNT Is Important To Me

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The Buckeye is published 10 times per year by The Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association, Inc. 72 Dorchester Square Westerville, OH 43081 p 614.899.1195 f 614.899.9489 www.onla.org info@onla.org

CONTENTS

Editorial / Advertising ISSN 1536-7940 Subscriptions: $75/year amandadomsitz@onla.org, editor

January / February 2014 Vol. 25, Issue 1

Mike Dues, President-Elect Dues Nursery & Landscaping, Ltd. Jim Searcy, Immediate Past President Hyde Park Landscaping, Inc.

Plant Something!

10 Seedlings 25 Why Choose Horticulture

Great Lakes &

11

Look to the Future

Managing the NextGen

13

19

22

Why Trees Matter Name That Plant!

By Design Annual Book Review Educational Update Thousand Cankers Disease of Walnut: The Latest Threat to Ohio’s Forests

28

Certification Corner

The Value of ONLA

34

& The Green Industry...

ONLA Office Update

departments

Annette Howard, Board Member Gilson Gardens, Inc.

Dr. Hannah Mathers, Board Member The Ohio State University

President’s Perspective

A Grateful Embrace

Bill Mainland, Board Member Klyn Nurseries, Inc.

4

Directors Jason Bornhorst, Board Member JB Design Group, LLC

David Listerman, Board Member Listerman & Associates, Inc.

features

7

Staff Kevin Thompson, Executive Director Roni Petersen, Membership & Certification Amanda Domsitz, Communiciations Amy Eldridge, CENTS Manager Karen Lykins, Accounting Officers David Richards, President South Ridge Farm

industry news

Out and About

31 37

A Younger Perspective OSU’s Best of the Best Rice Hulls For Weed Control In Container Crops

January / February 2014 Vol. 25, Issue 1

The Official Publication of the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association

The Fine Print The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the association, directors or staff and do not constitute an endorsement of the products or featured services. Likewise, the appearance of advertisers, or their identification as members of the ONLA does not constitute an endorsement of the products or featured services.

PROTECT YOURSELF BEFORE

YOU

WRECK YOURSELF

WHY OCNT Is Important To Me

front cover: “Winter at The Domsitz Farm”

by Amanda Domsitz

Controlling Creeping Yellow Field Cress

Josh Posey, Board Member Buckeye Resources, Inc. Mark Reiner, Board Member Oakland Nursery, Inc.

In the spirit of land stewardship, please consider recycling this publication.

also in this issue

CENTS GRAND. NEW.

29 New Member • 30 Members On The Grow • 41 Industry Calendar • 42 About The Buckeye • 42 Classified Ads • 42 Ad Index

B

President’s Perspective

Plant Something!

“Good to the last drop”, “Fly the Friendly Skies”, “The King of Beers”, “You deserve a break today” and many more are examples of company specific slogans that became identified with an entire segment of our economy and culture. Slogans give a credible impression of a product. A slogan has the potential of making a consumer feel good. Several industries have had success with national slogans. “Got Milk” promotes the dairy industry and many shoppers’ in the local grocery store remember this slogan while pushing their cart down the aisle.

“Beef. It’s what’s for Dinner” must have worked well for the cattle producers because it has been in play for a long time. The beef campaign has been so successful, it caused a competitor to wisely use the same concept and promote “Pork. The other white meat.” Finally, a phrase that was one company specific became a huge promotion for an entire industry. “Just Do It” is correctly associated with Nike, but promotes an entire exercise, running, biking, and culture of being in shape that it surely has reverberated throughout the huge “fitness” industry.

With limited resources, national campaigns have proven difficult for nursery stock producers to launch.

There was some success with “Fall is for Planting” and

4 The Buckeye

Jim Searcy Hyde Park Landscaping, Inc. ONLA President jim@hydeparklandscaping.com

I believe it was a very good campaign. We know some Ohio garden centers still use this promotion. We are hopeful that a new campaign which ONLA has joined has a chance to make a difference. Plant Something is a marketing campaign that has come to Ohio, thanks to our ONLA staff. The staff worked to receive a USDA specialty crop grant to become part of the Plant Something campaign. We are excited about the possibilities of this endeavor. While we do not expect the campaign to have a meteoric rise in exposure, we see continued work with this marketing as having excellent growth over the years. Our hope is that someday Plant Something is a common thought when an American family plans their weekend and includes a visit to their local garden store, or calls a landscaper to plant something and improve their corner of the world. Please visit plantsomething.org and give this marketing a chance for additional exposure.

Congratulations and good fortune is wished upon to our incoming President Dave Richards. Dave’s experience in the industry as well as his insight from an educational standpoint, will serve him well and I look forward to his term. This is my opportunity to say thank onla.org

you to many people who assisted me during my term.

The staff of ONLA is dedicated and well positioned to keep us at top of our field. The ONLA staff was profiled in the last edition of this magazine. Thanks to them for making this past year positive. I worked closely with past presidents Jay Daley and Andy Harding on the Executive committee, and thank them for their valued contributions. My employer, Michael Shumrick who owns Hyde Park Landscaping and Tree Service, has been supportive of the ONLA by allowing me to invest time in the state association. His support of ONLA in this manner is greatly appreciated. The Board of Directors has been engaged and energetic in providing leadership to our cause. Thank you to board members Jason Bornhorst, Dave Listerman, Steve Maddox, Bill Mainland, Dr. Hannah Mathers, Mark Reiner, and Mike Satkowiak.

Finally, my wife Linda has always supported me and gave these monthly perspectives a critical “first look.” To paraphrase a great friend, past President of ONLA, and media idol, Ron Wilson, “Go out and make 2014 the best year of your life!” B

Many Thanks The ONLA thanks 2013 President Jim Searcy for his service to the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association this past year. We look forward to working with President Dave Richards and the Board of Directors in 2014.

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ONLA Office Update

Great Lakes and A Grateful Embrace

Last October, I attended the Great Lakes Nursery & Landscape Executives Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota with several of my colleagues from around the region. This meeting, which I’ve written about in the past, is a 2-day gathering of Executive Directors and volunteer leaders from the nursery and landscape associations in the Great Lakes states, including Landscape Ontario.

Spending time with the other state association leaders has led to many collaborations over the years, including certification reciprocity, publications, events, and the Land Lovers website, to name a few. The meeting format allows for the open and honest sharing of ideas and information as to what is happening in each of our states.

The agenda typically includes items such as: • The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – What’s worked well and not so well for your association the past year • Education – What are you doing that’s new and innovative? What online formats work best for you, if any?

• Communication – What communication methods work best? How do you break through all the clutter?

• Government Relations – What are the current hot topics in your state? onla.org

• Relationship with your Land Grant University– What are you working on together?

• Member benefit programs that work for you • Engaging and Motivating Your Next Generation of Leaders, and • Miscellaneous Hot Topics du jour I always leave this meeting motivated and invigorated.

It’s refreshing to learn that the other state associations are often faced with similar challenges. Of course, it was also nice to get the chance to tour Bailey Nurseries and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum this year as part of our itinerary.

In short summary of the 2013 meeting, generally speaking, the state associations in the Great Lakes region are facing many of the same issues, including: • Most states are dealing with invasive plant issues and regulations • Most states are looking at new or updated “Call before You Dig” laws and services • There does not appear to be high demand for online education • Print publication sales are down, but members still prefer printed magazines/newsletters over electronic please see page 8

January / February 2014 7

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continued from page 7

•

While still considered very important, most have seen a decline in entries for their Landscape Awards programs • All states (and nearly all associations of all types) are looking for ways to expand offerings to appeal to a younger generation of members • Many are looking to upgrade their membership database software to more web-based and customer-content management systems • All state associations are looking to add value for its members while competing for member’s time and money I get so much out of this meeting I’m already looking forward to New York hosting it in 2014 in Albany.

On November 9, the ONLA once again partnered with the Ohio Lawn Care Association (OLCA) in “The Grateful Embrace”. This annual volunteer project is held on a Saturday morning at Ohio’s veteran cemeteries in conjunction with Veteran’s Day. OLCA started this project about 20 years ago, which then led to PLANET’s Day of Remembrance at Arlington Cemetery. ONLA has participated the last 3 years.

Rittman Group, A Grateful Embrace

Dozens of volunteers arrived early on this chilly Saturday morning at the Dayton National Cemetery and Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.

After a brief program at each, volunteers donated their time applying donated fertilizer, maintained landscapes using donated equipment and materials, and made our veteran’s cemeteries a little nicer for those who are buried there and for those who visit them. After 3-4 hours of hard work we all enjoyed delicious chili dogs, fellowship, and the satisfaction of knowing a good deed had been done. Thanks to all of you who participated in this truly meaningful project.

Here’s to looking forward to a GREAT 2014 for all our readers! B Kevin Thompson ONLA Executive Director kevinthompson@onla.org

A Grateful Embrace Volunteer, Dayton

Dayton Group, A Grateful Embrace

8 The Buckeye

onla.org

ONLA_Full page 12-12-10 10:32 AM Page 1

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Staying on good terms with your boss is important to success in any job.

Just don’t neglect your co-workers— they have the power to help you get ahead, or make your life miserable.

Here’s how to earn their respect and support: •

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Be ready to assist. You shouldn’t say, “That’s not my job” to your boss, and your colleagues won’t like it either. Show your willingness to pitch in and help wherever and whenever you’re needed to build a strong relationship with people whose help you may need in the future.

Follow through. Don’t do half of what you promised. Let co-workers know they can depend on you by finishing what you start and living up to your commitments.

Treat colleagues like customers. Take their requests and requirements seriously. Go the extra mile to make them happy. Focus on what they need to do their jobs better. They’ll notice your commitment to helping them and your organization succeed.

Be confident, not cocky. Share your expertise without bragging about it. Take on tough tasks to show you’re not afraid of making mistakes.

Be willing to teach your co-workers what you know, so they never think you’re keeping important information and skills to yourself.

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Keep Your Desk and Your Career Well Organized for Success

AmericanHort to Launch January 2014 Members of OFA - The Association of Horticulture Professionals and the American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) have voted in overwhelming support of the consolidation of the two organizations into a new, national trade association to serve the entire horticulture industry. The announcement followed a 30-day open ballot and today’s in-person vote for OFA’s members, held in Columbus, Ohio.

With the consolidation, the new trade association will have the largest national nursery, greenhouse, and garden retail membership of any horticulture association in the United States. Those communities will join together with breeders, distributors, interior and exterior landscape professionals, florists, students, educators, researchers, manufacturers, and all who are part of the supply chain to represent our industry with one, strong voice and a greater base of volunteer, staff, and financial resources.

To learn more, visit AmericanHort.org.

A messy desk doesn’t just slow down your ability to find things— it can impede your career development. A survey of HR executives

by OfficeTeam found that more than eight in 10 said an untidy workspace influences their view of that employee’s professionalism.

Peter Walsh, of Peter Walsh Design in Sherman Oaks, Calif., says that almost 49 percent of your co-workers wonder about your abilities if you’re not capable of keeping your desk clean.

With that in mind, try these tips for keeping your working area neat and efficient: • Create “zones.” Don’t just toss documents, books, supplies, etc., across your desk. Designate specific areas for particular items: progress reports in one corner, mail in another, staplers and paperclips in your top drawer, and so forth. This will make finding things quicker and easier.

• Clean up regularly. Before lunch, and right before you go home, spend a few minutes sorting your desk. File what you need, discard what you don’t, and straighten everything up so it’s waiting in the right location when you return.

• Respond promptly. Resist the urge to set stuff aside for an indeterminate “later.” Make a point of filing, discarding, or acting on items right away so they don’t pile up and become overwhelming to contemplate.

-Courtesy of First Draft Publications

Look to the Future

B

Managing The Next Gen Turning the NextGen Into Our Next Leaders The NextGen is primarily made up of millennials who are very different from earlier generations in many ways. Most managers are comprised of the baby boomers, which causes a disconnect between them and their new, millennial work staff. It is important for managers to understand how the next generation works. The next generation will need more experienced managers to provide them with structure in the work place. Younger employees need feedback and praise from management in order to know how they are doing. The ‘millennials’ are talented in many ways that can be very beneficial to more experienced managers. Managers need to guide the millennials to use their skill set to benefit the company. It is on the current management teams to mold the NextGen into our next group of leaders.

The millennials are multi-taskers, tech savvy, and well educated. Their connection to technology has disconnected them from people socially. Text messages and Tweets are their equivalent of a handshake. Even with all their abilities they lack many of the social capabilities that have propelled prior generations in business. Managers need to help instill some of the ‘old fashion’ business ways, all while allowing them to use their skills to move the company forward into the next era. While all of the tech communication can be beneficial some times an old fashion phone call is just what is needed to close the deal.

Defining their role will help them keep focused and give structure to their daily work. Because of their tendency to multi-task it is difficult for them to focus on one end goal, but good management can help them overcome their tendency. Management should create measurable goals that help grade the employee on their work. This will give the manager the opportunity to offer praise and onla.org

please see page 12

January / February 2014 11

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constructive criticism that is important to employee development. Millennials want to be challenged and given responsibility, but they will need guidance from management because not everything can be learned on the Internet.

Millennials grew up in an era where everyone got a participation trophy, and their parents coddled them.

This is completely different than generations before.

Millennials need to be reassured of their value and praised so that they know they are meeting your expectations. Be clear and concise in the delivery of constructive criticism.

Millennials do not respond well to being yelled at. The delivery is everything. In football, the head coach will yell at the player, and the assistant coach will take him aside and explain what they did wrong. Managers need to be a little like the head coach, but a lot like the assistant coach. This will help the employee develop and create trust between the employee and the manager.

Allow millennials to use their technology skills to improve the business and learn from them. Many babyboomer managers are intimidated by technology, but their millennial employees grew up in the technology era. Using a smart phone is second nature to them. They can teach their managers many things with technology.

Millennials understand social media and how it relates to your business. They will be passionate about engaging the company in technology related areas. This is the

area where the student is the teacher. It is also a great opportunity for “reverse mentoring”, which will help in team building. It is vital that each member of the team feels that they are contributing and is not afraid to share their opinions and thoughts. Opportunities like this allow for a more open feeling between the workforce and management.

It is inevitable that the NextGen will be largely made up of millennials. The workplace operation is changing and will continue to change as millennials come into positions of leadership. The more experienced management personnel need to mentor the younger employees to help them grow in their position.

Millennials will need structure and guidance from the management team to get their jobs executed efficiently and develop into great employees. They will need feedback and development guidance in order for them to know they are going down the right path. Their technology skills will allow them to be more efficient and bring new capabilities to the company. The NextGen has the skills to have a huge impact within the business, but they need to be molded by leaders today so that they can become tomorrow’s leaders. B Brandon Druffel ONLA Next Generation Committee bdruffel@dandruffelinc.com

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W h y Tr e e s M a t t e r

Name That Plant!

Winter is here and green industrians look at it from both sides now. Snow, ice and bitter cold may make doing business challenging, from extra heat in greenhouses to snow collapsing poly houses, but it also brings needed cash flow revenue from snow removal operations. Plants may be taken from their comfort zone to the verge of their hardiness zone, but on the other hand ice and snow may be a beautiful combination, from the Frostian “dust of snow from a hemlock tree” to the patterns of twig growth and catkins on river birch outlined in the winter sky. We had some early snows this year, even as fall presaged winter, and they resulted in some beautiful scenes, from almost all of the lemon-yellow leaves on ginkgo trees in northeast Ohio falling on a single day (November 12, 2013) to multicolored sweetgum leaves nestled in the snow to fall-blooming Hamamelis virginiana blooming in the snow in Columbus.

For this Why Trees Matter though, let us use the winter to sharpen our plant identification skills. A fun new feature in the Plant Lover’s Almanac column (which I alternate with fellow ENLTTer Denise Ellsworth) in the Saturday edition of the Akron Beacon Journal every two weeks is a “Name That Plant” teaser. Pretty cool. In one recent episode, the winner e-mailed me her correct entry at 5:53 Saturday morning, and by noon there were over 50 respondents, about 30% correct. For those northeast Ohio readers, Plant ID Matters!

So, here are a few Name That Plants, with pictures and identification, with images used for the contest in the Beacon Journal, and then a special unknown Name That Plant contest at the end of this article for the green industry Buckeye readers as value added. How well do you know these plants?

This plant is a member of the composite family (Asteraceae) we noticed on a study tour to the High Line park in Manhattan’s lower east side in October. It is a native shrub of the Gulf and Atlantic states and does well in coastal areas, including those in salty habitats. It has migrated inland into Pennsylvania and westward, especially where road salts accumulate.

This plant has many additional common names, including groundsel bush and salt bush. It is dioecious (“two houses”) meaning that male and female flowers reside on different plants, and the fall-blooming female flowers produce cottony flower heads (leading to one Almaniac guessing that this was indeed a cotton plant). The pictured seedheads are wonderfully described by the United States Department of Agriculture as “silvery, plume-like achenes which appear in the fall on female plants resembling silvery paintbrushes.”

In addition to its finery, this plant can tolerate poor soils, salty sites, and droughty areas. Fellow Almanac writer, Denise Ellsworth, a pollination specialist with The Ohio State University’s Department of Entomology, should appreciate that it does attract butterflies, including Monarchs. Visit it on the High Line next fall, and enjoy the flowers and seedheads. The plant is: Sea myrtle Baccharis halmifolia.

Name That Plant 2

Name That Plant 1

This tree resides in my front yard, and was a gift from Dawes Arboretum 27 years ago after I gave a talk on insect pests of trees. Fortunately, this tree in general has few insects or infectious diseases and my gift tree and its multi-stemmed trunks has now grown about 40 feet tall in those 27 years. It is a native tree, but fairly unusual in please see page 14 onla.org

January / February 2014 13

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continued from page 13

Ohio woodlands. This tree has intensely lemon-yellow fall foliage which was spectacular from mid-October this year and into the first few days of November It is one of several species in this genus (remember a genus is a group of related species), which provides oils in the bark that are used to make a refreshing drink, once a staple at county fairs, and still an occasional offering.

It can be distinguished from its wintergreen oil-producing cousins by its reddish-black, non-peeling, smooth, cherry-like bark. It is great to have in landscapes for the all-season scratch-and-sniff aspect of this young bark.

Many years ago, when I worked at Geneva Hills Camp near Lancaster in southeast Ohio I came to first know it when we were chain-sawing trees in a mandatory clearing project for a power line right-of-way through the camp.

The aromas!

It is in fact, sweet birch, Betula lenta. Sweet birch is also known as the cherry birch, due to its cherry-like bark, and also as black birch. Ah, the sweet wintergreen aromas of sweet birch sap – tapped in the old days to make birch beer. This birch beer, now synthesized rather than harvesting a few thousand saplings for a pint of oil of wintergreen, come from sweet birch and an allied species, Betula alleghaniensis. The hint to discriminate between the two was the reddish-black, non-peeling, smooth bark of sweet birch.

Name That Plant 3

colored in fall. Like sweet birch, there is an aroma that I love associated with this plant. One of the pictorial clues is of one of the genders of their monoecious (“one house”) flowers, which are inconspicuously subtle though at the same time very attractive.

As it turned out, there was only one winning respondent in the Akron Beacon Journal contest, something of a ringer, professional horticulturist extraordinaire that he is: Curt Van Blarcum, the Director of Grounds at the Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio. He uses many of these trees on campus and also loves the subtle crème brulee burnt sugar aromas of the fallen leaves each Autumn. The tree is katsuratree, Cercidiphyllum japonicum.

Now For Your Buckeye Challenge So, the three Name That Plant teasers above were correctly answered by Akron Beacon Journal readers from simple clues and one image. How about Buckeye readers?

Since, all of you are professional horticulturists, your challenge shall be a bit more daunting, but I am confident many shall rise to the occasion. For you to win a prize, you must get all five of the following correct. Buckeye Name That Plant entries correct. See images attached.

Common and Latin names for all five – first to e-mail (chatfield.1@osu.edu) or iPhone text (330-466-0270) will win a free copy of…the book named below in our closing book review.

Buckeye Name That Plant 1

This tree is not a native tree such as the sweet birch, but rather an Asian species. This species was introduced to the United States almost 150 years ago, and is not and hopefully never will be invasive in natural areas in Ohio and elsewhere. It is a tree that can grow to a height of 100 feet but more commonly 40-50 feet. Our mystery tree grows well throughout Ohio if protected by drought when young, and can be seen at many campuses and arboreta, and many landscapes, including my own, in which two of these trees were at the height of my daughters when they were about 5 and 7 years old 23 years ago along with two at the 5’6” height of my wife and my 6’3” height. All four are now over 30 feet tall.

This tree has a number of wonderful foliar features, including a range of leaf colors as the season progresses, from rosy in spring to blue-green in summer to apricot-

14 The Buckeye

This tree has clustered buds, grows in ChatScape, so indestructible. Underplanted in Ohio.

Buckeye Name That Plant 2

This native tree is not in the genus Fraxinus. onla.org

Buckeye Name That Plant 3

This tree has a wonderful combination of fall foliar color and fruits that mature from pink to blue.

Buckeye Name That Plant 4

Fruits of this tree are unpopular to some, but see how cool this fruit-to-be flower is!

Buckeye Name That Plant 5

Book Review. “Seeing Flowers: Discover the Hidden Life of Flowers” by photographer Robert Llewellyn and essayist Teri Dunn Chace introduces us to the form and function of flowers through the lens of 28 plant families, the Amaryllidaceae to the Violaceae. As Teri Dunn Chace notes in the Introduction “I hope you will discover, as I did when I looked through these photographs, a sense to it all. As varied, weird, wonderful, sexy, and graceful as flowers are, ultimately they have always been the plant world’s supremely resourceful way of staying alive.”

To quote Goethe, both botanist and literary artist, flowers, the sexual reproductive organs of the Angiosperms (plants with enclosed seeds), flowers, are a “leaf mad with love”. Hopefully this book will whet your appetite for the flowers which we must mostly wait until next spring and summer for, though the book does also detail such indoor winter flowers as the Amaryllidaceae’s paper white narcissus with its corolla of petals and the short trumpeted corona at the flower’s center. Not to mention the welcoming harbingers of spring of woodland violets and the even earlier snow-tolerant pansies of the Violaceae family.

Encompass these joys of flowers. As quoted in the book from “Queen Anne’s Lace” by William Carlos Williams: “Her body is not as white as anemone petals nor as smooth – nor so remote a thing. It is a field of the wild carrot taking the field by force; the grass does not raise above it.

Here is no question of whiteness, white as can be, with a purple mole at the center of each flower.”

To close this Why Trees Matter, here is one last quote from “Seeing Flowers”, with the words of early American naturalist John Burroughs in the Afterword: “To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws processes, [but]to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures; to the poet she is a storehouse of images, fancies, a source of inspiration; to the moralist she is a storehouse of precepts and parables.” B

A native shrub about to take flight!

Jim Chatfield Ohio State University Extension Nursery Landscape and Turf Team

Plant Based Prize!

Finally, what is the plant-based prize if you are first to send me your five correct identifications? A book, for Shakespeare noted: In Nature’s infinite book of secrecy, a little I can read. Plant ID and this book: A chance to read a bit more. onla.org

more photos on following page

January / February 2014 15

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Captions Top Left: Snow pattern and fir tree, December 2013 Top Right: A dust of snow on a hemlock tree, December 2013 Bottom Right: Winter Scene of snow and shadows Opposite Page: Clockwise From Left Image: Beacon Journal Name that Tree winner Curt Van Blarcum with a katsuratree in warmer days Image: Sweetgum leaves in the 11-12-13 snow in Wooster Image: Witchhazel in Columbus on OSU Campus outside Howlett Hall 11-12-13 Image: Ginkgo leaf drop in Wooster on 11-12-13

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The ONLA Group Benefit Programs has partnered with various health plans to offer a variety of plans with many optional benefits such as vision, dental, life, and disability.

Legislative Advocacy

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18 The Buckeye

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For more information on ONLA member savings visit onla.org or call 614.899.1195 onla.org

Annual Book Many people are inspired by the sustainability movement and, in that vein, are looking for alternatives to lawn or at least reducing the amount of lawn. Now, in Beautiful No Mow Yards by Evelyn Hadden, there are fifty different suggestions for achieving this goal.

When speaking of lawn alternatives, we need to keep in mind that familiarity makes something feel right.

Therefore, in the course of changing expectations of the definitions of beauty and serenity, our alternatives need to appeal to the neighbors.

Perhaps the easiest alternative is a living carpet. Evelyn provides many suggestions from gardens she has visited and photographed. Such a carpet is also an excellent solution for slopes that are difficult to mow.

For homeowners with shady yards, where grass doesn’t want to grow anyway, anything goes. Evelyn shows a property in Minneapolis that has become a woodland haven for birds and insects and children with its inviting plant diversity and attractive paths and benches. Another focuses on changing light patterns and is a tapestry of foliage and water features.

The idea of a meadow or prairie garden as an alternative is very appealing. It could be as simple as a monoculture of Sporobulus heterolepsis (Prairie Dropseed), a “tall” grass at twelve inches that just looks unmown when planted in a mass, or it could be a mix of grasses and perennials that are usually quite tall by the end of the growing season. Another possibility is the use of clumping fescues augmented with a wide variety of bulbs.

Patios are an excellent replacement for lawn and should be lovely as well as functional. They can be part of the yard or serve as large courtyards integrated with planting beds that leave no room for lawn. Ponds, large or small, can consume areas of turf as can rain gardens, xeric gardens (possible everywhere, not just in arid areas), edible gardens (the front yard of Rosalind Creasy is one of the most attractive I’ve ever seen), and a variety of

By Design

Review

stroll gardens. With the text and images of all of these as examples, you need only some imagination to visualize your own creation.

I loved the author’s suggestion that play spaces could be much more than a manufactured slide and swing on lawn. Children need areas in which they can run, climb, hide, and be creative while actively interacting with plants and butterflies and insects.

Succeeding chapters are the how-to of killing turf and planting your new beds, plus designing eco-friendly gardens and maintaining them. If some lawn is still desired, there is a chapter on creating an eco-friendly one. The last part of the book is a compendium of choice ground-layer plants grouped according to habit.

Throughout the book, the author emphasizes the design elements of texture, form, color and contrast while reminding the reader that foliage is much longer lasting than flowers. Much of the text is philosophical about life and gardening. It made me wish I could sit down with Evelyn and chat for a long afternoon about anything and everything.

Those who purchase period homes often find a neglected landscape or one that is not appropriate to the building.

What to do? I would suggest reading American Home Landscapes: A Design Guide to Creating Period Garden Styles by Denise Adams and Laura Burchfield before undertaking any changes. This book is a great resource for homes in any area of this country.

The first chapter defines the differences between preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction with an eye to helping the homeowner decide which approach to take. It is crucial that the homeowner or designer have a goal that is tempered by personal requirements for the use of the property as well as comfort with the degree of historic accuracy.

Once the “period of significance” is established, it is time to research and inventory the site and the authors

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provide several suggestions for avenues to pursue. Then one should move on to deciding how practical the design will be in light of the desired uses for this landscape in the twenty-first century. Included in this decision will be consideration of styles and materials for hardscaping.

Then finally, a plant list can be developed.

Ensuing chapters divide American landscapes into six eras and design styles, the last one being from 1960-2000.

Each one is based on the publishing writing of the time and includes examples of landscape features of the time as well as case studies with plant lists. This book entailed an enormous amount of research that is reflected in the text but especially in the drawings and photographs.

The bibliography is quite extensive and would serve as an incredible resource for those researching a particular era. Do take advantage of all this book has to offer.

I have long been a fan of the garden designs of Piet Oudolf, in my opinion, the world’s leading perennial garden designer. I have been fortunate enough to see many of them in person. Last summer, I actually visited his home and gardens in the Netherlands and could see how his design philosophy has changed from large swaths of a particular plant to intermingling and feathering of them.

His newest book, Planting: A New Perspective, written with Noel Kingsbury, an English designer and environmentalist, illustrates their bent toward a more naturalistic style that emphasizes plant ecology and performance as well as beauty and more than one season of interest. Their designs utilize long-lived perennials and woodies that are biodiverse and sustainable in that they minimize mown lawn and unnecessary pruning while offering resources and homes for wildlife.

The introduction looks at the most recent landscape trends which tend to be technologically and engineering oriented, i.e. the green roof, water management, biofiltration, and spontaneous vegetation on chemically polluted land. What these trends have in common is that plant communities are being mingled instead of being planted as large masses. Since this means more competition among plants, greater knowledge of ecological issues and long term performance is crucial.

Most of the text was written by Noel Kingsbury although his words enunciate the thoughts and philosophies of both of them. The text of Chapter Four on long term plant performance is derived from Kingsbury’s doctoral thesis at Sheffield University. Of great help are his discussions of longevity and survival strategies as well as long

20 The Buckeye

term plant performance indicators. The gorgeous photographs, most of them taken by Piet, make me want to immerse myself in these landscapes.

This new philosophy of garden design creates a tension between balance and disorder and challenges us to design something that looks spontaneous yet has some order to it and that can and will change. In addition, we need to know how to renovate this type of garden as it ages, some species dominate and others die out. If we find clients who want this type of design, we also need to emphasize the necessity of ongoing maintenance.

In public plantings and particularly in residential front yards, such complex gardens need to be acceptable to the “common man”. This means that the design must use an array of structural plants, not relying on color alone, so that the planting does not read as “messy”. There is no quicker way to a ruling by a zoning commission that the planting is not acceptable and must be removed.

Very helpful is the chapter on grouping plants. Included is a historical perspective. Plants are divided into three categories: matrix, primary, and scatter and the combination of text, photographs, and planting plans is most illustrative. The following chapter discusses how plant combinations are the building blocks of planting design and the importance of the visual aspects of the plants we use, structure much more so than color. This is the first time that I’ve seen the 70/30% rule specified, i.e. 70% structural perennials and only 30% filler perennials. Many other factors are discussed; all are important and there are examples of combinations for each season.

Chapter Five is a survey of contemporary, naturalistic planting designs created on three continents with illustrative photos and graphs (that also appear in other chapters) of the range of seasonal interest in these designs.

The last part of the book is a plant directory in graph form that lists the majority of the plants used by Piet.

Easy to use, it denotes height, spread and spreading ability, architectural and foliage characters, bloom time, longevity, persistence being whether plants die out in the center, tendency to self-sow, habitat, zone, and additional notes.

Any designer interested in more naturalistic landscapes needs to read and then savor this book.

While most of this column looks at books with a design perspective, this one, Powerhouse Plants: 510 Top Performers for Multi-Season Beauty by Graham Rice, would follow naturally in a reading succession after the onla.org

Online Availability klynnurseries.com Oudolf and Kingsbury book. It is for plant lovers and landscape designers who are always searching for plants with more than one season of interest.

As Rice points out, choosing plants that create different displays at different times of the year is one of the best ways to make the most of limited space. In larger spaces, such plants create more opportunities for fascinating combinations. The seasonal changes are well illustrated in the photographs, often side by side, taken by Judy White.

While flowers attract most people, there are several reminders in this book that there are other elements that supply beauty and interest in the landscape: bark, winter stems, winter and early spring rosettes, colorful new shoots, unfurling foliage, summer foliage, evergreen foliage, fall foliage color, and fruits as well as fragrance, habit, and edibility.

The book is arranged alphabetically by genus with one exception which is ornamental grasses as a group and most of the plants are hardy in our northern climate although the author is British. Rice rightfully points out that although a particular genus is listed, not all of its species and cultivars are created equally; particular care must be paid to selecting the right ones. While I applaud most of Rice’s selections, I do take issue with Meconopsis, spectacular though it is. Sadly, it grows well in only a few locations, namely Britain, Canada, and the American Northwest, and even then, tends to be short lived. Ah well, may be we all need to dream the impossible dream?

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Visit our website Sales Staff Availability* Hot List* Klyn Catalog 2014* Quote Form Photo Gallery E-mail addresses About Us Directions *Contact us for user name and password

Bobbie Schwartz, FAPLD Bobbie’s Green Thumb bobbie@bgthumb.com Check out the Featured Titles from This Month: Adams, Denise Wiles and Burchfield, Laura L.S., American Home Landscapes: A Design Guide to Creating Period Garden Styles, Timber Press, Portland, 2013, $39.95.

Hadden, Evelyn J., Beautiful No-Mow-Yards, Timber Press, Portland, 2012, paperback, $24.95.

Oudolf, Piet and Kingsbury, Noel, Planting: A New Perspective, Timber Press, Portland, 2013, $39.95.

Rice, Graham, Powerhouse Plants: 510 Top Performers for Multi-Season Beauty, Timber Press, Portland, 2012, paperback, $24.95.

onla.org

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TELEPHONE: (440) 259-3811 FAX: (440) 259-3338 1-800-860-8104 Web Site: klynnurseries.com E-Mail: klyn@klynnurseries.com January / February 2014 21

Educational Update Thousand Cankers Disease of Walnut: The Latest Thr eat to Ohio's For ests

This article is provided to you as a benefit of membership in the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association.

Content for this issue provided by: Tom Macy Forest Health Forester Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry thomas.macy@dnr.state.oh.us Micah Pace Urban Forestry Program Manager, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry micah.pace@dnr.state.oh.us

Ohio ranks second, behind Missouri, in the number of living black walnut trees per state. Black walnut is widely planted in Ohio in plantations and is also often found growing naturally in rich, moist bottomland forests. The black walnut resource is extremely important both economically and ecologically for Ohio’s rural and urban forests. It typically has the most valuable veneer wood of any native hardwood species. The nuts it produces are a source of food for humans and are critical as hard mast for a wide range of wildlife species. Black walnut is also used throughout the urban forest landscape where it grows naturally or is planted as a landscape tree, providing a multitude of ecosystem services like storm water management and air pollution mitigation.

It also has socioeconomic benefits, such as increased property values and energy conservation through shading.

Ohio’s black walnut and closely related but less common butternut trees are now threatened by thousand cankers disease (TCD), a “disease complex” involving an insect vector and an associated fungus (as observed with the more well-known Dutch elm disease).

This disease has been recognized since 2008 and only affects certain tree species in the genus Juglans.

The insect involved in TCD is the walnut twig beetle (WTB), a tiny bark beetle less than 2 millimeters in length that is native to the western United States and Mexico. In its native range, WTB feeds on the

western walnut species Arizona walnut and southern California walnut. The fungus, presumed to also be native to the western states, is Geosmithia morbida, and is consistently found on the bodies of WTB and in their galleries – tunnels created in wood as a result of feeding activity – and frass, the sawdust-like excrement. It is not currently known whether there is any mutualistic relationship between WTB and the Geosmithia fungus.

Initial reports and research seem to show that western walnut tree species have varying degrees of resistance to TCD. This could be due to co-evolution, which has allowed the trees to develop strategies to survive infestation by the beetle and fungus over thousands of years and many generations.

Our eastern black walnut and butternut, however, are extremely susceptible to the disease.

When WTB bore into the twigs and trunk of a tree, they carry with them the spores of Geosmithia morbida. On the inner and outer bark tissue, where the beetle enters the tree, the fungus produces small areas of dead tissue, or cankers.

Eventually, these cankers form beneath the bark and in the cambium layer in and around WTB galleries.

Initial infestations may show little or no outwardly visible symptoms. The small cankers can be easily missed early on and typically occur high in the canopy on small twigs. The only visible evidence may be the tiny, pinhole-

the ODNR Division of Forestry has placed 30 traps across the state at wood-processing facilities, in black walnut plantations, and natural forests with a large component of black walnut in order to detect any other potential WTB infestations. At this time, ODA and the ODNR Division of Forestry are looking into the best options for dealing with the infested trees in Butler County.

There is currently no known treatment method effective at controlling TCD. Chemical systemic insecticide treatments or sprays may be effective at limiting the infestation of WTB. However, this may only have limited control of TCD, as the insect must feed on the tree for control to be successful, and by then, it has already brought the fungal spores into the tree. Chemical treatment of walnut trees may be further complicated if they are being grown for edible nut production. Systemic fungicides may have some effectiveness for controlling the Geosmithia morbida fungus. These chemical options may be possible in saving individual, high-value trees, but are not feasible for controlling the disease across large tracts of forest.

Because there are no known treatments for TCD at large scales, management efforts are being focused on the prevention of the spread of the disease and sanitation of infested materials. Preventing the movement of the insect and fungus, especially in firewood, is vital to ensuring that the disease does not spread. Promoting overall tree health by irrigating in times of drought and reducing mechanical damage will help trees withstand insect and disease infestation. Sanitation options include burning or burying infested material to kill the WTB and fungus. Some WTB can survive and emerge from wood that has been chipped or mulched – this should only be an option to remove potential host material.

Landowners and natural resource professionals are urged to regularly inspect walnut and butternut trees for symptoms of TCD. If a suspected TCD infestation is found, contact the ODNR Division of Forestry, ODA, or an Ohio State University Extension specialist. These sources can provide guidelines for sample submission to The C. Wayne Ellett Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic for diagnosis of TCD. B

photos on following page

The Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association’s The Buckeye, January / February 2014

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EDUCATIONAL UPDATE

sized entry or exit holes of WTB. Repeated attacks by large numbers of WTB (likely in the thousands) finally result in the premature yellowing or “flagging” of leaves from June to August and thinning of foliage in the crown of the affected tree. It may be important to note that early yellowing and leaf-drop of black walnut leaves can be a result of walnut anthracnose, an unrelated fungal infection. However, walnut anthracnose usually causes small brown spots on the yellowed leaves, while leaves that have turned yellow due to TCD will typically not have brown spots.

As the cankers become more numerous and coalesce, they girdle twigs and branches, preventing the movement of water and important nutrients, ultimately limiting the tree’s ability to produce food, grow, and store energy. Disease progression causes dieback of larger branches and can result in epicormic sprouting. In urban settings, branches dieback and epicormic sprouting are important management considerations since they both negatively affect the structural integrity of a tree and may heighten the risk of injury or property damage as a result of stem, branch or limb failure. Tree risk assessments by qualified professionals are an effective strategy for minimizing risk associated with diseased and/or damaged trees. From initial infestation, it could take as long as 10-15 years for symptoms to develop, however, by the time symptoms are visible, affected trees usually die within 3-4 years.

TCD is known to occur natively in nine western states. In 2010, TCD was discovered near Knoxville, Tennessee, and has since been found in Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and most recently, Ohio. It is believed that both the WTB and the Geosmithia fungus were transported from the western U.S. on walnut wood material, as eastern black walnut is widely planted in several western states. In late 2012, WTB was caught in insect traps maintained by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Forestry near a wood-processing facility in Butler County in southwest Ohio. In August 2013, Geosmithia morbida was positively identified on an infested black walnut in the backyard of a vigilant landowner in Butler County. Several trees at this location are showing symptoms of TCD, meaning it has likely been present there for a number of years.

Since the discovery of WTB in Butler County, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) has enacted an exterior state quarantine preventing the importation of all walnut material from any state that is known to have TCD. Additionally, no walnut material can be transported out of Butler County. Over 100 insect traps have been placed around the infestation site at 5- and 10-mile radius distances by the ODA in an attempt to delineate the extent of the infestation. Also,

EDUCATIONAL UPDATE

Top Row: (Left to Right) Image 1: Leaf and fruit of black walnut (Photo courtesy of Mike Hogan, Auburn University). Image 2: Native range of black walnut (Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey). Image 3: Infested black walnut twig with bark peeled back to show cankers in Butler County, Ohio (Photo courtesy of Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry).

Middle Row: (Left to Right) Image 4: Walnut twig beetle adult (Photo courtesy of Steven Valley, Oregon Department of Agriculture, forestryimages.org). Image 5: Epicormic sprouting on infested black walnut in Butler County, Ohio (Photo courtesy of Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry).

Image 6: Black walnut showing decline symptoms from thousand canker disease (Photo courtesy of Ted Nisserat, Colorado State University, forestryimages.org).

Image 7: Walnut twig beetle exit holes (Photo courtesy of Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, forestryimages.org).

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"Ohio Grown PROUDLY for over 50 years!”

The Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association’s The Buckeye, January / February 2014

Feature

Why Choose Horticulture & The Green Industry as a Career….a Younger Perspective This article is written to encourage young people to consider the Green Industry as a career and to reinvigorate those who have entered the profession and are asking themselves “Why did I ever choose this line of work?”

I call myself a lifetime horticulturist. I started out on my grandfather’s truck farm at a very young age. I have landscaped, performed landscape maintenance, taught high school horticulture, worked in nursery sales and worked in a garden center over the past 40 years. In that time, I have never worked in any other job or career. I enjoy what I do and relate to it as, not only my career, but as my lifestyle as well. I believe that there are still many rewarding jobs available in the “Green Industry” for the many people who embrace common skills, values and interests.

These are the things that helped me to choose the Green Industry as my vocation and have kept me fulfilled in the profession all these years: •

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• • • • • • •

The People- I relate well to most of the people.

Most people in the horticulture field are “salt of the earth” people. These people care about each other more, are less competitive and more willing to help each other succeed than in many other industries The Environment. Working outdoors. Being “Close to the Earth”- A couple of young ladies (working in the office of a Lake County Nursery) I asked said the reason they started in the industry was “the opportunity for a suntan”. They have stayed many years and both now said that the industry “chose them” Relatively Low Stress- (compared, for example to the health care industry, law, etc.)

The challenges and problem solving needed to succeed The opportunity for exercise and stay fit and healthy Creativity involved in many of the horticultural careers such as landscape and floral design Self-expression shown in designs and finished projects The results are, in most cases, tangible and, in some cases, only get better with time (plants) Working with plants can be therapeutic.

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•

Propagating plants and watching them grow can be a motivation and incentive for many Understanding the relationship of plants to the “chain of life “and the role photosynthesis as the basis for all life. Helping others to understand this as well can be challenging but rewarding.

Sometimes, this also plays into helping us understand nutrition and the need for plants in our diet

I asked 3 young men to give me their take on why they chose to enter and stay in the Green Industry. All are between the ages of 25-35 and have been in the landscaping field as adults for 5-10 years. That is long enough to have “paid their dues” but they are young enough that their stories are “fresh” and provide a youthful perspective. Their stories are as follows.

I met Evan Prentice recently during a visit to Sandy’s Landscaping in Canton, Ohio. In making small talk, I asked Evan why he came into the Green Industry. Evan said “I went to college for Digital Media, Special Effects and 3D Animation with a minor in Theatrical Lighting.

I loved what I did while in school. However, with as new as the major was, I don’t think I was adequately prepared for the industry I was hoping to enter. Not to mention, I grew up around my father’s landscaping business, Sandy’s Landscaping. After college, I sent out resumes all over the place and began to realize I wasn’t hearing much in return. I love working on a computer and designing pretty much anything but 8 hours a day, 7 days a week stuck behind a computer isn’t for me.

That leads me to why I have re-entered the horticulture industry working for my father’s business. I take care of all of the landscape designs that we make through the software available to us. I also help with hardscapes, bids, maintenance, snow removal, lighting installation and irrigation. What I like best about the industry is that every day is different….a different problem to solve or different situation to address. It keeps me on my toes and I enjoy having to figure out all the obstacles you encounter in the horticulture industry.”

Shane Boyce was a student of mine in the Horticulture Program at Marlington High School. Shane did not grow up in the Green Industry. I can vividly remember the day, about 15 years ago, that I introduced the idea to Shane please see page 26

January / February 2014 25

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that horticulture could be a viable career option. With currently a Landscape Designer at Rice’s. I really enjoy Shane that day, it was as if a light bulb went on inside the problem solving aspect of my position. There are no his head. He has not turned back since and has become two days or two projects the same. Each and every site a very successful and respected landscape designer. has its challenges. I also enjoy working with the different Shane said, “Growing up, I always had a passion for the clients on projects. It is so rewarding to take their wants outdoors. I really enjoyed camping, hunting, fishing, needs and desires for their property and make it a reality. baseball, or just about any other outdoor activity. My Horticulture is an awesome industry to be a part of!” parents always encouraged me to do what I wanted with my career. As I entered my high school years, I Aaron Tournoux was also a student in the Horticulture enrolled in the Horticulture Program and worked for a Program at Marlington High School. Aaron had a farm landscape company during the summer months. I really background through working with his grandfather, father, enjoyed the instant gratification of completing projects. and uncles on their family farm and through his father’s It was really rewarding to see what you started with and employment on a large dairy farm. Much like Shane, what you left behind on each job. I continued in the once Aaron was introduced to the Green Industry, there Horticulture Program throughout high school and really was no turning back. I could tell that Aaron enjoyed enjoyed the comradery of working together on projects working with his hands and was excellent at academics in the greenhouses and around the campus. There are as well. He proved to be ambitious and a self-starter memories that my and was a joy to friends and I still mentor. Aaron, reminisce to this as a sophomore day. With the in high school, great support and could back a encouragement truck and trailer from my better than most Horticulture adults. He was Teacher, Tom very active Green, and my in FFA and parents, I decided National Junior to go on to Horticulture. I study Landscape was proud to be Contracting & on stage with him Construction at the National at OSU/ATI. FFA Convention I had a great when he won a experience there national award Aaron (left) and Zach (right) in their office maintenance building (built from 1840’s hog barn that has and learned a for Landscape been in the family 7 generations.) tremendous Proficiency/ amount about the industry. After receiving my Entrepreneurship. Aaron and his brother Zach own and Associate’s Degree, I decided to move on to get my operate Tournoux Landcare, a landscape design/build Bachelor’s Degree at OSU Main Campus. I continued and maintenance company in Canton, OH. Both are to learn a great deal about the Green Industry and graduates of OSU, Aaron in Landscape Horticulture and started to develop an interest in landscape design. Upon Zach in Construction Management. Aaron, like Shane, is graduation, I started working for Rice’s Nursery and grateful to have received scholarships from both ONLA Landscaping, Inc. I started working on a hardscape and OLA. Aaron started the company immediately after crew for the first season. Then, for two years, I was graduating from OSU in December 2007. He was able foreman of a landscape/hardscape crew. During my to beat the odds and finish college in 3 ½ years as he time in the field, I gained a tremendous amount of did international studies during some summer months. experience installing everything from plantings, to patios, Aaron says of his decision to pursue a career in the Green to sidewalks, retaining walls, lawns, water features Industry, “I enjoy being outside and moving around. I and so on. This time in the field would prove to be a like being creative and knowing how to use plants in major key to my success in the future. I then started the proper setting and conditions for maximum success assisting the Landscape Designers with projects and and effect. I enjoy starting my own plants and watching helped them with plans, proposals, and information for them grow. I also enjoy learning about and operating their presentations. I would also work with take-offs equipment such as the mini excavator or skid steer loaders and estimates for commercial bid/build projects. I am that make our work progress more efficiently.” Aaron

26 The Buckeye

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and Zack have moved an 1840’s hog barn from their grandfather’s farm (the family has owned the property for 7 generations) and have used the mortise and tenon structure for the framing and trim for their office and maintenance building. Their agricultural heritage carries through in some of their landscape designs, as well… especially in the hardscapes they install.

and being involved in OLA and NGLCO. I wish the very best to Evan, Shane and Aaron and others as they grow in the Green Industry. With the many changes in technology, government regulations, and the changing workplace, I am sure that they will have a much different experience than I. However, I am convinced that the rewards and advantages will still be many. B

So there you have it. While the G/I is definitely not an easy career choice, it offers many advantages. I found in my years of teaching that students need to be introduced to the possibilities in the G/I and then the decision becomes theirs. Many times, they do not realize their own potential based on interest, values and aptitudes like the ones discussed earlier. They also do not realize the depth and breadth of the industry and the many possibilities. In our academic society, I see that they need to be given “permission” to pursue a career in such as “hands on” industry. Even 40 years ago, my H.S. Guidance Counselor stated that I was “too smart” to take horticulture in high school.

Tom Green Tom Green Nursery Sales, LLC ONLA Student Activities and Scholarship Committee tgreenhort@aol.com

Horticulture certainly has been an interesting and rewarding career for me. I have many friends that I have met over the years at events such as the CENTS Show and by serving on various committees for ONLA

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Certification Corner

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The Value of ONLA 

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Why should I renew my ONLA Membership? With  it being membership renewal time, many companies are asking that question. What is the value of an ONLA membership and how does it benefit me?  Since 1908, The Ohio Nursery and Landscape Associa tion (ONLA) has been instrumental in providing Ohio’s  Green Industry with all the necessary services for manag  ing a successful business. As one of the leading nursery  and landscape associations in the nation, the ONLA  prides itself in being Ohio’s all-encompassing “Green Industry” association.

Whether you want to enhance your  green industry knowledge, hone your business skills,  network and stay on top-of-mind with customers, or save  money on key business services, ONLA provides the  solution.  Currently, ONLA offers 17 professional services from  group health insurance to advertising assistance. In addi  tion, members can take advantage of over 30 associationprovided services including numerous publications, a comprehensive certification program and CENTS, the best attended trade show of its kind in the Mid-West.

With today’s ever changing legislative activity and how it relates to the green industry, businesses need someone to stay abreast of what’s happening on the State and National levels, and be their voice. ONLA works  with a legislative consulting firm to continuously monitor state regulatory and legislative activities, and has multiple  resources and events throughout the year that support green industry legislation.   ONLA offers many opportunities to enhance your  Green Industry knowledge. The Central Environmental  Nursery Trade Show (CENTS) held every January is the  marketplace for nursery stock, supplies, and the newest  equipment. CENTS continues to expand to include all  facets of the Green Industry.   The ONLA has identified education, at all levels as  a critical element in successful business leadership. We  offer diagnostic walkabouts, bus tours, trials open house, full-day workshops and business classes. ONLA provides   year round education at locations throughout Ohio for all types of Green Industry jobs.  Employee certification is very important to your  customers. Certified employees separate your business from others. The ONLA offers the Ohio Certified Nursery  Technician program, a statewide testing program with  three areas of specialization: Garden Center, Grower, and Landscape. Individuals who pass all three specialization  exams  are awarded the status of Ohio Certified Nursery Technician Master. Certificates are given to the employee 

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28 The Buckeye

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and a sent to the employer to display with pride.  With your ONLA membership you have access to nu merous publication resources.

The Buckeye is the maga zine produced by  the ONLA which updates members on  industry trends, legislative issues, and general trade infor mation on state and national levels.

Other ONLA publica tions include The PEST Newsletter, Perennial Plants for   Ohio, and Landscape Plants for Ohio and Common Pests.

ONLA.org includes ONLA and industry information,  membership updates, legislative alerts, certification information, an industry calendar, publications, articles, classified ads, CENTS information, searchable member data base and a searchable Ohio-grown nursery stock database.  With companies taking a closer look, and evaluating  the worth of all expenses, ONLA membership  is truly a value with all that  is available to its members. Renew today! B  

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LuAnne Back ONLA Membership Committee The Siebenthaler Co.

   

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   

     

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 

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Welcome New ONLA Members The following firms and individuals have been approved for ONLA membership, pending the completion of the application process, which includes requesting comments from the current ONLA membership regarding the qualifications and/or dues classifications of applicants within three weeks following receipt of this issue of The Buckeye.

The following companies are applying for ACTIVE membership: Ariens/Gravely Company P.O. Box 312 Holland, IN 47541 Wally Sutt, Category 5 Northern Family Farms, LLP West 10757 Jeffrey Road Merrillan, WI54754 Ashley Ahl, Category 4 Select Stone P.O. Box 1327 Holland, OH 43528 Deborah Fry , Category 1 The following people are applying for Professional Individual membership: Jason Caskey, Certified Angus Beef Randy Dove, Chemical Abstract Services Peter Lowe, The Dawes Arboretum The following people are applying for Affiliate membership: Jason Lipot, Washington County Career Center Rick Malone, Medina County Career Center Francesca Peduto Hand, The Ohio State University Dennis Reithman, Tri-Star Career Compact Hort Mary Ann Rose, OSU Pesticide Education Program

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The following people are applying for Student membership: Auburn Career Center Emilio Botello Brandon Fekter Alejandro Gonzalez Sam Goodwin Cammie Kappele Garrett Layne Mick McGonugle Dennis McClure John McCurry Walter Roderick Brian Schultz Alen Strmac Juan Moreno Valadez Grace Vance Joseph Workman Christopher Wyatt Clark State Community College Thomas Cramer Jeffrey A. Fox William Queen Leila Wickerham

Tolles Career & Technical Center Mike Adkins Vincent Ball Trystan Edwards Kyle Hamman Nathan Hunter Aaron Malone Christian Montana Tyler Page Jordan Sabinski Cameron Waugh Brook Zollinger Washington County Career Center Jonathan Anderson Emily Blevins Kyle Britton Kyleigh Butler Brianna Cline Alex DeLancey Daralyn Dulaney Russell Erb Lisa King Jake D. Riffle Josie Ruth Colt Somerville Tyler Sovle Kayla Theiss Savannah Mae Whitten Makayla Wright Suzi Jezek, Cuyahoga Community College

Owens Community College Sue Ambrose Michelle Keip Shane Kramer Sean Molter Corey L. Stricker

Brandon Moncrief, Gates Mills Environmental Center

Penta Career Center Michael Apthorpe Becky Fultz Kandace Gilbert Trevin Haar Chris Lewis Colton Northrup Craig Welch

Jamie Penkava, Lorain County JVS

Nall Inshan Moonilall, The Ohio State University Jonathan Partee, Medina County Career Center Naoko Seko, University of Cincinnati Lisa Craddock Thitoff, Columbus State Community College Rychele White, The Ohio State University B

January / February 2014  29

ONLA Members On The Grow!

The ONLA would like to extend “Congratulations” to the following companies that experienced growth in the last year! They have reported to us on their ONLA membership renewal form that they have moved to a higher dues category (based on the gross dollar volume of all sales for the previous fiscal year.)

New Category 1 Members: JTS Landscaping Co. Seville, Ohio

Abbruzzese Brothers, Inc. Hilliard, Ohio

New Category 3 Members:

East of Eden Nursery, Inc. Hunting Valley, Ohio

Jamie Fox Landscaping, Inc. Milford, Ohio

Greenspire Grounds Management, Inc. Hilliard, Ohio

Mile Tree Lawn & Garden, LLC Clarksburg, Ohio

Kobelt, Inc. Mentor, Ohio

Kassner Landscaping, Inc. Milford, OH

Nilsson’s: A Full Service Landscape Co., Inc. Waterville, Ohio

Landscapes and OuterSpaces, LLC Hillsboro, Ohio

North Dayton Garden Center Dayton, Ohio

New Category 4 Members:

ProScape Lawn & Landscape Services, LLC Marion, Ohio

New Category 2 Members:

Miller’s Country Gardens, Ltd. Delaware, Ohio Tall Oaks Lawn & Landscaping, LLC Hamilton, OH Woodland Mulch Akron, Ohio B

Bella’s Lawn & Landscape Oregon, Ohio Bry Pan, LLC Newark, Ohio

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30 The Buckeye

Call for More Information!

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Feature

Ohio State University’s Best of the Best Results of the cultivar trials, located at Ohio State University’s Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens.

The cultivar trials, located at Ohio State University’s Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens, are conducted each year in order to evaluate ornamental bedding and container plants. The objective of these trials is to observe the performance of new and recently introduced cultivated plant varieties under environmental conditions typical of central Ohio.

We offer four different trials over the summer: • Field Trial - ornamental bedding plants are grown in the ground, in full sun • Container Trial - ornamental container plants are grown in plasic containers, in full sun • Shade Trial - ornamental bedding & container plants are grown in plastic containers, under a shade structure • Hanging Basket Trial - ornamental trailing plants are grown in baskets

OSU’s Best of the Best These plants received a perfect score on all four evaluations taken over the summer:

Coleus ‘Kong Jr. Scarlet’

A mounding petunia, ‘Supertunia Vista Bubblegum’ grew to 22” tall, completely covered in hot pink blooms that recover quickly after a rainfall.

Pelargonium ‘Sarita Dark Red’ Company: Dummen Numerous large, dark red flower clusters are held above the dense foliage of the ‘Sarita Dark Red’ Pelargonium, growing to 18” tall.

Vinca ‘Titan Blush’ Company: PanAmerican Seed Large, pale pink blooms with a hot pink center create a strong contrast against the dark green foliage of Vinca ‘Titan Blush’, growing to 14” tall.

Caladium ‘Royal Flush’ Company: Bates Sons & Daughters Caladium ‘Royal Flush’ reached 20” tall in full sun with moderate irrigation, and provided a dense cover of showy red leaves with a green margin.

Pennisetum ‘Graceful Grasses Fireworks’

Company: Ball Ingenuity With smaller leaves than ‘Kong’ series plants, Coleus ‘Kong Jr. Scarlet’ matured to 40” tall with striking lime and scarlet coloration and moderate flower production.

Company: Proven Winners Pennisetum ‘Fireworks’ is an eye-catching ornamental grass suitable as a backdrop or a focal point. In full sun, the plant has hot pink- and maroon-variegated foliage that reached a height of 48”.

Petunia ‘Supertunia Vista Bubblegum’

Caladium ‘Tapestry’

Company: Proven Winners onla.org

Company: Bates Sons & Daughters

please see page 32

January / February 2014 31

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continued from page 31

The interesting leaves of Caladium ‘Tapestry’ grab attention with mottled green and white foliage highlighted by hot pink veins. This plant reached 30” tall and combines well with many color schemes.

Begonia ‘Surefire Red’ Company: Proven Winners Performing equally well in full sun and full shade, massive plants from the Begonia ‹Surefire› series reach about 20» tall with dark green foliage and huge flowers.

Begonia ‘Surefire Rose’ Company: Proven Winners Performing equally well in full sun and full shade, massive plants from the Begonia ‘Surefire’ series reach about 20” tall with dark green foliage and huge flowers.

B Lindsay Pangborn - Annual Cultivar Trial Manager pangborn.9@osu.edu www.ohiofloriculture.osu.edu/cultivar-trials

Captions Below (Clockwise from Top Left) Image 1: Begonia Surefire Rose, Proven Winners Image 2: Coleus Kong Jr Scarlet, Ball Ingenuity Image 3: Pelargonium Sarita Dark Red, Dummen Image 4: Caladium Tapestry, Bates Sons & Daughters Image 5: Pennisetum Graceful Grasses Fireworks, Proven Winners Image 6: Petunia Supertunia Vista Bubblegum, Proven Winners Opposite Page Left- Caladium Royal Flush, Bates Sons & Daughters Top Right- Vinca Titan Blush, PanAmerican Seed Bottom Right- Begonia Surefire Red, Proven Winners

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January / February 2014 33

B

Out and About

Controlling Creeping Yellow Field Cress Pre- and Post- Emergence Herbicides for Controlling Creeping Yellow Field Cress (Rorippa sylvestris) Creeping yellow cress (Rorippa sylvestris) also known as Kik and yellow cress, is a major nuisance weed in nurseries (Fig. 1). Rorippa is a member of the mustard family and forms dense stands. Creeping yellow cress has roots that spread widely and can be propagated by small pieces of the roots (Fig. 1B). Stands of creeping yellow cress cover the ground and choke the life out of any plants around (Fig. 1 C). Rorippa sylvestris is the most rapidly dispersing invasive weed in Ohio and Michigan and most efforts to control its spread have been ineffective.

Materials and Methods Two trials were conducted in Berry Family Nurseries, Grand Haven, MI fields, one as a preemergence study, and the other a postemergence study. Evaluations for the pre- and post- emergence trials consisted of visual ratings of weed control and phytotoxicity to crop species. Visual ratings of weed control were based on a 0-10 scale with 0 being no control and 10 perfect control with ≥7 commercially acceptable. Visual ratings of phytotoxicity were based on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being no phytotoxicity and 10 death with ≤3 commercially acceptable. Data was analyzed using SAS® GLM. Phytotoxicity effects of treatments were compared to the controls using Dunnett’s t-test (α = 0.10 and 0.05). Efficacy treatments were compared to each other using least significance difference (ls means).

The preemergence trial was started on April 4, 2013 in a liner bed of Common purple lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) that had not yet broken dormancy and were approximately 6” (15 cm) tall. Weather at time of application was sunny, approximately 40 °F with no dew present. Six herbicides and one herbicide + mulch were compared to an untreated control. Herbicides included Corsair (chlorsulfuron, Nufarm Americas, Inc.) at 5.3 oz/ac, Certainty (sulfosulfuron, Monsanto Corp.) at 1 oz/ac, SedgeHammer (halosulfuron, Gowan Co.) at 2 oz/ac, Lontrel (clopyralid, Dow Agro Sciences) at 1 pt/ac, V-10336 (no trade name yet, flumioxazin + pyroxasulfone, Valent U.S.A.) at 15 oz/ac, and Diuron 80 (diuron, Drexel, Inc.) at 3 lb./ac. For the herbicide + mulch treatment, Casoron CS (dichlobenil, Chemtura Corp.) at 3 gal/ac was applied just prior to application of 2 inches of pine nugget mulch.

The herbicides were applied with a CO2 backpack sprayer delivering 25 gal/ac. The creeping yellow cress was just beginning to green below the soil surface. Plots were ap-

Figure 1. Rorippa sylvestris elongating clusters of stalked flowers at the end of branching stems. The yellow flowers are ¼ inch across, forming at the tip of the expanding raceme. They have 4 petals, are rounded, spatula shaped and twice as long as the sepals.

Figure 1B

Figure 1C

34 The Buckeye

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proximately 3’ x 3’ with approximately 1-2’ between plots.

The postemergence trial treatments were also conducted on Common purple lilacs (Syringa vulgaris); however, unlike the preemergence trial, the lilacs had broken dormancy at the time of application and were approximately 7” (17.5 cm) tall. Applications were made on May 16, 2013. Weather was approximately 65 °F, 5 mph wind, sunny. Herbicides included: Corsair (chlorsulfuron, Nufarm Americas, Inc.) at 5.3 oz/ac, Certainty (sulfosulfuron, Monsanto Corp.) at 1 oz/ac, SedgeHammer (halosulfuron, Gowan Co.) at 2 oz/ac, Lontrel (clopyralid, Dow Agro Sciences) at 1 pt/ac, V-10336 (no trade name yet, flumioxazin + pyroxasulfone, Valent U.S.A.) at 15 oz/ac, Diuron 80 (diuron, Drexel, Inc.) at 3 lb/ ac, Classic (chlorimuron, Dupont Crop Protection) at 2/3 oz/ac, and Marengo SC at 9 oz/ac. All treatments included the addition of nonionic surfactant at 0.25% v/v. Herbicides were applied with a CO2 backpack sprayer delivering 25 gal/ac.

Preemergence Trial In the weeks following the preemergence applications, there was considerable in Grand Haven, MI. Rainfall in 2013 set a new record for April, measuring 11.10”, 7.75” more than usual, and 8.12” more than last year (2.98”). 11.10” total rainfall broke the previous April record of 8.29” set in 1909. April 2013 is now the third wettest month on record after June 1892 (13.22”) and September 1986 (11.85”) in Grand Haven. In April 2013, 18 days received measurable precipitation, five days more than average. This abnormally high rainfall caused leaching of the treatments into adjacent plots.

Some of the control plots demonstrated higher phytotoxicity than normal.

Corsair, Certainty, and SedgeHammer provided perfect efficacy through 8 WAT. Corsair provided the highest efficacy at 11 WAT and was the only treatment that was significantly better than the untreated controls (Table 2).

please see page 36

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Table 1. Phytotoxicity to Syringa vulgaris from selected preemergence applications at Berry Family Nurseries, Grand Haven, MI. Phytotoxicity Treatment Corsair Certainty SedgeHammer Lontrel V-10336 Diuron Casoron + PN Untreated

Rate/ac 5.3 oz 1 oz 2 oz 1 pt 15 oz 3 lb 3 gal --

4 WATz 7.5yx 4.5 5.3 3.3 3.8 2.0 3.5 2.3

5 WAT 8.3 ** 4.5 5.3 3.5 4.3 3.0 4.8 1.5

6 WAT 9.0 ** 5.5 6.3 * 4.8 5.0 4.5 5.3 2.5

8 WAT 9.3 ** 6.5 6.0 4.5 7.3 5.8 6.3 3.5

11 WAT 10.0 ** 5.0 4.8 4.3 7.0 ** 5.8 8.0 ** 2.5

Table 2. Efficacy in Syringa vulgaris fields for Rorippa sylvestris (creeping yellow cress) from selected preemergence applications at Berry Family Nurseries, Grand Haven, MI. Creeping yellow field cress control Treatment Rate/ac 4 WAT Corsair 5.3 oz 9.0wv a

5 WAT 9.3 a

6 WAT 10.0 a

8 WAT 10.0 a

11 WAT 9.8 a

Certainty 1 oz 10.0 a 9.5 a 10.0 a 10.0 a 8.8 SedgeHammer 2 oz 10.0 a 9.8 a 10.0 a 9.8 a 8.5 Lontrel 1 pt 2.8 c 3.3 d 6.8 bcd 7.0 bc 6.8 9.5 a 7.5 ab 5.5 cd 2.5 d 5.8 V-10336 15 oz 4.3 bc 6.3 bc 7.5 bc 7.8 ab 8.3 Diuron 3 lb 6.3 b 8.0 a 7.8 ab 7.0 bc 9.0 Casoron + PN 3 gal 3.5 c 4.0 cd 5.0 d 4.8 cd 6.0 Untreated -z = weeks after treatment y = Phytotoxicity ratings based on a 0-10 scale with 0 being no phytotoxicity and 10 death with ≤ 3 commercially acceptable

ab abc bc c abc ab bc

x = Treatment ratings followed by *,** are significantly different from the control, based on Dunnett's ttest (α = 0.10 and 0.05, respectively) w = Control ratings are based on a 0-10 scale with 0 being no control and 10 perfect control with ≥ 7 commercially acceptable v = Treatment ratings followed by the same letter in the same column are not significantly different based on lsmeans (α = 0.05)

Table 3. Phytotoxicity to Syringa vulgaris from selected postemergence herbicide applications at Berry Family Nurseries, Grand Haven, MI. Phytotoxicity Treatment Corsair Certainty SedgeHammer Classic Lontrel V-10336 Diuron Marengo SC Untreated

Rate/ac 5.3 oz 1 oz 2 oz 2/3 oz 1 pt 15 oz 3 lb 9 oz --

2 WATz yx

6.0 4.8 6.0 6.5 3.8 9.0 7.5 4.3 1.0

5 WAT 9.8 **

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

6.3 7.3 8.8 3.3 7.8 7.5 6.0 0.8

** ** ** ** ** ** **

Table 4. Efficacy in Syringa vulgaris fields for Rorippa sylvestris (creeping yellow cress) from selected preemergence applications at Berry Family Nurseries, Grand Haven, MI. Creeping yellow field cress control Treatment Rate/ac Corsair 5.3 oz Certainty 1 oz SedgeHammer 2 oz Classic 2/3 oz Lontrel 1 pt V-10336 15 oz Diuron 3 lb Marengo SC 9 oz Untreated --

2 WAT

9.0wv 9.0 8.8 9.0 6.0 9.0 6.5 6.8 3.0

a a ab a c a bc abc d

5 WAT

9.8 9.5 9.0 9.5 6.5 9.0 7.8 5.5 2.3

a a a a b a ab bc c

z = weeks after treatment y = Phytotoxicity ratings based on a 0-10 scale with 0 being no phytotoxicity and 10 death with ≤ 3 commercially acceptable x = Treatment ratings followed by *,** are significantly different from the control, based on Dunnett's ttest (α = 0.10 and 0.05, respectively) w = Control ratings are based on a 0-10 scale with 0 being no control and 10 perfect control with ≥ 7 commercially acceptable v = Treatment ratings followed by the same letter in the same column are not significantly different based on lsmeans (α = 0.05).

January / February 2014 35

continued from page 35

Lontrel provided little to no preemergence efficacy for creeping yellow cress. This is not surprising, as Lontrel is not labeled as a preemergence herbicide. V-10336 provided excellent control through 5 WAT; however, by 6 WAT, efficacy decreased to a rating of 5.5, only slightly better than untreated (Table 2).

Phytotoxicity varied among the treatments (Table 1). Corsair, although extremely efficacious, was also extremely phytotoxic. BY 11 WAT, all the lilacs were dead in the Corsair plots (Table 1). V-10336 at 15 oz/ac was also very phytotoxic to lilac by 11 WAT (Table 1).

V-10336 became more phytotoxic as the trial progressed (Table 1), even though it was applied during dormancy.

Casoron also became increasingly phytotoxic over time and significantly so by 11 WAT (Table 1). We recommend Certainty and SedgeHammer be used in further studies for preemergence control of Rorippa in lilacs and other species as both showed promise in efficacy and reduced phytotoxicity.

From our pre- project start surveys we found that liner bed growers were using the following herbicides, Rout, Barricade, Snapshot, SureGuard, Pendulum, Round up, Goal, Tower, Lontrel and 2, 4-D. With the exception of Lontrel the herbicides listed above have no efficacy on Rorippa. The acceptable use of Lontrel in this study provided 35% control, thus reducing hand weeding costs by 35%. Although not a complete answer, using Lontrel in liner beds can afford significant reductions in weed control program costs, when Rorippa is present. B Dr. Hannah Mathers, mathers.7@osu.edu Luke Case, case.49@osu.edu Ohio State University, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Columbus, Ohio

Postemergence Trial Although April had record rainfall, May 2013 had normal rainfall. All the rains of April did bring “lots of flowers” and weeds for this postemergence trial. Unfortunately, all of the treatments caused greater phytotoxicity than the control (Table 3). Lontrel, however, was the only treatment where the injury was near commercially acceptable (Table 3). More work and trials need to be conducted to determine the best option for control of creeping yellow field cress in field situations.

Excellent efficacy was achieved with six of the eight treatments; Marengo SC and Lontrel were the only two treatments not providing acceptable control at 5 WAT (Table 4). Marengo was significantly better than the control at 2 WAT, but not 5 WAT (Table 4). Lontrel, although not commercially acceptable, provided better control than Marengo and the untreated plots and was similar to Diuron at 5 WAT (Table 4) Corsair, just like in the preemergence trial, provided the best control of Rorippa through 5 WAT. We recommend Lontrel be further studied for control of Rorippa as it was the only product to provide near acceptable phytotoxicity and some level of weed control.

Although Lontrel’s efficacy was not as high as some of the other products, it seems to be the only one with promise. We recommend there be much more work and trials conducted to determine the best option for control of Rorippa in various liner bed species in MI due to the rapid dispersion of this weed.

Conclusions

36 The Buckeye

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Feature

Rice Hulls for Weed Control in Container Crops The USDA-ARS in Wooster, OH, has begun a new five-year research program to develop weed management options for herbicide-sensitive crops. This is a multipronged approach to develop a wide variety of tools for weed control in production settings where herbicides are either not labeled or cannot be used safely.

A very promising part of this project thus far has been the use of parboiled rice hulls as a mulch in containers.

Riceland Foods, Inc. has been marketing their parboiled rice hulls for weed management in horticulture crops, and some nursery producers in Ohio have already successfully used rice hulls for weed control. The goal of our research was to determine, in controlled research, what quantity of rice hulls provided effective weed control of liverwort (Marchantia polymporpha) and bittercress (Cardamine flexuosa) (Image 1).

Image 1. Bittecress is especially difficult to control in propagation houses and other covered structures where herbicide use is limited.

A Few Basic Points Before I get into the details of our experiments and results, it’s important to review some basic concepts on how mulches provide weed control. Seeds of container weeds are small, and must germinate on or near the container substrate surface. When you cover the substrate surface with mulch, small weed seeds don’t have enough stored energy to grow through the mulch and establish themselves on the surface. This is primarily how mulches provide weed control, at least temporarily. The problem is that most mulches don’t provide long-term weed control because the mulch itself becomes an excellent substrate for weed germination. After the mulch is onla.org

applied, new weed seeds that land on the surface of the mulch will soon germinate in the mulch itself. A truly effective mulch, especially for container production, is one that persists for a long period of time and offers an inhospitable site for weed seed germination.

Effective mulches for container crops should have a combination of the following properties: they provide little or no available nutrients, they dry quickly after irrigation, and they resist decomposition. Weed seeds require available nutrients to establish successfully. They may germinate in the absence of nutrients, but they will fail to develop much past the cotyledon stage without sufficient nutrition. This is especially true for container weed species, which again, all have very small seeds. Nitrogen is the key nutrient that must be available for successful seedling establishment. Thus, compost materials often make poor mulches (especially in landscape situations).

The high nutrient content of many compost materials will actually increase weed growth.

An effective mulch will not retain water. This seems contradictory to what we have learned about mulches in the past. To be clear, it is acceptable, and even desirable, for a mulch to reduce evaporation and thus preserve water in the substrate. However, the mulch itself should not retain water. Weed seeds require water to trigger germination. Moist mulch will allow this to happen more quickly than if it dries rapidly. Furthermore, most organic materials will have sufficient porosity to promote root growth of the newly germinated weed as long as sufficient water is available to sustain root growth. A mulch that does not retain water itself will make germination and weed establishment unlikely. Mulches that dry quickly after irrigation or rain are inhospitable to weed establishment.

It almost goes without saying that mulches must resist decomposition. If the mulch decomposes, the barrier is lost and weeds are free to germinate. Unfortunately, abundant fertilization and irrigation are conducive to organic matter decomposition. The nature of nursery and greenhouse crop production renders many mulch products unacceptable due to decomposition after just a few weeks in production.

To review, the ideal mulch will be low in nutrient composition, retain little water even after irrigation, and resist decomposition. With that in mind, let’s look at some recent experiments to see how effective rice hulls are in preventing liverwort and bittercress establishment, two of the most problematic weeds in nursery production. please see page 38

January / February 2014 37

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continued from page 37

Will Fertilizers Affect Rice Hull Mulch?

The first experiment we conducted examined bittercress and liverwort growth in containers with 0, ¼, ½, and 1 inch of rice hulls applied to the surface. We filled 48 containers with standard greenhouse growing substrate and applied each rice hull treatment (mulch depth) to 12 containers. Of the 12 containers, six were placed on a bench that received overhead irrigation with regular tap water twice daily, and six were placed on a bench that received overhead irrigation with a standard commercial water soluble fertilizer injected (100 ppm N) twice daily.

Image 2. Rice hull mulch provides excellent control of bittercress and liverwort. From left to right are covered with 1, ½, ¼, and 0 inches of parboiled rice hulls.

We applied liverwort gemmae (spores) to the surface of the container weekly to encourage liverwort establishment. We applied bittercress seed to the surface twice, immediately after applying the mulch and about 4 weeks later. We observed weed control in the pots to determine if rice hulls could prevent these weeds from establishing.

Rice hulls at ½ or 1 inch depth provided 100% weed control (Figure 1) (Image 2). No weeds grew in these pots. In containers with ¼ inch of rice hulls, both bittercress and liverwort grew, albeit a lot less than the

un-mulched pots. This may have something to do with the way we applied the rice hulls. For the 1 inch mulch depth, we carefully weighed the containers before and after applying rice hulls to a depth of 1 inch. The weight of rice hulls in those pots was 44 g. So, for the pots receiving ½ inch of rice hulls, we simply weighed 22 g of rice hulls for each pot, and 11 g for the ¼ in pots. This seemed a fair, consistent, and accurate way to meter out the rice hulls. In doing this, we observed that ½ and 1 inch treatments were completely and thoroughly covered with rice hulls. However, the ¼ inch depth left some gaps in the mulch layer so that you could see the substrate surface through the mulch. Invariably, it was in these gaps that liverwort and bittercress found a footing and successfully established.

Based on our earlier discussion on the role of nutrition in weed seedling establishment, you might expect weed growth to be more vigorous on the bench with fertilizer injected into the irrigation stream. And you’d be correct, that’s exactly what happened. Weeds in the nonmulched pots (no rice hulls) that received fertilizer were a lot larger than those in the control pots with no fertilizer.

However, to my surprise, rice hulls applied at ½ or 1 inch depth provided perfect liverwort and bittercress control even with fertilizer injected into the irrigation stream.

Quite frankly, this surprised me a great deal. I was expecting weeds to germinate into the rice hulls as long as fertilizer was applied via the irrigation system. But they never did in the 8 week trial.

After observing this trial for several weeks, I was impressed with how quickly the rice hulls dried following irrigation. Since nitrogen was not limiting in these pots, I concluded that it must have been the water that was limiting. Perhaps the rice hulls dry too quickly for weed seed to successfully germinate and establish? We didn’t have any sensors or fancy gadgets to measure moisture levels in the rice hulls. However, we irrigated all these pots twice daily, and we could see with our own eyes how quickly the rice hulls dried after irrigation. We could also see the weed seed and liverwort gemmae (reproductive spores) sitting on the surface of the rice hulls without ever germinating or establishing (Image 3).

Would a Canopy Affect Mulch Stability?

The first experiment was done in 6 inch azalea pots filled with media, but with no plants other than the weeds.

For the second experiment, we hypothesized that with a plant growing in the pot, the shade from the canopy might cause the rice hulls to remain wetter for a longer period of time, and thus be more conducive to weed establishment.

We were wrong!

The second experiment was set up similar to the first experiment, using the same pots and rice hull treatments.

In this experiment, all pots received irrigation injected

with a complete fertilizer, twice daily. Half of the containers were filled and mulched similar to the first experiment, the other half of the containers were filled, potted with a single Knockout rose liner, then mulched.

The results of the second experiment were similar to the first experiment. Containers with ½ or 1 inch of rice hull mulch had few or no weeds. In one of the containers with ½ inch rice hulls, a small colony of liverwort established. Upon closer examination, we observed that the liverwort grew in a small region of the pot with a gap in the rice hulls where the substrate below was exposed. It’s likely that the surface of the substrate was irregular and not made perfectly level at the time of potting. When the mulch was applied, the rice hulls formed a level surface but a high peak in the substrate poked up through the rice hull barrier. Of all the pots we mulched, this was rare.

However, it shows that any exposed substrate will be conducive to weed growth, and weeds (using Murphy’s Law) will find that small exposed site to successfully establish.

Contrary to what we expected, weed control within the pots with a rose plant was as good or better compared to the pots with no rose. The rice hulls did, in fact, dry a little more slowly in containers with the rose canopy, but not slowly enough to allow for weed establishment. At the conclusion of the experiment, the weeds that were growing in these pots were smaller than those that grew

please see page 40

Image 3. Rice hulls make an inhospitable site for weed germination.

This photo shows oxalis seed (in red circles) on the substrate surface, still unable to germinate after 6 weeks.

Restoring the Native Landscape Together

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The Wilds, Cumberland, OH onla.org

January / February 2014 39

Bittercress mass in containers mulched with rice hulls.

Bittercress mass (g)

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0

0.25

0.5

1.0

Rice hull depth (in)

continued from page 39

Table 1. Rice hulls at depth of ½ to 1 inch provided 100% bittercress control.

in the pots with no rose. Reduced growth in the rose pots was likely due to competition from the roses.

Our experiments showed that rice hull mulch provides effective weed control when used at ½ to 1 inch depth.

Reducing the depth to ¼ inch resulted in some gaps in the rice hull barrier, and invariably weed establishment.

Riceland Foods, Inc. provides a horticultural grade of parboiled rice hulls for the greenhouse and nursery industry.

They recommend a depth of 2 to 3 inches for effective weed control. Not only is that recommendation impractical in all but the largest nursery containers, it is excessive considering that we found ½ inch to be an effective depth.

The most exciting, and surprising, aspect of this initial stage of research has been the effectiveness of rice hull mulch even when fertilizer was injected through the irrigation system. The stability and effectiveness of rice hull mulch with constant feed fertilization lends it to being useful in most nursery, greenhouse, and propagation systems.

The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) considers parboiled rice hulls as a product suitable for certified organic production. This certification may vary by source, however, so if you are interested in using rice hull mulch in your organic production system, verify that the specific rice hull product you intend to purchase has the OMRI certification.

Other Random Observations Fungus gnats were problematic in the greenhouse where this research was conducted. However, the fungus gnats seemed to avoid containers with rice hulls. In conversation with entomologists in our unit, they explained that lack of water in the rice hull mulch is likely the primary reason it seemed to suppress fungus gnats.

40 The Buckeye

The rapidly drying rice hulls inhibited weed germination and fungus gnats. How about killing two birds with one stone?!

The experiments described here were conducted for 8 weeks. So our claims of excellent weed control can only really be inferred for crops that are grown for approximately 8 weeks, including perennials, propagation liners, groundcovers, etc. Our research doesn’t test the stability and effectiveness of rice hulls for longer periods of time.

That said, the rice hulls in our experiments after 8 weeks looked as fresh as the day they were applied.

We attempted to evaluate rice hull mulch in #3 containers for up to 12 months on our nursery gravel pad.

This site is outdoors, with no protection from wind and rain. After plants were growing for about 2 weeks, a fairly typical Ohio thunderstorm blew the rice hulls into the next county. That experiment was terminated. Based on this observation, I don’t expect this product to be very useful outside of hoop-houses or similarly protected structures.

More Results are Forthcoming

2

There are other aspects of using rice hull mulch that we are currently exploring. What effect does rice hull mulch have on substrate pH? Rice hulls have previously been shown to be high in phosphorus and potassium.

Will using rice hulls affect the nutrition of the crops being grown? How will rice hull mulch affect plant water use and irrigation rates? Look for the answers to all these questions in upcoming articles. B Dr. James Altland USDA-ARS, Research Horticulturist james.altland@ars.usda.gov onla.org

Industry Calendar

View www.onla.org for seminars, events, trade shows and more! O designates qualifying OCNT recertification events January 12-15, 2014 OSU Nursery Short Course, Columbus, Ohio, basicgreen.osu.edu January 13, 2014 CENTS, Columbus Ohio, Attend the Central Environmental Nursery Trade Show (CENTS), with over 225,000 square feet of exhibition space, and soak up the innovation and ideas in an expanded market, centsmarketplace.com.

O January 13, 2014 Management Master Class (At CENTS), Columbus, Ohio, These sessions will be led by dynamic professional business speakers will cover the topics such as sales skills, business development, industryspecific management, and more. Send your managers to this conference, or attend yourself, and be sure that your best employees become your top managers, centsmarketplace.com O January 13-15, 2014 ONLA Business Classes and OSU Nursery Short Course (at CENTS), Columbus, Ohio, centsmarketplace. com or 800.825.5062 for more information.

January 14, 2014 Career Marketplace, ONLA’s Green Industry Job Fair, Columbus, Ohio, Held in conjunction with the Central Environmental Nursery Trade Show (CENTS) on Tuesday, January 14, 2014, from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (set-up is 1:00 - 3:45 p.m.), the Career Marketplace will take place at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Exhibitors are encouraged to bring display boards, brochures, job descriptions, business cards, etc. Booth spaces are limited: return registration form by December 1, 2013 to ensure your spot, 800.825.5062 or amandadomsitz@onla.org

your company, or all of the above, you’ll want to be part of this emerging group for women leaders, centsmarketplace.com.

January 17, 2014 Tennessee Green Industry Expo. Join the Tennessee Nursery & Landscape Association at the Green Industry Expo.

Nashville, Tennessee. tngie.com February 24-25, 2014 Annual ONLA Committee Meetings, Worthington, Ohio, The ONLA Committee meetings will be held at the Holiday Inn in Worthington, Ohio. B

O January 15, 2014 Conference of Women Leaders, Columbus, Ohio, Women in business face daily challenges that require a wide range of skills. This session, seeks to inspire, motivate and advise women working in the green industry. Enhance your skills during an upbeat, multi-faceted, and information-rich session specifically for women. Whether you’re a female entrepreneur, a critical component in a family business, a woman invested in the success of

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onla.org

January / February 2014 41

Advertisers’ Index Boulders Direct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 330.324.5336 Buckeye Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Official Publication of the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association

buckeyeresources.com Decker’s Nursery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Buckeye is the nursery and landscape industry’s authoritative voice in Ohio.

Second to none in editorial and graphic quality, The Buckeye publishes a wide range of editorial features on the green industry’s key issues. The Buckeye is another example of how the ONLA leads, promotes, and facilitates the success and growth of green industry businesses.

The Buckeye is published 10 times each year with a circulation of over 5,000

deckersnursery.com Ernst Seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 ernstseed.com Evergreen Nursery Company, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . 27 evergreennurseryco.com Fairview Evergreen Nurseries, Inc.. . . . . . . . . 41 fairviewevergreen.com Gilson Gardens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 gilsongardens.biz Grayhawk Greenhouse Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . 33 grayhawkgreenhousesupply.com Herberts Pine Hollow Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 herbertspinehollowfarm.com

each issue and an estimated readership of over 10,000.

Advertisers benefit from an industry-specific audience, with distribution to professional nursery, landscape and independent garden center businesses and individuals, certified green industry professionals, educators/ researchers, and subscribers.

Hobby Nursery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Access Ohio’s $4.9 billion industry. Contact Amanda to learn how your business can benefit from becoming an advertiser in The Buckeye.

Medina Sod Farms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

800.825.5062 amandadomsitz@onla.org

hobbynursery.com JCB of Ohio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 jcbohio.com Klyn Nurseries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 klynnurseries.com medinasodfarms.com Millcreek Gardens, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 mgohio.com Oberfield’s LLC .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC oberfields.com ONLA Publications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OBC onla.org ONLA Membership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 onla.org Pound’s Nursery, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

ONLA Classified Advertising: onla.org

poundsnursery.com

The online classified service can be found on onla.org along with the complete postings. New ads will be added as soon as they are submitted to the ONLA. For more information, please contact the ONLA office at (614) 899-1195. The ONLA reserves the right to refuse ads. As we go to press, here are the ads posted on onla.org’s online Classified Section:

Smith’s Gardens, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Help Wanted

Unilock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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Education Director, The Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association, Westerville, Ohio Operations Coordinator, Vizmeg Landscape, Inc., Stow, Ohio Landscape Design & Sales, Vizmeg Landscape, Inc., Stow, Ohio Landscape General Manager, Dan Druffel Inc., Maineville, Ohio Landscape Design/Salesperson, Graf Growers, Akron, Ohio

42 The Buckeye

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Manufacturer’s Rep Territory Openings, ProLine Equipment Div., Heritage Oak Farm, Inc., Galena, Illinois Program Assistant, Pesticide Safety Education Program, Ohio State University Extension Propagator/Farm Manager, Acorn Farms, Zanesville, Ohio

smithsgardensinc.om Spring Meadow Nursery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 colorchoiceplants.com unilock.com Walters Gardens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC waltersgardens.com

Ad Rates & Info Contact Amanda Domsitz 614.899.1195 amandadomsitz@onla.org

OBERFIELDS See Us At CENTS Booth 2543

EACH COMPANY WILL RECEIVE A COPY OF OBERFIELDS NEW DESIGN SOFTWARE!

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Register Online Now at www.oberfields.com/events

www.oberfields.com 614-252-0955 • 740-369-7644 • 800-845-7644

Get Customers dreaming about their outdoor living spaces! full color catalogs and indexed “how-to-garden” encyclopedia: • RESELL IN YOUR STORE • SUPPLEMENT YOUR CATALOG • LEAVE BEHIND WITH A PROPOSAL • STAFF TRAINING features: space on the cover to promote your brand, available in small quantities, beautiful images to inspire customers and assist staff

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