Volume 30 Issue 2 Summer 2015 In This Issue The 2 Association News 3 U of D News 4 Don’t Just Stand There, Plant Something 8 The Race for Plant Survival D.N.L.A. 9 Pollinator Series 12 Conservation Landscaping 24 Weed Management in Ornamental Grasses News 25 2015 Garden Trends Report 27 Generational Divide a Product of Life Experiences 29 Research Briefs 37 Publications 38 Calendar Board of Directors Executive Director Valann Budischak 888-448-1203 Past President Joe Wick 730-9070 President Dan Bailey 376-9113 Vice-President Evan Wrede 423-8001 Treasurer Aaron Jackson 858-7841 New Castle County Rep Debbie Mulholland 328-3716 Kent County Rep Wendy Rezac 734-2060 Sussex County Rep Valery Cordrey 945-3489 Directors-at- Large Jay Windsor 875-2457 Norm Hedrick 284-9677 Steve Sterling 653-7060 Tom Taylor 528-6434 Board Support Members Susan Barton 831-1375 Tracy Wootten 856-7303 Jeff Brothers 698-4500 Delaware Nursery and Landscape Editor: Susan Barton, Extension Specialist, University of Delaware Association The DNLA Newsletter is produced with the assistance of University of Delaware Cooperative Extension. ASSOCIATION NEWS and can also be found online at Valann Budischak www.dnlaonline.org . Topics at DNLA’s Executive Director, D.N.L.A. Annual Summer Event Include: The DNLA is value-added. We continuously Invasive Plant ID & Control strive to promote your company, and work on Retaining Walls & Stairs your behalf with our governmental agencies and Transportation Laws & Safety partners. How? Chainsaw Safety Beginning this fall the DNLA will promote Pest & Disease Walk and sponsor quarterly networking Plant ID opportunities hosted by member What's New & What Does it Do? organizations. These events will provide members an opportunity to visit with This day will award 2 Pesticide Applicator suppliers, manufacturer’s representatives Recertification Credits for DE Category 03. One and take advantage of event specials. credit for DE Category 5A can be obtained We’re also in the process of revamping our if attendee participates in the Invasive Plant ID website. Blue Blaze & Associates has been & Control session. Credits from PA, MD, NJ hired to give a much-needed facelift to our and ISA will also be available. Registration website. It will feature a redesigned includes lunch, tradeshow and seminars searchable membership directory, provide greater exposure to our classifieds and help The time is NOW…..2015 Landscape Awards wanted opportunities, and have feature program. The program is open to all members. spotlights of members that are “making We encourage you to submit an entry. It’s a things happen”, and much, much more. great way to showcase your talent. $500 will be A nutrient management certification session awarded to each winner. will be tweaked to focus on what you do. It will be held during a timeframe when you’re The categories are as follows: typically not crazed with planting or plowing Small Residential – December. Mark your calendars for Dec. Large Residential 2, 9 with the exam on Dec. 16. Classes will Commercial/Institutional be held in Dover. For more info click here Rookie of the Year (companies that have UD Cooperative Extension responded to never before submitted an entry) your cries for basic training for landscape employees with a homerun. Landscape 101 Entries are due by September 1st. To obtain an resumes in September with classes on turf entry form click here maintenance, weed ID & management, plant ID and soils. All classes are held in Newark. For dates and cost click here The Summer Turf & Nursery Expo is just around the corner. This year’s event will be held August 19th on the beautiful grounds of Buena Vista Conference Center in New Castle, DE. Registration brochures have been mailed DNLA News Page 2 Welcome New Members: U of D NEWS Susan Barton, Extension Specialist Crow Insurance Agency The Delaware Livable Lawns program has Jules Hendrix received a lot of good press recently. We started 106 S. Broad Street in January, when Amy Shober’s talk at the Middletown, DE 19709 DHIE on Nutrient Pollution called out the 302-378-9592 program as positive action that could help [email protected] prevent legislation. Livable Lawns homeowner incentive program has been promoted in the ForeSite Associates, Inc. News Journal Delaware Gardener column and Donna Shumpert over 200 homeowners are currently registered. 208 Delaware Street Bob Finocchiaro and I were both interviewed for New Castle, DE 19720 a WHYY documentary on proper lawn [email protected] management (broadcast on 6/19 at 5:30 and 11). We continue to promote environmentally sound Ransome Cat lawn care and hope more landscape contractors Matthew Walp will become certified in the Delaware Livable 2975 Galloway Road Lawns program. Bensalem, PA 19020 1-877-Ransome I recently received information about The [email protected] Native Plant Center’s Native woody and perennials plants of the year. They are Ron’s Lawn Care Sambucus nigra spp. canadensis (common Ron Jester elderberry) and Viola canadensis (Canada 23221 Ross Station Road violet), both attractive plants. Interestingly, Seaford, DE 19973 DNLA’s 2015 plants of the year are also both 302-841-3992 native to the mid-Atlantic. They are Carpinus [email protected] caroliniana (ironwood) and Eurybia divaricata (white wood aster). 2015 is the Year of the Coleus, according to the National Garden Bureau. And Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ in the Perennial Plant Association’s Perennial Plant of the Year. On the invasive plants front, New York has a law that went into effect March 10, 2015. It prohibits and regulates the sale, purchase and transport of 75 plant species. The rules do not require property owners to remove existing plants but forbid their introduction into public lands or natural areas. Golden bamboo, border privet and Japanese barberry are on the list. DNLA News Page 3 http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/i DON’T JUST STAND THERE, PLANT sprohibitedplants2.pdf SOMETHING In a recent VNLA Newsletter Virginia’s noxious In just two words, the tagline for a relatively weed law is explained. Changes became new, but rapidly growing, green industry effective January 29, 2015. Imperata cylindrica marketing campaign says it all. Plant anything, (Cogon grass or Japanese blood grass) and really, tree, shrub, perennial, annual, and you Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) are two can help to improve the environment, your plants that at least were once sold in the personal economy and even your well-being. It's landscape and nursery trade that are now the sort of short-but-sweet motivating phrase considered noxious weeds that piques consumers' curiosity and starts them thinking ... then talking ... then acting. And it In Maryland, they are finally getting around to appears to be just the sort of promotional putting plants on Tier 1 and Tier 2 lists for their campaign the green industry is ready for." new invasive plant law. Mike Hemming in a If you attended any of a number of trade shows recent Free State Nursery, Landscape and and conferences this year, you've probably seen Greenhouse News article (Spring 2015, Vol. ""Plant Something'"' material, whether you XLII, No. 1) discusses the first 5 plants to be picked up a brochure and a bumper sticker or evaluated. Iris pseudacorus (Yellow flag iris) visited the booth. Although the program began a and Geranium lucidum (Shining cranesbill) will few years ago in Arizona, it's reaching out be tier 1 plants. That means it will be illegal to across the country to recruit more partners in sell these species. Tier 1 plants have not this grassroots endeavor. established fully in Maryland, so there is a chance for eradication. Three plants are on the What is it? Tier 2 list: Euonymus alatus (Burning bush), On the surface, the "Plant Something" campaign Ligustrum obtusifolium (Border privot) and may look like a simple public awareness Wisteria sinensis (Chinese wisteria). These are campaign. It's somewhat similar to "Got Milk?" on tier 2 because they are already so widespread. in that its generic tagline But, they are plants the industry should stop doesn't promote any selling and will need to be labelled. The single producer or evaluation committee continues to look at plants individual product. and assess their potential for invading natural Aimed at consumers, the areas and the extent to which they have already ostensible goal is to become a component of Maryland landscapes. catch their attention and encourage them to, well, plant something. At its core, however, the program is intended to increase sales for member growers and garden centers and, by extension, help to grow the greater green DNLA News Page 4 industry. In fact, because it is supported by state, proportionate to the percentage of funding through the USDA Farm Bill Specialty specialty crops grown there. Every state is Crop Block Grant program, its function must be different, and funds are distributed differently in to work toward increasing the consumption of a each state. In Arizona, Goar says, "They actually specialty crop-in this case, ornamental plants. believe in getting all the money out to the specialty crop growers in the state. No one Hasn't this been tried before? Let's back up a bit. producer alone can apply; it can only benefit Remember "Plants for America," the proposed groups of producers. So the vegetable promotion order that was sowed in the early association can apply [for grant money], and the 1990s but never took root? It had a similar goal- nursery association can apply-anyone who's to place ornamental plants front and center in doing something that benefits a broad group." the mind of the consumer, thus driving up sales to benefit growers.