ILEX AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE BOTANIC GARDENS: A TEMPLATE FOR MEASURING COLLECTION RELEVANCE AT SMALL UNIVERSITY GARDENS by Jason M. Veil A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Plant and Soil Sciences Summer 2015 © 2015 Jason M. Veil All Rights Reserved ProQuest Number: 1602355 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 1602355 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 ILEX AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE BOTANIC GARDENS: A TEMPLATE FOR MEASURING COLLECTION RELEVANCE AT SMALL UNIVERSITY GARDENS by Jason M. Veil Approved: _________________________________________________________ John J. Frett, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: _________________________________________________________ Blake C. Meyers, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences Approved: _________________________________________________________ Mark W. Rieger, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Approved: _________________________________________________________ James G. Richards, Ph.D. Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to everyone who helped me get from there to here. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 The UDBG Holly Collection as a Template for Measuring Collection Relevance ........................................................................................................... 8 Industry Prevalence ................................................................................ 8 Academic Value ................................................................................... 11 Physical Condition ................................................................................ 11 Ilex in Modern Landscapes ............................................................................... 14 Ilex at the UDBG .............................................................................................. 16 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 18 University Gardens as Academic Resources .................................................... 18 Collection Relevance ........................................................................................ 19 Collection Evaluation ....................................................................................... 21 Benefits of Collection Evaluation .................................................................... 25 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS ..................................................................... 29 Industry Prevalence of Ilex Taxa (Re-wholesale Distributors) ........................ 29 Industry Prevalence of Ilex Taxa (Wholesale Growers) ................................... 30 University Garden Collection Relevance ......................................................... 33 Academic Garden Visitation ............................................................................ 34 Woody Plant Instruction and the Academic Value of Holly Taxa ................... 35 Physical Evaluation of the UDBG Ilex Collection ........................................... 37 Measuring the Current Educational Relevance of the UDBG Ilex Collection . 44 4 RESULTS ......................................................................................................... 47 Industry Prevalence of Ilex Taxa (Re-wholesale Distributors) ........................ 47 Industry Prevalence of Ilex Taxa (Wholesale Growers) ................................... 50 University Garden Collection Relevance Survey ............................................. 54 Academic Garden Visitation ............................................................................ 67 Woody Plant Instruction and the Academic Value of Holly Taxa ................... 68 iv Section One Results .............................................................................. 69 Section Two Results ............................................................................. 79 Physical Evaluation of the UDBG Ilex Collection ........................................... 86 Determining the Current Educational Relevance of the UDBG Ilex Collection ......................................................................................................... 88 5 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................. 101 Industry Prevalence of Ilex Taxa .................................................................... 101 Industry Issues with Nomenclature ................................................................ 101 University Garden Collection Relevance Survey ........................................... 107 Woody Plant Instruction and the Academic Value of Ilex Taxa .................... 114 Recommendations for the UDBG Ilex Collection .......................................... 118 Other Implications for the UDBG .................................................................. 119 Recommendations for Similar Academic Collections ................................... 121 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 126 Appendix A ILEX TAXA LIST FOR PLSC 212 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE (FALL, 2014) .......................................................................... 133 B ILEX TAXA LIST FOR PLSC 214 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE (SPRING, 2015) ...................................................................... 136 C UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE IRB EXEMPTION NOTICE (UNIVERSITY GARDEN COLLECTION RELEVANCE SURVEY) ........ 137 D INVITATION MESSAGE TO UNIVERSITY GARDEN COLLECTION RELEVANCE SURVEY RECIPIENTS ........................................................ 138 E UNIVERSITY GARDEN RELEVANCE SURVEY RESULTS .................. 139 F UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE IRB EXEMPTION NOTICE (WOODY PLANT INSTRUCTION AND THE ACADEMIC VALUE OF ILEX TAXA SURVEY) ........................................................................................... 156 G INVITATION MESSAGE TO WOODY PLANT INSTRUCTION AND THE ACADEMIC VALUE OF ILEX TAXA SURVEY RECIPIENTS ....... 157 H WOODY PLANT INSTRUCTION AND THE ACADEMIC VALUE OF ILEX TAXA SURVEY RESULTS (SECTION ONE) .................................. 158 I ILEX TAXA RECEIVING VOTES IN WOODY PLANT INSTRUCTION AND ACADEMIC VALUE OF HOLLY TAXA SURVEY (SECTION TWO) .............................................................................................................. 168 J ILEX TAXA OFFERED BY RE-WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS ............. 172 K ILEX TAXA OFFERED BY WHOLESALE GROWERS ............................ 176 L UDBG ILEX COLLECTION EVALUATION SHEETS ............................... 182 M UDBG ILEX COLLECTION PHYSICAL EVALUATION RESULTS ....... 185 v N CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. GILES WAINES, DIRECTOR, UC RIVERSIDE BOTANIC GARDENS ............................................................. 195 O CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. FRANK TELEWSKI, PROFESSOR AND CURATOR, W.J. BEAL BOTANICAL GARDEN AND CAMPUS ARBORETUM ............................................................................................... 198 P RELEVANCE SCORES FOR ALL RECORDED ILEX TAXA ................... 200 Q RECOMMENDED DESIDERATA OF ILEX TAXA FOR ACQUISTION BY THE UDBG ............................................................................................. 207 R UDBG ILEX RECOMMENDED FOR REMOVAL ..................................... 209 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Holly Society of America “Gene Eisenbeiss Holly of the Year” award winners ...................................................................................................... 9 Table 2 Hollies named to the PHS “Gold Medal Plants” program ...................... 10 Table 3 Re-wholesale distributors surveyed to determine industry prevalence of Ilex taxa ............................................................................................... 30 Table 4 Wholesale growers surveyed to determine industry prevalence of Ilex taxa .......................................................................................................... 32 Table 5 General categories of Ilex taxa evaluated at the UDBG .......................... 37 Table 6 Size relevance ranking guidelines used for physical evaluation of Ilex accessions ................................................................................................ 38 Table 7 Most common evergreen tree taxa offered