Winter is for learning
There are quite a few educational opportunities out there, on a national scale, for green industry pros. The American Nursery and Landscape Association bills its Garden Center University as a “mini-MBA.” At five semesters over the course of two years to the tune of almost $3000, it better be! If you prefer just to check out what ANLA Clinic has to offer this January in Louisville, there are several options demanding less of a financial and time commitment, including an “owners only” track.
In November, Raleigh, NC will play host to the OFA Grow & Sell for Profit Conference. Topics covered will include shrink, production inputs, trendy new crops, energy savings, packaging and strategies for plant growth regulators. Speaking of which, ever wonder why “OFA” is short for “Association of Horticulture Professionals”? Counterintuitive! It has to do with the group’s origins in Ohio floriculture.
This January in Atlanta, Today’s Garden Center will host a conference especially for buyers at AmericasMart. Topics addressed will include trend spotting and negotiation.
Fall is for planting, right?
I recently gave a landscape consultation to a homeowner in the advertising business. We talked about getting a few trees in before snow flies and she asked me, is it ok to do that now? I answered, “Yes, fall is for planting!” And she said, “Oh. I thought that was just a marketing slogan.” Eerg. That said, we all know that there are certain trees that present a fall transplant hazard. In case you don’t have them memorized (I sure don’t), check out this handy list.
Leaf Magazine launches online
Here is a beautiful new virtual publication for those interested in “design outside.” Click through for a wonderful floating container the editors discovered and posted to their tumblr site. (It’s a boat.)
In defense of turfgrass
I know it’s un-PC…grass has its place however. Researching the Research via Landscapemanagement.net. And here’s an interesting video from Ohio State on the benefits of turf.
Plant societies (national)
From Monrovia, a list of links for many different horticultural societies (thanks to Nashville’s Bates Nurseries via Twitter).
Citizen science: track invasive insects with your iphone
Via Cornell CALS’s twitter account comes this article about helping Extension track Asian ladybugs and brown marmorated stink bugs using an iphone. Because of the location tracking automatically attached to each image, it’s as easy as pressing “send.”
In closing, here is an educational and highly entertaining video on the stinkbug, courtesy of Rutgers.
Great job Jane! I finally got around to giving your blog a peak and I really like it. Distilling good info from the trade rags is time consuming and most of us don’t have that time but you do it for us! Thanks for your efforts and good luck with it! –Glenn
Thanks so much Glenn! That means a lot. I noticed there were a lot of click-throughs to your fall transplant hazard list — thanks for having that up there. Useful stuff.