Arbor Day contests; Viticulture at FLCC; Apps; Leaf magazine; Hydrangeas; New-age veggies; Sugar kills

The News:

• Vote for the U of R in the Arbor Day Tree Campus Contest! “In 2010, Genesee Valley Park, an Olmsted Park adjacent to the University of Rochester campus, lost its most iconic tree. Known as the ‘Tree of Life’ to the university community, it had been celebrated, photographed and ‘experienced’ by the entire regional community for decades. Its unique form will be missed and new plantings will provide future generations with similar grandeur and photographic opportunities.” The tree has its own facebook page, and you can see more images here. Deadline for voting is tomorrow, 4/4/12.
• The Monroe County Cornell Cooperative Extension is holding a kids’ art contest for Arbor Day, too, also commemorating the “Tree of Life.” Details are here.

Tree of Life

• Finger Lakes Community College is in line to receive $3.3M to build a viticulture center in Geneva. Story via the Rochester Business Journal.
• Belgard Hardscapes (free) and Gardener’s Supply ($9.99) have both released apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, and/or iPad.
• The new Leaf magazine is out—and it’s astounding. These women, I don’t know how they do it. They must never sleep. Our own Jim Charlier, of GardenWalk fame, even has a piece in it, though the byline is missing, about Bloemenmarkt.
• Antifreeze For Plants: “It’s like moving your whole home landscape about 200 miles farther south.” (Via Today’s Garden Center.) I wonder what’s IN it.
• From Nursery Management comes this comprehensive rundown on the growing of hydrangeas, “…the dominant player in the flowering shrub world.” While the public continues to buy hydrangeas at an impressive clip, there is some worry among breeders that, with all of the new varieties hitting the market all at once, “…some good new plants are going to fall through the cracks.” The shrubs, according to this piece, are most commonly grown in 3 gallon containers, and the top three cultivars are are Limelight, ‘Annabelle’ and Endless Summer. A good read.
• From Greenhouse Grower: New-age vegetables are a gateway to the next generation of gardeners (great examples).
• From Cornell’s Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, a new way to control insect pests—with sugar. As one of my twitter peeps quipped, “If I’m reading this right, scientists are basically trying to give aphids diabetes.”

Help Wanted:

• Spring Training with Batavia Turf, April 24. 

Tagged as: apps, Arbor Day, cce, FLCC, hydrangeas, iPad, iphone, leaf magazine, nursery management, rbj, Today's Garden Center, U of R, vegetables, viticulture