Month: May 2018

You, too, can be up to your pits in perennials!

(posted by Holly Scoggins)
The Perennial Plant Association (PPA) is a unique group of folks – comprised of plant breeders, educators, propagators, promoters, garden writers, growers, retailers, gardeners, and landscape designers – all under one umbrella. The PPA is probably one of the most vertically-integrated plant organizations out there. If it has anything to do with a perennial plant, there’s a good chance one of our members is involved.

The marvelous/legendary PPA Symposium has been held in all parts of the country.… Continue reading this article “You, too, can be up to your pits in perennials!”

Costs and benefits of pre-plant root manipulation

Spring has sprung here in Michigan; time to get cracking on lots of projects. One of our new projects is an investigation of pre-plant techniques for dealing with root systems on container grown trees. As many of you know, Linda Chalker-Scott is advocate of bare-rooting trees before planting to correct potential root defects before planting. As some of you may know, I’m skeptical of this approach. It’s not that I think root systems are perfect – far from it.… Continue reading this article “Costs and benefits of pre-plant root manipulation”

My New Project — The Plants We Eat

By Jeff Gillman

I love stories, and my favorite stories, as you might guess, are true stories about plants. One of the things that I’m best known for here at the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens is telling random stories about some odd tidbit or another to students trapped in my classes or visitors locked into garden tours, but recently I found a new way to share my collection of those eclectic plant stories: Podcasting. Not only do I get to talk about all the things that I love to talk about, only those people who really want to hear about them have to listen.… Continue reading this article “My New Project — The Plants We Eat”

It’s all about location, location, location

Whenever we (the Garden Professors and our community) answer garden questions, we almost always will ask the location of the garden.  I’m sure this frustrates some people who think that plants act the same wherever they are.  However, this is not the case.  There isn’t a one-size-fits-all to most garden questions.

For example, I work on the east side of Nebraska in Omaha, along the Missouri river.  The environment (weather, soil, etc) here is vastly different than where I’ve spent most of my life in West Virginia. … Continue reading this article “It’s all about location, location, location”

Master Gardeners at a crossroads

{Warning. Today’s post is a rant. So I’ve illustrated it with pretty flowers in soothing colors to make it more palatable.)

Anyone who gardens in the United States will be familiar with Master Gardeners. The Master Gardener program was started by Washington State University in 1971, when Extension agents in the largest urban counties found themselves overwhelmed with questions from the gardening public. These agents proposed training volunteers to help with educational outreach efforts, and with support from the university the first Master Gardener program was born.… Continue reading this article “Master Gardeners at a crossroads”