I’m sure you haven’t been wondering where I’ve been for the past five months or so, but just in case you have, I’ve been reshuffling my life and relocating. Where am I now? The family and I have moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where I now work at Central Piedmont Community College. Why? Because we wanted to be closer to family, we wanted a warmer climate, and I wanted to spend more time teaching. That said, I had a great time at the University of Minnesota and have only good things to say about my time there.… Continue reading this article “Hello Charlotte!”
Category: Uncategorized
My favorite on-line conifer resources
Posted by Bert Cregg
I just wrapped up putting together a species profile on grand fir (Abies grandis) for Great Lakes Christmas Tree Journal, which is the professional trade publication of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association. I do a lot of articles and presentations on conifers and while I draw on my personal experience and background as much as possible, invariably I’ll need to consult some references. Here are some resources that may come in handy if you need to develop a presentation or article or just want to know more about conifers.… Continue reading this article “My favorite on-line conifer resources”
Don’t worry…we’re still here!
I can’t even tell you how many months it’s been since I posted on the blog. It’s been a perfect storm for the four of us, with writing books (Linda), new jobs (Jeff), doing the Garden Professors gig in Toronto (Holly, Bert and Linda) and writing grant proposals (all of us). I am going to try my best to post once a week, even if it’s short and silly.
Something new to let you know…the blog will be moving to a new format in the near future.… Continue reading this article “Don’t worry…we’re still here!”
R U nuts?
One of the things that comes along with having an extension appointment at a major university is I get lots of calls and e-mails from homeowners on a never-ending list of sometimes bizarre tree topics. Technically, my extension responsibilities are related dealing with professionals; such as arborists and nursery and Christmas tree growers, but the ‘consumer horticulture’ calls still find me. Last week I received a voice-mail message from an excited gentleman speaking at a decibel level somewhere between rock concert and jet plane take-off. … Continue reading this article “R U nuts?”
Let’s get (soil) physical…
We’ve had quite a bit of discussion this past week on the FaceBook page regarding Kelly Norris’s article in Fine Gardening on dealing with clay soils. While Kelly’s article mainly addressed selecting plants for heavy soils, there was a side-bar on cultural approaches to dealing with clays; including the standard advice to avoid adding sand to clays. This advice has been around for years. The first time I recall hearing it was from Dr. Carl Whitcomb when I took his Arboriculture class nearly 30 years ago (Fall 1984 to be exact). … Continue reading this article “Let’s get (soil) physical…”
A Tree Story
Given my line of work, it’s probably no surprise I’m a sap for tree stories (no pun intended). Last week I was in Nova Scotia for the biennial International Christmas Tree Research and Extension conference. The conference and associated tours provided an opportunity to learn about Christmas tree production in Nova Scotia, one of the leading Christmas tree producing regions of North America. During the conference I also learned about the annual tradition of Nova Scotia’s Tree for Boston.… Continue reading this article “A Tree Story”
Neon continued!
I’ll follow Bert’s highly informative, thought-inducing post with something not statistically significant. Hey, it’s summer.
My last post on ultra-bright “neon” plants had a comment from Sarah…
“I saw some iresine in a local garden center the other day, sun coming
through it at just the right angle, and the shade of blazing pink that
came through was basically every Barbie accessory I ever had. It just
seemed wrong somehow. Took a picture of it with my phone.” … Continue reading this article “Neon continued!”
How to lie with statistics
I’m attending the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) meeting this week in sunny (and hot) Palm Desert, CA. Tomorrow I will be presenting some of the early results from the SOME-DED-TREES study. For those that are new to the blog, SOME-DED-TREES is the acronym for the Social Media DesigneD TREe Establishment Study. Last year, my students and I established a landscape tree study in which the treatments were suggested by Garden Professor’s blog readers. Actually, we ended up installing two studies: one to look at fertilization at planting and one to look at impacts of mulching at planting. … Continue reading this article “How to lie with statistics”
Brace yourself
The photo below (graciously sent to me by former MSU Extension Educator Jennie Stanger) graphically illustrates the importance of removing ALL staking and supporting materials from trees once they are established.
Just a matter of time (Photo: Jennie Stanger)
In this case the stakes were removed but the strapping material was left around the tree. Since this is a spruce, Jennie supposes no one wanted the prickly job of wading into the center of the tree to take off the strap. … Continue reading this article “Brace yourself”
The heartbreak of ‘Carrot-top’ syndrome
The perk of participating in a blog is you get a platform to vent on your pet peeves. Recently I’ve seen several classic examples of ‘Carrot-top’ syndrome. No, I’m not talking about the red-headed comic; though he tends to annoy me too.
Annoying Carrot-top #1.
The ‘Carrot-top’ I’m referring to occurs when white pine trees are sheared as Christmas trees but then planted as landscape trees. The typical result is that the side and lower branches remain suppressed while the terminals go crazy. … Continue reading this article “The heartbreak of ‘Carrot-top’ syndrome”