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Arnelia farm and nursery specialise in propagating and growing Proteaceae cut flowers and potted plants. The production is focused on indigenous South African genera Leucospermum, Leucadendron, Protea, and Serruria, which grow naturally in the Western Cape and form a major part of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR). Soils in the CFR are typically sandstone derived and low in available nutrients. Therefore, Proteaceae generally have a low tolerance for nutrient levels, especially nitrates and phosphorous. We have to be particularly vigilant in monitoring our growing media, from delivery and throughout the growing process, to ensure that nutrient levels stay within preferred ranges.

In 2006 we started the nursery using 100% fine aged bark (0-9 mm) as potting medium. Four years later the mix was changed to 80% aged bark and 20% coir to increase the water holding capacity and re-wetting ability. However, uncertainty regarding the sustainable supply of bark increase as our source is often unable to supply due to aging equipment and rain delays. Additional problems are the inconsistency of the physical and chemical properties arising from varying particle size distribution, age of bark, hygiene, no testing of the bark and no minimum standards. There are also problems with reliable transport.

Plant growers are dependant on the process of photosynthesis, driven in green leaves with energy from the sun, building carbohydrates with carbon dioxide (CO₂), and water (H₂O). Thirteen essential plant nutrients affect this process by ensuring that the leaves are green, filled with chlorophyll, and that the integrity of membranes and strength of cell walls are maintained. Plant roots absorb these nutrients from fertile soil. But, these nutrients can also be supplied by a well-balanced nutrient solution in soil-less culture. Arnon and Hoagland (1940) established some of the first well-balanced nutrient solutions, enabling soil-less crop production. Apart from the introduction of chelated iron, modern nutrient solutions do not differ much from the older ones. In this paper, an extract form "Nutrient Solution Management" (Combrink and Kempen, 2011), guidelines will be given to enable the reader to "build" his/her own nutrient solution. However, before this can be done, it is important to ensure that terms such as pH, salt concentration, and some basic chemical principles are understood.

The Christchurch City Council (CCC) nursery collects seed for its revegetation projects from the various reserves that the city administers. The main collection sites are the Avon — Heathcote estuary, Travis Wetland, Brooklands Lagoon, and the Port Hills.

We try to collect from wild, natural stands in preference to cultivated plants. This is a deliberate attempt to try to increase the population of known local origin plants.

We avoid collecting from parks and gardens within the suburbs as few of the established native plants in suburban parks are known to be of local origin. It is also difficult to identify any local origin plants that may be present. Any that are present are also readily able to cross with the same species of unknown origin in the park or in nearby gardens. Pittosporum, Cordyline, Phormium, and anything with separate male and female plants must outcross with another individual to produce seed.

I flew in from Mumbai after biking through Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. I couldn't have travelled from much further extremes. With bike in hand I arrived at Osaka where Naoki was to be meeting me, but he thought I was arriving the following day. I thought to myself, as luck would have it I have my bike! not to worry, I was able to catch the high speed train to Okayama where I met Naoki.

For the first part of the exchange I was with the Ohuchi family. They grow orchids, grapes, and dragon fruit. My work here included fertilizing orchids and the annual transportation of the orchids from the mountains back to the home property on the outskirts of Okayama. One of the days after I had finished fertilizing I had free time to go sightseeing on my bicycle. This was somewhat of a challenge, as Mr. and Mrs. Ohuchi did not speak much English nor did I speak much Japanese. With a printout from Google maps of the area in Japanese and the points of interest circled, I was off. This was a great way for me to see the local area and visit temples and gardens. In my brief stay it was evident that family is very important and the staff were also very much part of the family. The family house where I stayed was a traditional Japanese style house with traditional features like the low dinner table and paper walls with sliding panels.

The Australian nursery industry decided in the early 1990s that it should take the initiative in regard to water usage, storage, and waste in both production and retail nurseries. This call to action was prompted first by some forward thinking members of the industry who realised that urban encroachment, the cost of water in metropolitan areas, runoff issues and storage, combined with the fact that Australia is the driest continent on earth, would eventually place pressure on our industry to conserve water and limit potentially contaminated runoff.

This foresighted action led to the development of a handbook published in 1994, Managing Water in Plant Nurseries: A Guide to Irrigation, Drainage and Water Recycling in Containerised Plant Nurseries, covering a wide range of topics on system design, layouts, and operating efficiencies. Following publication, the Nursery and Garden Industry Australia and its Industry Development Managers championed a series of workshops that travelled the country with some of the handbook authors making the presentations. These seminars were named ?WaterWorks? and were, and still are, one of the most successful and timely initiatives the industry has undertaken. Hindsight has shown that all of the concerns regarding water and its usage that we believed would affect our Industry have come to pass.

In Central Otago, situated on the 45th parallel in the South Island of New Zealand, gardeners are struggling to come to terms with the increasing cost of water and summer water restrictions. As energy costs rise, so does the cost of water.

Traditional gardening in Central Otago is a temperate garden model with trees and shrubs around a lush lawn. As a result, annual water use in Central Otago is very high. Figures from the Central Otago District Council show average winter treatment of water in 2011 was 2,800 m³ per day but this increased to 14,500 m³ per day in the 2011/2012 summer (R. Bond, pers. commun., 7 June 2012). The hot, dry climate means many people irrigate their lawns and gardens, and often the pavements. During summer months more than 75% of the potable water supply (treated water) is used for irrigation.

The Central Otago District Council is installing water meters in the district to better manage demand for treated water, allocate the costs of producing water and protect the resource. There has been considerable reaction to this move.

Our nursery is in a rural setting just 7 min drive from the center of Palmerston North, a city of over 70,000 inhabitants. The location is very close to a small college and a major university. Two key features in the success of the venture are covered by this paper.

The nursery was established for the production of bare-root perennial plants for the domestic market and specialty flower bulbs for export. The main work load for the operation is from autumn to spring. The summer work is much lighter involving weeding, watering, and maintaining plants in an open ground setting.

Being a wholesale nursery and propagator we are far removed from the end consumer with our nursery plants. We have succumbed to the temptation to open to the public on special occasions with disappointing results. Being off a main road and not having good display areas we did not find this a worthwhile endeavor without investing heavily in advertising, a dedicated display area, and staff assigned to retail sales. Therefore we rely on sales to other nurseries and liner growers.

Living roofs are no longer the intellectual property of the sandal brigade and environmental education centers. Amid concerns regarding climate change adaptation and our ability to achieve sustainable development, we are focusing on pursuing solutions that present real economic, environmental, and social benefits.

Living roofs are simply, intentionally vegetated roofs. They are nothing new, but the approach and initiative required to secure them is. We have a number of landscape, architectural, and engineering professionals in Aotearoa (New Zealand ) who are aware of the benefits of living roofs and as such are eager to promote their use.

Living roofs have numerous benefits from helping us adapt to climate change, providing a sanctuary for our wildlife, alleviating flash flooding, reducing diffuse stormwater pollution, enhancing biodiversity, providing public and resident amenity space, and reducing the urban heat island effect of our cities.

In the first principle of mechanistic chemistry if treatment A, or conditions A are required to get germination under conditions B, critical processes were taking place during A and these were likely taking place at their optimum rates (greatest speeds). Thus if a period of 3 months at 4°C is required to get germination at 21°C, the period at 4°C was a time when something was happening (typically destruction of germination inhibitors), and it is misleading to refer to this period as a period of dormancy or a period of breaking dormancy.

New Zealand currently exports 1000-1500 metric tonnes of apricots annually worth $NZ 6–7 M. The largest market is Australia, followed by Europe and U.S.A. where much lower fruit volumes are exported. Export returns in the last 3 years have remained relatively stable, despite the high value of the New Zealand dollar and world economic downturn. There is potential to achieve a high return for export apricots if the New Zealand industry can supply fruit in the international market during March when there are few competing apricots present. This opportunity can be realised through the production of late season apricot cultivars with long storage capability and retention of excellent flavour. Commercial apricot cultivars are generally only stored for a maximum of 3 weeks in cold storage because of rapid softening and development of storage disorders. New apricot cultivars selected for their capacity to maintain quality for up to 6 weeks of cold storage would open up the possibility of sending apricots by sea freight to more distant markets, such as Asia and Europe, thereby reducing costs and the carbon footprint.

Global demand for food will have to more than double to feed the additional 4.7 billion people. These people will eat 600 quadrillion calories a day. This is the equivalent of feeding around 14 billion people at today’s nutritional levels. Therefore the issue for the human race over the next half century is not climate change or the current global financial crisis, it is whether humanity can achieve and sustain the required harvest.

Agriculture faces multiple critical constraints that are intertwined and serious. There are looming scarcities of just about all food production inputs — water, land, nutrients, oil, technology, skills, fish, and stable climates. This is not a simple problem, susceptible to technological fixes or national policy changes, it is a wicked problem.

Reeds, rushes, and other wetland species are collected from January through to April/May. The earliest of these are Carex secta and Ficinia nodosa (syn. Isolepis nodosa). Mid-season is Plagianthus divaricatus and Apodasmia similis plus the majority of Juncus spp., with the exception of Juncus kraussii subsp. australiensis which is collected in April/May. All require very little cleaning other than allowing drying out (stored in large paper sacks) and shaking to separate from the flower head. Winnowing is helpful finally to reduce the chaff when sowing. Plagianthus divaricatus has a small light husk that will dry and rub off easily, however it is not totally necessary for successful germination. Plagianthus can be stored dry or stratified. We have sown stratified seed that started germinating in the bag and had a great strike rate.

Many of these seeds will germinate well in average conditions in the tunnel house but equally well, sown fresh and then in the cooler months left outside to germinate in the winter rain and cooler temperatures (based on conditions in Gisborne, New Zealand).

There is a growing problem in horticulture — inability to control some pests and diseases. Mites, thrips, and white fly are now resistant to a wide range of chemicals. Even some easy-to-control insects like aphids are now developing resistance to previously effective chemicals. New chemistry is now more difficult and slower to discover and develop — with costs blowing out to millions of dollars for each molecule. In addition our range of chemicals is actually decreasing in many cases due to increasing number of old style chemicals being banned. And finally, consumers and farm workers are increasingly demanding chemical-free plants and working conditions.

We are in an in-between phase where we still rely on chemicals but increasingly we need to employ other more natural methods to assist in good pest control. What does the future hold? Currently chemicals are still essential to our mass-production systems and chemical companies are increasingly developing more environmentally friendly selective chemicals. Such chemicals enable the successful management of biological beneficials with the safety net of chemical intervention when needed.

Many chemicals and other specialist products are widely used in the turf industry. Many of these can have major benefits for the nursery industry, but only if they are ultimately registered or trialled in the growing of plants. Ronstar^® (oxadiazon) is one such chemical that has a dual use in the turf and nursery industries. A new product for use on turf in Australia, sold under the brand name of Barricade^® with the active ingredient prodiamine has been used for some time in the USA both on turf and in the nursery industry for growing plants in pots. This pre-emergent has only been registered for use as a turf preemergent in Australia, but in the USA it is a major chemical used to stop or reduce weed germination in many pot grown nursery crops in the USA. Many use it in the USA due to its lack of adverse effects on pot grown plants, and its ability to greatly reduce weed infestation. In Australia, most nurseries appear to use Rout^® and Ronstar. Although good for weed control, I have witnessed firsthand many times the adverse effects on certain crops, particularly strappy leaf plants. Rout seems to be better suited to woody plants, such as trees. The other problem with these chemicals is they have to be applied in granular form. Often spraying over the top is more efficient, and the use of a chemical such as Barricade could greatly reduce costs for Australian nurseries. With the help of Syngenta, Ozbreed has for a 12 month period tested this chemical on a number of popular Australian nursery grown plants. As Ozbreed has these plants in the USA, where the chemical is registered, it was easy to test these plants. Barricade is widely used by nurseries growing Ozbreed plants in the USA.

I have been working in the nursery industry for 32 years, including my apprenticeship in Germany. As you can imagine, I have worked in quite a few propagation greenhouses using different materials. Before starting my own business I worked for Barbara and James McGeoch at Birkdale Nursery in Brisbane. That’s where I met Peter Lewis who has roped me in to give this presentation on sustainable propagation material. The propagation material I am referring to is Q Plug, which is a stabilised rooting media made from a mixture of peat and glue (an organic polymer). Q Plugs are strong and sponge like. They do not crumble which means plants can be handled and potted easily. They also provide ideal air/water ratios for exceptional root development and growth.

I came across Q Plugs through Peta and Scott from Crystal Waters Nursery. They were looking for a product which would maximise production and efficiency for their potting machine. I have been using Q Plugs for 5 years and the more I use them the more I like them.

Our family has owned and operated Aspley Nursery since 1951. We have operated retail, wholesale, and export nurseries from five sites over the years. We undertook landscape contracting many years ago as well. The remaining wholesale nurseries are now based on two modern intensively developed sites of about seven hectares.

Dad taught us from an early age to always innovate! This was started in the days where we:

• Grew our plants in tins cans.
• Used John Innes mixes.
• Irrigation by hand or with skinner lines.

The Nursery & Garden Industry Queensland (NGIQ) has identified a plant disease diagnostic product developed by United Kingdom (U.K.) based company, Forsite Diagnostics, that is portable, cost effective, accurate, rapid, and reliable (96% correlation to laboratory based diagnosis). In this paper Queensland Industry Development Manager John McDonald outlines the technology behind and the application of the Pocket^® Diagnostic^™ test kits relevant to the Australian horticultural industry.

POCKET DIAGNOSTIC^™ TEST KIT

The Pocket Diagnostic test kit is a lateral flow device (LFD), also referred to as immunochromatographic strip test that applies a genus or species specific antisera/antibody used for detecting a range of plant pathogens (each test is relevant to one organism either by genus or species and is one time use only).

Palms are the iconic plant material of Hawaii, the southwestern United States and many parts of Latin America. Their unique biology, especially the manner in which all primary roots are produced independently from one another in the root initiation zone at or near the base of the trunk or stem, enables even large specimens to be successively transplanted with a relatively small root ball, resulting in instant, mature landscapes (Hodel, 2012). Here I provide a summary of the most recent advances in the planting and transplanting of ornamental palms.

PLANTING

In contrast to transplanting palms, where root disturbance and destruction is severe, planting palms from containers, where roots are little damaged or disturbed, is relatively uncomplicated. Palms can be planted from containers into the landscape at any time of year in tropical and subtropical regions, but is best done in late-spring or early summer in more temperate areas where winters are severe and/or long.

The propagation of cyclamen is not complicated, just time consuming. Normal germination time is between 6–8 weeks for emergence, then another 4–6 weeks before they can be handled. Germination percentage is quite variable and can range from 40 to +80%. There are two approaches when germinating seed.

This group of living fossils produces some of the most interesting and brightly colored seed cones. The key to good germination of cycads starts with successful pollination. Cycads are dioecious producing either pollen cones or seeds cones. There are 11 genera of cycads and each group is defined by their pollination and germination techniques. In nature, most cycads are insect-pollinated and wild seed generally has higher viability than artificially pollinated cultivated plants. Once pollinated, the seed develops in the seed cone for several months to 2 years with the average seed cone maturing after 8–9 months.

POLLINATION

In cultivation the cycads lack natural pollinators and so they must be hand-pollinated to produce viable seeds. The first step is pollen collection. The pollen cone, when fully developed, will release the pollen from capsules.

I find the topic of this presentation to be daunting and almost impossible to present properly, because a Japanese maple tree means so many different things to different people. The one thing I believe we can all agree on is that the dynamic diversity and unusual liveliness of these trees speaks to us in a language of their own. Some are soft spoken and shy like ‘Fairy Hair’, others bold and loud like ‘Osakazuki’ and others peaceful — a strange word to use for a plant I know, but I think we can agree it is a suitable fit, especially when standing before a naked 100-year-old dissectum gnarled yet truthful showing all its wounds, its faults, but mostly its grace.

Asian citrus psyllid was first detected in the United States in Florida in 1998 and later HLB was identified in 2005. In addition to the Florida finds, the insect and disease have been found in Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and California. Alabama and Mississippi have detected the pest but as of now no disease is present.

The Psyllid Quarantine Area now covers most of southern California up to and including parts of Santa Barbara County. On 5 April 2012 there was a psyllid trapped and identified to be carrying HLB in the Hacienda Heights area of Los Angeles County. This prompted an immediate 93 square mile quarantine area where no citrus plants or fruit could be moved. The suspected source tree was removed and citrus trees within an 800-m area were treated. There have been no other psyllids found carrying HLB as of today.

Thank you for the opportunity to share this presentation on Maintaining Clean Stock for Propagation, with an emphasis on virus prevention, as we do it at EuroAmerican Propagators in Bonsall, California. I am the stock production manager at Euro and have served in this position since 1998.

BRIEF OUTLINE

In this talk, I will first define what "clean stock" means at EuroAmerican Propagators. Next, I will describe the virus testing methods used and then talk about our virus, disease, and pest prevention program in some detail. Then, I will describe our sanitation program and methods. I will talk about our employee training program for virus, disease, and pest prevention. Finally I will tell you how we monitor and measure results to evaluate how our virus prevention program is working.

Applying a heavy spray, or sprench, immediately after sowing, and before the seed germinates, is a technique that can reduce early stretching of seedlings.

THE AAS WINNERS FOR 2012 ARE:

As a drought tolerant plant, Juniperus osteosperma, Utah juniper, has potential for use in water-conserving landscapes. Certain specimens of Utah junipers found in the wild have unique phenotypes that make them attractive options for landscape design. Such phenotypic characteristics can only be perpetuated through asexual propagation techniques, such as cutting propagation. Unfortunately, Utah juniper, like other upright juniper species, is not easily propagated vegetatively. To our knowledge Reinsvold (1986) is the only published record of Utah juniper being propagated by cuttings; unfortunately, the focus of the study was not cutting propagation of Utah juniper and so insufficient data were included for replicating the study. The purpose of this research was to develop a propagation protocol for Utah juniper.

Currently, many growers use foliar applied aqueous IBA rooting solutions to propagate annual, perennial and woody plants. Dr. Fred Davies’ physiology research proved efficacy of the application (Davies, 1978, 1980, 1982). Since indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) is a natural rooting hormone (Epstein, 1984, 1993), having such ability is understandable. When aqueous IBA solutions are applied to the leaves of cuttings, the IBA enters the plant’s vascular system through open stomata. Indole-3-butyric acid then translocates, by polar transport, to the basal end; there, plants store it for self-regulated root formation.

Bigtooth or canyon maple, [Acer saccharum subsp. grandidentatum (syn. A. grandidentatum)[, is of interest due to its potential use in low-water landscaping. It is a difficult plant to propagate vegetatively and more efficient propagation may facilitate both the introduction and commercial production of new selections from the wild. Bigtooth maple is known to propagate itself naturally by layering. The objective of this study was to evaluate mound layering as a means of vegetatively propagating selected accessions of mature bigtooth maple trees.

The market for nursery stock has always changed and will continue to change but modern market conditions mean the rate of change is faster than it has been historically. It is important never to be tempted to think that you have a steady situation, as the moment you take your eyes off the ball then you have the potential to start hitting problems ? change is what happens to your business when you are doing nothing.

The external changes that affect nursery businesses include those to the climate and weather, to legislation, and to the economy, and our customers. It is not always possible to predict how any of these elements will change but it is vital to keep yourself continually informed about their current state. I have never known plants to struggle to grow, and the market to struggle for sales as they have done during 2012. The best thing this year was to keep informed and to be able to react quickly to a changing situation, rather than try to predict how things would turn out.

Perryhill Nurseries is a production and retail nursery established in 1972 and selling direct to the public, landscape designers, and institutions. The author joined the company in 1979 and was lucky enough to be able to buy into it after the original owner, Sue Gemmell, died. His wife, Sue, joined the company originally working part time in the growing area before taking on the day-to-day office duties.

Sales are split into three groups: cash sales at the till, mail order sales, and sales on account which are paid against an invoice.

The company is a production nursery, propagating on site as much as possible but topped up with bought-in liners and finished plants. It is not a garden centre and the aim is to remain as a plant-based business.

There are a number of drivers for saving water on ornamentals nurseries. These include:

• Possible increases in transpiration if air temperatures rise as a result of climate change.
• Increasing demands on water supplies as a result of population growth.
• Competition for water resources between edible and ornamental crops.
• Increasing costs for labour, energy for operating pumps, and fertiliser (impact of nutrient leaching from over-watered crop).

Products such as the polysaccharide-based Celcote^® (marketed in the U.K. by Certis), that can retain water within substrates and moderate its supply to the crop, are therefore of increasing interest to growers.

The first step in development of semiochemical monitoring systems for gall midge, capsid bug, and blossom weevil pests of fruit crops was to identify and synthesise the attractants and demonstrate their behavioural activity. Further work was required to develop practical lures and traps and to explore their use in pest management. Highly sensitive, pest-specific monitoring traps have been developed which are proving valuable for pest monitoring in fruit crops. For some pests, precision monitoring has allowed the local application of targeted sprays resulting in longer term reduction in pest populations. Pheromones of two species have been exploited for control through mating disruption, mass trapping or attract and kill. Opportunities for similar approaches in woody ornamentals are considered.

Ash dieback caused by the fungus Chalara fraxinea was first identified in 1990 on Fraxinus excelsior in southern Sweden and Poland. At that time, little information was available about this new disease. Since then a sexual form of the pathogen has been isolated and named Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus.

First symptoms in seed-raised nursery stock normally occur in the late summer of the second growing season. Leaves turn brown but an abscision layer does not form and they remain on the plant. During the autumn the 1-year branches show discoloration from yellow to dark brown. Grading-out unhealthy plants in autumn is impossible, because the symptoms continue to appear and develop through winter.

In the U.K., peat has been the predominant component of growing media for almost 50 years. Technically and commercially, it is difficult to replace. However, for some 25 years its environmental status has been controversial and U.K. mainland reserves are almost exhausted. The U.K. government has set voluntary targets for to phase out use of peat in horticulture in England and Wales: by 2015, all public authority contracts are expected to specify only peat-free plants while by 2020, all retailers in England and Wales are being asked to sell only peat-free plants. In 2011 the government set up a Task Force (composed of growers and other industry stakeholders, including the author) to identify the barriers likely to prevent the targets being achieved, and the actions needed to overcome those barriers.

For historic reasons, many growers regard peat-free growing with suspicion. Yet, over the last decade, progress in identifying and using peat alternatives for U.K. horticulture has been very significant, especially in container nursery stock production. Indeed, trials and grower experience have identified benefits to the crop from use of some ingredients, mirroring the experience of those growers overseas who lack access to cheap peat.

Let’s start with "profit," in my view the most important of them all. The respected management thinker Peter Drucker famously said that "the purpose of a business is to create a profit" — fairly obvious you might think, but how often do you think of "profit" in your business in terms of clear figures and targets? Profits are vital and without them a business cannot develop and prosper. Depending upon how you have structured your business, your profits might form the basis of how much you earn from the enterprise, but irrespective of that, profits can be a just reward for your hard work and the risks that you have taken.

To an economist, a commodity market relates to raw materials, such as metals, or primary agricultural produce, such as wheat, and for a market to be established and work all buyers and sellers must know the specification and variations in a product, and they all need complete access to the market information.

In this paper, I am using a wider definition of a commodity market where the most important factor of any product has become its price, but again all involved must know and understand the product. For example we all know what to expect of a 9-cm, 1-L, or a 2-L Euonymus fortune ‘ Emerald ’n’ Gold’ and there is no need to, or benefit from paying, more than the average price. Although we don?t yet have price comparison websites for plants, the ease of comparing prices from different suppliers means that there tends to be little variation. We are close to perfect market equilibrium for such products.

A niche market, on the other hand, is a sector of the larger market.

Palmstead Nurseries is a large trade only wholesale nursery in Kent. It grows a wide range of hardy nursery stock (more than 2,100 species at the last count) including fieldand container-grown trees, shrubs, and perennials. Customers are primarily landscapers, large private land owners, and local authorities. Hardly any production goes into the retail market but over the last 5 years increasing numbers of garden designers have become customers. This increase has in part mirrored the decline in plants going to new house build landscaping which had been a core market.

Like many nurseries serving the amenity sector it had been usual practice to deliver orders valued at more than £1000 free of charge and few regular customers were charged for delivery even if their orders were smaller. However the nursery began to face significant strains on profitability, as product prices were under intense competitive pressure and the contribution towards delivery costs from sales was also being squeezed. The nursery’s generally free delivery and local service, as well as quality of product and service, retained strong loyalty from a large number of long term customers.

Sometimes it is easy to get so caught up in tackling the challenges of today that we hope tomorrow will deal with itself. However, the old adage that one must deal with things that are "important" and not just "urgent" is key to the success of any business. Standing back to see the bigger picture and to scan the horizon prepares a business for the long term and helps in overcoming the short term ups and downs.

While there are many challenges facing ornamental plant producers today the strategic planner will be thinking about those yet to be encountered. It is impossible to be certain which challenges will turn out to be the most important in 5, 10, or 20 years’ time but while not exhaustive the main ones can be grouped as follows:

Currently, the garden has about 4 acres of Conservatory display space and 300 acres of outdoor gardens open to the public. The plant collection contained in this space includes 8,900 permanent taxa, evenly divided between hardy and conservatory plants, and 1,000 taxa that change according to the season.

There are considerable challenges to propagating certain Eastern North American wildflowers, that fact is undeniable. Mt. Cuba Center has been seeking appropriate methods for over 20 years and has met with success in a number of instances, several of which I will eventually highlight. However, what I would like to do initially, during this brief opportunity, is to identify problems and propose strategies that propagators interested in working with these plants might employ. This information has been acquired through substantial trial and error and also the unique opportunity to observe life cycles, growth patterns, and idiosyncrasies of the many plants in the gardens at Mt. Cuba Center.

While it may be easier to pass over these plants because they are so costly to produce in terms of time and resources, I think it is important that we analyze why this is so. Perhaps better strategies can be developed in the future to overcome present obstacles. From a conservation standpoint, understanding and knowledge are important because these are precisely the plants that disappear when forests are damaged or fragmented. Sadly, once gone, they more than likely won?t return on their own.

Seed dormancy is a condition where seeds will not germinate even when the environmental conditions (water, temperature, light, and aeration) are permissive for germination (Hartmann et al., 2011). Not only does seed dormancy prevent immediate germination, it also regulates the time, conditions, and location where germination will occur. In nature, different kinds of dormancy have evolved to aid the survival of a species by programming germination for particularly favorable times in the annual seasonal cycles (Baskin and Baskin, 1998).

The major seed dormancy categories include:

1. Primary dormancy:

• exogenous dormancy (physical).
• endogenous dormancy (physiological, morphological, and morphophysiological).
• combination dormancy (physical plus physiological).

The focus of this paper will be to describe the characteristics associated with the major dormancy types.

As a propagation instructor at the University of Rhode Island for 20 years I often have been asked to help develop protocols for propagating research plants. Typically the scientist wants to start right away, and is frustrated when I let them know that they should have started preparing a year or two earlier. Of course they are even more frustrated when they set up a half-baked propagation experiment and it fails. Plant propagation has been characterized as part science and part art ? which it is, but it also is part experience, part preparation and part good record keeping.

Unlike some other areas of horticulture education, we have excellent propagation texts and printed resources for students and researchers to consult.

A quick search through the Proceedings reveals that at least 200 papers have been delivered on the subject of budding and grafting. Clearly this topic has remained a favorite of our members for the last 60 years. From my perspective, it stands as one of the most interesting and fundamental practices to the art of propagation where an assortment of mechanical skills must first be mastered. Once when I asked Harald Neubauer of Hidden Hollow Nursery in Tennessee which technique he used to propagate Cercis, he replied "Every one that I have to." This response underscores a major tenet of the craft: the need to understand the many variables influencing both the understocks and scion material from year to year. In addition, the propagator must know, or be able to question, the choices of understock/scion combinations that will provide the desired results, whether they are long term compatibility, short term success to preserve a clone or a nurse graft to support a plant until it can make its own roots.

1. The culture room has long days or 24-h light.
2. The culture room is always warm.
3. The culture growth medium is nutrient rich.
4. The culture environment is very humid.

In our laboratory, we have each of our shelves on 16 h of light/8 h of dark but with multiple shelves set for staggered on/off light times, the room is never dark. Plants "see" 24-h light and we have the 16-h cycle only as an energy saving measure. This results in plants growing 24 h per day, 365 days per year.

• Own seed collection vs. purchased?
• Seed berm: 16+ plants in order to prevent inbreeding.
• Collection window is highly variable among species, ranging from only a few days to several weeks or longer.

Seed Collection

• Done by hand.
• Most grasses can be done by stripping the culms (the flowering shoot) off the stem.
• Seeds that ripen in pods should be collected just as the pods are beginning to open.
• Mature seeds are often dark in color, firm, and dry.
• Store seeds in paper bags to allow air circulation and prevent mold.

Liverwort has become a problem for many propagation nurseries, and controlling it can be very difficult. The biggest problem with liverwort in the United States is that there are no products labeled for post-emergent control over the top of plants that are actually effective. A lot of academic research and a lot of anecdotal information can be found on the prevention and control of liverwort. Based on some of this information a group of growers at Spring Meadow Nursery have been trialing various products on test plots to try to gain an understanding of the type of chemistries that might best work to kill liverwort while not killing the affected crops. Here I’ll briefly discuss several of the more interesting products we’ve tried over the course of many years, however this is not an endorsement of any product as some of these are not labeled for use on crops and therefore might not be legal to use in your situation.

Prevention is always the best place to start in any liverwort management program. Severe liverwort infestations are often coupled with over-watering of a crop. If crops are being grown in an enclosed greenhouse, improving water-management and avoiding over-watering can go a long way in reducing your incidence of liverwort infestation.

I attended the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport.

The production of plants via root cuttings has been around for a significant portion of the history of plant production. A number of species can be propagated via this method. In the early stages of plant production as a standard practice root cuttings were an essential part of the process. Casual observation easily shows that severed root pieces of many plants would often give rise to adventitious shoots which then result in a new plant arising from the roots buried in the ground. Careful removal of those plants could at times repeat the process and even more plants could be produced. This practice does not require sophisticated techniques or materials and was pretty much a facet of nature that had been streamlined by humans.

For several years in the mid-2000s we were focused on propagating an individual tree at Chanticleer. This tree stills grows in their Asian Woods and the staff at Chanticleer.

Biocontainers offer an exciting opportunity for the greenhouse industry to become more environmentally friendly. Currently the majority of greenhouse crops are produced in petroleum-based plastic containers. Plastic has a relatively low cost, is strong and can be formed into essentially any size and shape. However, the extensive use of plastic containers results in a significant waste disposal problem for the greenhouse industry.

Biocontainers are not petroleum based and will degrade rapidly when placed in a composting operation or when field planted. Biocontainers also fall into two categories: compostable biocontainers, which are designed to be removed from the rootball before the final planting and composted; and plantable biocontainers that are designed to be left intact on the rootball and planted directly into the field, landscape bed or final container. These biocontainers are designed to allow roots to grow through the container walls and to decompose after being planted.

Despite the introduction of many types of biocontainers, limited research has been conducted to evaluate these containers compared to traditional plastic containers.

Calibrachoa is considered an iron inefficient plant that commonly has problems with iron deficiency (Wik et al., 2006). Iron becomes less available to the plant as substrate pH increases. Deficiency is most commonly the result of high substrate pH, rather than undersupply of the nutrient. Monitoring and controlling substrate pH will prevent the majority of nutritional problems during crop production. Avoiding these problems will increase crop quality. The composition of fertilizer can cause substrate pH to decrease or increase and the direction of the shift is controlled primarily by the form of nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most important pH controlling ion because it is the only element required by plants that can be supplied as both a positive cation (ammonium: NH₄+) or a negative anion (nitrate: NO₃^-) and accounts for more than half of the nutrient ions taken up by plant roots. Fertilizers high in NH₄+ have an acidifying effect and cause substrate pH to decrease and the opposite is true for fertilizers high in NO₃^-.

Tower of Jewels (Echium simplex) is rare plant native to the Canary Islands that has an enormous inflorescence that regularly reaches over 1 m in height. Production of this crop for ornamental value is challenging since it is a biennial plant and takes well over a year to produce a flower spike from seed. The objective of this experiment was to determine the optimal seed sowing date to minimize production time while maintaining plant and inflorescence size.

Atypical meteorological conditions impact both natural and artificial plant communities. The effects can minor, or in the case of an extended drought, be devastating to plant morphology and reproductive processes. This presentation gives an overview of several strategies used to prevent or lessen the damage sustained by plants, either in display beds or established stock material, exposed to excessive high temperature, and in some cases, inadequate supply of water — either from lack of rain fall, or municipal watering restrictions.

Water sedge, Carex aquatilis Wahlenb, and cotton sedge, Eriophorum angustifolium Honck., form large populations that spread clonally by rhizomes and often dominate Arctic wetland environments (Shaver and Billings, 1975).

The 37th Annual Meeting of the International Plant Propagators’ Society-Southern Region of North America convened at 7:45 am at the Hotel at Auburn University and Conference Center, Auburn, Alabama, with President Bob Black presiding.

Small flowering trees are gaining in popularity for several reasons. First, small 3 to 6 m (10 to 20 ft) trees fit modern landscapes where yards are small. Secondly, there is a growing and somewhat justified fear of urban trees that get huge with time. In an age of hurricanes, tornadoes, wild weather, and predictions by climatologists of more of the same, it is only reasonable to embrace a little fear of large trees. Part of climate change is violence. Crushed homes, vehicles, and power lines are becoming nightly fare on our national news. Small flowering trees suddenly look better. Thirdly, there is an ever-expanding list of new species and cultivars entering the market with attributes of tree form, leaf shape and color, and flower size and color. Finally, 5 to 10 gal container-grown plants mesh well with the displays at the mass markets, independent nurseries, and landscape companies.

The irrigation requirement of a container-grown ornamental plant is the amount of irrigation water needed to resupply water lost from the container substrate via evapotranspiration (ET) processes. Besides ET water loss, one also needs to consider the irrigation system’s ability to deliver water to the container substrate. For sprinkler irrigation, two additional factors must be considered: (1) the plant canopy’s capacity to channel water into the container that would otherwise fall between containers (described by irrigation capture factor), and (2) the irrigation system’s ability to supply water uniformly within the irrigation zone. Knowledge of factors affecting irrigation requirement is critical if water is to be applied efficiently in the nursery. This is particularly important for container production as container substrates have limited water storage capacity so that, compared to field production, there is little buffer between underand over-watering. We will discuss some important factors affecting irrigation requirement and how managers can use this information to more efficiently irrigate container-grown crops.

In 1935, Thimann and Koepfli reported the synthetic preparation of the auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), a naturally occurring substance that had recently been found to have root-forming properties, and demonstrated its practical use in stimulating root formation on cuttings. In that same year, Zimmerman and Wilcoxon reported that the synthetic auxins indole-3-butyric acid (IBA; now known to occur naturally in plants) and 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) were more effective than IAA for rooting cuttings.

Indole-3-butyric acid and NAA are presently the most widely used auxins for promoting root formation on stem cuttings. Auxin treatments are commonly used in commercial plant propagation to increase overall rooting percentages, hasten root initiation, increase the number and quality of roots, and encourage uniformity of rooting. Commercial root-promoting products ("rooting hormones") are available in various formulations: liquid concentrates, water-soluble salts and tablets, gels, and powders (talc).

Soilless growing media became popular in the 1960s when Cornell University introduced their new peat-lite mixes as an alternative to topsoil for growing plants in containers. Since the transition to soilless growing media (substrates), the basic components have been peat, coir, vermiculite, and perlite. Perlite is a light weight, non-renewable, inorganic, silicaceous aggregate that allows aeration and gas exchange in substrates. The cost of perlite has increased significantly in recent years due to increased transportation costs, especially since the majority of perlite has to be shipped from overseas. In recent years, alternative substrate components have been investigated to decrease costs and utilize more renewable and local/regional products. Specific alternatives to perlite that have been investigated include parboiled rice hulls, growstones and processed corncobs (Evans and Gachukia, 2004; Evans, 2011; Weldon et al., 2012).

In addition to these alternative aggregates, many researchers have reported the effectiveness of using fresh pine wood in greenhouse substrates as both a peat and perlite replacement (Fain et al., 2008; Wright and Browder, 2005).

Weed management continues to be an important production concern for growers. The diversity in production practices, including propagation in enclosed structures as well as outdoor production in containers or in field soil, as well as the diversity in plants being produced, makes weed control a particular challenge. Two important weed species in the nursery industry are liverwort and spotted spurge.

LIVERWORT

Liverwort is a primitive moss-like plant that forms leaf-like mats on the soil surface. Liverwort grows best in cool, moist conditions. In areas of frequent irrigation, such as in propagation or in the production of perennials, liverwort can develop into a major weed problem.

There are a lot of differences in today’s wholesale nursery business and what I remember 60 years ago. My first exposure to the nursery business was a summer job at Tingle Nursery between my junior and senior year of high school.

Among the many changes, the six most significant, in my opinion, have been:

1. Greater equipment availability for nursery operations.
2. The shift from field to container growing.
3. The change in workforce composition from local to offshore labor sources.
4. Climate change — winters are much milder.
5. Product mix — from limited to a diverse range of plant materials.
6. Government regulation — from minimal to greater involvement.

• In the late 1960s we grew most of our crop in recycled metal food cans.
• The cans were purchased from a pie factory, military bases, and schools.
• I cannot really remember what a full 1-gal can cost, but it was around three cents, while a 5-gal egg can cost about 25¢.
• Prior to potting plants in the cans we had to protect the metal from rusting. Most of the time we used road tar diluted with low flash-point Varsol, a solvent used for cleaning auto parts and tools. Varsol was also used in the dry cleaning industry. We purchased both the tar and Varsol in 55 gal drums.
• The cans were hand dipped into the tar, stacked and allowed to dry.
• It usually took a crew of four people all day to prepare enough cans for one day’s potting.

In 2011, we were in a record drought and heat wave. We had 147 days that exceeded 32°C (90°F), which broke the previous record of 127 days. In August 2011, all but one day was at or over 38°C (100°F). We noted that many of our crops suffered from the unrelenting heat. So we asked ourselves what we can do to give the crops some relief.

We started experimenting with white or milky poly to cover our rooting areas. Our normal procedure is to have poly baffles on each side of the quonset to keep the wind from disrupting our mist. Then we cover the quonset with black shade cloth, either 30% or 60% shade. With the white poly we maintained the normal wind baffle heights on both sides of the quonset. Instead of using shade cloth over the top, we used white poly, leaving a gap on both sides (above the wind baffles) of 20 to 31 cm (8 to 12 in.).

The fungus Cylindrocladium buxicola that causes boxwood blight was first discovered in the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s. It causes severe blight disease on boxwood (Buxus), and is now widespread throughout most of Europe in commercial nurseries, landscapes, and native stands of boxwood. Plants develop spots on the leaves and stems, with leaves abscising, initiating from the bottom of the plant. Plants usually do not completely die, but their appearance is ruined. In October and November 2011, this fungus was found for the first time in the USA on several English and American boxwood samples collected from one county in north central North Carolina, and in multiple counties in Connecticut. It has also been found in Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia, as well as British Columbia and Ontario, Canada. Most likely there are other locations where this disease exists, but have not yet been documented.

I am the Sales, Marketing and Inventory Manager at Prides Corner Farm in Lebanon, Connecticut. Prides Corner is a 142 ha (350 acre) nursery that services customers in the northeast quadrant of the USA, from Maine to northern Virginia and west into Ohio. Our nursery, like most in this country, has taken its share of lumps since 2008, when the recession started hitting hard. But, unlike many growers, our sales have remained strong throughout this period of time. We have become an even more important asset and business partner to our customer base. There are many reasons we have remained successful during these trying times. One of the main reasons is that we have worked hard to get our product mix right.

Our journey to getting our mix right did not start when the recession hit. We have been working on this task in earnest for more than a decade, which meant we were well prepared when hard times hit. Our long term attention to our product mix is tied closely to our company philosophy, our goals and our customer base. These influences and our diligence have combined to create in Prides Corner, a unique, diverse, market driven company that is as healthy as any grower in America. The story of how we got the mix right is a work in progress. The process never ends. How we got to where we are today is a story that requires a little more explanation, about what make Prides Corner Farms tick.

Plant responses to day length were discovered and defined during the first half of the twentieth century. Plants may be classified as short-day, long-day, or day neutral in their response for flowering. Short-day plants are those that initiate flowers when the day length is shorter than their critical day length. Day lengths longer than the critical day length result in vegetative growth. Conversely, long-day plants are those that initiate flowers when the day length is longer than their critical day length. Day lengths shorter than the critical day length result in vegetative growth. The critical day length is the break-point day length above or below which plants perceives long or short days, respectively. These two categories may be further classified as qualitative or quantitative. In a qualitative photoperiodic response, the requirement for a specific photoperiod is absolute for floral initiation. In a quantitative photoperiodic response, flowering is faster or plants have more flowers if provided the correct photoperiod, but plants eventually flower regardless of photoperiod. In day neutral plants, floral initiation is not correlated with photoperiod. Plants initiate flowers after reaching a specific size or stage of development.

With a steady stream of new perennials to hit the market (and no indication this is slowing down!), it can be quite a challenge to select perennials for your program that will meet your customer’s needs for great color and beauty that will thrive in their landscape with minimal care. For a grower whose primary business focus is not perennials, the job of maintaining a worthwhile perennial program can be even more challenging when all the perennials are available in just about every liner size you can imagine. What is a grower to do with all the choices? There are some excellent perennial plant selections as well as ideas for production specifically for growers looking to find solutions to balancing a profitable perennial program while still maintaining focus on other important aspects of their nursery business.

Partly due to difficulty propagating, Vaccinium arboretum is seldom marketed as a landscape plant. However, V. arboretum, also known as sparkleberry or farkleberry, can grow to be an aesthetically pleasing semi-evergreen small tree, with attractive fall color, exfoliating bark, and edible fruit. Vaccinium arboretum is very drought tolerant and can grow in a range of soil types; therefore, it is a good selection as an attractive woodland shrub/small tree for xeriscaping and native plant landscaping. Though seed germination is more difficult compared to other commercial blueberry species (Lyrene and Brooks, 1995), V. arboretum plants are commercially propagated from seeds. Asexual propagation techniques will be necessary for clonal propagation of selected cultivars of V. arboretum.

A large portion of the U.S. Green Industry is involved with growing plants in containers, including nursery crops, annual bedding plants and potted herbaceous perennials. With such a large portion of the industry in containers, it is important to understand the factors that influence root growth to attain optimal benefits from container production. Several factors that affect root growth include the physical and chemical properties of substrates. Physical properties include porosity and water holding capacity, percentage of fine particles and bulk density (Mathers et al., 2007). Chemical properties include pH, cation exchange capacity and soluble salts (Mathers et al., 2007). There are several known techniques used to measure these factors that affect root growth, but methods used to measure the whole root system or measure the growth of roots over time are not as widely available. It is also not well understood how roots change and affect the physical properties of substrates in the container over time. The most common root system measurements reported in scientific literature are: (1) subjective root ratings and (2) root dry weight measurements. Root ratings, while being non-destructive, are completely subjective to the person rating the root system and can vary person to person.

As global water consumption increases in the coming years, available water for agriculture will decrease (Jury and Vaux, 2005). This will necessitate that growers use irrigation scheduling with an alternative focus other than what has been traditionally used. Generally irrigation scheduling has been aimed at maintaining substrate water content near container capacity to maximize plant growth (Beeson, 1992). However, the growing number of laws and regulations regarding water use and runoff are requiring growers to reassess their irrigation practices (Lea-Cox and Ross, 2001; Beeson et al., 2004).

Researchers related growth to total daily water use (DWU) as well as reduced replacement of DWU (50, 75% of measured DWU) (Welsh et al., 1991; Warsaw et al., 2009(. These studies showed that reduced irrigation volumes can produce high quality plants with little to no reductions in growth.

Increasing energy cost has resulted in the use of pine bark (PB) as an alternative resource of clean fuels (Lu et al., 2006). Increasing demand for bark coincides with the slowly declining timber industry (Haynes, 2003). Without a decrease of energy cost in sight and PB remaining as the horticulture industry’s standard media for container grown production shortages could occur (Yeager et al., 2007).

Many areas are looking for locally available plant material as alternate substrate components. Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) had become a "weed species" throughout many parts of the Great Plains and Midwest. Thus far, eastern red cedar has been identified as a viable amendment incorporated, at different percentages, into a PB:sand substrate mixture evaluating seedling growth of Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis) and Indian-cherry (Frangula caroliniana) (Griffin, 2009).

Bark has been an important component in horticultural mixes for years, and in the nursery industry, barks from several species are the most common substrate component used in the United States. Bark is obtained as a byproduct of the timber industry when it is striped off logs after harvest. After being removed from the logs it is stockpiled on site or shipped for many uses including as a fuel, mulch, or a horticultural substrate. The bark suppliers hammer-mill and screen the bark to obtain a desired particle size. Pine, fir, and redwood are the most common forms of bark used in the industry (Hanan, 1998). In the Southeast, loblolly or longleaf pine is most prominent due to the tree species? plentiful existence, rapid growth rate, and desirable physical properties attained from the bark. However, pine bark can vary in many properties depending on source and manufacturing process (Pokorny, 1975).

Most nursery growers have typically used aged bark. Aging is a modified composting process where the bark is piled on the ground in windrows, and allowed to age for a period of time. The bark is turned as needed in order to facilitate breakdown of the particles as well as reduce excessive heat buildup.

Liriope spicata is an evergreen groundcover classified as a perennial, popularly found in the ornamental landscape setting. Liriope spicata is commonly referred to as creeping liriope, creeping lilyturf, and creeping monkeygrass. Native to eastern Asia, creeping liriope spreads aggressively through an underground rhizome root formation. Liriope spicata is cited under at least six listings as an invasive species (Bugwood, 2010). When incorporated into the homeowner landscape, the aggressive nature of L. spicata can become a problematic maintenance issue when trying to contain an area of establishment. Listed as an exotic forb species by the Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States, creeping liriope has been reported to be invasive in natural areas within the U.S. (Spaulding et al., 2010). As an escaped species from cultivation, the possibility of L. spicata affecting the natural growth areas of our native lands and forests can have a significant impact (Swearingen, 2009). Little research has been documented on the control methods of L. spicata within the horticulture industry. Most available control measures recommend mechanical removal with the addition of herbicide applications such as glyphosate or impazapyr (Miller et al., 2010).

When plants are produced in containers their roots are restricted to a small volume; consequently the demands made on the substrate for water, air, nutrients, and support are more intense that those made by plants grown in a field production situation where unrestricted root growth can occur (Bunt, 1988). Vigorous root systems are essential for growth and development of healthy plants. A healthy, functioning root system increases the surface area available for the uptake of water and mineral elements. It is also important to appreciate the fact that root system development, mass and architecture also is critical in providing support, storage and anchorage needed by plants (Jackson et al., 2005; Waisel et al., 2002; Wraith and Wright, 1998).

Often excluded from horticultural research, root growth and root system architecture are important factors influencing plant performance and survival (Wright and Wright, 2004). Understanding root growth and development is important to improving plant quality and production success. The capability to observe and measure roots as they grow into a substrate is very useful in determining root growth preference in various substrates. New root measurement techniques have been designed and introduced in recent years which aid in understanding and qualifying root growth of horticultural crops grown in containers (Wright and Wright, 2004; Silva and Beeson, 2011).

The common cutworm, Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae), is a strong harmful insect, and the larvae attack more than 80 kinds of plants, such as vegetables, flowers, and fruit trees. In Japan, the expanding of the damage started from the second half of 1950s. In the warm area of central Kanto and farther south, this damage is occurring yearly at present. Concern is growing because S. litura can pass the winter now in plastic greenhouses and the glass greenhouses built mostly from 1950s, and because the global temperature is rising under the influence of the global warming. We, Ibigawa Kogyo Co., Ltd., developed the microbial pesticide Hasumon Killer^® from Spodoptera litura nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpltNPV) with a strong insect-killing activity against S. litura in collaboration with Gifu Prefectural Agricultural Technology Center (Registration No. 23056, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Japan).

Teiregi is cultured in a waterway from the Joh-No-Fuchi pond consists of spring water. But, growth has become worse lately, perhaps the cause is water quality deterioration by fish and waterfowl.

Teiregi is a perennial herb that grows all year round in the spring water; in the case of common culture, flowering in spring and then dies in summer. We tried mist irrigation culture, as culture method independent of spring water.

In this culture experiment, nursery plants were propagated by micropropagation, because one of the common weed, C. flexuosa, a related species to teiregi in the experiment area.

There are several reports relating to the growth of Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) grafted on dwarfing rootstocks (Yakushiji et al., 2008). However, the reason that the dwarfing rootstocks reduce the vegetative growth of scions is still unknown. Several factors, such as graft incompatibility and water conductivity between scion and rootstock (Izu et al., 2008), have been suggested as causing fruit trees to be dwarfed, and the same mechanisms may occur in the dwarfed trees of Japanese persimmon. Thus, we microscopically observed the graft union soon after grafting to verify whether there were any abnormalities of the regenerated tissues and also re-examined more than 1 year after the grafting.

As above-mentioned, the characteristics of kaki trees on MKR1 were different from those on kaki seedlings, and we discussed them in the previous meetings (Tetsumura et al., 2011).

My name is Juliette Curry and I have the great pleasure of being hosted in Japan through the IPPS New Zealand/Japan exchange programme. I will be talking about the unique flora of New Zealand and about the company I work for and the role we play in conserving our native flora.

HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND FLORA AND ICONIC TREES OF NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand has some of the most varied and unique flora on earth due to its long isolation from other continental land masses since our land mass broke away from Gondwanaland over 80 million years ago. The history, climate, and geology of New Zealand have created a great deal of diversity in New Zealand’s vegetation types. New Zealand has over 2300 species of plants with a large percentage of those being endemic to our country.

The United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) announced in 1979 the inauguration of a plan to accumulate germplasm of fruit trees including apples, and other fruits and nuts in repositories in the USA.

Entrance into the whole of Central Asia including Kazakhstan became possible after the Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan in 1985.