With timely and full application, hazelnut shells and other mulches can keep weeds at bay Weeds. They can be like urban wildlife, with endless amounts of time to find the weaknesses in your domicile to one day become uninvited houseguests. Through drain holes, in small piles of woody debris and in bark — as tubers, […]
Nursery Operations
People. That’s what it’s about.
It takes a number of essentials to transform a healthy seed, seedling, cutting or start into a market-ready plant or tree. There’s water. Fertilizer. Pest management. Growing media for containerized plants, or healthy soil for those grown in the field. If any of these are missing or unavailable, the product will suffer or die, but […]
The leadership farm team
When people talk about the nursery industry’s human resource challenges, they often speak strictly in terms of labor. But the nursery industry needs people at all levels, from entry-level workers to crew leaders, supervisors, managers and above. To succeed in a challenging industry, nursery companies rely on the experience, technical knowledge, management ability and leadership […]
Plant Features
Trees for screens
Living screens are as versatile as they are varied. They hide the neighbors, block ugly views, provide backdrops and create garden rooms. Originally, though, screens were used to hem in livestock. When humans made the leap from hunter-gatherers to start an agrarian lifestyle, they prevented animals from wandering by using living screens left behind as […]
The lowdown on low conifers
The interest and versatility of these slow growers makes them attractive for residential and commercial settings Conifers grow with such variation of habit that even of the low-growing types, the options are vast, offering a number of combinations of texture, color and height to meet a variety of landscape needs. From prostrate to spreading, low-growing […]
Native tree selections for urban shade
Approximately 80 percent of the population of the United States now lives in urban environments where trees are both beloved — and imperiled. Estimates are that urban environments are home to 77 percent of invasive species introduced for horticulture and 13 percent for forestry. Species such as Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) and Norway maple (Acer platanoides) […]
The Value of Membership
Meet the leader: Ron Kinney
Tell us about yourself. I was born and raised in Southern California, and my entire 33-year career in the horticulture industry has been in large-scale nursery production management. After attending Fullerton Community College I graduated with an A.S. degree in ornamental horticulture, and completed my education at Cal Poly Pomona with a B.S. degree in […]
House panel revives agricultural visa proposal
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee and Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) on July 18 introduced a revised proposal to create an agricultural guest worker program. The Ag and Legal Workforce Act (bill / fact sheet) would create a new H-2C program to give farmers and ranchers access to a reliable workforce. It is similar to the Ag Act […]
