Anti-landscapes bill defeated

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Editor’s Note: The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Garden Center magazine.

The House of Representatives just approved a multi-year transportation bill, and the House and Senate are proceeding with a process to iron out their differences. (This is called “going to conference,” something we have not seen too often in recent years).

And there is good news within the good news. During the debate, Reps. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) and Richard Hudson (R-NC) offered an amendment that would have broadly prohibited federal transportation funds from being used for vegetative enhancements, also and often known as landscaping. AmericanHort, the American Society of Landscape Architects and others mobilized to successfully defeat this amendment, on a vote of 255 nays to 172 yeas.

Yes, this was a critical victory for horticulture. But let’s unpack it and think about what it means. At its core, the fact that two Republicans (who are friendly to our industry on many other issues) even offered this amendment means that we’ve got a lot of work to do. And, roughly two-thirds of their Republican colleagues voted with them. The amendment failed because 71 Republicans joined every single Democrat to vote it down. How did your Representative vote?

Clearly, the vote underscores that many still see landscape enhancements as pretty but non-essential. Yet we know that functioning landscapes stabilize and protect the soil. They filter air and water pollution. They contribute to property values and create a sense of well-being. They sustain pollinators and wildlife. We made these points to Rep. Hartzler and her staff, but she was unmoved.

Read more here:http://bit.ly/1IGW7Ed

National Garden Bureau awards $10,000 in grants to therapeutic gardens

After collecting over 100,000 votes from supporting fans, the 2015 National Garden Bureau (NGB) grant program has announced the three recipients of its 2015 Growing For Futures grant program.

First started in 2014, Growing for Futures is the philanthropic program of NGB that supports the building and growth of therapeutic gardens across North America, furthering the mission of the organization to promote gardening to gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

The three gardens and the grant amounts are:

The Riverwood Conservancy Enabling Garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

First place vote-recipient; winner of the $5,000 grant.

The Riverwood Conservancy’s Enabling Garden is the only therapeutic garden in the Greater Toronto area helping children and adults overcome physical, cognitive and emotional difficulties.

Cape Fear Botanical Garden, Fayetteville, N.C.

Second place vote-recipient; winner of the $3,000 grant.

This therapeutic garden focuses on outreach to the area’s discharged military population through programs that offer the opportunity to learn new skills, promote healthy living through home gardening and encourage interaction with peers and community during the transition to a civilian lifestyle.

Green Chimneys Children’s Garden, Brewster, N.Y.

Third place vote-recipient; winner of the $2,000 grant.

Green Chimneys is an internationally recognized garden offering an effective solution for healing and improving the lives of children struggling with a variety of social, emotional and behavioral challenges through nature-based therapies.

Study finds plants need active social lives to stay healthy

In research findings released in October, Canadian plant science researchers, in collaboration with Montreal-based Inocucor Technologies Inc., discovered new clues about the active social lives of plants, which use molecular signals to engage in constant life-enhancing conversations with thousands of microbes in their ecosystem.

Their findings, reviewed in Frontiers in Plant Science (“Signaling in the phytomicrobiome: breadth and potential,” Sept. 2015), promise to help plant scientists and agriculture bioscience companies develop better approaches to growth promotion and disease prevention for field crops. The phytomicrobiome includes the microorganisms found in plants and in the soil immediately surrounding them, according to a press release by Inocucor on the findings.

“The phyto-microbiome is like a crowded party. You hear a din of conversation, but it is difficult to make out what any one person is saying,” said the study’s author and lead researcher, Dr. Donald L. Smith, chair of Inocucor’s Scientific Advisory Board and a plant science professor at McGill University.

“We now understand that a plant growing in the field is an ecosystem that relies on harmonious connections with its microbial community to thrive, especially when threatened by drought or other extreme weather conditions,” Smith said. “This new knowledge will help us develop effective, low-cost, eco-friendly crop inputs that reduce fossil-fuel-intense inputs on farms.”

These insights will also guide scientists on how to use beneficial microbes to improve the ability of plants to adapt to various soil and climatic conditions, leading to enhanced crop yields, said Smith.

Microbes in the soil, on the root surface and in the cells between the roots release “signaling compounds” to communicate with each other and the plant they live with, in a “collective effort to survive,” he said.

Spotted!

Notable products and ideas from garden centers and businesses across the country

MICHELLE SIMAKIS

In his first year on the job at Klehm Arboretum, John Moors, now the director of horticulture, tended to the alphabet garden, which has been an attraction at the public garden for at least 15 years. Like any “good gardener,” he says, Moors grouped the large plants in the back, small ones in front so all could be seen. His kids didn’t approve, however. “My kids straightened me out and said [the plants] should be in [alphabetical] order, left to right,” Moors says. And ever since, that’s how they’ve been organized at the Rockford, Ill., arboretum, even though at times it can be a challenge. Wooden letters created by one of Moors’ friends more than a decade ago are staked near the corresponding plants, which go by both common and scientific names. For example, B is for begonia, M is for marigold and X is for Xanthorhiza. “X was a difficult one,” Moors says. As was U, which was once a unicorn plant and now is an umbrella plant, and K, which is now Kniphofia. Another challenge is taming the plants to stay within their 30- to 36-inch plot. One season, a phlox grew to three feet tall and blocked the end of the alphabet. Challenges aside, the work is worth it. The garden impressed IGC Show attendees in Chicago, some who said they’d like to try the idea at their garden center. “We try to go with a lot of perennials, or annuals we know we are going to buy every year,” Moors says. “It’s worked out well, and it’s been a lot of fun. Kids as well as adults learn from it.”

Difference Makers

Bellaview Landscape and Garden Center

It’s been said that the measure of a community’s health is based on what the community does for neighbors in their darkest hours. Residents of Lehi, Utah, took this to heart when a local infant, a baby boy named Beckett Stinson, was in serious need of a liver transplant. Many pitched in and lent their support for the child and his family, and standing proudly among them was Lehi’s own Bellaview Landscape and Garden Center.

COURTESY OF BELLAVIEW LANDSCAPE AND GARDEN CENTER

When a regular customer of Bellaview and friend of the Stinson family brought the medical emergency to the attention of the garden center’s management earlier this year, they quickly decided to help. Co-owner Veronica Bori, who operates Bellaview with her husband, George, says a fundraising event was organized at the garden center in May to help Beckett’s parents afford the transplant.

“One of our customers goes to church with the Stinsons,” Bori says. “So she just approached us and asked if we would be willing to let them use our facility to hold this event. We said ‘absolutely, yes.’ We opened our doors for them, we donated some items for their silent auction … and the community just came out. It was really just a good thing to be a part of.”

The community’s outreach efforts paid off when Beckett received his operation in June. To celebrate, Bellaview hosted a special version of its second-annual fall festival on Oct. 10 in honor of the local child’s recovery. The event featured hay bale rides, food and refreshments, a scavenger hunt and other community attractions. Bori says the large turnout for this year’s event indicates a feeling of solidarity within the Lehi community.

“We were very pleased with the attendance, so we hope to make it a yearly tradition, just doing that for the community as a ‘thank you.’ We’re a local business and it’s a family business, so for us, it’s important to be part of the community and for people to recognize that,” Bori says. “That’s a small way for us to give thanks to the customers toward the end of the season.”

COURTESY OF BELLAVIEW LANDSCAPE AND GARDEN CENTER

As a local independent business, Bellaview takes pride in making shows of support for neighbors and friends through good business practices and community outreach, Bori says.

“It’s really important to establish ourselves as caring about our customers and that’s why we’re always looking for ways to let them feel that we’re not just after their money,” Bori says. “We really want them to have a feeling of being appreciated, whether they buy from us or don’t, that they can come back and know they’re always welcome and we’ll take care of them in any way possible. We just want to grow with the community.”  --Conner Howard