Developing adaptable native shrubs for the green industry

Developing adaptable native shrubs for the green industry

Summary

Twelve growers attended an orientation workshop to learn about novel native shrub crop alternatives to invasives. Five nurseries expressed interest in trialing the new native shrub crops and all five nurseries received starter plant material in 2014. In 2016, two additional nurseries accepted starter plants for trialing.

Propagation and production research is being conducted for ten novel native taxa. In 2016, eight presentations across three states (CT, MA, RI) on this grant project were delivered at nursery and landscape association meetings and symposia.

A twilight meeting with the five participating nurseries was held on February 20, 2015 at the University of Connecticut C.R. Burr Teaching Nursery. At this meeting, one of the key growers presented their experiences (propagation, container growing, and marketing) with several of the native shrub taxa. A second twilight meeting of participating nurseries is scheduled for February 7, 2017 to discuss native shrub trial plants and their production.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Five wholesale nursery growers will add six native shrubs to their production lines and market them as adaptable landscape shrubs to replace $500,000 in lost revenue from invasives.

Accomplishments/Milestones

1. Propagation and container production research for the 10 novel native shrub alternatives will be conducted at the University of Connecticut Plant Science Research and Education Facility. (Sept ‘13 – Sept ’16) Initiated July 2014.
2. Twenty growers will attend an orientation workshop at the University of Connecticut to learn about the 10 novel native shrub alternatives and will receive education about alternative native shrubs species using the demonstration plantings on campus. (Oct ‘13) Completed October 2013.
3. Two key nurseries receive 50 liners each of six adaptable native shrubs to grow on at their respective nurseries for establishing future production lines. (Sept ’14). Completed by September 2014.
4. The project leader will visit the two key nurseries and assist growers in developing plans for incorporating these plants into their existing production systems. (Sept ’14) Completed by September 2014.
5. The project leader will visit the two key nurseries and assist growers in developing propagation protocols for the native shrubs received using available facilities and the shrubs themselves as the source of propagules. (May ’15) Completed by November 2015.
6. Growers consult about performance of native shrubs on the farm with the project leader and each other using telephone, email, text messaging, skyping and personal visits. (May ’15 – Aug ’15) Completed by August 2015.
7. Project leader will complete a propagation and production manual for the identified novel native shrubs. (July ’16) Initiated July 2015.
8. Twilight meetings will be held at the key grower nurseries where additional growers will gain knowledge about production of new native shrubs directly from the experiences of the key growers. Attendees will receive the propagation and production manual written by the project leader. (Aug ’16) Initiated February 2015.
9. The project leader will visit five nursery operations and make recommendations to growers about how to incorporate a minimum of six novel native shrubs into their production systems. (Sept ’16) Completed September 2016.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Twelve growers and four extension educators attended the orientation workshop about developing novel native shrub crops as alternatives to invasive species for the green industry held in October 2013. The verification survey of the orientation workshop showed that grower understanding of native shrub features, adaptability, and use as invasive alternatives increased from an average of 2.8 (on a scale of 1 to 5) before the orientation workshop to an average of 4.6 after the orientation workshop.

The verification survey indicated that growers are extremely interested in learning more about propagation techniques, plant care and management at the nursery, and effective uses as alternatives to invasives, for the native taxa presented on at the workshop. These results have helped to prioritize research experiments, which were focused on propagation in 2014.

This grant proposal planned for two key growers to trial plants during the grant period. However, since several growers had expressed strong interest in the native taxa presented on at the orientation workshop, I was able to recruit five nurseries to trial select native taxa starting in 2014. The five nurseries received starting material for two to five different native taxa in 2014. In 2016, two additional nurseries received starting material for 2 and 5 different native shrub taxa.

The growers from the participating nurseries expressed a strong willingness to share their experiences with the native taxa over time. At a meeting of participating nurseries on February 20, 2015, one of the key growers presented on his experiences with propagation, container growing, and marketing, of the native taxa received. Also at this meeting held at UConn C.R. Burr Teaching Nursery, I presented preliminary findings from propagation trials and the group toured the nursery to examine dormant propagation stock. At this meeting, two participating nurseries received dormant liners of two additional native shrub species for trialing.

In 2015 I visited two participating growers and observed several of the native trial species in various stages of propagation and container production. I visited Canterbury Horticulture on June 23, 2015 and Prides Corner Farms on November 19 2015. I advised growers on several aspects of timing of taking cuttings and propagation media porosity. In 2016, I visited all five of the original participating nurseries to consult on aspects of propagation and container production for the trial taxa.

To reach a larger cross section of the green industry over the past three years, I delivered educational presentations across five states (CT, MA, NH, NY, RI) on this grant project at various industry association meetings, conferences and symposia. I have conducted several workshops and published six articles in trade magazines and two articles in green industry extension newsletters (listed below). Research based on this project was published in the referreed Native Plant Journal in 2016 2016_npj. The title of this work was “Optimizing container production of American fly honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis L.), beaked filbert (Corylus cornuta Marsh.), and maple leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium L.). In preparation is a manuscript entitled “Cutting propagation and effect of shade on production of three Northeastern United States native shrubs” that will be submitted in early 2017 for publication in the referreed journal HortTechnology. At the 112^th Annual Conference of the American Society for Horticultural Science (2015) held in New Orleans, LA, I presented an abstract entitled “Optimizing container production and propagation protocols for five underutilized Northeastern United States native shrubs.” At the 2016 annual conference of the International Plant Propagators’ Society Northeast Region I presented on the topic of marketing native shrubs. I wrote three fact sheets entitled “New England Native Shrub Replacements for Invasive Japanese Barberry and Burning Bush,” “Ten Tough as Nails Native Shrubs,” and “Developing the Market for Native Shrubs” 2016-sare-marketing-fact-sheet. Various elements of this project are included in educational posts on my Facebook page Native Plant Gal (https://www.facebook.com/NativePlantGal), which currently engages 900 followers. Presently, a single post on Native Plant Gal reaches 400-700 people. In 2015, I was the recipient of the New England Nursery Association Young Nursery Professional Award for the state of Connecticut.

Presentations

International Plant Propagators’ Society Northeast Region Annual Conference. Hartford, CT. 22 September 2016. Marketing Natives

Block Island Gardeners. Block Island, RI. 10 August 2016. Native Shrubs

Grow Native Massachusetts. Waltham, MA. 25 February 2016. Landscaping with native shrubs: they are tougher than you think

Connecticut Master Gardener Coastal Certificate Program. Connecticut College, New London, CT. 6 April 2016. Lesser-known native shrubs for landscaping

Rhode Island Wild Plant Society Annual Meeting. Bristol RI. 12 March 2016. Landscaping with native shrubs

Ecological Landscape Alliance Annual Conference. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. 10 March 2016. Native shrubs up to the challenge

Grow Native Massachusetts. Waltham, MA. 21 October 2016. Designing with native shrubs: they are tougher than you think

University of Rhode Island Master Gardeners. University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI. 30 January 2016. Native shrubs for challenging landscapes

Smaller American Lawns Today (SALT) Symposium. Connecticut College, New London, CT. 14 November 2015. Novel Native Shrubs.

UConn Advanced Master Gardener Program. New Haven, CT. 29 October 2015. Landscape adaptable native shrubs.

Long Island Native Plant Symposium. Farmingdale, NY. 24 October 2015. Building sustainable landscapes with novel natives.

Grow Native Masachusetts. Waltham, MA. 21 October 2015. Designing with native shrubs: many are tougher than you think.

Connecticut State Museum of Natural History. Storrs, CT. 28 March 2015. From the wild to the landscape – native shrubs to replace natives

Northern New England Nursery Conference. Portsmouth, NH. 6 March 2015. Enhancing landscape use of native shrubs: Moving beyond winterberry

Weston Nurseries’ Green Up Academy. Wellesley, MA. 2 March 2015. Novel native shrubs as replacements for invasives

The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) Symposium. Storrs, CT. 7 October 2014. Suitable native alternatives for invasive plants

Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Association (MNLA) Summer Conference and Trade Show. Deerfield, MA. 24 July 2014. Underused native shrubs to grow, sell, and design with

UConn Master Gardener Coastal Certificate Program. Stamford, CT. 3 March 2014. Cultivating native shrubs

Native Plant Advisory Group (NPAG) Meeting. Storrs, CT. 14 February 2014. Understanding the role of nativars

New England Grows – Sprint Sessions. Boston, MA. 5-7 February 2014. Native plants to support pollinators

Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Association (CNLA) Winter Symposium. Manchester, CT. 14 January 2014. Native alternatives for invasive shrubs

Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Organic Land Care Program (OLCP) Annual Meeting. Southbury, CT. 11 December 2013. Sustainable landscapes using native shrubs

The 63^rd Annual Meeting of the International Plant Propagators’ Society (IPPS) Eastern Region. Chicago, IL. 8 – 10 October 2013. Native shrub propagation

UCONN Master Gardener Program. Storrs, CT. 25 September 2013. Native shrubs

Workshops

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) – Master Wildlife Conservation Program. Storrs, CT. 26 July 2014. Propagating native shrubs by softwood cuttings hands on workshop

School and Municipal Turf/Grounds Workshop: A Minimum Risk Approach to IPM Practices. Newtown, CT. 13 August 2014. Low maintenance native shrub alternatives for invasive plants

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) – Master Wildlife Conservation Program. Storrs, CT. 19 January 2014. Propagating native shrubs by hardwood cuttings hands on workshop

Trade Journals

Lubell JD (2015) Spiraea tomentosa. Nursery Management. 31(10): 20-23.

Lubell JD (2015) A novel native for landscapes. Garden Center. 20(10): 42-45.

Lubell JD (2015) Reliable native shrubs. Connecticut Gardener. 21(4): 19-23.

Lubell JD (2015) Discovering landscape adaptability in rarely-used native shrubs. Connecticut Botanical Society Newsletter. 42(1): 3-5.

Lubell JD (2014) Suitable substitutes. Garden Center. 20(6): 72-77. (reprint)

Lubell JD (2014) Suitable substitutes. Nursery Management. 30(4): 41-43.

Extension newsletters

Lubell JD (2016) Native shrubs challenging environments. Delaware Nursery and Landscape Association. 31(1): 7-12.

Lubell JD (2016) Native shrubs for the increasingly challenging landscape environment. Ecological Landscape Association Newsletter.

Collaborators: