S-290 Regional Project

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2000 S-290 Winter Meeting
February 25, 2000
Biloxi, Mississippi

Present at the meeting were Chairman Charles Hall (TX), Roger Hinson (LA), Robert McNiel (KY), Alan Hodges (FL), Joe Eakes (AL), John Brooker (TN), Steve Turner (GA), Jeff Kuehney (LA), Bridget Behe (MI), Patricia Knight (MS), Ben Posadas (MS), and Everett Emino (FL), our administrative advisor.
Chairman Charles Hall called our first meeting as S-290 and the first meeting of the new millennium to order at 8:39 am.
Dr. David Veal, Head of the Coastal Research and Extension Center welcomed us to Biloxi and shared some interesting information regarding the horticulture industry in coastal Mississippi.

Chairman Hall thanked Patricia Knight for her organization of a fine pre-meeting tour of several local nurseries, and hosting the meeting. The committee greatly appreciated the hospitality of both she and Dr. Veal.

There were several announcements. Clemson has withdrawn from the committee temporarily with the move of Tom Fernandez to Michigan State. Maine has asked to be removed from the project. Our membership committee needs to investigate how to improve and expand attendance and participation.

The minutes from the Delaware meeting were approved with some spelling corrections.

While our CSREES advisor was not able to attend, he sent a message through Chairman Hall. Dr. David Holder was pleased with our seemingly seamless transition from S-103 to S-290. His review of our materials shows that we are poised to continue to build on our record of productivity. We would greatly appreciate his meeting with us in the future to keep us apprized of developments in Washington, D.C.

Our administrative advisor, Dr. Everett Emino, shared comments in four areas:

First, after our last meeting, he communicated our desire to retain the S-103 identification. To reduce the likelihood of institutionalizing committees, we must assume a new number to show that we are a new committee with new objectives. However, the S-103 designation will not be used for quite some time by another multi-state project. Dr. Emino suggested that we informally use the S-103 designation to show continuity, but to use the S-290 designation officially.
Second, he reiterated the thanks of the committee for Patricia Knight and David Veal hosting the meeting and their generous hospitality.
Third, it is critical that we realize that this is a regional research project with achievable objectives achieved by developing a common protocol applicable across state lines, collecting data in the same manner. Another methodology is to sequentially add data to a study, which allows us to do something collectively that we could not do alone. A less desirable method is to conduct a study in several states and bring the studies together.
Lastly, he wanted us to be aware of a change in terminology. The "S" designation refers to our sponsorship by the Southern Region Research Directors. We should refer to this correctly as a multi-state regional research project, eliminating the geographic designation. It reflects our participation, which goes beyond the southern region.

Manuscript Reports

John Brooker reported that he is working on a manuscript from the national survey with Steve Turner and Roger Hinson, which should be ready for review mid-June. He plans to publish a paper using the national data at SNA. Twenty-two states participated, and some states now have three data points. However, the group was greatly disappointed that we couldn't gain the participation of ten states, including PA, NY, IL, and OH. The group was disappointed in these large data gaps. We need to work together to insure this doesn't happen next time. John appreciated Roger Hinson finding and correcting an error. Please request a data set from John if you don't have a copy yet. We discussed publication venues and decided that a cost effective means was to publish it on the web and print needed copies. Internal reviewers are Bridget Behe, Ben Poydras, and Alan Hodges.
There was some discussion on the status of the 1991 Garden Center publication, published by HRI. A publication revision committee was formed, with the former authors and chaired by Susan Barton, to investigate how we will proceed.
Robert McNiel is awaiting the interactive software needed to complete the landscape cost spreadsheet. He plans to have it in pdf form for the June meeting. Joe Eakes, Charlie Hall, and Jeff Kuehney volunteered to review the manuscript. Bob has a nursery development web page and wants to link it to S-290's page. The nursery spreadsheet for zones 5&6 is nearly complete, with efforts now to link equipment photographs and illustrations to the spreadsheet. Information for zones 7-10 is nearly 10 years old. Charlie Hall volunteered to spearhead the sub-committee to update zones 9-10 and Joe Eakes, Patricia Knight, and Ben Posadas volunteered to update information for zones 7&8.
Charlie Hall has a draft of the "Enhancing Profitability of Greenhouse Firms" manuscript. Bridget Behe will review for gaps before Charlie sends the manuscript for internal review to Jeff Kuehney, John Brooker, and Patricia Knight. It should be finished by June 15.
Dave Beattie was not present to give a report on the perennial manuscript.
Bridget Behe reported that our manuscript from the multi-state garden center service quality project has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture, likely in June.
Progress on Current Studies

Bridget Behe shared drafts of a manuscript from the landscape value study and requested input from the co-authors. Two additional manuscripts are planned to be completed by June.
Steve Turner is updating changes in economic impact of the nursery industry nationally with Ben Posadas. He is examining changes in how mass-merchandisers have affected producers shipping, using IMPLAN. He will have a report for the next meeting. His investigation of 12 core crops show real prices declining over time, with net growth coming in units produced, except for large nursery stock which did show real price increases. The trend is for firms to get larger. Although he will "never commit to something (he) hasn't already done," he will have a pdf version ready for our website.
John Brooker is conducting a study to investigate how much more consumers would pay for a disease resistant dogwood. Several volunteers offered to conduct identical surveys in their states and provide John with the data.

Future Studies

Bridget Behe reported that Susan Barton had presented the "Trees Add Life" POP information at the garden center idea swap at the ANLA Management Clinic. Susan was making an effort to launch the program in the industry, and had gained some support from Horticultural Printers, and several garden centers were interested in purchasing the materials.
Patricia Knight had submitted a grant to HRI, which wasn't funded, for investigating the impact of specialized marketing programs. Forest Steglin has some money from growers through the UGA Center for Applied Nursery Research and Texas has similar money to monitor progress of their program. The committee is requesting methodology from Forest Steglin be shared, and the committee discuss this project at the next meeting. The greatest concern is in consistent methodology, and the criteria for plant selection. All states having written or established criteria for plant selection in these programs should forward them to Steve Turner. The SHREG group may have more information, and Steve will investigate this.
Alan Hodges had little to report on the progress of the Golf Course study. There is a Ph.D. student conducting an economic study using IMPLAN. The turfgrass sub-committee needs to do more work in this area. The economic impact the golf course industry has is increasing, for both turf and ornamentals.
Specialty cut flower budgets was reported on by Bridget Behe. Kathleen Kelley, a Ph.D. student at MSU, has developed a cost of production budget for edible flowers. Bridget will share this with Robin, and discuss how to proceed.
Bridget Behe reported that the group got another HRI grant to investigate service quality perceptions of professional landscape installation. Interested states will review the survey form. We need to use identical forms, because it was not possible to collate all the date in the landscape value survey because some states used different forms. Cooperators listed on the grant were Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Delaware, and Kentucky. Others can still participate. Before the June meeting, cooperators need to review the survey form, and identify five landscape professionals in their markets. We will likely print 50-100 forms for each firm, and ask them to distribute the surveys (to protect their mailing lists). We plan to distribute survey forms in September.

Our annual report is due March 15, 2000. Chairman Hall requested all members send him via email a copy of their annual CRIS report, showing a narrative of this past year's accomplishments and a list of 1999 publications.
The committee re-elected Charlie Hall as chairman and Bridget Behe as secretary. Charlie is "fired up!" A nominating committee will need to meet in Michigan.
Future meetings

The summer 2000 meeting will be held at the Grand Harbor Resort & Yacht Club (800-788-8411) from June 15-17 in Grand Harbor, Michigan. Rooms are $70 (basic) and $80 (waterfront) and are under the "Plant & Soil Science-S290" designation. Plan to make your reservations by May 31st. We will have an optional ¸ day tour of the MSU gardens, research facilities, and campus followed by a cook-out at Bridget's home on Wednesday, June 14. Individuals coming to campus can stay at the Holiday Inn in South Lansing (1-800-HOLIDAY). On Thursday, Tom Fernandez has arranged tours of Walter's Gardens (perennial producer), Zelenka Nursery (in-ground nursery producer), and Spring Meadow (speciality propagator of flowering shrubs). We may visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens, with their recent acquisition of a 12-foot-tall DaVinci bronze horse. The meeting is in Grand Harbor, about 30 minutes west of Grand Rapids, on the coast of Lake Michigan. There is no public transportation from the Grand Rapids airport to Grand Harbor. Plan to either rent a car or let Bridget know you need a ride. She has planned to use a van and graduate student to provide limited shuttle service. Please give her your airline information two-days ahead of arrival if you need a ride.
Winter 2001 meeting will be held in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and hosted by Joe Eakes and Ken Tilt.
Summer 2001 meeting could be in Ashville, NC, or Lexington, KY, or Nashville, TN, or Buffalo NY. Robert McNiel offered to organize the KY or NY meetings. The committee nominated Charles Safley to organize the potential NC meeting.

Chairman Hall asked the committee to review the new project's objectives and discuss and identify areas of top priority. We should implement studies in these areas firs.
1a. Irrigation, pnp, weed control
1b. Updating baseline figures, information transfer, interactive budgets, developing a model for others to use, creating user friendly budgets
1c. Root growth, identifying a standard methodology for experimental protocols, identifying standard practices by soil type
1d. Plant establishment

National survey, submitting an HRI grant in 2003
3a. Servqual
3b. Price elasticity
4a. regional research on dogwood resistance
4b. Scanner data potential, Lexus group versus WalMart?
4c. Steve Turner's computer use article
4d. Advertising with scanner data effects

Web site - how do we want to use the web site in the future? Common publications should be linked to the S-290 web site. We need a better response to posting and linking items. We need to update the host web page. Ben volunteered to update it for one year, developing a meeting & message board in addition to upgrading what is there. We need to get files transferred from Tim Rhodus to Ben and discuss the future webmaster.

After accomplishing much, and planning several sub-committee meetings following the general meeting, we adjourned at 3pm.



Home Project Statement Project Participants Annual Reports Meeting Minutes Resources		2000 S-290 Winter Meeting February 25, 2000 Biloxi, Mississippi Present at the meeting were Chairman Charles Hall (TX), Roger Hinson (LA), Robert McNiel (KY), Alan Hodges (FL), Joe Eakes (AL), John Brooker (TN), Steve Turner (GA), Jeff Kuehney (LA), Bridget Behe (MI), Patricia Knight (MS), Ben Posadas (MS), and Everett Emino (FL), our administrative advisor. Chairman Charles Hall called our first meeting as S-290 and the first meeting of the new millennium to order at 8:39 am. Dr. David Veal, Head of the Coastal Research and Extension Center welcomed us to Biloxi and shared some interesting information regarding the horticulture industry in coastal Mississippi. Chairman Hall thanked Patricia Knight for her organization of a fine pre-meeting tour of several local nurseries, and hosting the meeting. The committee greatly appreciated the hospitality of both she and Dr. Veal. There were several announcements. Clemson has withdrawn from the committee temporarily with the move of Tom Fernandez to Michigan State. Maine has asked to be removed from the project. Our membership committee needs to investigate how to improve and expand attendance and participation. The minutes from the Delaware meeting were approved with some spelling corrections. While our CSREES advisor was not able to attend, he sent a message through Chairman Hall. Dr. David Holder was pleased with our seemingly seamless transition from S-103 to S-290. His review of our materials shows that we are poised to continue to build on our record of productivity. We would greatly appreciate his meeting with us in the future to keep us apprized of developments in Washington, D.C. Our administrative advisor, Dr. Everett Emino, shared comments in four areas: First, after our last meeting, he communicated our desire to retain the S-103 identification. To reduce the likelihood of institutionalizing committees, we must assume a new number to show that we are a new committee with new objectives. However, the S-103 designation will not be used for quite some time by another multi-state project. Dr. Emino suggested that we informally use the S-103 designation to show continuity, but to use the S-290 designation officially. Second, he reiterated the thanks of the committee for Patricia Knight and David Veal hosting the meeting and their generous hospitality. Third, it is critical that we realize that this is a regional research project with achievable objectives achieved by developing a common protocol applicable across state lines, collecting data in the same manner. Another methodology is to sequentially add data to a study, which allows us to do something collectively that we could not do alone. A less desirable method is to conduct a study in several states and bring the studies together. Lastly, he wanted us to be aware of a change in terminology. The "S" designation refers to our sponsorship by the Southern Region Research Directors. We should refer to this correctly as a multi-state regional research project, eliminating the geographic designation. It reflects our participation, which goes beyond the southern region. Manuscript Reports John Brooker reported that he is working on a manuscript from the national survey with Steve Turner and Roger Hinson, which should be ready for review mid-June. He plans to publish a paper using the national data at SNA. Twenty-two states participated, and some states now have three data points. However, the group was greatly disappointed that we couldn't gain the participation of ten states, including PA, NY, IL, and OH. The group was disappointed in these large data gaps. We need to work together to insure this doesn't happen next time. John appreciated Roger Hinson finding and correcting an error. Please request a data set from John if you don't have a copy yet. We discussed publication venues and decided that a cost effective means was to publish it on the web and print needed copies. Internal reviewers are Bridget Behe, Ben Poydras, and Alan Hodges. There was some discussion on the status of the 1991 Garden Center publication, published by HRI. A publication revision committee was formed, with the former authors and chaired by Susan Barton, to investigate how we will proceed. Robert McNiel is awaiting the interactive software needed to complete the landscape cost spreadsheet. He plans to have it in pdf form for the June meeting. Joe Eakes, Charlie Hall, and Jeff Kuehney volunteered to review the manuscript. Bob has a nursery development web page and wants to link it to S-290's page. The nursery spreadsheet for zones 5&6 is nearly complete, with efforts now to link equipment photographs and illustrations to the spreadsheet. Information for zones 7-10 is nearly 10 years old. Charlie Hall volunteered to spearhead the sub-committee to update zones 9-10 and Joe Eakes, Patricia Knight, and Ben Posadas volunteered to update information for zones 7&8. Charlie Hall has a draft of the "Enhancing Profitability of Greenhouse Firms" manuscript. Bridget Behe will review for gaps before Charlie sends the manuscript for internal review to Jeff Kuehney, John Brooker, and Patricia Knight. It should be finished by June 15. Dave Beattie was not present to give a report on the perennial manuscript. Bridget Behe reported that our manuscript from the multi-state garden center service quality project has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture, likely in June. Progress on Current Studies Bridget Behe shared drafts of a manuscript from the landscape value study and requested input from the co-authors. Two additional manuscripts are planned to be completed by June. Steve Turner is updating changes in economic impact of the nursery industry nationally with Ben Posadas. He is examining changes in how mass-merchandisers have affected producers shipping, using IMPLAN. He will have a report for the next meeting. His investigation of 12 core crops show real prices declining over time, with net growth coming in units produced, except for large nursery stock which did show real price increases. The trend is for firms to get larger. Although he will "never commit to something (he) hasn't already done," he will have a pdf version ready for our website. John Brooker is conducting a study to investigate how much more consumers would pay for a disease resistant dogwood. Several volunteers offered to conduct identical surveys in their states and provide John with the data. Future Studies Bridget Behe reported that Susan Barton had presented the "Trees Add Life" POP information at the garden center idea swap at the ANLA Management Clinic. Susan was making an effort to launch the program in the industry, and had gained some support from Horticultural Printers, and several garden centers were interested in purchasing the materials. Patricia Knight had submitted a grant to HRI, which wasn't funded, for investigating the impact of specialized marketing programs. Forest Steglin has some money from growers through the UGA Center for Applied Nursery Research and Texas has similar money to monitor progress of their program. The committee is requesting methodology from Forest Steglin be shared, and the committee discuss this project at the next meeting. The greatest concern is in consistent methodology, and the criteria for plant selection. All states having written or established criteria for plant selection in these programs should forward them to Steve Turner. The SHREG group may have more information, and Steve will investigate this. Alan Hodges had little to report on the progress of the Golf Course study. There is a Ph.D. student conducting an economic study using IMPLAN. The turfgrass sub-committee needs to do more work in this area. The economic impact the golf course industry has is increasing, for both turf and ornamentals. Specialty cut flower budgets was reported on by Bridget Behe. Kathleen Kelley, a Ph.D. student at MSU, has developed a cost of production budget for edible flowers. Bridget will share this with Robin, and discuss how to proceed. Bridget Behe reported that the group got another HRI grant to investigate service quality perceptions of professional landscape installation. Interested states will review the survey form. We need to use identical forms, because it was not possible to collate all the date in the landscape value survey because some states used different forms. Cooperators listed on the grant were Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Delaware, and Kentucky. Others can still participate. Before the June meeting, cooperators need to review the survey form, and identify five landscape professionals in their markets. We will likely print 50-100 forms for each firm, and ask them to distribute the surveys (to protect their mailing lists). We plan to distribute survey forms in September. Our annual report is due March 15, 2000. Chairman Hall requested all members send him via email a copy of their annual CRIS report, showing a narrative of this past year's accomplishments and a list of 1999 publications. The committee re-elected Charlie Hall as chairman and Bridget Behe as secretary. Charlie is "fired up!" A nominating committee will need to meet in Michigan. Future meetings The summer 2000 meeting will be held at the Grand Harbor Resort & Yacht Club (800-788-8411) from June 15-17 in Grand Harbor, Michigan. Rooms are $70 (basic) and $80 (waterfront) and are under the "Plant & Soil Science-S290" designation. Plan to make your reservations by May 31st. We will have an optional ¸ day tour of the MSU gardens, research facilities, and campus followed by a cook-out at Bridget's home on Wednesday, June 14. Individuals coming to campus can stay at the Holiday Inn in South Lansing (1-800-HOLIDAY). On Thursday, Tom Fernandez has arranged tours of Walter's Gardens (perennial producer), Zelenka Nursery (in-ground nursery producer), and Spring Meadow (speciality propagator of flowering shrubs). We may visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens, with their recent acquisition of a 12-foot-tall DaVinci bronze horse. The meeting is in Grand Harbor, about 30 minutes west of Grand Rapids, on the coast of Lake Michigan. There is no public transportation from the Grand Rapids airport to Grand Harbor. Plan to either rent a car or let Bridget know you need a ride. She has planned to use a van and graduate student to provide limited shuttle service. Please give her your airline information two-days ahead of arrival if you need a ride. Winter 2001 meeting will be held in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and hosted by Joe Eakes and Ken Tilt. Summer 2001 meeting could be in Ashville, NC, or Lexington, KY, or Nashville, TN, or Buffalo NY. Robert McNiel offered to organize the KY or NY meetings. The committee nominated Charles Safley to organize the potential NC meeting. Chairman Hall asked the committee to review the new project's objectives and discuss and identify areas of top priority. We should implement studies in these areas firs. 1a. Irrigation, pnp, weed control 1b. Updating baseline figures, information transfer, interactive budgets, developing a model for others to use, creating user friendly budgets 1c. Root growth, identifying a standard methodology for experimental protocols, identifying standard practices by soil type 1d. Plant establishment National survey, submitting an HRI grant in 2003 3a. Servqual 3b. Price elasticity 4a. regional research on dogwood resistance 4b. Scanner data potential, Lexus group versus WalMart? 4c. Steve Turner's computer use article 4d. Advertising with scanner data effects Web site - how do we want to use the web site in the future? Common publications should be linked to the S-290 web site. We need a better response to posting and linking items. We need to update the host web page. Ben volunteered to update it for one year, developing a meeting & message board in addition to upgrading what is there. We need to get files transferred from Tim Rhodus to Ben and discuss the future webmaster. After accomplishing much, and planning several sub-committee meetings following the general meeting, we adjourned at 3pm.