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2001 S-290 Winter Meeting
Present at the meeting were Charlie Hall, John Haydu, Steve Turner, Ben Posadas, David Beattie, Bob McNiel, Jeff Kuehney, Bridget Behe, Susan Barton, Patricia Knight, Richard Harkess, Daniel Warnock, Roger Hinson, and Ken Tilt. Kathleen Kelley was visiting from Michigan State. Chairman Hall called the meeting to order at 8:15 am. He thanked Ken Tilt and Joe Eakes for arranging the meeting location at the Gulf Shores State Park and Resort and tours of businesses and gardens in South Alabama. This is chairman Hall's last meeting as chairman. He requested copies of individual's CRIS reports to compile the annual report. Please send those to Behe (behe@msu.edu) or Hall (chall@tamu.edu). Hall reminded members about the S-290 website, renovated last year (hcs.osu.edu/s290) markedly improving it by linking the S-290 site to each of our web sites at our individual home pages. Members should verify links for correctness. The web address is hcs.osu.edu/s290/resources.html. We do have a publication list on the website, but need to add future meeting dates and locations. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as written. McNiel commented about updating the email list. With Everett Emino stepping down, we have no current administrative advisor. The committee expressed their deep gratitude for his work and insightfulness during his service to this committee. We as a committee need to be aggressive in identifying an administrative advisor to replace Dr. Emino.
Manuscript reports: National survey update- (John Booker was not in attendance) but the publication is now available on the website. This on-line publication has a cover and a number, meeting the agreement among committee members to publish on-line. Committee members can print copies from their own location as it is an adobe file. The committee was grateful to Brooker and other authors and reviews for the expedient publication. Container nursery manuscript - Bob McNiel. McNiel reported that an individual was hired to assist and progress is planned. Field production - McNiel - This manuscript is closer to being published than the container publication. Greenhouse manuscript - Charlie Hall - The manuscript has been published as a pdf file on the web (on Hall's website), and was internally reviewed prior to posting. Everett Emino will turn over files (for manuscript review) to the new administrative advisor. Perennial manuscript - Dave Beattie - Beattie has hired an undergraduate student who is making progress on updating the excel files. Behe and Beattie and others will meet and work on that manuscript. Others- overwintering was dropped. Jeremey Kerstler at AU updated Chris Montgomery's budgets on PNP. Brian Maynard and his student are working on related budgets. This may be sufficient for a regional publication. Haydu completed a budget for PNP and bag in pot in FL. We established a PNP sub-committee of Tilt, Haydu, Knight, Beattie, and McNiel to meet in Florida.
Progress on current studies. HRI - Landscape project - Behe reported the project is nearing completion. One manuscript was published in JEH in December, 2000. The second manuscript is being written - this will be the multi-state project study. The third manuscript will be the costs of installation relative to perceived value. Kathleen Kelley will be taking the lead on this third manuscript. Costs were offered by Patricia Knight and John Haydu. Accolades to Behe on progress. Price study - Steve Turner - Preliminary work was completed at the Biloxi meeting. Turner found that prices had not risen in real terms over the last 20 years, in fact have declined. Producers have needed to increase quantities to keep pace with rising costs. He has not collected any additional prices to date. Wholesale prices for 12 major projects were examined over a 25 year period. A USDA site in NASS has prices on some greenhouse crops. Bob McNiel investigated prices while at Cornell and will correspond with Turner. SERVQUAL - Behe reported that some progress was made. She and Kathleen Kelley have discussed methodology with Rich Spreng in the marketing department at MSU. A sub-committee meeting is needed to determine methodology. Daniel Warnock reported on a project with Gene Campbell. They are in the process of completing a green industry survey in-state. How much is the green industry worth? They collaborated with the industry and surveys sent last year. Responses were sent back in December. A total of 12,000 were sent out and 31% were returned. Some committee members have extensive economic analysis in their states. Warnock reported that the state industry contributed $50K of the $90K total. They sent three mailings total and made a follow-up telephone contact.
Future studies: Update the 1991 Garden Center Publication - Susan Barton. GCA did an operating cost study with 1998 information where the information is divided by region and firm size. The committee suggested examining the differences using that to revise the publication. It was suggested to put it up on the web and put tables in excel so that individuals can interact with it. The old publication is still sold at ANLA and was at this year's management clinic. It is a profitable publication for them at a sales price of $98 and cost of $6.50. Could we not put a second edition on the web? Barton will make some comparisons before the next meeting. Steglin may be interested in updating the personnel section. Hall will redo Philips section. Behe offered to add a consumer section. We should add a section on certified nursery professional training offered in each state. There is also an operating cost of production survey for nurseries. Disease resistant dogwood study - Brooker. No report. Knight, McNiel, Behe, Brooker collected data and Brooker was coding the data. Garden Center POP - Barton reported that the project has been laid to rest. She turned the project over to the industry. Sunrise marketing has the website (treesaddlife.org) and banners are being sold as an entire package. She put a full-page add in the American Nurseryman. Response has been okay. Plant Display / Price Project - no update with Charles Safley absent. Economic Contributions of the Golf Course Industry- John Haydu. He reported that they had no success in acquiring funding from the golf course industry. Evaluation of State Promotional Programs - Patricia Knight. HRI requests for funding were unsuccessful. Renaming plants to regionalize the product appears to help sales. There also appears to be some carry-over across state borders. Euro-American marketers is marketing a section of Athens Select and Texas Superstars plants. Turner suggested reaching each state to identify programs, criteria, and progress. The committee suggested writing a review article summarizing the activity. Beattie has examined grower records for the Perennial Plant Associations' Plant of the Year program and has seen dramatic results. Turner and Knight will develop a short questionnaire and ask for comments. Committee members should direct them to distribute the survey accurately. Given numerous programs, substantial input will be requested from committee members to identify state programs and people who could report on the parameters. Speciality cut flower budget - Robin Brumfield. No report since Brumfield was absent. Kathleen Kelley reported on the edible flower production budgets she has been working. Hall, Turner, Posadas, and Beattie offered to review the publication internally. She will email this to them for review as an S-290 publication. Poinsettia preferences - Jeff Kuehney. Kuehney raised the issue that several states are conducting poinsettia trials, which require great time and dollar inputs. How can we glean more information from these studies? Can we conduct a more uniform survey in each state? It would be interesting to see regional differences and preferences. Florida, North Carolina, and Purdue do a coordinated project. Ecke will distribute the trial packet to growers, so there may be some professionals in the area who conduct the trial. We had discussion on how to assess value added? Members volunteering to facilitate this study were: Kuehney, Barton, Harkess, Warnock, Tilt, Hall, Haydu, Turner and Behe. This sub-committee will meet this afternoon. Hinson is interested in the general terms of trade between buyer and seller, grower and mass-merchant. What are delivery schedules and how are they related to inventory management systems? Are they expecting more frequent delivery of smaller quantities? What is the expectation of the retailer in terms of take-back? He is interested in investigating these terms of trade. What are the cart or rack requirements and tagging specifications? Barton suggested contacting growers to determine the specifications. Turner reminded the group of pressure the marts place on grower-suppliers to grow along with them. Hall, Haydu, Hinson, Warnock volunteered to serve on this sub-committee. Richard Harkess proposed investigating how the emergence of a middle class in Eastern Europe will affect sales, availability, prices of fresh cut flowers here in the U.S.? How will Colombia be affected by the quality coming from Equador? Is there a window of opportunity for speciality cut flower growers in the U.S. to export to meet some of this demand? Kuehney reported that TX is leading the country with some stores specializing in speciality cut flowers, and the trend is moving into Louisiana. The committee suggested that we keep track of cut flower exports and contact Brumfield to see if she has an interest in pursuing this further.
State Reports Tilt (Alabama) : Auburn facing proration, budget cuts of 6.2% and have lost several faculty (down from 21 to 16) with student numbers rising (up to 229 majors and 25 graduate students). They did receive $250,000 line-item in the federal budget. Ornamental research is moving to conducting trials and plant introductions. Hinson (Louisiana): Budget cuts are hurting LSU as well and encouraging retirements. Graduate student retention is a challenge. One current student is analyzing the LSU portion of the trade flows survey to examine differences in sales proportions over the three surveys. They are also using some of the firm characteristics to explain differences in the proportion flowing through channel of distribution. Another student is finishing examining the LSU portion of the landscape data. He is interested in the trade discussions. Warnock (Illinois): Just completed a merger to a Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences with 55 faculty members and a former Forestry person as head. Undergraduate population is stable at 250-300 students. Univ. of IL has capped enrollment, but they now have 110 graduate students, especially M.S. students. They have hired in floriculture, three individuals, including Warnock, Dennis Shrock, and Ray Cloyd. Dave Williams responsibilities have shifted somewhat, and he is now part-time head of the arboretum, but will remain as a S-290 participant. Green industry survey has taken much of his time over the last year. Gene Campbell is a forest economist who may have capability to work with Warnock. Harkess (Mississippi): They expect 15% budget reductions around the first of the year. They have been a Plant & Soil Sciences Department for about 7 years. He is working on poinsettia and geranium variety trials, especially heat tolerance with geraniums. He has a new student who will investigate heat and nutrition on cyclamen. Another student is finishing work with vermicompost in plant production. Knight (Mississippi): They took at 5% budget cut and will look for a 13%-15% budget cut as of July 1 of this year and will likely face some position cuts. Some funds are being directed to facilities in the Southern part of the state. They participated in the landscape valuation study and are continuing some analyses. She is continuing investigating shrimp hulls as a started charge plant nutrient and a disposal problem for the fish industry. Price was $50 per ton, making it an inexpensive source of micro-nutrients. She is working on herbicides in the IR4 project. A graduate student is working on an economic analysis of herbicide use on 15 gal containers. They are also investigating alternatives to herbicide chemicals. Variety trials are another component of the research. Hope to have a new vegetable person in soon. She is the interim director of the arboretum. Barton (Delaware): She already reported on the Trees Add Life. Her new challenge is with roadside vegetation. She got a National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Committee grant from the USDA. They got $70K for the roadside vegetation and $50K for the Trees Add Life campaign. They need more time to investigate alternative vegetation that can be cut-back every two-three years. Needing aggressive species, but resilient ones that will take management by shearing. Another scheme is to take an existing wood edge area and move it back from the road six to ten feet from the road. There may be some desirable species in there, the key is to remove the undesirable species and retain the desirable ones. This requires some re-training of the crews, and this is part of the pilot project. They are to write several manuals, looking at the economics of different schemes. A final component of the project is a public opinion survey of the plots to gauge reaction to show that the changes were positive, and how their reaction is relative to wildflower roadside maintenance. Behe (Michigan): She reported that their department is adding several positions, including a new floriculture extension specialist. Undergraduate enrollment is up to about 220 students and about 20-25 graduate students. The Season Sales Summary was completed again this year. SERVQUAL is at a stand-still, but should move again. One graduate student finished her program and the perceptual mapping project is ready for publication in HortScience. Kelley (Michigan): Grew edible flowers for consumer and chef testings, post-harvest shelf life. Two publications have been accepted by HortScience and two more have been prepared. Work has been completed with professional chefs and their perceptions of MI grown chestnuts. She and Bridget Behe completed two focus groups, one with children and one with adults, on fresh carrot consumption. Multiple grants have been submitted for additional produce research. She plans to work on some ornamental consumer research. Kuehney (Louisiana): Jeff is investigating ornamental gingers, with potential as a flowering pot plant and a landscape plant. He traveled to Thailand and Taiwan. They are working on scheduling and post-harvest life. Also investigating heat stress on perennials. Poinsettia trials need to be expanded to increase the benefit relative to the investment of time and money. He is teaching a distance-learning course on floriculture and greenhouse management combination, mainly for the extension agents. They are improving a facility on-campus where much of the horticulture program is taught at and have eyes to turn the facility into a parking lot. Trying to lure an Auburn faculty member to LSU as department chairman. We had an update on the cheap sheep. McNiel (Kentucky): They moved back to a Department of Horticulture and dropped off the Landscape Architecture, with two dept. chairs. Sixty undergraduates with 35 new last fall. Research on cut woody stems with one of the floriculture faculty. Tobacco settlement money was $130 million annually, $61 million going to agriculture, $31 of that going to programs that the college is involved in. Department has requested $2 million for research and extension, with 10 positions. Two more vegetable cooperatives have been included in that proposal. He is working with individuals to submit a proposal to the Cobank. Budgets produced by this group may help dissuade farmers who grew tobacco into delving in ornamental production by showing real costs of production. Beattie (Pennsylvania): Still a traditional horticulture department with 85,000 students and 45,000 students on-campus. They have 27 faculty, 45 graduates, and 300 undergraduates. An endowed cocoa institute is now in the department. They have two faculty positions: consumer horticulture and physiological genetics. Added three faculty: Bates, Sellmer, and LaMont. Established a center for plasticulture there and created a tunnel town at their horticulture farm, looking at tunnels as a means to extend the season of production. Faculty raises have been in the 3% to 4% range over the past few years with several line-items from the state legislature. No budget cuts are expected, but they will slow a bit in filling new positions. His appointment is primarily teaching and he has some web-based courses. His research is targeted to fiber pots with a major manufacturer in Lebanon, PA. They have injected a copper material to the container. Another aspect is making a net pot. Pots may have potential to be installed directly into the landscape. He is also greening roofs with the potential to be a real advancement in landscaping and significant economic advantages. Green roofs help with water run-off. Insurance, permits, and other legal issues will present real challenges. Posadas (Mississippi): He is investigating the economic impact of the state industry. He searched the web sites and found several good examples from committee members. He has the state and county data from 1991, 1994, and 1997. He has three sources of data: USDA, own committee surveys, and the USDA annual costs. His second activity is a continuation of an NRI project from 1992-1999. He is looking at the use of constructed wetlands. Aquiculture and horticulture use a lot of water. Effluent treatment from aquiculture works into horticulture. They proposed to use seven plant species ornamental or landscape plants with catfish and salmon production. What are the effects on plants and fish and what are the economics? Turner (Georgia): Steve has worked in computerization in the landscape industry, with publications in the SNA Proceedings. He is using the data this committee has collected over the last 15 years to see how changes have been made in advertising. Annually in the fall, he conducts a survey of consumers in Georgia with their plant uses. Haydu (Florida): They have a faculty accountability assessment or post-tenure review. Through this process, they have eliminated 17 tenured faculty of 400 and 6 are in jeopardy this year. His research focuses on the economic impact which he spoke about earlier. He attended the international meeting of turf producers. He was funded to conduct some market research to expand the market for turfgrass. This year, he looked at 26 states in the eastern U.S., completed the middle of the U.S. and will move next year to investigate trends on the west coast. They interviewed 500 buyers in each region of the industry. Results show multiple missed opportunities. He recently mailed a sod survey in Florida. He completed a marketing study to investigate a capillary mat production in the SE U.S. and did a similar study for nursery containers. He is working on strawberry producers in a cost/benefit analysis regarding fungicides. Hall (Texas): Charlie's responsibilities have changed over the last three years as he is now director of their Agribusiness program. It is up to 50 students. Three main projects: (1) published the Texas version of the national survey, (2) finished editing the greenhouse management publication, and (3) finished updating the economic impact study for Texas. Sub committee meetings to be held in the afternoon include: Servqual, pricing/econ, pnp, terms of trade, poinsettias, perennials - pnp and poinsettias. There will be an additional sub-committee meeting in New York this summer to collect data for the pricing & economics sub-committee. Future Meetings. The committee thanked Bob McNiel for his work to gather information and make contacts for our summer meeting in New York. However, the group decided to travel to SNA to hold the summer regional project meeting on Wednesday, August 1st at 1pm. Bob McNiel will contact SNA to obtain a meeting room. John Haydu will work with PJ van Blokland to coordinate an itinerary for our next winter meeting to be held in Key Largo, Florida. This will likely be the last week of February, a week or two later than our typical meeting. There was discussion for a summer 2002 meeting in Burlington, Vermont, Seattle, Washington, or the Floriad in The Netherlands for summer 2002. Elections: Behe (Chair) Hinson (Secretary). Accepted by acclimation. Congratulations to them both. The committee expressed is deep and sincere appreciation to Chairman Hall for his devoted yet oft times humorous service to the committee. Both he and Everett Emino have contributed significantly and substantially to the success of S-290. Respectfully submitted, Bridget K. Behe Note: On Friday, committee members toured PDSI (Plant Development Systems, Incorporated), Auburn University's Ornamental Horticulture Substation in Mobile, and Cottage Hill Nursery. All enjoyed their interaction with Auburn's faculty, staff, and industry professionals. Kudos to Ken Tilt and Joe Eakes for arranging a great tour with Southern hospitality.
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