S-290 Regional Project

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Minutes of the Meeting
S-290 (formerly know as S-103)
Grand Haven, Michigan
June 16, 2000
Present at the meeting were Bridget Behe (MI, acting chair), Tom Fernandez (MI), Richard Harkess (MS), Robert McNiel (KY), Susan Barton (DE), John Brooker (TN), Roger Hinson (LA), PJ vanBlokland (FL) and Everett Emino (FL), our administrative advisor.
Acting chair, Bridget Behe called the meeting to order at 8:07 am.
Bridget shared Charlie Hall’s regrets for his absence. He had another commitment and was unable to attend.
Announcements:
Tim Rhodus has created a new website — (http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/s290). Please send Tim Rhodus your web url address to create an active link with the new S-290 website. Individual member links are found at http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/s290/resources.html.
The minutes of the Mississippi meeting were approved with several spelling corrections.
Thanks went out to Tom Fernandez and Bridget Behe for setting up an excellent tour on Thursday. We toured Frederik Meijer Gardens, Spring Meadow Nursery, Zelenka Nursery, and Walters Gardens. The gardens and nurseries were interesting and educational. The wine and cheese at Walters Gardens was a relaxing finale to the day.
Everett Emino, our administrative advisor, had the following comments.
He announced the following personnel changes:

1. Daniel Struve at Ohio State has been officially designated to replace Tim Rhodus on this committee.
2. Purdue is no longer going to be participating in the project because they have no interested faculty members.

Jim Aitken has retired from Clemson and Tom Fernandez moved to MSU. There is currently no one at Clemson to participate in S-290.
Larry Burt has been appointed to this project to replace Jim Green at Oregon State University.
Al Einert (a former participant) is retiring from the University of Arkansas.
Dr. Emino extended has thanks on the part of the S290 committee to Bridget and Tom for the organization of excellent tours and for the hospitality extended in visiting Bridget’s home and in several receptions. He asked that the groups’ thanks be extended to Stan Howell for providing refreshments. He indicated that the tours and receptions provided intellectual stimulation and enhanced collegiality among the group.
Manuscript Reports:
National survey - John Brooker distributed copies of the manuscript of the national survey. Copies will be mailed to the review committee, including Bridget Behe, Ben Posadas and Alan Hodges (with a review deadline of July 15). John Brooker asked for a member to provide him with one or more nursery photographs. Tom Fernandez agreed to send a few. John Brooker asked for corrections on the experiment station directors’ page. He explained that we have decided to post this publication on the internet and will print hard copies as our clientele request.
Container nursery manuscript - Bob McNiel reported that the container nursery manuscript is the next one he intends to update. He has received the software he needs to put these publications on the web and expects help from newly hired personnel at Kentucky who will be responsible for putting publications on the web.
Greenhouse management manuscript - Charlie Hall reported that the greenhouse management manuscript is ready for review and will be mailed to the review committee (Jeff Kuehney, John Brooker and Patricia Knight) in the next week.
Perennials manuscript - Bridget Behe reported that she has not heard from Dave Beattie about the perennial manuscript.
Consumer Preference Survey - Bridget Behe distributed a printed manuscript from J. Environ. Hort., June 2000 issue entitled "Consumer Perceptions of Product and Service Quality Attributes in Six U.S. States." Bridget also reported that Richard Spreng, from the business school at MSU is interested in evaluating the SERVQUAL instrument with the data set we have collected.
Progress on Current Studies:
HRI Landscape Composition grant - Bridget Behe submitted the first manuscript from the HRI landscape composition manuscript to the J. of Environ. Hort. She and her graduate student will have two additional articles prepared by the winter meeting. Susan Barton suggested that Bridget email copies of the manuscripts to the authors for their quick review before submission to JEH.
Everett Emino brought up the issue of first authorship and how that affects promotion at different universities. Multiple authors were included in the landscape publication in order to show the cooperative actions of the regional project. John Brooker suggested the phrase "senior authorship unassigned" to be used when that is appropriate.
Bridget, Sue and Tom have submitted another HRI grant to follow up on the landscape study, looking at renovation of landscapes. HRI grants will be announced in December.
Price Study - Steve Turner was not present to report on the price study. There was some discussion of the content of the price study. Bob McNiel suggested that it included pricing trends. Everett Emino related this study to information we learned at Spring Meadow about patenting and trademarking. He suggested a study that would measure the value of a trademark and a patent in the marketplace. Tom Fernandez suggested that the issue is complicated because Spring Meadow is including a marketing program on the patented and trademarked plant. Discussion followed that it would be interesting to measure sales and price achieved on plants that are advertised heavily such as Encore azaleas (Flowerwood). PJ vanBlokland compared this to standard branding of products with national advertising. PJ vanBlokland agreed to investigate models and existing data in other industries. Roger Hinson suggested that this might be handled as a case study project. Bridget Behe suggested that Richard Harkess pursue Flowerwood for data on Encore azaleas.
Servqual Landscape Project - Bridget Behe asked who was willing to participate as a survey site on the Servqual Landscape Project. Participating states include KY, TN, DE, MI, FL. The format we will follow is that we will distribute 50 surveys to each landscape firm in each state (3-5) and ask them to distribute the surveys to their customers (or provide you with mailing labels). We will be able to provide customized reports for each business. Dr. Spreng suggested that in the future (next spring) we conduct the survey of expectations prior to landscape work and conduct the perceptions survey after the landscape project is completed. Two other problems with Servqual were discussed–the wording of expectations of an "ideal" vs. "this" firm and the issue of whether or not the 22 questions loaded separately on the five factors. Bridget found that the questions loaded on only 3 factors. Bridget will send an updated survey to each of the cooperators who will recruit 3-5 landscape firms in their state for distribution of surveys in September, October and November.
Future Studies:
Garden Center Publication — Sue Barton agreed to take the portions of the garden center publication that lend themselves to preparation of an excel spreadsheet and put them on her website. She will also investigate putting the entire publication on the web.
Disease resistant dogwood study — John Brooker is working on coding the data and will be collecting more data at field days this summer. Bob McNiel received 20 responses and is planning to send surveys to three county agents who are interested in conducting surveys. Bridget Behe also conducted the survey in Michigan. Preliminary data indicate that consumers would be willing to pay $15 more for a patented, disease resistant (powdery mildew) dogwood.
Garden Center POP — Susan Barton reported that she presented the Trees Add Life program to the industry at the ANLA Management Clinic. She is working with Sunrise Marketing to distribute Trees Add Life packages ($75). Sunrise Marketing has upgraded the website. It can be accessed at treesaddlife.org. Sunrise Marketing plans to offer promotional banners in the fall. The graduate student from Food and Resource Economics at the U of D will be publishing the results.
Plant Display/Price Project — Charles Safely was unavailable to report.
Economic Contributions of the Golf Course Industry — PJ vanBlokland reported that the PhD student lined up to work on this project did not pass his comprehensive exam so he will be unable to work on the project. PJ has agreed to continue with this project. PJ is also working on a project to measure how much a business must gross in order to realize a reasonable standard of living and to reinvest in the business. You must be well over one half a million in sales in agronomic crops. PJ would like to apply this to nursery businesses. First step is to determine the total cost per unit, next step is to add four important values (owners taxes (FICA), pay off principal in debt, reinvest in firm, pay owners salaries). The final step is to relate this price to market price. He uses this concept to help business owners evaluate whether they should stay in business or sell out while they still have equity. PJ agreed to give a mini-seminar in the afternoon.
Evaluation of State Promotional Programs — No report from Patricia Knight. The committee was reminded to send their state’s guidelines to Steve Turner.
Edible Flower & Specialty Cut Green Production Budgets — Bridget Behe reported that a graduate student has prepared a manuscript that includes greenhouse budget figures for culinary flowers, greens and herbs. Bridget asked for volunteers to review the article. PJ vanBlokland and Roger Hinson agreed to provide an internal review.
Floriculture Crops Summary — Bridget Behe asked if someone from this group become involved in the format of this summary. There is a void in information about perennials. USDA is asking for input. The committee as a whole agreed to review the survey when Bridget receives it. The committee will provide their comments to Bridget for summary and response to the USDA.
Tabletop Christmas Tree Project — Bridget Behe is planning to take the conjoint survey with decorated tabletop trees to a mall. She asked if any committee member might want to collect data in their state during the late fall.
Future Meeting Plans:
Winter 2001 — February 15-17 in Gulf Shores, AL. Bridget Behe recommends flying into Pensacola, FL. The other option is Mobile, Al. Tours of Flowerwood and Bellengrath Gardens as well as several other stops have been organized for February 15.
Summer 2001 — Bob McNiel will coordinate a trip to northern New York and Canada during the last week of June (27, 28 or 29).
Winter 2002 — South Dade County, Homestead area will be the area for tours and we will stay in Key Largo. PJ vanBlokland and Everett Emino agreed to take the lead in organizing this meeting.
Summer 2002 — Seattle was suggested as the location for this meeting. Sue Barton agreed to organize the tours to several garden centers. Bob McNiel will investigate the possibility of touring the bulb and perennial industry. PJ vanBlokland suggested taking the ferry to Vancouver Island to visit Bouchard Gardens.
Nominations Committee:
The committee must elect a new chairperson and secretary by the winter meeting. Bridget Behe was nominated as new chairperson. Roger Hinson was nominated as secretary. The committee distributed the committee list for any necessary revisions.
During the afternoon, PJ vanBlokland provided a presentation on a method for viewing market price related to costs and whether or not a business should stay in business.
Several committee members presented information on projects they were working on in their individual states.
Everett Emino encouraged us to remember our regional research commitments and honor them before we meet again in February.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Barton
Acting Secretary S-290



Home Project Statement Project Participants Annual Reports Meeting Minutes Resources		Minutes of the Meeting S-290 (formerly know as S-103) Grand Haven, Michigan June 16, 2000 Present at the meeting were Bridget Behe (MI, acting chair), Tom Fernandez (MI), Richard Harkess (MS), Robert McNiel (KY), Susan Barton (DE), John Brooker (TN), Roger Hinson (LA), PJ vanBlokland (FL) and Everett Emino (FL), our administrative advisor. Acting chair, Bridget Behe called the meeting to order at 8:07 am. Bridget shared Charlie Hall’s regrets for his absence. He had another commitment and was unable to attend. Announcements: Tim Rhodus has created a new website — (http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/s290). Please send Tim Rhodus your web url address to create an active link with the new S-290 website. Individual member links are found at http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/s290/resources.html. The minutes of the Mississippi meeting were approved with several spelling corrections. Thanks went out to Tom Fernandez and Bridget Behe for setting up an excellent tour on Thursday. We toured Frederik Meijer Gardens, Spring Meadow Nursery, Zelenka Nursery, and Walters Gardens. The gardens and nurseries were interesting and educational. The wine and cheese at Walters Gardens was a relaxing finale to the day. Everett Emino, our administrative advisor, had the following comments. He announced the following personnel changes: 1. Daniel Struve at Ohio State has been officially designated to replace Tim Rhodus on this committee. 2. Purdue is no longer going to be participating in the project because they have no interested faculty members. Jim Aitken has retired from Clemson and Tom Fernandez moved to MSU. There is currently no one at Clemson to participate in S-290. Larry Burt has been appointed to this project to replace Jim Green at Oregon State University. Al Einert (a former participant) is retiring from the University of Arkansas. Dr. Emino extended has thanks on the part of the S290 committee to Bridget and Tom for the organization of excellent tours and for the hospitality extended in visiting Bridget’s home and in several receptions. He asked that the groups’ thanks be extended to Stan Howell for providing refreshments. He indicated that the tours and receptions provided intellectual stimulation and enhanced collegiality among the group. Manuscript Reports: National survey - John Brooker distributed copies of the manuscript of the national survey. Copies will be mailed to the review committee, including Bridget Behe, Ben Posadas and Alan Hodges (with a review deadline of July 15). John Brooker asked for a member to provide him with one or more nursery photographs. Tom Fernandez agreed to send a few. John Brooker asked for corrections on the experiment station directors’ page. He explained that we have decided to post this publication on the internet and will print hard copies as our clientele request. Container nursery manuscript - Bob McNiel reported that the container nursery manuscript is the next one he intends to update. He has received the software he needs to put these publications on the web and expects help from newly hired personnel at Kentucky who will be responsible for putting publications on the web. Greenhouse management manuscript - Charlie Hall reported that the greenhouse management manuscript is ready for review and will be mailed to the review committee (Jeff Kuehney, John Brooker and Patricia Knight) in the next week. Perennials manuscript - Bridget Behe reported that she has not heard from Dave Beattie about the perennial manuscript. Consumer Preference Survey - Bridget Behe distributed a printed manuscript from J. Environ. Hort., June 2000 issue entitled "Consumer Perceptions of Product and Service Quality Attributes in Six U.S. States." Bridget also reported that Richard Spreng, from the business school at MSU is interested in evaluating the SERVQUAL instrument with the data set we have collected. Progress on Current Studies: HRI Landscape Composition grant - Bridget Behe submitted the first manuscript from the HRI landscape composition manuscript to the J. of Environ. Hort. She and her graduate student will have two additional articles prepared by the winter meeting. Susan Barton suggested that Bridget email copies of the manuscripts to the authors for their quick review before submission to JEH. Everett Emino brought up the issue of first authorship and how that affects promotion at different universities. Multiple authors were included in the landscape publication in order to show the cooperative actions of the regional project. John Brooker suggested the phrase "senior authorship unassigned" to be used when that is appropriate. Bridget, Sue and Tom have submitted another HRI grant to follow up on the landscape study, looking at renovation of landscapes. HRI grants will be announced in December. Price Study - Steve Turner was not present to report on the price study. There was some discussion of the content of the price study. Bob McNiel suggested that it included pricing trends. Everett Emino related this study to information we learned at Spring Meadow about patenting and trademarking. He suggested a study that would measure the value of a trademark and a patent in the marketplace. Tom Fernandez suggested that the issue is complicated because Spring Meadow is including a marketing program on the patented and trademarked plant. Discussion followed that it would be interesting to measure sales and price achieved on plants that are advertised heavily such as Encore azaleas (Flowerwood). PJ vanBlokland compared this to standard branding of products with national advertising. PJ vanBlokland agreed to investigate models and existing data in other industries. Roger Hinson suggested that this might be handled as a case study project. Bridget Behe suggested that Richard Harkess pursue Flowerwood for data on Encore azaleas. Servqual Landscape Project - Bridget Behe asked who was willing to participate as a survey site on the Servqual Landscape Project. Participating states include KY, TN, DE, MI, FL. The format we will follow is that we will distribute 50 surveys to each landscape firm in each state (3-5) and ask them to distribute the surveys to their customers (or provide you with mailing labels). We will be able to provide customized reports for each business. Dr. Spreng suggested that in the future (next spring) we conduct the survey of expectations prior to landscape work and conduct the perceptions survey after the landscape project is completed. Two other problems with Servqual were discussed–the wording of expectations of an "ideal" vs. "this" firm and the issue of whether or not the 22 questions loaded separately on the five factors. Bridget found that the questions loaded on only 3 factors. Bridget will send an updated survey to each of the cooperators who will recruit 3-5 landscape firms in their state for distribution of surveys in September, October and November. Future Studies: Garden Center Publication — Sue Barton agreed to take the portions of the garden center publication that lend themselves to preparation of an excel spreadsheet and put them on her website. She will also investigate putting the entire publication on the web. Disease resistant dogwood study — John Brooker is working on coding the data and will be collecting more data at field days this summer. Bob McNiel received 20 responses and is planning to send surveys to three county agents who are interested in conducting surveys. Bridget Behe also conducted the survey in Michigan. Preliminary data indicate that consumers would be willing to pay $15 more for a patented, disease resistant (powdery mildew) dogwood. Garden Center POP — Susan Barton reported that she presented the Trees Add Life program to the industry at the ANLA Management Clinic. She is working with Sunrise Marketing to distribute Trees Add Life packages ($75). Sunrise Marketing has upgraded the website. It can be accessed at treesaddlife.org. Sunrise Marketing plans to offer promotional banners in the fall. The graduate student from Food and Resource Economics at the U of D will be publishing the results. Plant Display/Price Project — Charles Safely was unavailable to report. Economic Contributions of the Golf Course Industry — PJ vanBlokland reported that the PhD student lined up to work on this project did not pass his comprehensive exam so he will be unable to work on the project. PJ has agreed to continue with this project. PJ is also working on a project to measure how much a business must gross in order to realize a reasonable standard of living and to reinvest in the business. You must be well over one half a million in sales in agronomic crops. PJ would like to apply this to nursery businesses. First step is to determine the total cost per unit, next step is to add four important values (owners taxes (FICA), pay off principal in debt, reinvest in firm, pay owners salaries). The final step is to relate this price to market price. He uses this concept to help business owners evaluate whether they should stay in business or sell out while they still have equity. PJ agreed to give a mini-seminar in the afternoon. Evaluation of State Promotional Programs — No report from Patricia Knight. The committee was reminded to send their state’s guidelines to Steve Turner. Edible Flower & Specialty Cut Green Production Budgets — Bridget Behe reported that a graduate student has prepared a manuscript that includes greenhouse budget figures for culinary flowers, greens and herbs. Bridget asked for volunteers to review the article. PJ vanBlokland and Roger Hinson agreed to provide an internal review. Floriculture Crops Summary — Bridget Behe asked if someone from this group become involved in the format of this summary. There is a void in information about perennials. USDA is asking for input. The committee as a whole agreed to review the survey when Bridget receives it. The committee will provide their comments to Bridget for summary and response to the USDA. Tabletop Christmas Tree Project — Bridget Behe is planning to take the conjoint survey with decorated tabletop trees to a mall. She asked if any committee member might want to collect data in their state during the late fall. Future Meeting Plans: Winter 2001 — February 15-17 in Gulf Shores, AL. Bridget Behe recommends flying into Pensacola, FL. The other option is Mobile, Al. Tours of Flowerwood and Bellengrath Gardens as well as several other stops have been organized for February 15. Summer 2001 — Bob McNiel will coordinate a trip to northern New York and Canada during the last week of June (27, 28 or 29). Winter 2002 — South Dade County, Homestead area will be the area for tours and we will stay in Key Largo. PJ vanBlokland and Everett Emino agreed to take the lead in organizing this meeting. Summer 2002 — Seattle was suggested as the location for this meeting. Sue Barton agreed to organize the tours to several garden centers. Bob McNiel will investigate the possibility of touring the bulb and perennial industry. PJ vanBlokland suggested taking the ferry to Vancouver Island to visit Bouchard Gardens. Nominations Committee: The committee must elect a new chairperson and secretary by the winter meeting. Bridget Behe was nominated as new chairperson. Roger Hinson was nominated as secretary. The committee distributed the committee list for any necessary revisions. During the afternoon, PJ vanBlokland provided a presentation on a method for viewing market price related to costs and whether or not a business should stay in business. Several committee members presented information on projects they were working on in their individual states. Everett Emino encouraged us to remember our regional research commitments and honor them before we meet again in February. The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 pm. Respectfully submitted, Susan Barton Acting Secretary S-290