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With this, the third issue of “Hort Shorts,” we continue to develop better direction for “Hort Shorts” to follow The response from the postcards en-closed in the last issue was overwhelming. In. this issue we are mainly going to cover information and observations that were offered by all of you who read this publication. In dealing with Heather at the State Office, we continually analyze and critique the previous issue to be sure it is as current and in-formative as possible.

The ingredient that Heather felt was important to continue is the humorous article that generally leads off every issue. As Heather stated this to me I didn’t know what she meant, as the first article is not meant to be funny but rather a deep, insighiful view of this intriguing industry Any attempt at humor in any of these articles is either purely coincidental or a definite crv for help.

The “Branching Out” Newsletter

“Branching Out”, an integrated pest management newsletter for trees and shrubs, has really impressed us. Pub lished by Cornell Cooperative Extension, the editors are Bonnie C. Liscek and George W. Hudler. It is mailed monthly in the summer and bi-weekly in the spring and fall and contains in-formation on insects and disease that are prevalent at the time of publication.

Over the last fifteen years the huge influx of lawn and tree spray companies has left most landscape contractors less familiar with insect and disease identification and control. Although your particular company might not be in volved in spraying, it is important for you to be aware of current practices.

Some not very reputable spray companies could blame your landscape company for your customer’s problems. You should be able to identify the problem yourself and inform your customers of the problem and how to solve it.

“Branching Out” will keep you attuned to what plants are more susceptible to diseases and insects at certain times of the year. Even if you don’t maintain the plants yourself, you will look sharper if you forewarn your customers or at least steer clear of varieties prone to developing problems. You can order “Branching Out” for $35.00J a year from the Dept. of Plant Pathology Cornell University 334 Plant Science Building, Ithaca, NY 14853.

“Hort Shorts” Info

One idea we have discussed is that there is some information that is so important to get Out in a timely fashion, i.e. before next spring that we are going to try to develop a group fax network. This concept is based on the idea when this office accumulates the articles for an issue there is a minimum three week turn around time to get it printed and mailed and in your hands. If we set up regional locations to get the copy of “Hort Shorts” immediately it could be faxed to your office so all the information is that much more current. Obviously it might not be pretty but the information would be there, and that’s the important thing. This is just one idea for improving the CNP program that we have thrown on the table. There are a lot of loose ends and areas to be perfected, but if you have any ideas on this concept or are interested in helping to set up this fax network, please let us know.

Your Favorite Plants As we expected there is a long list of trees and shrubs, but the list of perennials was a list that you would generally see from a bunch of landscapers.

Not one reply listed an ornamental grass, and many listed your basic perennials or annuals that were taught in college twenty five years ago. This is not a knock on the respondents but an observation of the landscape industry in general. I personally want to consistently learn more about annuals and grasses, but they provide less than one percent of our gross sales, so I generally defer to the client to give me their list of plants to be used. If they don’t have a list, I let them know that perennials and annuals require more maintenance than beds that have three layers of barrier and nine inches of mulch. (Heather this a joke in case you missed it)!

In reality although perennials and grasses do not reflect the great percentage of all of our gross sales, they are the ingredient that make a great job out of a good job, and they are the plants that most of our customers have an interest in and can discuss with us. If you cannot discuss perennials or grasses or don’t have an opinion on their use, in the back of their minds your customers are making a value judgment about your total horticultural knowledge.

The top four trees listed on your reply cards were: Katsura tree, Ginkgo biloba, American beech and cornus kousa. The shrub that was your favorite by far was viburnum, followed by Mindosa and viburnum carlesii. A number of spireas were listed as well as Miss Kim Lilac and compact burning bush. It was good to see the varying list of trees and shrubs that those who responded used as it showed the great variety of plant material available to us. Ironically, it seemed that the CNPs who had the most interest in listing favorite plants were the ones requesting more in-formation on different varieties. Please keep your lists coming in, indicating not only what your favorite plants but why you like using them. We will compile this information and will put out an expanded list during the winter months.

Burlap, Wire Baskets and String
The most frequent observation from people in the field is that many landscapers are making no attempt to remove the burlap, wire basket, or string (be it biodegradable string or not) from the root ball. The main reason we see this is because your particular company may be called te place the plants that another company has refused to replace.

There are some schools of thought that wire baskets should be removed completely fro~ the planting; there are other schools of thought that believe that they should not be touched at all and some schools of thought of thought are in between. Our observations lead us to compromise.

First of all, the International Arborist Certification Manual states that it is imprudent to remove the whole basket from large trees. Removing the basket will adversely affect the stability of the root ball. They do recommend that every effort should be made to cut at least the top wires off.

We agree with the Arborists that to remove the entire basket on larger trees will hurt the stability of the ball. If you do cut off the entire top of the wire basket and then the customer requests that you move the tree two feet in another direction, you will be hard pressed to do so. Some of the new findings stated that deciduous trees that are ? do not always need to be stabilized (staked and guyed), but if you cut the wire basket and cut the rope that holds the basket and tree together the tree will probably have to he staked. In talking to some tree growers, their recommendation is to cut the string of f the ball, cut portions of the wire basket, remove the top half of the burlap, make slits in the bottom half of the burlap and take the rope (which should be biodegradable) and retighten the wire basket to the ball. The rope should not come into contact with the trunk of the tree.

Some real problem items that should always be removed are: nylon twine, nylon burlap, treated burlap, metal bands on large trees and plastic pots on container material. Other problems we discussed in the last issue concerning planting trees were not breaking up the root ball or container material, digging undersize holes in general, and insufficient watering of new installations.

Mulch and Weed Barrier
The second greatest observation was overuse of mulch year after year and use of weed barrier. The use of mulch is recommended when plants are first installed since it helps hold moisture in, but for the most part with many landscaping people, mulching has become a rite of spring when cleanup should include trimming off dead wood, shooting up the edge and dumping another three inches of mulch on the planting beds.