MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING OF SERA-IEG 27
NURSERY AND LANDSCAPE CROPS
JUNE 4-6, 2003
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Participants:
ADVISORS: Dewayne Ingram (University of Kentucky, Research) and Jerzy Nowak (VPI, Extension)

OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVES: Allen Owings (LSU), Ed Bush (LSU), Gary Knox (Univ. of Florida), Michelle Scheiber (Univ. of Florida), Bill Bauerle (Clemson), Bill Klingeman (Univ. of Tennessee), Mike Arnold (Texas A&M Univ.), Donna Fare (U.S. National Arboretum, McMinnville), Patricia Knight (Mississippi State Univ.), Ken Tilt (Auburn), Win Dunwell (Univ. of Kentucky), Jon T. Lindstrom (Univ. of Arkansas)

OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Regina Bracy (LSU), Dick Parish (LSU), Chris Cheatham (USDA-ARS, Poplarville, MS), Cecil Pounders (Mississippi State Univ.)

STATES NOT REPRESENTED: NC, OK, GA

Wednesday began with a dinner at Ralph and Kacoo’s Seafood in Baton Rouge. The dinner was courtesy of the Louisiana Nursery and Landscape Association. The Chair, Bill Klingeman (University of Tennessee) called the official business meeting to order at 8:10 AM, Thursday, June 5th. Members and guests were introduced and a registration fee of $15.00 for the meeting was collected. The 2002 minutes were approved on a motion by Arnold and a second by Fare.

The Chair asked for the following:

1.Program reviews from each university

2.Election of officers

3.Old Business

4.New Business

5.New plants for evaluation

6.Future meeting sites

Program Reviews:
Reports were heard from the following institutions: Texas A&M University (Arnold), United State Department of Agriculture National Arboretum (Fare), Mississippi State University (Knight), Auburn (Tilt), Virginia Tech (Nowak), University of Kentucky (Dunwell), University of Arkansas (Lindstrom), Louisiana State University (Owings), University of Florida (Knox), Clemson (Bauerle), University of Tennessee (Klingeman). There were no reports given from the states of North Carolina, Oklahoma and Georgia.

Election of Officers:
The Chair asked for nominations for a new member of the Executive Committee. Patricia Knight (Mississippi State University) was nominated and then elected by affirmation. By approved procedures, the Secretary of the previous year becomes the Chair the following year and the Executive Committee Member becomes the Secretary. The officers affirmed for 2003-2004 were Jon T. Lindstrom, University of Arkansas, Chair; Ed Bush, LSU, Secretary; Patricia Knight, Mississippi State University, member of Executive Committee.

Old Business:
The Chair began a discussion of old business with comments on the web site. (http://www.ag.auburn.edu/hf/landscape/SERAhomepage.html) This is a wonderful resource for the group and a great way for our group to publicize our efforts. Bernice Fischman has done an excellent job keeping things up and running.

Additional images of plants under evaluation need to be sent to Ken Tilt so they can be included on the site. Discussion also followed on the use of a program that would allow cooperators to insert photographs onto the site from their remote location.

As has been mentioned at previous meetings, there continues to be problems with data collection and entry. Bernice Fischman will e-mail participants their 4-digit code to allow entry into the site. Several cooperators suggested the use of an Excel spreadsheet, sent to each evaluator, as a means to acquire data in a propitious fashion. It was suggested that data not be entered on the web site but sent directly to the cooperator. However, the value of archived data on the web site (if a cooperator should leave the program), is not to be overlooked. The question of format for this spreadsheet was also discussed. A blank sheet will be sent to cooperators and they will indicate on the sheet which data should be collected on their plants.

Several other housekeeping aspects of the site were mentioned including a PDF file for the HortTechnology article (Dunwell, W.C., Fare, D., Arnold, M., Tilt, K., Knox, G., Witte, W., Knight, P., Pooler, M., Klingeman, W., Niemiera, A., Ruter, J., Yeager, T., Ranney, T., Beeson, R., Lindstrom, J., Bush, E., Owings, A., and Schnelle, M. 2001. Plant Evaluation Program: SERA/IEG-27: Nursery Crops and Landscape Systems HortTechnology 11(3) 373-375.). Broken links on the site were noted as were the legal requirements for the use on the web site of photographs with people.

Win Dunwell gave the report for the Plant Evaluation Committee. He received four concluding reports and passed out a summary. Reports were obtained for:

Cephalotaxus harringtonia (Witte/Klingeman), Lagerstroemia ‘Pocomoke’ and ‘Chickasaw’ (Pooler), Stachys coccinea (Lindstrom) and Hemerocallis and Iris (Dunwell). Participants discussed the format for the concluding reports. Concluding reports should be in Southern Nursery Association Research Conference Proceedings format. This type of report includes Nature of Work, Results and Discussion, and Significance to Industry. Examples are available at the SNA web site (http://www.sna.org). Final reports submitted to the Plant Evaluation Committee are requested to be resubmitted in SNA format. Information contained within concluding reports will be used to prepare a poster for presentation at the SNA annual meeting. It might also be suitable for publication in either a research publication (for example, HortTechnology) or popular press (American Nurseryman).

Win Dunwell asked about using SERA-IEG plant information in publications from other states (i.e. extension reports). Representatives felt this was allowable with one exception. The distributor of a plant may request that the plant not be used in other publications.

Discussion on negative information followed. The question was raised if participants would be comfortable with the publication of negative information on plants under evaluation. Participants felt that negative information was also valuable and should be disseminated if necessary.

Several plants previously distributed have had alternative uses in the landscape (Bulbine was given as an example). Members were wondering how to handle this information. Most felt that this information should be included in reports.

Missing concluding reports were discussed, the 2002 minutes mentioned reports for Cornus mas NC96-01, Acer oliverianum subsp. formosanum GA97-01, Styrax japonica ‘Emerald Pagoda’ NC98-01, Conradina canescens FL98-01, Plumbago auriculata ‘Hullabaloo’ TX99-01, Turnera ulmifolia TX99-02, Ipomoea carnea ssp. fistulosa TX99-04, Illicium mexicanum ‘Aztec Fire’ NC99-01, Bulbine caulescens TX00-01

Ken Tilt (Auburn) was elected to serve as the next chairman of the Plant Evaluation Committee His term starts at the conclusion of the 2004 meeting.

It is important that members of SERA-IEG bring their plant data to the meetings and that members of SERA-IEG hold each other accountable if the data is missing.

New Business:
There was no new business to report.

New Plants for Evaluation:
Mike Arnold asked about receiving plants distributed in previous years. This is important for those who miss the meeting. Members interested in plants distributed in the past year should contact the distributor to see if material is still available.

Jon T. Lindstrom prepared and distributed information sheets on two plants:

Amsonia hybrid ‘SPH’ AR03-01 and Buddleja 02-25-142 (B. madagascarensis ´ B. crispa) AR04-01. Amsonia plants were distributed at this meeting and the Buddleja plants will be sent next year. Members unable to attend the meeting should contact Jon (tranell@uark.edu) if they are interested in testing these plants.

Donna Fare queried the group on their interest in the flowering phenology of the remontant Hydrangea soon to be distributed throughout the United States. Mike Arnold queried the group on their interest in a series of cold-hardy Oleander hybrids from Texas.

Future Meeting Sites:
The 2004 meeting is tentatively scheduled for Fletcher, NC in the first week of June. Bill Klingeman will confirm with Tom Ranney on the site and dates. Alternative sites for this meeting, if Tom is not able to accommodate the group, include Kentucky and Florida. Gary Knox offered to host the 2005 meeting in Quincy, FL.

With no other business to attend to by the group, the business meeting was adjourned at 11:50 AM, June 6, 2003.

Afternoon activities included tours in Amite, LA. The first nursery visited was Bracy’s Nursery, a container operation featuring a wide variety of well-grown nursery stock. The second stop was Jenkins Farm and Nursery, L.L.C. Margie Jenkins guided us through the nursery featuring many container-grown native plants and other unusual species. One plant that attracted attention was Viburnum luzonicum; this plant may be a subject for a future SERA-IEG evaluation. Dinner Thursday night was in Independence, LA at the Caboose Restaurant.

Friday morning activities included a stop at the Rural Life museum in the LSU Burden Center as well as a visit to a local garden center.

Many thanks to Allen Owings and Ed Bush for hosting this year’s meeting.