Annual/Termination Reports:

[08/08/2013] [08/19/2014] [07/25/2015] [10/02/2016] [05/31/2017]

Report Information

Participants

Matt Chappell (Extension, University of Georgia)
Gary Bachman (Extension, Mississippi State University)
John Ruter (Research, University of Georgia)
Win Dunwell (Extension, University of Kentucky)
Alex Niemiera (Research, Virginia Tech)
Allen Owings (Extension, Louisiana State University)
Ed Bush (Research, Louisiana State University)
Anthony LeBude (Extension, North Carolina State University)
Donna Fare (USDA-ARD)
Jim Robbins (Extension, University of Arkansas)
Gary Knox (Extension, University of Florida)
Mike Arnold (Research, Texas A & M)
Gene Blythe (Research, Mississippi State University)
Zhanao Deng (Research, University of Florida)

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

First Symposium was held, Sustainable Beauty, featuring lectures by members. Attendance was over 50. The audience was comprised of professional horticulturists, Master Gardeners, Extension agents, and home gardeners. Symposium will be continued at next annual meeting in Hammond, LA.<br /> <br /> Web-site is up-to-date including a historical compilation.<br /> <br /> Yellow magnolias, Artemesia arborescens, and Hemerocallis 'Suburban Nancy Gale' were approved for future evaluation. <br /> <br /> Five state reports were submitted.<br /> <br /> Analysis of Symposium evaluations is underway.

Publications

N/A

Impact Statements

1. The first Symposium was held with over 50 attendees.
2. Symposium attendees generally reported that the program would increase their garden spending by $51-100.
3. Symposium attendees generally reported that the program experience and plant material provided by the program had a value of $51-151.

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Report Information

Participants

Advisor(s)
Patricia Knight (Mississippi State University)
Regina Bracy (LSU AgCenter, Hammond Research Station, Louisiana State University)
Representatives
Matt Chappell (Extension, University of Georgia)
Gary Bachman (Extension, Mississippi State University)
Win Dunwell (Extension, University of Kentucky)
Allen Owings (Extension, Louisiana State University)
Ed Bush (Research, Louisiana State University)
Yan Chen (LSU AgCenter, Hammond Research Station, Louisiana State University)
Jim Robbins (Extension, University of Arkansas)
Gary Knox (Extension, University of Florida)
Mike Arnold (Research, Texas A&M University)
Gene Blythe (Research, Mississippi State University)
Zhanao Deng (Research, University of Florida)
Geoff Denny (Mississippi State University)

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

The 2nd Annual Lecture was held at the Hammond Research Station, Hammond, LA. One hundred and five people attended. Sixty percent of attendees were industry, and 40% were home gardeners/Master Gardeners. Attendees were most interested in magnolias and camellias and indicated that they were very likely to use the information. Industry attendees indicated that they received a positive economic impact from attending. <br /> <br /> The SERA27 website is up-to-date.<br /> <br /> Hemerocallis 'Big John' was distributed. Amsonia 'Big John', Muhlenbergia capillaris 'Purple Haze', Buxus microphylla var. japonica 'Gregem', Hibiscus syriacus 'DS01BS', Hydrangea macrophylla 'Grenan', Lagerstroemia 'GA 0804', Ophiopogon jaburan 'DOCF', Callicarpa rubella, and Camellia sp. were approved for evaluation in 2014. Centaurea gymnocarpa was approved for evaluation in 2015.

Publications

None.

Impact Statements

1. Hemerocallis ?Suburban Nancy Gale? was distributed for evaluation at the meeting with nine additional plants scheduled for distribution to cooperators.
2. The 2nd Annual Lecture sponsored by SERA27 was held following the annual meeting in Hammond, LA. One hundred and five people attended. Eighty-six attendees were involved in the nursery, landscape, garden center industry while 19 were home gardeners or Master Gardeners.
3. Lecture attendees were surveyed to determine their interest in horticultural topics including xeric and saline landscape plant development, plants from the Big Bend trials, or magnolias and camellias. Magnolias and camellias received a high interested, followed by big bend plants, and xeric and saline landscape plant development. All attendees indicated that the topics were very interesting with magnolias and camellias having the highest level of usefulness.
4. Lecture attendees all indicated a positive economic impact from attending the lectures.

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Report Information

Participants

Gene Blythe (Research, Mississippi State University)
Ed Bush (Reearch, Louisiana State University)
Matt Chappell (Extension, University of Georgia)
Zhanao Deng (Research, University of Florida)
Geoff Denny (Extension, Mississippi State University)
Donna Fare (USDA, USNA)
Allen Owings (Extension, Louisiana State University)
Gary Knox (Extension, University of Florida)

Guests

Yan Chen (Louisiana State University)
Anthony Witcher (Tennessee State University)

States Not Represented

Alabama
Arkansas
Kentucky
Maryland
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia

Brief Summary of Minutes

Welcome 

The SERA 27 Business Meeting was called to order at 1:43 pm on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 by President Gary Knox.

Gary Knox welcomed participants. This business meeting was planned to be held in Louisville, KY.  The proposed dates didn’t work for most of the members, and thus this meeting is conducted in conjunction with the 2015 SNA meeting in Georgia.

Attendance, Introductions, and representatives

Gary Knox introduced the current officers, advisors, and guests. Current officers are: President, Gary Knox; Secretary, Zhanao Deng; Board member, Geoff Denny.

Participants introduced themselves. A new guest Anthony Witcher was present.

Currently there are no official representatives from Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

Gary Knox volunteered to contact South Carolina Botanical Gardens, if no faculty members are interested, for find a representative.

One to two representatives were able to secure some travel funds from their universities for this meeting, but most of the representatives were not able to obtain travel funds from respective universities.

 Review, discussion, and approval of 2014 meeting minutes

Minutes of the 2014 business meeting were reviewed, discussed and moved for approval. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Geoff Denny, seconded by Ed Bush, and approved unanimously.

State Reports (see Appendix 1)

Verbal reports were given from:

• Louisiana State University (Allen Owings, Ed Bush, and Yan Chen)


• Mississippi State University (Gene Blythe and Geoff Denny)


• University of Florida (Gary Knox and Zhanao Deng)


• University of Georgia (Matthew Chappell)


• Tennessee State University (Anthony Witcher)


• USDA-ARS (Donna Fare)

Written reports are in Appendix 2.

• Louisiana State University (Allen Owings, Ed Bush, and Yan Chen)


• Mississippi State University (Gene Blythe and Geoff Denny)


• Texas A&M (Mike Arnold)


• Virginia Tech


• University of Arkansas (Jim Robbins)


• University of Florida (Gary Knox and Zhanao Deng)


• University of Georgia (Matthew Chappell)


• University of Kentucky (Win Dunwell)


• USDA-USNA (Donna Fare)

Website Report

The SERA27 website is currently housed on the LSU AgCenter website. Allen Owings reported the website is up to date, including a compilation of our historical proceedings. Allen plans to continue updating the website.

Structure and memberships

President Gary reminded the group of the structure of the SERA 27 group. The official representatives for each state include one extension specialist and one research-oriented faculty member, but welcome new members to join this group.  Gary stressed the values and benefits of identifying and inviting faculty members from several states that lack official representatives.

It was suggested to invite Dr. Wayne Mackay to join the SERA 27 group.

 

Plant Evaluation and plant evaluation Report

Several plants were officially accepted into the plant evaluation trials, including dwarf crape myrtle.

Callicarpa:  Did not survive in GA.  Matthew suggested using a uniform form for data collection and Google documents for sharing data.

Gary urged all who trialed accepted plants to submit collected data so that they can be used for the development of future grant proposals and publications, presentations, etc.

Donna distributed yellow magnolia to interested parties: three each of Magnolia 'Sunspire' and M. 'Butterflies'.

Gary will have another magnolia species for distribution in the future.

Yan is evaluating tea varieties for ornamental and beverage uses.

Gene distributed Centaurea gymnocarpa, three plants per site.

2016 and 2017 meetings

Win expressed willingness to host the 2016 meeting. It was suggested that a date in 2016 should be selected as early as possible. Previous meetings were held in early June. A date in early June 2016 is preferred. The meeting site needs to be determined.

Matthew volunteered to host the 2017 meeting in a format similar to previous plant conferences.

Gene suggested having a future meeting at the USDA-ARS, preferably in conjunction with plant symposiums.

 Future grant proposals

Matthew planned to develop a SCRI planning grant, and invited group members to join his efforts. He proposed to focus on conducting uniform trials in the southeast or plant performance in response to climate changes.

Yan indicated that it is very important to have strong industry involvement and support to get invited for full proposal submission. It would be beneficial to get industries involved soon.

It was suggested that Matthew leads the development of one preproposal, and Ed leads the development of another preproposal.

Other possible themes for future SCRI proposals include focusing on the ecological services and carbon footprints of the green industry.

Renewal of SERA-27 for 2012-2017

Renewal of SERA27 was approved through 2017. Advisor Patricia Knight reminded us we need to record accomplishments, outcomes and impacts in order to keep our group active and continue receiving support.

Election of Officers for 2015-2016

Officer positions automatically progress from Board Member to Secretary to President. Thus, for 2016:

President, Zhanao Deng (former Secretary)

Secretary, Geoff Denny (former Board Member)

Donna nominated Matthew Chappell as the 2016 Board Member, Geoff seconded, and this was unanimously approved.

Donna moved that we approach our Administrative Advisors Patricia Knight and Regina Bracy to include Tennessee State University as an official representative. Geoff seconded the motion, and this was unanimously approved.

Other Business

Adjournment: Donna moved we adjourn, Geoff seconded, unanimously approved. The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Zhanao Deng

Secretary

 

 

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Zhanao Deng, University of Florida
Gary Knox, University of Florida
Allen Owings, Louisiana State University
Dewayne Ingram, University of Kentucky
Zenaida Viloria, University of Kentucky
Win Dunwell, University of Kentucky
Ed Bush, Louisiana State University
Lisa Alexander, USDA-ARS
Thomas Ranney, North Carolina State University
Anthony Witcher, Tennessee State University
Alex Niemiera, Virginia Tech
Matthew Chappell, University of Georgia

Patricia R. Knight-Advisor, Mississippi State University

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

<p><strong>Short-term Outcomes: Results from symposium evaluation</strong></p><br /> <p>98% of symposium evaluation respondents said that they would purchase plants mentioned during the symposium. </p><br /> <p>Native plants were the most mentioned plant of interest followed by Osmanthus.</p><br /> <p>100% of symposium respondents said that the symposium increased their knowledge of horticulture.</p><br /> <p>Symposium respondents felt that the seminar was worth between $30 and $35.</p><br /> <p><strong>Outputs:</strong></p><br /> <p>State reports from University of Florida, University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University, Tennessee State University, North Carolina State University, Virginia Tech, Mississippi State University as well as USDA.</p><br /> <p>SERA-IEG 27 website is up-to-date and continues to be maintained by LSU.</p><br /> <p>An annual plant materials symposium has been initiated in conjunction with the annual meeting of the SERA-27 group and continues to rotate to the host of the annual meeting. The title of this year's symposium was</p><br /> <p>"Southern Garden All-Stars: Developing the new plants for southern gardens."</p><br /> <p>Video recordings of symposium presentations were recorded and will be available for YouTube viewing after editing.</p><br /> <p><strong>Activities:</strong></p><br /> <p>13 official state representatives and 3 guests from 8 states and the USDA gathered to report the current status in undergraduate and graduate education with a special emphasis on nursery crops and landscaping and to select plants for multistate evaluations.</p><br /> <p>Multiyear trials of nursery and landscape plants were continued in multiple states.</p><br /> <p>A grant proposal planning meeting was agreed upon and coordination of the meeting was assigned.&nbsp; Meeting was held September 14, 2016.</p><br /> <p>McMinnville, TN was selected as the 2017 meeting location.</p><br /> <p>Potential plants for 2017 were discussed with interest determined for distribution at next year's meeting.</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Publications

<p>NA</p>

Impact Statements

1. The SERA IEG-27 group hosted a symposium, Southern Garden All-Stars: Developing the new plants for southern gardens, as part of its annual meeting. 98% of symposium evaluation respondents said that they would purchase plants mentioned during the symposium. Native plants were the most mentioned plant of interest followed by Osmanthus. 100% of symposium respondents said that the symposium increased their knowledge of horticulture. Symposium respondents felt that the seminar was worth between $30 and $35.

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Report Information

Participants

• Alex Niemiera, Hort Dept Va Tech
• Lisa Alexander
• Gary Knox
• Mike Arnold, TX A&M
• Gene Blythe, MS State
• Zenaida Viloria, UK Extension
• Win Dunwell, UK - Princeton KY
• Ed Bush, LSU
• Anthony Witcher, TSU
• Patricia Knight, MSU – Group administrative advisor
Absent:
• Matthew Chappell
• Zhanao Deng

Brief Summary of Minutes

SERA Meeting 2017-05-31

Meeting open 3:00 p.m McMinnville, TN by Anthony Witcher

1. Welcome by Anthony – facility and faculty overview, tour schedule


2. Introduction of Attendees and Guests

• Alex Niemiera, Hort Dept Va Tech


• Lisa Alexander


• Gary Knox


• Mike Arnold, TX A&M


• Gene Blythe, MS State


• Zenaida Viloria, UK Extension


• Win Dunwell, UK - Princeton KY


• Ed Bush, LSU


• Anthony Witcher, TSU


• Patricia Knight, MSU – Group administrative advisor

Absent:

• Matthew Chappell


• Zhanao Deng

III. Current Officers and State Representative Review

Current

• Jeff Denny President


• Matthew Chappell Secretary (assuming to president)


• Anthony Witcher Member-at-large (assuming to secretary)

State representative review

Each state can have two official voting members (one extension, one research)

Discussion on group status, funding. Funding for meetings or SERA activities is sometimes allocated (i.e. Gary Knox) but most people get no money (i.e., Mike Arnold). If we went to a true multi-state project and got a CRIS number, there may be more money.

Be sure to sign up if we want to participate. Also need to cull inactive members.

Accept minutes from last year – Gary motions, Mike seconds, vote carries.

State reports

Need a digital version for each state – send to chair (Matthew)

TN (Witcher): New extension specialist position, need it filled. TSU College of Ag has 150 undergrads, 100 MS students. About 15 new graduate students per year.

VA (Niemiera): Dept of Hort being absorbed by agronomy, plant phys, plant path. Searching for a director – Raulston St Heler (?) from NMState. Now will be a BS in Plant and Env Sciences. No more bachelors of horticulture. Will retain majors, about 80% env hort 20% landscape. Ironic because landscape companies are beating down doors for hires. Jake is Alex’s great grad student – needs to apply for our position.

FL (Knox): Env hort, agronomy, soil sicence, still in separate departments but teaching curricula the same. 45 students, 40 of which in landscape and nursery. Hort is still a separate department (veggies and fruit). Numbers are stable and going up.

TX (Arnold): Losing faculty members, except new industry like wine. New potato breeder. Almost all new teaching positions are non-tenured lectures. 4% budget cut for this year. Grad program has increased because they are pushing PhDs (about 70 in the department). 80% in sustainable, foods, farm to market, etc. and only 20% in landscape. New state of the art greenhouse space and nursery area with support buildings, meeting rooms, etc.  New 80 acres near USDA Pecan facility

MS (Blythe): MSU College of ag enromment increasing, ‘Spike’ bloomed!, and Gene wants reports from his three trialed species

UK (Dunwell): Retirements looming. Agriculture in general is losing people to industry at a fairly significant rate. Facilities at Princeton being renovated to ADA housing for graduate students.

LA (Bush): Hort Tech, Hort Science, Env Science. Pomology may have an outlet if professor gets tenured. Student recruitment specialist is doing great at recruiting students. Allen Owings retiring in July. Regina Bracy retiring in October. Other positions at the research station will be open too. Got word from the state legislator that there will be a genetics and breeder for marijuana at the station, and a production specialist.

End of state reports.

New

• Member-at-large


• Gary nominates Lisa, Win seconds, motion accepted.


• Lisa moves for slate of officers to ascend


• Ed seconds, motion accepted.

 

Discuss status and roles of the research and administrative advisory positions.

Patricia Knight has the floor

Regina (retiring) was research advisor and Patricia was extension advisor. Patricia will be research advisor, need to elect an extension advisor. The extension advisor needs to have an administrative appointment. Mike Arnold will check with his administration.

Motion to nominate Patricia Knight for research advisory postion. Motion seconded, vote carried.

Motion to nominate Mike for admin advis position contingent on TX A&M administration. Motion seconded, vote carried.

Need to update five year plan

                Need to update accomplishments

                Need to update expected outcomes and impacts

 

Need to create final report for last five years.

Have gotten dinged in the past about impact – that is outcomes, use of outcomes, and “bang for your buck”.

Can compile from annual reports

 

GSHE might house SNA in the future, SNA may not. Ed or Mike might give a five-year SERA update, can do that now for an educational.

Action item: We each send Gene a paragraph about the plants that we have trialed for the group. Overview, one slide per plant with a 10,000 feet overview. Deadline: July 15.

Action item: Lisa will collate titles of papers, abstracts, and SERA related talks for the last five years. Deadline July 15.

Other items to attach include fact sheets on John John, etc.

Website – will be hosted by LSU? Yes, needs to stay because it is a wealth of info

Action items: Plants that we have completed trialing this year; over last five years, and current. Deadline July 15

Renewal of 5-year plan

                Need to update statement of issues

                Will work in the car tomorrow

Research grant opportunities

                Uniform plant evaluation for woody ornamentals

                Open access plants database

                Action item: Have Matthew schedule conference call

 

Anthony Witcher closes meeting, 5:58 p.m.

 

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

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