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If you've never seen the WESTERN Magazine, here's what you're missing. These are highlights from the Summer Issue of the WESTERN Magazine.
2009 WESTERN Speaker's Wells Fargo Project 'Model of Sustainability': Des Moines-based landscape architecture firm Brian Clark & Associates utilizes functionality as well as unique usage of native plants
Brian Clark is the Senior Principal and President of Brian Clark & Associates (BCA), a landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm based in Des Moines, Iowa. Here is an article he wrote about BCA’s involvement in the comprehensive Wells Fargo West Des Moines Campus project, which he also is addressing at the 2009 WESTERN Annual Meeting and Trade Show.
The Wells Fargo West Des Moines (Iowa) Campus is a model of sustainability inherently linked to Iowa’s native landscape. Nearly half of the site has been restored to its original prairie and wetland character, and the most significant use of bioswales and curbless parking lots in the state reduces the impact of paved surfaces. The Wells Fargo Campus, however, is not merely about functional sustainability. Des Moines-based landscape architecture firm Brian Clark & Associates has created a unique central park spine that traces a continuum of native Iowa plant communities.
BCA’s role in the planning and site design of the campus as a whole was all-encompassing, the key reason for the high level of design consistency across all aspects of the project. Through the concept and implementation of the native central park spine, BCA was able to link the campus to its site and its local and natural communities. The spine is the framework around which the entire campus is built. It provides useable spaces for outdoor dining, gathering, and events, as well as a symbolic and evocative reference to the unique glacial fringe landscape on which the campus sits. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, employees are able to daily view and interact with a unique landscape— a soothing, rare, native Iowa landscape. Full Article...
During his presentation “Greening and the Green Industry” at the 2008 WESTERN Annual Meeting and Trade Show, Bob Dolibois said sustainability is about continuing many of the things we’re currently doing as an industry, discontinuing other things and doing some things we do now but doing them differently. He also said the Sustainable Sites Initiative was a major initiative affecting the green industry. This article from the www.sustainablesites.org Web site addresses this important and timely issue.
The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ is an interdisciplinary partnership between the American Society of Landscape Architects (www.asla.org), the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (www.wildflower.org), the United States Botanic Garden (www.usbg.gov) and a diverse group of stakeholder organizations to develop guidelines and standards for landscape sustainability. The motivation behind this initiative stems from the desire to protect and enhance the ability of landscapes to provide services such as climate regulation, clean air and water, and improved quality of life. Sustainable Sites is a cooperative effort with the intention of supplementing existing green building and landscape guidelines as well as becoming a stand-alone tool for site sustainability. Full Article...
WESTERN University: Forget Your Fear of Elms
Jeff Iles, Ph.D., is a professor and chair of the department of horticulture at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Here is an article he wrote about Ulmus ‘Morton’ (Accolade™ elm). You can ask questions and comment about this article and many others on the WESTERN University blog.
Is it safe? You know, is it really safe to invite elms back into our landscapes? I must admit, whenever I recommend an elm selection for a residential or commercial property, my voice cracks just a bit, my palms get sweaty, and I have a little trouble maintaining eye contact with the client. It’s not that I’m being dishonest or disingenuous. In fact, the elms I’ve recommended are part of a new and promising generation of disease resistant hybrid elms. I’ve even gone so far as to recommend a few true American elms that have demonstrated resistance to, or tolerance of, the fungus causing Dutch elm disease. But no matter how hard I try, I simply can’t erase the memory of that day in 1964 when the men with chainsaws came to remove every majestic, but now dead or dying American elm in my neighborhood. At first, the sound of screaming saws, cracking limbs, and stump grinders was exciting and entertaining, but as the trees disappeared, and the sun beat down on our street and houses for the first time in a very long time, it became painfully apparent our modest piece of suburbia had been transformed, and the transformation wasn’t good. Full Article...
Newest Hydrangeas Provide Spectacular Color & Hardiness while Being Low-Maintenance
Stock your garden centers with Forever & Ever® Blue Heaven and Forever & Ever® Peppermint from 2009 WESTERN exhibitor and member Zelenka Nursery, LLC.
New plants, less work, gorgeous garden … sounds like a gardeners dream come true, doesn’t it? Actually, a dream garden can become reality with new plants that can help your customers create a beautiful garden with much less work. Help them plan a garden around the new breeds of hydrangeas, coneflowers, roses and evergreen shrubs and reap the benefits of a gorgeous garden that requires little maintenance.
Today’s plant breeders work to help your customers make their dream garden a reality by concentrating on bringing new varieties to market that make gardens beautiful as well as carefree. These new plants are virtually disease free and are extremely low maintenance.
The Forever & Ever® collection of hydrangeas was introduced two years ago and almost is foolproof even for the novice gardener. They provide blooms from late spring to early fall and, unlike their ancestors, will tolerate pruning at most any time. Their ability to weather wintry conditions, and still produce blooms each year, is another improvement in this new generation of hydrangeas. Full Article...
Gardeners are Looking for Information Online....and Making Purchases
Bridget K. Behe, Ph.D., is a professor of horticulture at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., teaching courses about marketing and management. She has conducted more than 75 consumer and market research projects and written more than 500 articles (including this one about researching online shopping by gardeners). She is making a pair of presentations at the 2009 WESTERN Annual Meeting and Trade Show.
The WESTERN asked its exhibitors if any of them offer online shopping, and these are the ones who responded:
• Accu-Steel Cover Buildings: www.asicoverbuildings.com
• Anna Nursery: www.annanursery.com
• Bluebird Nursery, Inc.: www.bluebirdnursery.com
• BWI Companies Inc.: www.bwicompanies.com
• Cartner Blue Ridge Fraser Firs: www.carolinafraserfir.com
• Ceramo Company, Inc.: www.ceramousa.com
• Cherokee Mfg.: www.cherokeemfg.com
• Craftware Pottery & Baskets: www.craftwareusa.com
• DARCO, Inc.: www.darcoinc.com
• Fisher Farms, LLC.: www.fisherfarms.com
• Foster Brothers Wood Products: www.fosterbros.com
• Foster’s Inc.: www.fostersinc.com
• Great Western Bag: www.gwestern.com
• HYDROLogic Inc.: www.hydrologic.net
• Jaderloon Company Inc.: www.jaderloon.com
• Loda Enterprises, Inc.: www.loda.com
• MainSpring Retail Solutions: www.mainspring.net
• Master Mark Plastics: www.mastermark.com
• Missouri Organic Recycling: www.missouriorganic.com
• Natural Environmental Systems: www.naturalenviro.com
• Pittman Nursery Corporation: www.pittmannursery.com
• ProLine Div., Heritage Oak Farm: www.prolinegrabber.com
• Soil Mender Products: www.soilmender.com
• Todd Valley Farms, Inc.: www.toddvalleyfarms.com
• Vis Seed Company, Inc.: www.visseed.com
• Williams Lawn Seed: www.wls.com
In the last week, did you search for information or buy anything online? If you’re like tens of millions of Americans, you did one or the other. But what do we know about the people looking for horticulturists online? A better understanding of online searches related to gardening could benefit retailers and others in horticultural product distribution channels. Researchers at Michigan State recently characterized online searches for gardening-related information and the purchase of gardening-related products online. In 2004, a survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks (California) in which they drew a sample representative of the U.S. population on average (± 1%), but over-sampled for three ethnic groups: African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. A total of 1588 responses were used in analyses. We asked respondents if they searched for 14 kinds of information online and how often they searched for that kind of information in the three months prior to the study (July to September). We also asked them about their general online purchases and online purchases related to gardening. Full Article