The Scoop Online - July 2015

Planting Trees Using the Box Cut

Also Inside

Pollinators Section

Out & About Trend Watch Pruning Clips

SUMMER FUN & LEARNING Events that grow successful businesses

Vol: 38 No: 7 July 2015 T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E M I N N E S O TA N U R S E R Y & L A N D S C A P E A S S O C I AT I O N

Volume 38 No. 7 July 2015

CONTENTS 17

50 26

IN THIS ISSUE 8

Events

10 From the Executive Director An Association is its Members: Make Your Voice Heard 14 Out & About Photos from visits with MNLA members.

39

17 Pruning Clips: Holes, Outliers, and Irregularities Dr. Robert Schutzki addresses three problems that require corrective pruning strategies.     

23 Planting Container Trees: The Box Cut Faith Appelquist demonstrates a method for combating the problem of stem girdling roots.     

26 Swimmable, Fishable, Fixable The MPCA shares what they’ve learned so far about Minnesota’s waters. 

32 Results of Minnesota’s 2015 Legislative Session (So Far) Tim Power reports on behalf of the Government Affairs Committee on the status of MNLA-related issues. 

30 Trend Watch: The New 4 Percent Dr. Charlie Hall explains how to compare the current economic climate to past decades.

50 MDA Compliance for “Insecticide Free” Advertising The MDA offers compliance agreements for nurseries interested in marketing insecticide-free plants.

53 5 Reasons to Enter the MNLA Landscape Awards Program 66 Garden Party Invitation Steve Kelley and Arla Carmichiel invite you to Bide-a-Wee for a party that benefits the MNLA Foundation.

68 Networking News 71 “Thank You” Socials Join in the free fun during Member Appreciation Month in August.

39 Pollinators Section New bee/neonic insecticide research, responses to the National Pollinator Strategy, and BMPs to protect pollinators.     

61 Underground Utilities Andrew Lindquist explains the color system and outlines your responsibilities as an underground excavator.     Landscape & Hardscape Install & Design  Garden Services & Landscape Management  Garden Centers  Growers: Nursery & Greenhouse  Irrigation & Water Management  Arborists & Tree Services  All

The Scoop, July 2015, Issue 7, is issued monthly, 12 times per year.

All original works, articles or formats published in The Scoop are © Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association, 2015, and may not be used without written permission of MNLA, 1813 Lexington Ave N., Roseville, MN 55113. Subscription price is $99 for one year, which is included with member dues. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Scoop, MNLA, 1813 Lexington Ave N., Roseville, MN 55113.

Editorial Contributions. You are invited to share your expertise and perspective. Article ideas and manuscripts should, whenever possible, reflect real and specific experiences. When submitting an article, please contact the publisher at jon@mnla.biz or 651-633-4987.

MNLA reserves the right to edit all Scoop content.

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MINNESOTA NURSERY & LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATION Successful Businesses Grow Here!

1813 Lexington Ave. N. Roseville, MN 55113 651-633-4987 • Fax: 651-633-4986 Outside the metro area, toll free: 888-886-MNLA, Fax: 888-266-4986 www.MNLA.biz • www.NorthernGreenExpo.org

A Top Notch Equipment ................................................................................... 51 Alliance Designer Products ................................................................................ 4 Arborjet ............................................................................................................ 38 Astleford Equipment Co. .................................................................................. 44 Bachman’s Wholesale Nursery & Hardscapes .................................................. 11

MNLA MISSION: The mission of the Minnesota Nursery &

BFG Supply ................................................................................................ 12–13

Landscape Association is to help members grow successful businesses.

Borgert Products, Inc. ....................................................................................... 52

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bullis Insurance Agency .................................................................................... 22

heidi heiland, mnla-cp, president Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens 612-366-7766 • heidi@BloomOnMN.com

herman roerick, vice-president

Central Landscape Supply 320-252-1601 • hermanr@centrallandscape.com

scott frampton, secretary-treasurer

Carlin Horticultural Supplies/ProGreen Plus ..................................................... 25 Central Landscape Supply ................................................................................ 49 Cushman Motor Co. Inc ................................................................................... 34 Edney Distributing Co., Inc. ............................................................................. 62

Landscape Renovations 651-769-0010 • sframpton@landscaperenovations.com

Everris ............................................................................................................... 60

debbie lonnee, mnla-cp, past president

Fury Motors ...................................................................................................... 58

Bailey Nurseries, Inc. 651-768-3375 • debbie.lonnee@baileynursery.com

Gardenworld Inc. .............................................................................................. 25

randy berg, mnla-cp

Gertens Wholesale / JRK Seed .......................................................................... 2

Berg’s Nursery, Landscape/Garden Center 507-433-2823 • randy@bergsnursery.com

tim malooly, cid, clia, cic

Water in Motion 763-559-7771 • timm@watermotion.com

mike mcnamara

Hoffman & McNamara Nursery & Landscaping 651-437-9463 • mike.mcnamara@hoffmanandmcnamara.com

jeff pilla, mnla-cp

Bachman’s Inc. 612-861-7600 • jpilla@bachmans.com

nick sargent

GM Fleet and Commercial ................................................................................. 3 Gopher State One-Call ..................................................................................... 34 Haag Companies, Inc. ...................................................................................... 35 Hiway Federal Credit Union ............................................................................. 31 Jeff Belzer Chevrolet .................................................................................. 36–37 Landscape Alternatives Inc. .............................................................................. 22 Lano Equipment, Inc. ....................................................................................... 49

Sargent’s Landscape Nursery, Inc. 507-289-0022 • njsargent@sargentsgardens.com

Maguire Agency ............................................................................................... 49

cassie larson, cae

Minnesota Propane Association ....................................................................... 60

MNLA Executive Director 651-633-4987 • cassie@mnla.biz

MTI Distributing, Inc. ........................................................................................ 22 Out Back Nursery ............................................................................................. 49

STAFF DIRECTORY

executive director:

Plaisted Companies ............................................................................................ 7

membership director & trade show manager:

RDO Equipment Co. ........................................................................................ 67

communications director: Jon Horsman • jon@mnla.biz education/cert manager: Susan Flynn • susan@mnla.biz government affairs director: Tim Power • tim@mnla.biz administrative asst: Gayle Anderson • gayle@mnla.biz accountant: Norman Liston • norman@mnla.biz foundation program coordinator:

Resultants for Business, Inc. (RFB) .................................................................... 67

Megan Buchanan • megan@mnla.biz

Truck Utilities & Mfg. Co. .................................................................................. 64

advertising sales: 952-934-2891 / 763-295-5420

Unilock .............................................................................................................. 47

Cassie Larson, CAE • cassie@mnla.biz Mary Dunn, CEM • mary@mnla.biz

Faith Jensen, Advertising Rep • faith@pierreproductions.com Betsy Pierre, Advertising Mgr • betsy@pierreproductions.com

legislative affairs consultant: Doug Carnival 6

AD LIST

Volume 38 No. 7 July 2015

➾ S E CT I O N TITLE

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Rock Hard Landscape Supply division of Brian’s Lawn & Landscaping, Inc. .... 22 The Tessman Company .................................................................................... 55 Tri-State Bobcat, Inc. ............................................................................ 16, 52, 65

Versa-Lok Midwest ........................................................................................... 69 Ziegler CAT ......................................................................................... Back Cover

➾ C ALE N DAR

MNLA Event MNLA Event

JUL21

JUL20 MNLA NIGHT AT THE SAINTS GAME CHS Field, St. Paul

➾

MNLA Event

25TH ANNUAL WIDMER GOLF TOURNAMENT

MNLA.biz 651-633-4987

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Take a break from your busy season and enjoy a game at the New Saints Ball Park: CHS Field in downtown St. Paul. Your ticket includes a buffet picnic prior to the game on The Lawn and a reserved outfield ticket.

JUL30 LANDSCAPE DESIGN TOUR

Oak Marsh Golf Course, Oakdale, MN

MNLA.biz 651-633-4987

MNLA.biz 651-633-4987 Join us as we celebrate the 25th Annual Widmer Golf Tournament and raise money for research!

An awards reception will immediately follow the tournament with a chance to win great prizes.

This year’s tour will include some recent MNLA award winning landscape designs and will focus on outdoor rooms and gathering spaces.

MNLA Event

AUG6

MNLA Event

GARDEN PARTY

MNLA.biz 651-633-4987 Visit the private gardens of Arla & Steve, owners of Kelley & Kelley Nursery and Landscaping, for an afternoon tour or join us for an evening reception.

KEY:

Event

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Arla Carmichiel & Steve Kelley residence

AUG7–8

AUG11

IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS

MEMBER APPRECIATION SOCIAL

info@najga.org (503) 222-1194 Sponsored by the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) it is a twoday hands-on learning experience and garden immersion in five of Minnesota’s Japanese gardens.

➾

Central Landscape Supply, St. Cloud MNLA.biz 651-633-4987 Celebrate our 90th year and your awesomeness.

Join in the fun during MNLA’s Member Appreciation month.

RSVP at MNLA.biz.

Education ➾ ➾ 8

All information on these and other industry events are online at MNLA.biz.

Did you miss a webinar? ALL of our webinars are recorded and available for viewing afterwards. Login to MNLA.biz to learn more!

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2015 MNLA seminars generously supported by John Deere Landscapes

JUL30

MNLA Event

HORTICULTURE NIGHT

JUL30

at the West Central Research and Outreach Center, Morris

BAILEY EXPO

wrcroc.cfans.umn.edu 320-589-1711

tinyurl.com/BaileyExpo15 651-768-3372

RIDE THE BUS WITH US and enjoy liquid refreshments provided

by Tangletown Gardens on the way. Register at MNLA.biz

CARLIN HORTICULTURAL SUPPLIES BUYER FEST 2015

Carlinsales.com/buyerfest 855-487-8108 Opportunity to visit with vendors, ask questions and learn about new product offerings.

Includes full day of show specials, education seminars, free labor dosmatic repair station, and complimentary lunch/dinner.

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GARDEN CENTER TOUR MNLA.biz 651-633-4987 We will tour several MNLA garden centers in the Twin Cities. Network with other professionals and take away great ideas to implement at your own garden center.

MNLA Event

MNLA Event

AUG13 Earle Brown Heritage Center, Brooklyn Center

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The Bailey Expo is a jampacked day showcasing the Bailey Nursery farm and plants. Expert staff will be on hand to show you the latest products.

This free event Includes displays, seminars, demonstrations, tours, and a delicious lunch!

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Located at the Horticulture Display Garden. Children’s activities will be available along with demonstrations, garden tours, ag tours, live music, food and vendor booths. Admission is free and open to the public.

AUG4

AUG13

AUG19

MEMBER APPRECIATION SOCIAL

MEMBER APPRECIATION SOCIAL

Waconia Tree Farm, Waconia MNLA.biz 651-633-4987 It’s time to celebrate our 90th year and your awesomeness. Join in the fun during MNLA’s Member Appreciation month.

All events will take place from 5–8pm. Food and adult beverages will be provided! RSVP at MNLA.biz.

➾

MNLA Office, Roseville MNLA.biz 651-633-4987 It’s time to celebrate our 90th year and your awesomeness. Join in the fun during MNLA’s Member Appreciation month.

All events will take place from 5–8pm. Food and adult beverages will be provided! RSVP at MNLA.biz.

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➾ F R OM THE EXECUTIVE DI R EC TO R

An Association is its Members: Make Your Voice Heard When I talk with members, one of the first questions I ask is what their current business successes and struggles include. Members continue to tell me that finding a qualified and quality workforce remains at the top of their list of concerns. so you belong to this organization called the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association. But, Cassie Larson have you ever stopped and wondered, “What is an MNLA Executive Director “association”, anyway? What does that even mean?”

Quite simply, associations are groups of people who find strength in numbers while sharing common interests in industries, professions, charities, hobbies, or philanthropic action. Associations are founded upon the principles of democracy, volunteerism, and common interest that are the heart of the American experience. In this month where we celebrate democracy and national pride, I’m reflecting on how great it is that we live in a country where we are free to gather together and speak openly about what we believe. One of the great tools available to us in this regard is the association model.

By definition, associations exist for the mutual enrichment and advancement of their members. This is WHY the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association was formed 90 years ago, and WHY it continues to exist — to help members operate their businesses more successfully (i.e. member enrichment and advancement).

But, in order for the association to effectively serve its members, members need to provide input. Without members and member input an association doesn’t exist.

So my question for this month is, “How have you provided input?” Just as in a democracy, your voice matters!

There are endless ways members can provide input: 1. Contact an MNLA Board member with your idea for a new program or member service.

2. Reach out to members of the MNLA Government Affairs Committee and let them know your stance on an upcoming legislative or regulatory issue.

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3. Send an e-mail to the MNLA staff with something you wish you could find on the association website.

4. Join a committee and participate in building new programs and services for members.

5. Saw a great speaker? We want to know! Contact the Education & Certification Committee chair with the name and quick recap so we can book them for our next event.

6. Send us a Scoop article with your viewpoint on a hot topic or even just a review of your favorite plant or tool you use in your work every day.

And, anything else that’s on your mind that we can help with, we’d love to know! We’re stronger together than we are individually and the association is here to serve you, its members. But, the association leadership can do a much better job if they hear from you.

To that end, the MNLA Membership Committee is hosting three Member Appreciation “Thank You” Socials in August 2015. We’ll be providing free food and beverages in Waconia, St. Paul, and St. Cloud.

Come on, who doesn’t like free food? Please plan to join us at one of these events and enjoy the company of your fellow MNLA members. And while you’re at it, why not take the opportunity to visit with MNLA Staff, Board Members or Committee members and make your voice heard to help make the association stronger. More information, including dates and location, for these socials can be found on pages 8, 9, and 71. We hope to see you there!

CASSIE LARSON can

be reached at: cassie@mnla.biz.

Take advantage of unbeatable deals, discounts, clearance items and educational seminars!

AUGUST 25 & 26

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM Early Bird Specials

Lunch Provided

Deeply discounted items offered from 7:30 - 8:00 am each morning!

Relax and enjoy a complementary catered lunch!

Special Pricing

Products available exclusively at BFG Supply Co.

Vendor programs offering great pricing.

New Products for 2016 Learn about up and coming new products!

BFG Plant Connection Plant broker service team.

Featuring Grower Select速, Friends of Flight, Michael Carr Designs速 and more!

Inventory Clearance

Bring your trailer, truck or van & load up on product at RoCk BottoM PRiCeS!

Garden Graphics Design

Affordable signs designed to meet your store signage, greenhouse & marketing needs.

DON’T MISS THE BFG BUYING SHOW OF THE YEAR!

SPeCiAL PRiCiNG • GReAt DeALS • CASH SPiFFS • SPeAkeRS • CAteReD LUNCH Earle Brown Heritage Center 6155 earle Brown Drive Brooklyn Center, MN 55430

JOIN US FOR SEvERAL

educational seminars ON INDUSTRY RELATED TOPICS TO KEEP YOU INFORMED AND EDUCATED FEATURING Top 5 Trends for Reaching Tomorrow’s Gardener MARShAll DiRkS / Proven Winners

Marshall Dirks will provide an energizing presentation on the future of today’s consumer and how that may impact the gardening community. Dirks will provide insights into the ever changing customer, and suggestions for attracting and meeting their ever growing needs.

Systemic insecticides and pollinators & Diagnostics: what is going on with my plants?

RAy CloyD / Kansas State University Department of Entomology

Pollinators are important to horticultural cropping systems; however, there has been a concern regarding the use of neonicotinoid systemic insecticides applied to horticultural crops and the potential impact on pollinators. Ray will attempt to clarify the issue regarding the direct and indirect effects of neonicotinoid systemic insecticides, and what you can do to avoid harming pollinators.

DRAMM

Watch for a complete schedule of speakers and times coming soon!

Contact your BFG Sales Representative to Register or Call (800) 883-0234 BFG SUPPLY CO. • 14500 KINSMAN RD., BURTON OH 44021 • 800.883.0234 • www.bfgsupply.com

... and more!

➾ OUT & ABOUT

&

AN INITIATIVE OF THE MNLA MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE IS TO STAY IN TOUCH AND THANK MEMBERS WITH OCCASIONAL VISITS.

Green Industry Careers Team Members Seth Midura, Dave Nordgaard, and Jay Siedschlaw spent some time at the Forest Lake High School FFA Career Fair promoting green industry careers to high school students.

Membership Committee Member Bert Swanson stopped at Flying W Garden Center in Park Rapids for a visit. Pictured here are Richard and Teresa Ohm and Cheryle Wilke.

Bert Swanson also stopped by for a visit with Kevin and Christine Jesson at Forest and Foloral Garden Center in Park Rapids.

Membership Director Mary Dunn visited with the crew at Rock Hard Landscape Supply in Burnsville.

Rob Kirk working the counter at Rock Hard Landscape Supply.

MNLA Administrative Assistant Gayle Anderson helping out Rock Hard Landscape Supply owner Andrea Feist on a busy spring day.

MNLA Communications Director Jon Horsman with owner David Kopfmann in the Yardscapes studio.

Tess and Glynn welcomed MNLA staff for a visit to the Haag Companies offices. L–R: Jon Horsman, Tess Silivan, MNLA Education & Certification Manager Sue Flynn, and Glynn Haag.

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Sue Flynn visited with Jeff Schmidt at Ziegler CAT headquarters.

Shay Lunseth of LUNSETH Lawn Care Professionals and Organic Lawns

by LUNSETH welcomed Sue Flynn to the company offices.

Jordan Luppen, Mark Kenzler and Elliot Barim at John Deere Landscapes.

Elliot Barim points out the answer for MNLA’s Gayle Anderson.

Mary Dunn with Andy Breeggemann at UFC Farm Supply.

MNLA Executive Director Cassie Larson with Laura Barrett of Barrett Lawn Care.

Cassie Larson gives Brad Pederson of Bloomington Garden Center & Landscape Co. an MNLA mug filled with candy and coupons.

MNLA Foundation Program Coordinator Megan Buchanan with Eric Pederson of Bloomington Garden Center & Landscape Co.

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PRUNING CLIPS: HOLES, OUTLIERS AND IRREGULARITIES Mention a plant, and distinct images of shape, branch patterns, and/or other ornamental characteristics come to mind.

Robert E. Schutzki, Department of Horticulture | Michigan State University Originally published in the Michigan Nursery & Landscape Association’s bimonthly magazine The Michigan Landscape. www.mnla.org.

Pruning Clips is a series focused on mastering the art, science and practice of pruning.

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➾ P RU NIN G CLIPS

Figure 1: Natural form.

F

Figure 2: Natural form.

Figure 3: Natural form.

or some, it may be natural form with stately outlines, feathery edges and soft textured foliage (Fig. 1, 2, 3). Others may visualize landscape form with manicured or managed canopies guided by design intent and the function that each plant serves in contributing to the landscape’s curb appeal (Fig. 4, 5). Regardless whether the image is natural or landscape oriented, these images are borne from contrasting foliage and shaded areas in canopies (Fig. 6) and seasonal highlights such as flowers, fruit, fall foliage and stem colors (Fig. 7).

There is no doubt that we can visualize images of the plants in our plant palette. However, what comes to mind and what we actually see in the landscape can be two different things. Let’s take a look at some appearances that may be contrary to our image of the perfect

plant; appearances that may detract from curb appeal and require corrective pruning strategies. Let’s take a look at holes, outliers and irregularities.

Figure 4: Landscape form.

Figure 5: Landscape form.

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Holes

Holes are noticeable gaps in the outer edge of the canopy (Fig. 8).

They result from dieback and the loss of a stem’s ability to regenerate buds and stimulate new growth. Holes can be caused by insects, diseases or abiotic problems such as cold injury, soil related issues, or mechanical damage. They are common on both deciduous and evergreen plants (Fig. 9, 10). Fixing or filling in the gaps depends on the size of the hole, the type of plant, and the capability of stimulating and directing growth from the surrounding edges. Heading

Figure 6: Contrasting foliage and shaded areas.

Figure 7: Weeping Higan Cherry.

cuts are used to stimulate bud break and shoot development from surrounding current season’s growth (Fig. 11). Cutting second year wood may also be useful in stimulating dormant or latent buds; however, the older the wood the longer it may take to regenerate new growth. More extensive holes (Fig. 12) may require deeper surgery. In extreme cases, renovation pruning or removal may be the only options.

Outliers

Outliers are vigorous shoots that emerge from within the canopy (Fig. 13, 14). They may be stimulated by severe pruning or caused by abiotic stresses. Newly planted container grown shrubs have also been known to send up outliers as they establish (Fig. 15). Outliers can be easily removed with a single thinning cut. Cutting the stem back to its point of origin will prevent its return. Heading cuts on outliers may be useful when the objective is to increase the overall height or density of the outer canopy.

Figure 8: Holes in the canopy.

Irregularities

Irregularities are deviations from “perfect form”. In most cases, human intervention has had a hand in contributing to these irregularities based on how the plants were handled, where the plants were located and if the plants were managed. Let’s start with evergreen trees and their transition from production to the landscape (this will be discussed in more detail in a future Pruning Clips).

Production pruning often controls growth at a level below the natural growth rate of the plant to produce a saleable plant with good conformation. The white pine in Fig. 16 is an example of the crown distortion that can result during the transition from production to the landscape. The lower half of the tree shows the shape that was

Figure 9: Lilac with holes.

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âžž P RU NIN G CLIPS

Figure 10: Colorado Blue Spruce with holes.

Figure 11: Stimulating growth from surrounding edges.

Figure 12: Extensive hole.

Figure 13: Outliers.

Figure 14: Outliers.

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Figure 15: Container shrub.

Figure 16: White pine.

Figure 17: Abruptly pruned edge at the base of the plant.

Figure 18: Mismanaged shrubs.

maintained during production. Once established, it returned to its natural growth rate and resulted in a wide spread upper crown.

Transitioning the return of evergreen trees to natural growth may be a consideration during the first few years after planting.

Another common irregularity occurs with evergreen shrubs and edges. Edges can be sidewalks, roadways or planting beds. In Fig. 17, the juniper has a picturesque upper canopy with an abruptly pruned edge at the sidewalk line. To some, this is entirely acceptable; to others, it implies that the plant or cultivar was not appropriately selected for the location. Years of management or mismanagement can also contribute to irregularities (Fig. 18). Successive years of shearing has diminished foliage density and led to a misshapen crown on these shrubs. Renovation may be the desired corrective measure for these shrubs. Mother Nature also contributes to irregularities (Fig. 19). Unsolicited pruning by deer has led to the demise of many landscape plants. Barriers and/or repellents may be the only viable options.

As you travel around to your sites this fall, what do you see? Do you notice any holes, outliers or irregularities? Do they need to be addressed? If so, fall and early winter may be a great time to plan and execute corrective measures.

DR. ROBERT SCHUTZKI is an Associate Professor in the Department of Horticulture at MSU. His research interests include plant exploration, plant evaluation, and landscape development. All photos used in this article are used by permission of Robert Schutzki and may not be reused in any way without express written permission.

Figure 19: Mother Nature’s pruners.

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d v c w y c i o h y t

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www.MNLA.biz | ocTober 2012

PLANTING CONTAINER TREES THE BOX CUT

I cringe every time I see another ‘dead tree’ being planted.

Faith Appelquist | Tree Quality, LLC

➾ C ONTAIN ER TREES

What is the proper way to plant?

1. Remove excess soil to expose the first woody root. Don’t assume that the root system is at the top of the soil ball.

After removing the container, what do we see? Jeepers’ creepers, a mess of circling roots on the outer periphery of the root ball!

M

ost people planting container trees dump them right into the planting hole, thinking they will do just fine. Container trees are best sellers because they are lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to plant.

Fast forward about eight years. The tree is starting to look sick.

The trunk is small for its age, the canopy is dying, and the leaves are small and scorched. You watered it and you planted it in good soil, so what could possibly go wrong? Sometimes homeowners and inexperienced landscapers will make the mistake of planting too deeply and/or not correcting for root defects — and end up with roots surrounding the stem, creating a very short lived tree in the landscape.

I rarely find a good root system in a container tree. Container trees are notorious for creating stem girdling roots. Roots that grow in plastic pots will hit the sides and start circling within it. Once these roots circle, they never leave that pattern. Once in the ground the stem and roots increase in size where they eventually come in contact with each other, which is bad. This can severely affect the tree’s health. In fact, there’s a thought that many tree failures are now a result of stem girdling roots, which act like a python on the trunk, cutting off the flow of water and nutrients.

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2. Look closely. The first main order root is revealed. About 5 inches of soil was removed from top of the root ball.

This top root is the desired planting depth.

3. Remove encircling roots by sawing off sides of root ball.

This is referred to as a “Box Cut.” I know, it seems…wrong.

But truly, in the long run, it’s going to be better for the tree. Be ruthless. The thing with circling roots is that those little roots will get bigger. You’re not killing the tree, you’re saving it.

4. Dig a hole as deep as the distance from bottom of root ball to top of first main order root. Remember you want to plant a tree, not bury it.

5. Carefully place tree in hole making sure it stands straight and top root is at ground level.

GERANIUM JOLLY JEWELS VIOLET

6. Backfill hole to top of first woody root. Layer 2˝–4˝ of hardwood mulch over backfilled area, keeping mulch away from the trunk.

Voilà, a properly planted tree off to a good start in the landscape.

When container grown trees are planted at the right depth, with the uppermost roots level with or even a little bit above the level of the soil, and roots are box cut, there is no chance for roots to circle the stem. This way our trees have a chance at life instead of a slow, strangling death. is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, an ISA Municipal Specialist MN, and an ASCA Registered Consulting Arborist®. Faith can be reached at faith@treequality.com.

FAITH APPELQUIST

GERANIUM JOLLY JEWELS NIGHT

GERANIUM JOLLY JEWELS SALMON

NOW AVAILABLE 2016 SPRING CATALOG www.growingcolors.com 788 Hampden Ave. | St. Paul, MN 55114 800.839.2851 | info@gardenworldinc.com

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➾ MI NNESOTA WATERS

SWIMMABLE, FISH

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Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) All photos courtesy of MPCA except where noted.

ABLE, FIXABLE? WHAT WE’VE LEARNED SO FAR ABOUT MINNESOTA WATERS Executive summary The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has reached the midpoint of its first comprehensive look at water quality — and what is needed to protect and restore it — throughout the state. The agency and its partners have used a watershed approach to take an in-depth look at the lakes and streams in half of the state’s 81 major watersheds.

Thompson Lake, West St. Paul.

(Credit: Photo courtesy of Dan Nowicki, City of West St. Paul)

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➾ MI NNESOTA WATERS

What is a watershed? A watershed is an area of land that drains to the same body of water, usually a river.

Why is sediment a pollutant? Sediment — particles of soil and other matter — clouds the water, making it hard for fish and other aquatic life to find food, breathe, and reproduce.

Why are bacteria a pollutant? Bacteria may make a lake or stream unsafe for swimming and other recreation.

Why are nutrients a pollutant? Excess nutrients cause blooms of algae that hurt aquatic life and recreation.

Swimmable?

Fishable?

How are our watersheds? Water quality is a reflection of what happens on the surrounding land. So far, MPCA’s monitoring and assessment work highlights the following themes:

Once we’ve monitored and assessed a watershed, our next step is to identify conditions stressing water quality, fish, and aquatic life. The MPCA and its partners have identified stressors in about one-third of Minnesota’s watersheds so far. These interrelated stressors include: • Stream connections, such as culverts and dams

• In watersheds dominated by agricultural and urban land, half or fewer of the lakes fully support the standard for swimming because of phosphorus. Excess phosphorus is the main driver of harmful algae in lakes.

• Watersheds that are heavily farmed tend to have high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended solids in their waters. These pollutants hurt aquatic life and recreational opportunities.

• Bacteria levels in streams are also a problem. Watersheds where fewer than half the streams fully support swimming because of bacteria levels are generally in areas with a higher density of people and livestock — the developed and agricultural portions of the state.

• More lakes fully support the swimming standard in the more forested and wetland-rich areas of north-central and northern Minnesota. The same goes for streams in areas with lower populations and little animal agriculture.

• The general pattern is that water quality is exceptionally good in the northeast part of the state and declines moving toward the southwest.

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• Hydrology, including stream flow and runoff • Stream biology, such as fish and bugs • Water chemistry, including oxygen levels, nutrient levels, and temperature • Eroding stream channels Themes by region include: • The southern region of Minnesota has the highest numbers of stressors related to excess nutrients, excess sediment, lack of habitat, lack of connectivity, altered hydrology, and impaired biological communities.

• In the northern-central and northwest regions, low dissolved oxygen was the most common stressor found.

• In the Twin Cities, excess sediment and altered hydrology were common stressors.

• Throughout the state, the vast majority of streams and lakes examined — 97% of 490 stream sections and 95% of 1,214 lakes studied — contain fish tainted by mercury.

The confluence of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers south of the Twin Cities — after the Minnesota River flows into the Mississippi — shows the contrast between Minnesota’s river systems in urban and ag-dominated areas and more natural areas. Water quality is exceptionally good in northeast Minnesota — as shown by the blue St. Croix — and worsens as you go to the southwest — as shown by the brown Mississippi.

Fixable? Strategies to help our water

The third step in our watershed approach is to develop Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies that the state, local partners, landowners, and citizens will implement. While each watershed is different, some general themes have emerged for the 11 watersheds that have completed this step:

to 30 years — or more — with interim milestones to measure and motivate progress.

It took decades to pollute lakes and streams, and it will take many years to restore impaired waters while working to protect healthy waters as new threats emerge.

• In watersheds where agriculture dominates the landscape, prominent strategies include stream buffers, nutrient and manure management, wetland restorations and other forms of water storage, and stream channel stabilization.

• For more urbanized areas, strategies focus on stormwater runoff controls ranging from site planning and rain gardens, to the construction of stormwater ponds and wetlands.

• Not all strategies relate to traditional water pollutants.

Throughout Minnesota, common strategies include improving habitat and reducing barriers (connectivity) for fish and other aquatic life.

• Some strategies call for stronger and more targeted application of state and local laws on feedlots, shoreland, and septic systems. The MPCA leads the permitting of stormwater controls and wastewater discharges.

Bottom line — we’re in it for the long haul

A long-term commitment is needed to restore and protect Minnesota’s waters. Implementing the strategies identified so far will take 20

Minnesota’s Watersheds

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➾ T R E ND WATCH

TREND WATCH: TH E N EW 4 PER C E N T Charlie Hall Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University

Used with permission from AmericanHort, www.AmericanHort.org

Currently, two colleagues (Bridget Behe at Michigan State and Marco Palma at Texas A&M) and I are in the midst of wrapping up the final stages of a Horticultural Research Institute grant we received to conduct a study regarding the effects of demographics on the green industry. We envision the results of this project being synergistic with AmericanHort’s latest retail endeavor: a year-long study of the future of the lawn and garden retail sector being conducted by a team of Millennials working with the Mindmarket program of the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD).

But the purpose of this column is to illustrate the fact that demographics play a very important role in the overall economic performance of our nation. It’s no secret that the economy has lagged ever since the great recession and has experienced less-than-stellar growth over the last nine years. Political pundits are quick to assess blame on one side of the fence or the other, but the truth of the matter is that mathematics is to blame — not that “new” math kind of stuff, but the sheer number of people in the workforce.

For example, analyzing and forecasting the labor force participation requires looking at a number of factors.

Everyone is aware that there is a large cohort of people that has moved into the 50- to 70-year-old age bracket (aging Boomers) and that that trend has been pushing down the overall participation rate. Another large cohort has been moving into the 16- to 24 year-old age group (Millennials), but many in this cohort are staying in school (a long-term trend that has accelerated recently) and that is another key factor in the decline in the overall participation rate.

Now, I will freely admit that there is an ongoing debate about how much of this is due to demographics and how much is due to cyclical forces. But the fact still remains that too many people compare our current situation to

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the 1980s and 1990s, without thinking about changing demographics. The prime working age population (25 to 54 years old) was growing 2.2 percent per year in the 1980s, and only 1.3 percent per year in the 1990s and, as stated above, the prime working age population has actually declined slightly this decade.

As you have heard me say before, gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the most frequently cited indicators of our economy’s performance. Today, the magnitude of GDP is higher than it was before the great recession, in spite of fewer total people being employed. But it’s the rate of GDP growth that most folks have been concerned about. So even though productivity per working person has increased slightly, we know that those increases are subject to diminishing returns, meaning that they won’t go up indefinitely without significant investments in innovations and technologies.

One simple way to look at the change in GDP is to break it down into its parts — the change in the labor force, times the change in productivity. If the labor force is growing quickly, then GDP will be higher with the same gains in productivity — and the opposite is true. If we graphically examine historical data of year-over-year (YoY) GDP and labor force growth, we see that, since the 1960s, labor force and GDP track very closely together, meaning they are strongly correlated.

So what can we conclude from this? While most have been surprised at the recent almost-decade-long decline in the YoY increase in GDP, we should have expected that the rate of GDP growth would be slower than we’ve previously experienced simply because of the demographic influence on the labor force participation rate. So, as my economist colleague, Bill McBride, likes to put it — the current two percent rate of growth is the same as the old four percent a decade ago.

However, want to know some really good news? The labor force participation rate is expected to grow faster in the coming decade. So, holding all other things constant, we can expect the rate of growth of GDP to increase as well. We should also see faster rates of growth in single- and multi-family housing, again attributable to positive demographic trends we will be experiencing.

Green industry leaders are expected to envision a better future for their respective businesses, and to build effective strategic plans to bring that vision to fruition. As we have just examined, many of the most important decisions that these leaders must make are shaped by the demographic realities of their particular markets.

Having a firm grip on the trends relating to population, the economy, changes in family structures, and changes in consumer behavior are essential for effective strategic planning.

Reviewing the current demographic, psychographic, economic, and sociological trends does not allow us to predict the future, but it does allow us to predict a variety of potential futures. Knowing what can be possible in the future allows us to make decisions in the present that guide us to one of the “best” possible futures. To build effective strategic plans, business leaders have to become adept at both local and national demographic trend analysis. On that note, I will leave you to ponder these musings and stay tuned as the results of the aforementioned studies hit the street later in the year!

CHARLIE HALL is in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University and holds the prestigious Ellison Chair in International Floriculture. Contact him at charliehall@tamu.edu, or http://ellisonchair.tamu.edu.

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➾ GOV E RN MEN T AFFA I R S

Results of Minnesota’s 2015 Legislative Session (So Far) NOTE: As of press time, there is a special legislature session being planned to occur before July 1. The special session could affect the pollinator policy language and MDA’s policy changes involving nursery certificates.

Tim Power

Government Affairs Director, reporting on behalf of the Government Affairs Committee

mnla members lobbied for several issues at our Green Industry Day on the Hill on March 4th. Here is a report of how those issues and others affecting our industry turned out as the Minnesota Legislature adjourned on May 18th, to reconvene on March 8, 2016.

First, the successful bills: • Responsible Contractor Law Updates (House File 1257) — This bill, authored by Representative Zerwas (R) and co-authored by last year’s law author Rep. Sundin (D), passed with MNLA support. From the House ‘Session Daily’: “Among the changes in HF1257 is a measure to allow contractors to submit documentation proving they are in compliance with the law after their bid is accepted, rather than during the bidding process.

Other technical changes would: • remove a requirement that a submitted statement verifying compliance with responsible contractor requirements be sworn; • apply the consequences of failing to verify compliance apply to prime contractors, subcontractors and motor carriers; • clarify that a failure to pay statutorily required wages or penalties under specified circumstances is only considered “repeated” if it involves two or more separate and distinct instances of underpayment in a three-year period; and • provide that, when determining the value of a publicly owned or financed project and

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whether the responsible contractor provisions should apply, the value of tax-increment financing must be excluded.”

• Nursery Labeling Law Updates (HF1906) The policy provisions of Rep. McNamara’s HF1906, which we lobbied for at our Day on the Hill, were adopted into the House Ag Policy Bill and were eventually accepted by the Senate. The Governor signed this bill, but indicated in his wish list for the Special Session that this new pollinator labeling language be repealed. As of June 5, it appears that this is not on the Governor’s must-have list, leaving these provisions to take effect August 1. The changes affect the hardiness labeling provision and the pollinator labeling provision in the law: • In the non-controversial hardiness labeling change, six words were added to the existing statute so that plants that are non-hardy at a sales site, but that are correctly labeled for hardiness zone according to MDA will be considered to be properly labeled.

• In the highly-controversial pollinator labeling provisions, four changes were made to the existing statute passed last year: 1. The law will only affect labeling and advertising of plants “sold at retail or provided to an end user.”

2. The previous limit of a “detectable level” of an affected systemic insecticide will be changed to the “no observed adverse effect

level,” as determined by US EPA for acute oral toxicity for adult honeybees.

3. Any needed pesticide residue testing of plants will be limited to flowers, rather than whole plants.

4. The term “systemic insecticide” will refer to an insecticide that is not only absorbed by the plant but also translocated through the plant’s vascular system.

• These changes do not suggest that nurseries should merely add back in pollinator information to their plant labeling and advertising, but rather that they will have the option to have their own plants tested at their own expense for pesticide residues and could then re-label them as beneficial to pollinators if those tested levels are below the EPA threshold. MDA will also be doing some plant testing as a part of regular nursery inspections this year, whether the legal limit remains at “detectable level” or changes to “no observed adverse effect level.”

• Internet Sales of Restricted Use Pesticides (RUPs) Also included in the House Ag Policy Bill and supported

by MNLA, Rep. Hansen’s bill will prohibit internet sales of RUPs to unlicensed persons and required that internet sales to licensed applicators must include verification of pesticide applicator licensing.

• The Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Appropriations Bill (HF846) contained items that will affect our industry. This bill was vetoed by the Governor, but the expectation is that the non-controversial sections of the bill will be moved forward and passed in the Special Session.

• Several MDA policy provisions changing the Nursery Law were included here: 1. Sod was defined and then excluded from the definition of nursery stock 2. Added a definition for “tropical plant” as USDA Hardiness Zone 6 and higher 3. Nursery grower and dealer certificate fees will remain the same, but penalties for operating as either without a license will increase.

4. Nursery re-inspection fees change from a flat hourly fee to a rate to cover MDA’s expenses.

• MDA’s expenses for the initial setup of plant testing protocols for systemic insecticide residues will be split between the Pesticide Regulatory Account and the Nursery Dedicated Account, and will not exceed $20,000 per account per year.

There were a number of other bills that MNLA followed that were not successful: • Indemnification Reform — Senate File 924/HF1099. These bills aimed to include the “duty to defend” within the definition of an indemnification agreement, making such a clause in a construction contract illegal. The bills started

with good bipartisan support in both bodies. After SF924 was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and appeared ready to move forward, there was no further progress in either the House or Senate.

• Daily Hours of Work (SF938/HF932) — These bills would have increased the allowable daily hours of work on public projects from eight to ten, though they would have kept the allowable work week at forty hours, before overtime pay.

When no hearing was scheduled in either body, MNLA also followed Rep. McNamara’s HF1424, which would have provided for the same increased daily hours of work on “highway and heavy” public construction projects outside of the seven county metro area. Again, the bill was never scheduled for a hearing, so the bill died.

• Working Parent Act — Bills in both House and Senate would have required employers to provide “safe and sick leave”, paid family leave and other mandated benefits to employees, with thresholds low enough that many seasonal workers in our industry might have qualified. These bills died for lack of a hearing in either body.

• Community Forestry Bills — Tim Power participated in a MnSTAC-led group that developed the Minnesota Community Forestry Partnership Act (MCFPA), a potential bill that would have empowered Minnesota’s Environmental Quality Board to coordinate matching grant funding for cities, counties or other entities faced with Emerald Ash Borer or other forest pests, with an emphasis on EAB insecticide injection treatments as an integral part of an orderly, long-term ash replacement strategy. The partnership never found a legislative author, though we talked with many legislators about the need for a comprehensive community forestry (CF) bill.

Late in the session, Senator Hawj introduced SF1987, which would have allocated $5M/year for CF matching grants to cities, counties or other entities for ash removal and replacement. The MCFPA group was successful in getting Sen. Hawj to amend his bill to include treatment as an option, and the bill passed the Senate Jobs, Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. A companion bill was introduced in the House, with bipartisan support. However, the bills never received funding or mention in either the House or Senate Omnibus Bills.

• Noxious Weed Grant Program Appropriation (SF1389/ HF1613) — Non-agency members of the Noxious Weed Advisory Committee, including MNLA, supported funding for this grant program, which was set up but not funded in a major update to Minnesota’s Noxious Weed Law in 2009. In an outstanding campaign led by The Nature Conservancy’s Steve Chaplin, our group lobbied hard in both bodies and were successful in getting an appropriation request for $225K/year into the Senate’s Omnibus Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Finance Bill. Unfortunately, this appropriation was removed in the conference committee between the House and Senate. july 15

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➾ G O V E RN M E N T A F FA I RS

• Other Pesticide Bills — Several other pesticide-related bills were introduced but did not receive committee hearings, involving pollinatorfriendly neighborhood programs, pesticide control ordinance preemption, and one bill providing for a moratorium on the sale and use of neonicotinoid insecticides.

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Finally, the MNLA Government Affairs team, through its “Grassroots Grows Results” alert system, took the opportunity in March to comment in significant numbers on a Minnesota State Plumbing Board (MSPB) proposal to replace the current home-grown Minnesota Plumbing Code with a one based on a national code.

The MSPB chose the plumbing industrybacked Universal Plumbing Code (UPC) at the beginning of their process and added proposed Minnesota amendments. After an alert was issued to membership, MNLA members’ letters requested a hearing on this rulemaking process, and enough letters were received that a hearing was scheduled, wherein a state-appointed Administrative Law Judge would hear testimony from all sides on whether the process and the content of this rulemaking was proper.

MNLA staffer Tim Power and Government Affairs Committee Chair Tim Malooly both testified at the ALJ hearing on April 30th, along with representatives of the competing national plumbing code’s parent organization and others including municipalities, building officials and engineers in Minnesota. Our basic argument was that the second national code was not given a complete review for its suitability as a base code on which to build a new Minnesota plumbing code. We argued for the judge to declare the rulemaking invalid and to require the MSPB to review the two national codes side by side in a fair and open process. The administrative law judge who heard testimony will issue his decision this summer.

IF YOU HAVE GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS ISSUES

like to discuss, contact Tim Power at tim@mnla.biz or 651-633-4987 34

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âžž P OLLI NATORS SECTI O N

NEW BEE/NEONICOTINOID

INSECTICIDE RESEARCH New research findings on the relationships between neonicotinoid insecticides and pollinators published; results mixed.

Dr. James Calkins | Research Information Director

MNLA Foundation

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➾ P OLLI NATORS SECTI O N

Figure 1. A bumblebee foraging for pollen and nectar from the flowers of yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon) a herbaceous ground cover native to Europe and western Asia that blooms in mid-May in central Minnesota. Although research findings are mixed, neonicotinoid insecticides, the most widely used insecticides in the world, have been suggested as a potential threat to bees and other pollinators including bumblebees. (Photo Credit: Jim Calkins)

A

s most green industry professionals are well aware, the idea that neonicotinoid insecticides may have detrimental effects on non-target insects, including European honey bees and other pollinators, has received considerable media attention and has gotten the attention of the general public. Unfortunately the research findings related to the effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on pollinators, like the research findings related to a variety of important subjects, are mixed and bias is often evident on both sides of the neonicotinoid debate. The reality is that the current status of pollinator populations and the causes of reported declines in pollinator numbers isn’t completely understood and research suggests a variety of biotic and abiotic factors may be responsible for killing bees and other pollinators that benefit agriculture and native ecosystems. Still, regardless of the science and an apparent lack of scientific consensus about the environmental effects of neonics, accurate or not, the idea that honeybees and other pollinators are being killed by these insecticides has become highly emotional from a public perspective and a growing number of landscape and garden consumers are making purchasing decisions based on whether neonicotinoid insecticides have been used in the production of horticultural commodities including landscape plants. As a result, this important class of insecticides, including imidacloprid, the most widely used insecticide in the world today, have become the topic of significant, and often impassioned, debate in scientific, green industry, and public circles.

Although the neonicotinoid debate is complicated and controversial, there is one viewpoint where it seems almost everyone with an opinion on the subject agrees, even the most ardent supporters and detractors of neonicotinoid insecticides — the need for more research related to the effects of systemic insecticides, including neonicotinoid insecticides, on pollinators. Based on the important role they play in agriculture and native ecosystems, everyone cares about pollinators and especially honey bees given their importance 40

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in modern agricultural systems worldwide. At the same time, however, even though most people agree more research is needed, not everyone is willing to wait for the science to be settled before taking or recommending action related to the use of neonicotinoid insecticides. And while this perspective may be understandable based on the desire to please customers and avoid the possibility of negative consequences in the interim as research continues and our knowledge base expands, it also creates tension and controversy as interested groups attempt to balance the need to protect plants from serious pests and, at the same time, promote pollinator health.

Research does indeed continue to provide additional information and insights about the benefits and drawbacks of neonicotinoid insecticides, including their prospective effects on bees and other non-target organisms, as new reports seem to be published on an almost weekly basis. And, as is often the case for research in general, ongoing research in this area continues to produce conflicting findings at both ends of the spectrum relative to this complicated issue and these findings are quickly reported by an ever-watchful media. In just the past few months and even weeks, multiple studies have added to the rapidly increasing body of research related to neonicotinoid insecticides and their potential effects on bees and other pollinators.

A brief summary of a few of these recently-published studies follows: • Bees Prefer Foods Containing Neonicotinoid Pesticides.

Nature; May 7, 2015; published online April 22, 2015.

The primary finding of this study was that European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) did not avoid feeding on sucrose solutions containing nectar-relevant concentrations of three of the most commonly used neonicotinoid insecticides (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin). This finding, as noted by the authors, is at odds with other research that has suggested pollinators

may avoid collecting nectar and pollen from plants treated with neonicotinoid insecticides. The findings also suggest honey bees and bumblebees may actually prefer sucrose solutions that contain imidacloprid and thiamethoxam compared to sucrose alone. In addition to these important findings, the research also investigated the neural responses of bees to neonicotinoid insecticides and determined that bees cannot taste these insecticides and are not repelled by their presence. Instead, it was found that the bees actually preferred solutions containing imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, even though consuming these compounds caused them to eat less food overall. Based on these findings, the authors suggest bees cannot detect neonicotinoid insecticides in their food and, thus, cannot control their exposure to neonicotinoids in nectar and pollen from neonicotinoidtreated plants. They also concluded that treating flowering crops with imidacloprid and thiamethoxam could be hazardous to foraging bees.

Based on the theory that neonicotinoid insecticides trigger the same mechanisms in the brains of bees as those that are affected by nicotine in human brains, combined with the finding that bees prefer food containing neonicotinoids, the authors are concerned that neonicotinoids may have the same drug-like effect as nicotine making the consumption of foods containing neonicotinoid compounds more rewarding to bees such that they would preferentially choose plants treated with neonicotinoid insecticides. In theory, bees might become addicted to neonicotinoid compounds and seek them out. Although there is no evidence that neonicotinoid compounds are addictive to bees, this is an interesting concept that might be investigated further.

Whether bees might actually become addicted to neonicotinoid insecticides is, of course, a complicated question.

For example, given that bees forage far and wide and collect nectar and pollen from a wide variety of plant species, if bees cannot detect the presence of neonicotinoid compounds by taste how would they preferentially select between plants treated and not treated with neonicotinoid insecticides in an uncontrolled environment based on a preference for foods containing such compounds? This is an interesting question that would require additional study to answer. And if bees do indeed prefer to collect nectar that contains neonicotinoids, and this preference holds up in uncontrolled field settings, it is possible this preference could increase their exposure to these compounds and increase the potential for negative effects on bee populations regardless if alternative food sources are available.

• Colony Loss 2014–2015: Preliminary Results. Bee Informed Partnership Blog; May 13, 2015.

In this preliminary report, the Bee Informed Partnership, together with the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), reports 23.1% of the managed honey bee colonies in the United States were lost during the past winter (2014/2015). The estimate was based on a survey of beekeepers representing about 14.5% of the honey bee colonies in the United States.

The reported loss was slightly less than the losses reported for the previous winter (2012/2013). Colony losses varied by state and were not uniform across the country which is typical.

The report also highlights the fact that significant numbers of colonies can also be lost during the summer. At 27.4%, losses during the summer of 2014 (April–October) were actually higher than winter losses (November–March) and were higher than the losses reported for the previous summer (2013; 19.8%). On an annual basis beekeepers reported losing 42.1% of their colonies between April 2014 and April of this year (2015). Interestingly, the data indicates that commercial beekeepers tend to lose greater numbers of colonies during the summer than during the winter while smallerscale beekeepers tend to lose more colonies during the winter.

Again, caution is advised when drawing conclusions from data from a single year as significant losses of honey bee colonies during the winter and on an annual basis are not unusual. Losses can vary considerably from year to year as does the number of colonies and long-term trends tend to be more meaningful. For example, the United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported that there were 2.74 million honey bee colonies in the United States in 2014 which represented a 4% increase compared to the previous year (2013) and was the highest number of colonies reported for the period 1995–2014. Except for a relatively small and short-lived decline in colony numbers from 2005 until 2008 when 2,342,000 colonies were reported, the number of honey bee colonies in the United States has been relatively steady since 1995 and has since recovered to reach the current record high. Similar trends have been reported for Canada for the same period (1995–2014) with a low of 509,648 colonies in 1996 and a high of 694,219 colonies in 2014, the European Union from 1995–2013 with a low of 10,954,832 colonies in 1997 and a high of 12,110,104 colonies in 2007 (following a decline in 2008 and 2009, colony numbers have again been increasing since 2009 and had nearly recovered at 11,930,083 colonies in 2013), and worldwide from 19612013 with a low of 49,173,473 colonies in 1961 and a high of 80,986,086 colonies in 2013.

• Seed Coating With a Neonicotinoid Insecticide Negatively Affects Wild Bees. Nature; May 7, 2015; published online April 22, 2015.

Based on concerns that the effects of neonicotinoid insecticides have typically been measured on bees that have been artificially fed neonicotinoids under controlled laboratory july 15

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Figure 2. A recent study suggesting bees may prefer nectar that contains neonicotinoid insecticide residues over nectar from untreated plants has raised concerns that a drug-like effect, similar to the effect of nicotine in humans, might make these insecticides addictive for bees; additional research is needed to determine if bees can actually become addicted to neonicotinoid insecticides and whether an addictive preference for nectar and pollen containing neonicotinoid residues might increase the exposure and risk of neonicotinoid insecticides to bees.

(Photo Credit: Jim Calkins)

conditions rather than on neonicotinoid-treated plants under field conditions, this research was designed to help document how neonicotinoid insecticides might influence bees, and wild bees in particular, in a more real-world agricultural setting. The research investigated the effects of the insecticide Elado (Bayer CropScience) — a combination of clothianidin (a systemic neonicotinoid insecticide) and a non-systemic pyrethroid insecticide (β-cyfluthrin) — applied as a seed coating on oilseed rape (canola) seeds on European honey bees and wild bees (solitary bees and bumblebees).

The findings indicated that this insecticide combination applied as a seed coating on a flowering crop can have serious consequences for wild bees, but had no effect on European honey bees. Bee foraging on insecticide-treated plants exhibited reduced wild bee density, reduced solitary bee nesting, and reduced bumblebee colony growth and reproduction under field conditions. Based on their findings the authors suggest exposure to clothianidin can pose a risk to wild bees in agricultural settings and clothianidin should not be used on rapeseed. They also suggest the effects of pesticide use, including neonicotinoid insecticides, may contribute to the reported global decline of wild bees and the potential negative effects of these pesticides may have been historically underestimated. Although other research findings have indicated neonicotinoid insecticides can be safely used on canola, the lack of a significant response in honeybee colonies in this study contradicts research findings that have shown negative effects on honey bees and suggests that pesticide effects documented for one species cannot necessarily be extrapolated to other species; in this case wild bees. Again it is important to note the research is mixed, conclusions based on the available research vary, and the results of individual studies must be considered based on the body of research related to 42

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a particular topic. And, although additional field research on neonics is needed, it is more difficult to control for a variety of complicating factors under field conditions compared to laboratory experiments which can complicate the ability to make solid conclusions. Once again, these results, including the finding that the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin had no effect on honey bees, are at odds with other published research; this doesn’t invalidate the results, it simply puts them in context relative to other research.

• A Large-Scale Field Study Examining Effects of Exposure to Clothianidin Seed-Treated Canola on Honey Bee Colony Health, Development, and Overwintering Success. PeerJ; October 30, 2014.

As for the previous study, the authors observed no negative effects on honey bees from clothianidin-treated canola (Brassica napus) under field conditions in Ontario, Canada. None of the metrics investigated, including colony weight gain, honey production, pollen collection, pest incidence, bee mortality (adults and sealed brood), number of adult bees, amount of sealed brood, and overwintering success, were affected. Clothianidin levels in pollen collected by bees was low (0.5–1.9 ppb; parts per billion) and below the level that might be expected to have adverse effects on honey bees. The majority of the pollen collected during the two-week exposure period was canola pollen (88% of the total during week one when the canola was in full bloom and 48% during week two) and pollen from wildflowers and other non-crop species (11% during week one and 52% during week two); small amounts of corn pollen were also collected during the second week (about 1% of the total and amounting to as much as 7% of the pollen collected at a particular site).

There were no differences in the amount of pollen collected from fields planted with clothianidin-treated canola seed and control fields and bees clearly collected significant amounts of pollen from canola. Interestingly, although residues have been documented in other studies, no clothianidin residues were detected in nectar, honey, or beeswax. Based on their observations, the authors suggest that foraging by honey bees in canola fields grown from seed treated with clothianidin presents little risk to honey bee colonies and corroborates the experiences of beekeepers in western Canada for more than a decade. It is important to note that this study did not assess the potential effects of exposure to sub-lethal levels of clothianidin on individual bees; instead the focus was on whole colonies.

• Chronic Exposure to Neonicotinoids Increases Neuronal Vulnerability to Mitochondrial Dysfunction in the Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal; 2015.

Citing a global decline in the abundance and diversity of insect pollinators that may result from a variety of factors including habitat loss, disease, and pesticide exposure, and the controversy surrounding the idea that neonicotinoid insecticides may be involved, the authors of this study believe understanding whether the low levels of neonicotinoid insecticides that have been documented in nectar and pollen are sufficient to affect the brain function of bees is central to understanding the risk of these pesticides to bees. To this end the effects of imidacloprid alone and in combination with chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate insecticide that is used on crops foraged by bumblebees and, based on research with honey bees, may have and additive effect on the toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides) compared to controls on the brain function and colony performance of bumblebees were investigated.

Imidacloprid at the levels investigated were not found to be lethal to bumblebees or bumblebee brain neurons in culture and, as a result, any toxicity to adult bees would likely be indirect and limited to neuronal dysfunction rather than acute brain damage. Using a radioactive tracer, neuroactive levels of imidacloprid were indeed shown to accumulate in the brains of bumblebees that were fed with field-relevant levels of imidacloprid via sugar syrup within three days. Exposure of cultured bumblebee neurons to the neonicotinoid insecticides imidacloprid and clothianidin was also shown to cause mitochondrial dysfunction which may account for the negative effects that have been reported for bumblebee colonies exposed to neonicotinoid insecticides. Mitochondria are the membrane-bound organelles responsible for generating adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the source of energy used by cells for cellular metabolism, including neural activity, through the process of respiration. In addition to the

MIXED NEWS IN LATEST HONEY BEE COLONY REPORT

By Craig Regelbrugge, AmericanHort Those looking for good news in the latest honey bee report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bee Informed Partnership found it. Those looking for bad news found some of that too.

The USDA conducts a survey (since 2006) looking at honey bee over-winter colony losses based on self-reporting by beekeepers.

Over the period 2006 to the present, over-winter losses have averaged about 30 percent. Losses in cold northern states prior to the introduction of the parasitic Varroa mite and various other bee health threats in the mid-1980s were usually within the 0 percent to 15 percent range. Since then, winter colony losses have been much higher.

Preliminary results for 2014–15 estimate that a total of 23.1 percent of the colonies managed in the Unites States were lost over the 2014/15 winter. This is a modest decrease in losses of 0.6 percent compared to the winter of 2013/2014, which had reported total losses estimated at 23.7 percent. This is also the second year in a row that the reported colony loss rate was notably lower than the 9-year average total loss of 28.7 percent.

So this is good news for all who care about the health of honey bee colonies. For the second year in a row, winter losses of U.S. honey bee colonies were well below the historic average seen since these annual surveys began. This report followed the also-positive USDA annual Honey Report, which showed that the number of U.S. honey bee colonies grew to 2.74 million in 2014, the highest level in many years.

Yet, the preliminary report isn’t all rosy news. Hive losses also occur during the summer. However, total annual loss estimates only go back to 2010. Responding beekeepers reported losing 42.1 percent of the total number of colonies managed over the last year (total annual loss between April 2014 and April 2015).

This represents the second highest annual loss recorded to date.

Many factors contribute to summer colony losses, including Varroa mite, other disorders, and even high residues of miticides used to manage Varroa. Some scientists believe that poor habitat and forage are becoming more significant bee health challenges. In the coming weeks, major announcements are expected regarding new public/private partnership initiatives to address pollinator habitat and forage concerns. AmericanHort is closely involved. For more information about pollinator health and the Bee and Pollinator Stewardship Initiative, watch this video and visit the Grow Wise, Bee Smart website. serves as the American Horticultural Industry Association’s Vice President for Government Relations and Research and can be reached at craigr@americanhort.org.

CRAIG REGELBRUGGE

reported effects on the neural activity of bee brains, exposure of bumblebees to field-relevant levels of imidacloprid was also shown to have a negative effect on colony performance alone and in combination with chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos alone had no effect on colony performance and did not enhance the effects of imidacloprid. july 15

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Because alternative sources of nectar from plants that haven’t been treated with neonicotinoid insecticides under field conditions could reduce the exposure levels experienced by bees under field conditions, the potential effects of even lower levels of neonicotinoids over a longer duration were also investigated. Chronic exposure to low levels of imidacloprid was found to increase mitochondrial vulnerability which could induce mitochondrial dysfunction in brain neurons at low chronic exposure levels and the authors suggest such effects could be exacerbated by a variety of environmental factors including weather. The authors also believe further research is needed to determine the actual levels and durations of chronic exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides in the field and understand the combined effects of chronic exposure and other factors like forage availability, weather, and disease.

• Soil-Applied Imidacloprid Translocates to Ornamental Flowers and Reduces Survival of Adult Coleomegilla maculata, Harmonia axyridis, and Hippodamia convergens Lady Beetles, and Larval Danaus plexippus and Vanessa cardui Butterflies. PLoS One; March 23, 2015

Based on the concern that the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid is typically applied in nursery production and landscape settings at rates much higher than those associated with field crops where seed treatments are common, this study investigated the translocation of soil-applied imidacloprid to flowers using container grown tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) as the test species. The effects of imidacloprid on several beneficial insects including four species of lady beetle and two species of butterflies, including adult monarchs and larvae (Danaus plexippus), were also investigated.

The concentrations of imidacloprid in the flowers of milkweed plants treated with imidacloprid at the labeled rate (300 mg AI/container; AI = active ingredient) and twice the labeled rate (600 mg AI/container) were 6,030 ppb (parts per billion) and 10,400 ppb, respectively. Following a second application seven months later the imidacloprid levels in flowers were 21,000 ppb (1X; labeled rate) and 45,000 ppb (2X; twice the labeled rate), respectively; nearly 3.5 times and more than 4 times the previous levels. Following a single application of imidacloprid at the labeled rate, these concentrations are much higher than the concentrations that are typical for pollen and nectar from seed-treated, agronomic crops (< 10 ppb). Based on the reported findings, the concentration of imidacloprid in the flowers of milkweed plants treated at the labeled rate for nursery and greenhouse applications were nearly 800 times higher than those found in the pollen of seed-treated canola (7.6 ppb) and more than 600 times higher than the levels typically reported for seed-treated crops in general (10 ppb or less) which have been studied more extensively than nursery and greenhouse crops. It is important to note that the reported imidacloprid

These studies are just a few of the research articles related to neonicotinoid insecticides and their potential effects on bees and other pollinators that have been published in recent months and green industry professionals are encouraged to continue to explore this topic further on their own. concentrations are for whole flowers collected from plants treated with imidacloprid, not nectar and pollen. Elevated levels of neonicotinoid insecticides have also been reported for flowers, nectar, and pollen collected from other landscape species treated with neonicotinoid insecticides.

Regarding effects on beneficial insects, the higher labeled rate for imidacloprid applied to nursery/greenhouse crops compared to field crops resulted in significant mortality for three of the four species of lady beetles studied and the larvae of monarch and painted lady butterflies (adults were not affected; globe thistle/Echinops ritro was used as the host plant for painted lady larvae). Based on these findings, the authors suggest the use of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid at labeled rates on landscape species can be detrimental to beneficial insects and is incompatible with the principles of integrated pest management (IPM). Note that Dr. Vera Krischik from the University of Minnesota is the lead author of this study.

The first study in this list — Bees Prefer Foods Containing Neonicotinoid Pesticides — has been widely reported in press reports with some reports suggesting bees might “get a buzz” from neonicotinoid insecticides or be “hooked” or “addicted” to such compounds (e.g., Bees ‘Get a Buzz’ From Pesticides, Are Bees ‘Hooked’ on Nectar Containing Pesticides?, and Researchers Find That Bees Are Addicted To Neonicotinoids Pesticides). Some stories have also compared plants treated with neonicotinoid insecticides to “pesticide-laden junk food” and inferred that the use of neonicotinoid insecticides are a primary cause of bee mortality and declines in bee populations (e.g., Supersize Bee: A New Study Shows That Bees Prefer Pesticide-Laced Junk Food That Hastens Their Death and Bees Are Addicted to Pesticide-Laden Junk Food, Too). It is important to note that such reporting is a stretch and tends to indicate a bias against neonicotinoid insecticides as opposed to simply reporting research findings. Such reports are often misleading and are a disservice to the public and the existing body of scientific research; research that may indeed prove to be a valuable contribution to our understanding of neonicotinoid insecticides and their environmental effects. Stating that “bees prefer foods containing neonicotinoid pesticides,” as stated in the title of the research paper, is much better as it does not state a reason for the apparent preference for food containing neonicotinoids exhibited by bees which the research did not specifically address. Whether bees can become addicted to neonicotinoid insecticides is unknown and whether the july 15

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GROW WISE. BEE SMART.

AmericanHort®, the Horticultural Research Institute, the Society of American Florists, and the American Floral Endowment have launched a new website to promote healthy habitats for bees and other pollinators. The site messaging points out that these organizations have been promoting habitats for over a century.

Grounded in science and a passion for sustaining the earth, our organizations believe in growing healthy bee habitats one plant at a time. With the knowledge and influence of 16,000 farms and businesses, we are committed to being a positive influence on bee health. Consumers have an important role to play too and can contribute directly to bee health by buying and planting bee-friendly plants. In addition, you’ll soon be able to stay informed of the most up-to-date research on pollinator health through this website.

There are two excellent consumer-focused resources available via PDF download, a brochure which can be folded up to be a standard tri-fold) and a letter size two-sided FAQ document. http://growwise.org/

bees in the study were “addicted” or “hooked” on the insecticides investigated in the study is also unknown. Further research would be needed to answer these questions. While the use of the phrase “get a buzz” and the terms “addicted” and “hooked” in media reports related to this study are likely intended to be provocative in an attempt to get the reader’s attention, such statements should be avoided in journalistic reporting.

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These studies are just a few of the research articles related to neonicotinoid insecticides and their potential effects on bees and other pollinators that have been published in recent months and green industry professionals are encouraged to continue to explore this topic further on their own. Clearly the use of neonicotinoid insecticides remains controversial and is an important topic for the nursery and landscape industry and the broader green industry. As we can see, the research continues to be mixed and the neonicotinoid debate continues. This is the nature, and for many the frustration, of scientific research; few topics, at least initially, are cut-and-dried — research findings often conflict, clear answers to important questions are hard to come by, many research findings lead to new questions, and the science and the ultimate truth, remains unsettled. And even when science does provide definitive answers, there are almost always confounding factors and pros and cons that must be weighed when making business and policy decisions based on the best science available.

On a related topic, although it has not been approved for nursery and landscape uses, green industry professionals may also be interested in the recent approval of a new insecticide by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because it is considered practically non-toxic to adult honeybees and is one of the first reviews to incorporate newly-required bee studies and the approval was based on the largest number of bee-related studies for the registration of a new chemical to date (437 studies).

• EPA Registers New Insecticide Alternative to Neonicotinoids, Safer for Bees. News Release: January 21, 2015

Flupyradifurone is a systemic insecticide that is effective in controlling a variety of piercing, sucking insects including insects that are difficult to control, spread disease, or are known to rapidly develop resistance to insecticides. According to the EPA, flupyradifurone has undergone rigorous testing relative to its safety for human beings and the environment including potential toxicity to honey bees and is considered a safer alternative to currently-used insecticides.

Again, it is important that green industry professionals be informed about the benefits and drawbacks of neonicotinoid insecticides — including the possibility of negative effects on nontarget organisms — in order to make informed decisions about these compounds and educate their customers about this important and controversial issue. Protecting plants from damaging pests while protecting pollinators and other beneficial insects and organisms should be the goal of all concerned and continued research can hopefully provide the answers and lead to effective solutions.

For further detail on these studies, examples of reporting on neonicotinoid insecticide research, and additional information related to neonicotinoid insecticides and pollinators, consult the selected references listed on page 48.

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Kessler, S.C., E.J. Tiedeken, K.L. Simcock, S. Derveau, J. Mitchell, S. Softley, J.C. Stout, and G.A. Wright. 2015. Bees Prefer Foods Containing Neonicotinoid Pesticides. Nature 521(7550):74–76 (May 7, 2015).

Published online April 22, 2015. http://www.nature.com/articles/nature14414.epdf?referrer_access_token=7xZeBKe_UgcDfOVlzRCGeNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MduC3nHCOl2J2ECXCmE9hd2x8RlCnEGmk8ywijoGHvRuCgAtNh1MQabphT5VJbvTSWZTBcXOGQGvB7rRZBk0Is5q6qbPmgu4IdH2EtNmW4JOdM5Ck4mgxjMSrqikQG5jpxCirMmE0-JyafcTtU_hFJ6s0YwmnhGzzL1rMGasnOl0oJSKnAzPGZqy_VF byE17OpXuPxiPQesHoFK2wXnaGa&tracking_referrer=www.rsc.org (Full Article) Steinhauer, N., K. Rennich, K. Lee, J. Pettis, D.R. Tarpy, J. Rangel, D. Caron, R. Sagili, J.A. Skinner, M.E. Wilson, J.T. Wilkes, K.S. Delaplane, R. Rose, and D. vanEngelsdorp. 2015. Colony Loss 2014–2015: Preliminary Results. Bee Informed Partnership Blog Post; May 13, 2015. http:// beeinformed.org/2015/05/colony-loss-2014-2015-preliminary-results/ National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). 2015. Honey. National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Agricultural Statistics Board, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). March 20, 2015. http://www.usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/hony0315.txt Scribd.com. 2015. Bee Pocalypse: Managed Beehives Worldwide Show No Signs of Collapse. Green State Tv, May 1, 2015. http://www.scribd. com/doc/263786858/What-Bee-pocalypse-Managed-beehives-worldwide-show-no-signs-of-collapse (Accessed May 16, 2015) Rundlof, M. G.K.S. Andersson, R. Bommarco, I. Fries, V. Hederstrom, L. Herbertsson, O. Jonsson, B.K. Klatt, T.R. Pedersen, J. Yourstone, and H.G. Smith. 2015. Seed Coating with a Neonicotinoid Insecticide Negatively Affects Wild Bees. Nature 521(7550):77–80 (May 7, 2015).

Published online April 22, 2015. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/ v521/n7550/full/nature14420.html (Abstract, Tables & Figures, and References) Cutler, G.C., C.D. Scott-Dupree, M. Sultan, A.D. McFarlane, and L. Brewer. 2014. A Large-Scale Field Study Examining Effects of Exposure to Clothianidin Seed-Treated Canola on Honey Bee Colony Health, Development, and Overwintering Success. PeerJ 2:e652 (October 30, 2014). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4217196/ Christopher Moffat, Joao Goncalves Pacheco, Sheila Sharp, Andrew J. Samson, Karen A. Bollan, Jeffrey Huang, Stephen T. Buckland, and Christopher N. Connolly. 2015. Chronic Exposure to Neonicotinoids Increases Neuronal Vulnerability to Mitochondrial Dysfunction in the Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal 29(5):2112-2119. http://www. fasebj.org/content/29/5/2112.full Krischik, V., M. Rogers, G. Gupta, and A. Varshney. 2015. Soil-Applied Imidacloprid Translocates to Ornamental Flowers and Reduces Survival of Adult Coleomegilla maculata, Harmonia axyridis, and Hippodamia convergens Lady Beetles, and Larval Danaus plexippus and Vanessa cardui Butterflies. PLoS One 10(3):e0119133 (March 23, 2015). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4370578/

Briggs, H. 2015. Bees ‘Get a Buzz’ From Pesticides. BBC News, April 23, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32399907 (Accessed May 15, 2015) Newcastle University. 2015. Are Bees ‘Hooked’ on Nectar Containing Pesticides? ScienceDaily, April 23, 2015. http://www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2015/04/150423234110.htm (Accessed May 15, 2015) Thompson, B. 2015. Researchers Find That Bees Are Addicted To Neonicotinoids Pesticides. DailyScienceJournal.com; April 27, 2015. http:// dailysciencejournal.com/researchers-find-that-bees-are-addicted-toneonicotinoids-pesticides/22492/ (Accessed May 15, 2015) Palmer, B. 2015. Supersize Bee: A New Study Shows That Bees Prefer Pesticide-Laced Junk Food That Hastens Their Death. onEarth (Natural Resources Defense Council), April 22, 2015. http://www.onearth.org/ earthwire/bees-prefer-neonicotinoid-laced-food (Accessed May 15, 2015) Urry, A. 2015. Bees Are Addicted to Pesticide-Laden Junk Food, Too. Grist; April 27, 2015. http://grist.org/news/bees-are-addicted-to-pesticide-laden-junk-food-too/ (Accessed May 15, 2015) Thompson, H., P. Harrington, S. Wilkins, S. Pietravalle, D. Sweet, and A. Jones. 2013. Effects of Neonicotinoid Seed Treatments on Bumble Bee Colonies Under Field Conditions. Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), Sand Hutton, York, United Kingdom; March 2013. http://www.ambienteterritorio.coldiretti.it/tematiche/Ogm/Documents/ DEFRA%20report%20neonicotinoids%20-Mar13.pdf Dively, G.P., M.S. Embrey, A. Kamel, D.J. Hawthorne, and J.S. Pettis. 2015. Assessment of Chronic Sublethal Effects of Imidacloprid on Honey Bee Colony Health. PLOS One; March 18, 2015. http://journals. plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118748 Hopwood, J., M. Vaughn, M. Shepherd, D. Biddinger, E. Mader, S.H. Black, and C. Mazzacano. 2012. Are Neonicotinoids Killing Bees? — A Review of Research into the Effects of Neonicotinoid Insecticides on Bees, with Recommendations for Action. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. http://ento.psu.edu/publications/are-neonicotinoids-killing-bees Additional references related to neonicotinoid insecticides and their potential effects on non-target insects have been reported in previous Research for the Real World articles published over the past three years.

To comment on this research update, suggest research topics of interest, or pass along a piece of research-based information that might be of interest to your industry colleagues, please email us at Research@ MNLA.biz.

is the Research Information Director for the MNLA foundation. To comment on this research update, suggest research topics of interest, or pass along a piece of research based information that might be of interest to your industry colleagues, please email us at Research@MNLA.biz.

JIM CALKINS

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2015. EPA Registers New Insecticide Alternative to Neonicotinoids, Safer for Bees. News Release: January 21, 2015. http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/cb/csb_page/updates/2015/alt-neonicotinoids.html

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MDA COMPLIANCE MDA OFFERS C O M PL I AN C E AG R EEM EN TS F O R N U RS E RI E S I N T E RE S T E D I N S P E CI A L A D V E RT I S I N G Mark Schreiber

on the CA) at any time. Additionally, a nursery can specify only selected plants, not necessarily all of their plants for inclusion in a special program. This allows advertising and labeling of plants you know to be “free of” while not requiring the entire sales site to be “free of.”

Minnesota Department of Agriculture

A CA documents the responsibilities of the firm that enable the firm to make and maintain the specific plant claim(s) advertised by the firm. It also formally documents what plants are included in the special program. Through this process, a nursery documents how plants are produced from seed or plug to point of sale. Insecticide treatments must be documented and records available for review. All plants produced on site under the direct control of the nursery AND all imported plants a firm wants to include in a special program are subject to this documentation and review process by the MDA prior to sales approval. Compliance agreement language for imported plants includes: Provide complete treatment records for all imported plant material that is proposed for inclusion in the special labeling to MDA regulatory officials upon receipt.

Last year the “pollinator statute” was passed which places requirements on firms advertising plants treated with systemic insecticides that are hazardous to honeybees. In response, some firms have dropped signage and tags labeling plants as attractive to pollinators, others now clearly label plants treated with neonicotinoid insecticides, and other companies have sought to advertise their plants as “free of systemic insecticides,” “grown free of systemic insecticides,” or “neonicotinoid-free.” Part of the Nursery Law, Chapter 18H.14 (c), allows certified nurseries to use these specialclaim programs, “provided the program is reviewed and approved by the Commissioner of Agriculture before implementation.”

To meet these unique marketing claims, the department can develop, on a case-by-case basis, a Compliance Agreement (CA) that clearly identifies a process through which a firm may create a program that can be approved by the commissioner. In the CA, tailored to the nursery and their particular labeling plans, the nursery agrees to label only the plants or types of plants listed in the agreement that are treated in a manner that is acceptable to MDA to attain the particular “free-from” or advertised claim. Plants included in the CA are subject to MDA inspection and testing for pesticides (dependent

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Make available all records to MDA regulatory officials upon request.

Not offer for sale imported plant material with special labeling until treatment records have been reviewed and written approval is received from MDA. We are developing a Certificate of Compliance for firms operating under a compliance agreement. This certificate can be copied as needed. Our certification documents cost $25. Inspection and certification services requested by firms to certify plants are currently $50/hour for inspection and travel time + IRS mileage rate (currently 57.5 cents/mi). These fees are established to recover the costs involved in these supplemental, company-requested certification services. If you have questions about the compliance agreement process or are interested in developing a compliance agreement, contact Mark Schreiber at mark.schreiber@state.mn.us or 651-201-6388.

Supervisor of the Nursery Inspection & Export Certification Unit, Plant Protection Division, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, can be reached at mark.schreiber@state.mn.us.

MARK SCHREIBER,

M A N U FAC T U R E R OF P R E M I UM C ON C R E T E PAV I NG STON E S , SL A B S & WA L L S

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MNLA Landscape Awards

Why Enter?

2016

If you have never submitted an application for an MNLA Landscape Award, make this your year to enter! Winning an award provides credibility and visibility among peers and clients, elevates marketing, and boosts staff morale. Receiving the marketing materials included in the prize package provides an outstanding opportunity for MNLA members to market your skills as professionals to prospective clients, and to attract and retain high quality employees.

It certainly does take some work to prepare an entry for the MNLA Landscape Awards program, but you’ll find the online system makes the process smooth. Winning an MNLA Landscape Award increases your ability to: 1. Promote the high quality of your work.

If you win an award, you’ll be able to add “MNLA Award-Winning” to your marketing, plus we’ll provide you with several marketing pieces to help you promote your project.

2. Build customer relationships. Your clients will feel proud that their property was deemed one of the best in the state, and it will reconfirm their choice of putting their faith in you as their landscape professional.

3. Motivate employees and improve team performance. There is a great deal of effort that goes into executing all of the details of a landscape, and winning an award validates the team’s work. It reinforces the fact that they are performing at a high level, and motivates them to continue to improve.

Notable Dates

Oct. 1, 2015: Entry Portal Opens Nov. 18, 2015: Submission Deadline Nov. 25-Dec. 2, 2015: Entry Judging Dec. 7-11, 2015: Entry Status Notifications Jan. 13, 2016: MNLA Awards Gala

Judging Notes

• Entries are judged anonymously.

Judges do not know who submitted the projects.

• The size and cost of a project are not part of the criteria for judging.

• In any given year, ALL entries could win awards, or NO entries could win an award. Entries are not judged against each other; rather each entry is judged against the standards of excellence.

Judges must decide whether an entry, in their opinion, meets or exceeds those standards.

4. Build a photo library. Preparing for awards entries gets you in the habit of photographing your work (especially those construction details), and you never know when you’ll capture that perfect shot that you’ll use for years to come!

5. Generate sales. Closing the deal with your prospects will be easier when they see the value and prestige they will receive from working with your award-winning firm.

Plan to enter this year and begin reaping the benefits next year and in the years to come!

Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association

➾ P OLLI NATORS SECTI O N

AMERICANHORT, SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS, AMERICAN FLORAL ENDOWMENT, AND HORTICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE STATEMENT ON

NATIONAL POLLINATOR HEALTH STRATEGY

washington, dc – may 21, 2015 — We join together to welcome and embrace key aspects of the federal government’s recentlyannounced National Strategy for the Protection of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. The long-awaited strategy has three major goals: reducing honey bee colony losses, increasing Monarch butterfly populations, and restoring or enhancing millions of acres of land as pollinator habitat, through public and private action. As is the list of threats to bee and pollinator health, the national strategy itself is long and complex. We are studying the details, but the overall approach appears balanced and mostly sensible.

The national strategy’s overarching goals dovetail well with the focus of the ongoing Horticultural Industry Bee and Pollinator Stewardship Program. Under that initiative, we have directly funded several priority research projects, and collaborated on additional research funded by others, to provide critical scientifically sound guidance for professional horticulturists. We are developing a grower stewardship program based on best practices for protecting pollinators while managing pests. Finally, we are establishing partnerships with other agricultural, conservation, restoration, beekeeper and honey producer groups to advance the goals of improved pollinator habitat and forage.

Improved habitat and forage are properly at the heart of the national strategy. Many components of the strategy target large-scale habitat restoration and federal lands. Horticulture has a major role to play, as well. This is especially true in the context of the managed residential, commercial, and municipal landscapes of urbanized and urbanizing areas of the nation. In these areas, the best way to support honey bees and other pollinators is to plant healthy and site-appropriate pollinator-friendly plants. Professional growers of tree, plants, and flowers provide the very thing pollinators need to thrive: diverse and ample sources of forage.

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With respect to activities of the Department of Interior and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, as demand increases for pollinator-friendly seeds and plants we strongly urge close collaboration with the private sector to meet growing demand.

Expanded government competition with the private sector is not the answer. Finally, the Strategy itself (not including the appendices) uses the term “native” in the context of plants and vegetation more than 60 times. In many planting situations, like large-scale restorations, native plants may be the logical choice. In others, like managed landscapes or remediations, all site-appropriate, non-invasive pollinator-friendly plants should be embraced.

The strategy calls for major commitments to research. We recognize that public-private partnerships will be needed to address the myriad questions that must be addressed through ongoing research.

Toward this end, we recently supported the President’s proposed budget for expanded research conducted or funded by USDA agencies including the Agricultural Research Service and National Institute for Food and Agriculture.

Finally, with respect to the Environmental Protection Agency’s pollinator protection plan, we are pleased to acknowledge the clearly stated commitment to following the science. Emotional campaigns based on anecdotes and a few flawed studies are not a solid foundation for public policy. We also acknowledge and appreciate the stated commitment to ongoing collaboration with groups such as the Horticultural Research Institute and Minor Crop Farmer Alliance. We share that commitment going forward.

We and our members stand ready to work collaboratively to advance the goals of the National Strategy.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION on what horticulture needs to know about pollinator health, view our video at http://bit.ly/ProtectingPollinatorsVideo.

➾ P OLLI NATORS SECTI O N

NALP REPORT:

WHITE HOUSE ISSUES NATIONAL POLLINATOR STRATEGY National Association of Landscape Professionals

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Background

On May 19th, the White House released its Pollinator Plan created by a Pollinator Health Task Force it established in June 2014 in response to the serious decline of pollinator populations in the United States and around the world.

According to the Feb. 9, 2015, Congressional Research Service report “Bee Health: The Role of Pesticides,” “The precise reasons for honey bee loss are unknown.” In fact, science suggests multiple factors for the decline in bee health; including parasites, diet and nutrition, lack of genetic diversity, habitat loss, beekeeping practices, weather, and disease.

The White House is attempting to address the issue with its Pollinator Strategy that has three overarching goals: 1. Honey Bees: Reduce honey bee colony losses during winter (overwintering mortality) to no more than 15% within 10 years. This goal is informed by the previously released Bee Informed Partnership surveys and the newly established quarterly and annual surveys by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Based on the robust data anticipated from the national, statistically-based NASS surveys of beekeepers, the Task Force will develop baseline data and additional goal metrics for winter, summer and total annual colony loss.

2. Monarch Butterflies: Increase the eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies occupying an area of approximately 15 acres (6 hectares) in the overwintering grounds in Mexico, through domestic/international actions and public-private partnerships, by 2020.

3. Pollinator Habitat Acreage: Restore or enhance 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next 5 years through federal actions and public/private partnerships.

The plan also discusses pesticide-specific provisions that the Environmental Protection Agency has taken or plans to take to protect pollinators from exposure to pesticides.

Best Management Practices

The landscape industry takes its role as an environmental steward very seriously and is committed to educating others on responsible pesticide use to help protect pollinators.

The National Association of Landscape Professionals promotes the use of the best management practices to protect pollinators (see sidebar for the BMPs). We agree that there is a need for, as the president said, “an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to promoting pollinator

BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO PROTECT POLLINATORS From the National Association of Landscape Professionals

1. Check the property for the presence of plants and weeds that might attract bees The presence of bloom is a key factor in pollinator exposure to pesticides. Honey bees and other pollinators are most at risk of poisoning when certain pesticides are applied to pollinatorattractive plants, especially those in bloom.

Before treating a landscape with pesticides, check for the presence of plants and weeds that might attract bees and pollinators. Knowing how different pesticides work may help in reducing pollinator risk to exposure. Trees and shrubs that do not have pollinator-attractive flowers may be treated with pesticides without risk to pollinators with proper application and drift management. Non-flowering plants, like conifers, as well as wind- pollinated plants, such as ash and birch, can be treated without risk to pollinators. For turf, removal of flowering weeds and blooms by mowing or other means prior to pesticide application can reduce pollinator exposure.

2. Know how your pesticides work Most herbicides, fungicides and plant growth regulators are not highly toxic to bees when used properly. Apply to target plants before bloom or after the petals fall to avoid pollinator exposure.

If applications are targeted to flowers and blooms, avoid spraying directly on foraging pollinators to minimize the risk.

Many insecticides can be harmful to pollinators. Avoiding pollinator exposure is very important. For contact insecticides, avoid application to blooming plants and to actively foraging pollinators.

For systemic insecticides, follow the label instructions, including the recommended application rates, to minimize excessive concentrations in plants that may harm pollinators. Some pesticides, such as horticultural oils or organic products may have negative affects when applied directly to pollinators. Check the pesticide label for safety information. Non-EPA approved pesticides may not have adequate information on pollinator safety.

3. Employ residual toxicity safeguards Many bee-toxic pesticides can be used on blooming crops in an appropriate “window” of time, unless they are prohibited on the label. You also need to consider the residual activity of some products which would not be favorable for use. Evening applications are generally the least harmful to honey bees if they can be made. continued on the next page

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➾ P OLLI NATORS SECTI O N

health, including engagement of citizens and communities and the forging of public-private partnerships.”

Important Points To Remember

• The landscape industry supports pollinators through the care of plants in the landscape that are their habitat.

• Landscape professionals practice responsible and vital pest control services that remove pest that are detrimental to the landscape.

• Landscape professionals use EPA and State registered pesticides, in accordance with application guidelines, to control harmful pests, like ticks, and weeds that cause allergies.

• Many bee colonies are now stable. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates of overwinter bee colony losses have averaged more than 30% annually in recent years, but many beekeepers have been able to replace lost hives.

• Even though the cause of colony collapse is unknown, there are pests that are attacking honeybees, one of which is the varroa mite. A 2013 joint USDA and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report found the varroa mite as the “most detrimental pest of honeybees.”

BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO PROTECT POLLINATORS (CONT’D) 4. Check the weather Environmental conditions also affect bee activity. When high daytime temperatures encourage bees to begin foraging earlier or continue later than usual, adjust application times of bee-toxic pesticides accordingly, if possible.

5. Use the least hazardous formulation • Granular formulations are the least hazardous when bees are present.

• Emulsifiable concentrates formulations are usually less hazardous to bees than wettable powders because the powders remain toxic in the landscape longer.

• Consider injections if those types of application are available depending on the plant and target pest.

6. Minimize drift Pollinators can visit the blooms of landscape plants and/or weeds near target plants and be unintentionally impacted by drift and pesticide residues. Keep the product on the intended area/plant by applying pesticides with equipment that has been calibrated for the particular application.

• Some people have singled out pesticides like neonicotinoids as the primary cause for the decline in bee health, when in fact the exact cause is unknown.

Save the date for the show for green industry pros.

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UNDERGROUND UTILITIES KNOWING YOUR COLORS & RESPONSIBILITIES As we progress through the landscape excavation season, it is important to follow the rules and regulations for your underground excavations.

Andrew Lindquist | Links Systems, Inc.

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CleanSweep Rotary Broom

It is not only the law, but also provides safety for yourself and others. Within the U.S., an underground utility line is damaged once every six minutes because someone decided to dig without first calling 811.

Three proper steps are easy to follow and only costs you the time to plan ahead.

Those steps are: 1. Call 811 before you dig or use the online site: www.call811.com 2. Provide a minimum of 48 hours (excluding weekends and holiday) notice prior to starting your excavation. Three days is recommended during the construction season.

3. Observe and respect the utility markers and use hand excavation as is necessary.

All contractors (and homeowners) who are doing any work involving excavation must provide at least 48 hours’ notice prior to the start of the excavation. The free 811 service can be reached from anywhere in the country and will connect you directly with your work site’s assigned Call Center. As the digging contractor, you will need to provide the 811 Call Center information about your company, your contact information, type of excavation/work being done, specific site’s excavation location information, etc.

Once all necessary information is provided, the 811 Call Center will contact all utility companies (such as gas, electric, phone and cable) associated with your described location. They will require each utility company to identify any of their utilities that may be located within excavation area. The better you describe your excavation location, the more accurate and complete the utility marking will be.

The utilities do the best they can in providing utility locations. However, always be aware that there may be mistakes or missed locations. Data shows that when you call 811 within the appropriate amount of time before digging, you have a less than 1% chance of striking a buried utility line.

However, one of every 100 excavations are not odds that should give you blind confidence. Always use precaution and common sense when evaluating utility markings. If you feel uncomfortable, wait and ask for re-marking.

Remember, you are responsible for marking the property’s private lines such as sprinkler systems, yard lights, invisible pet fences, yard lights, and gas grill lines.

Utility companies use a nationwide “Uniform Color Code for Utility Locations” (using colored paint and flags) as shown in Table 1 on page 64. Get to know the type of utility each color represents. There is a vast safety/liability difference between the various rainbow of colors, along with the anticipated utility depth and the cost to you for its repair if damaged.

Utility markings are valid for 14 days.

Don’t forget that during your work, erosion, other contractor excavation, weather, etc. may modify/remove markings or change the actual location or depth of the utility lines. The 811 Call Center service is free, so there should be no excuse not to re-call and remark if in doubt.

Note that the color white has been reserved to indicate “Proposed Excavation.”

Feel free to use white paint and flags to help define your excavation at the work site and include this information when you talk to the 811 Call Center. This will help the utilities specifically locate their underground services within your work area.

Flags/paint location marks indicate the horizontal location of the utility line, but not how deeply it is buried. Thus, before you can safely access or excavate immediate to an underground utility, you must first verify its depth. Be sure to communicate the following utility location hand digging guidelines to your workers when working near a marked or suspected utility location:

MNLA FOUNDATION GROWING MINDS FOR A GREENER TOMORROW

To register or for more information, go to www.MNLA.biz.

Save the dates for these fun Foundation fundraisers!

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AUGUST

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• Never dig up to the utility with power equipment. Always locate the utility by hand digging and use power equipment to dig away from it.

• Use a blunt-nosed shovel to loosen the soil, and a regular shovel to remove it. Do not use a pickax or a pointed spade. Do not stab at the soil or stomp on the shovel with both feet.

• Work with a gentle prying action and dig at an angle, so the shovel will slide along the surface of the wire, conduit or pipe. An alternative is to carefully dig to the depth

SEPTEMBER

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T U SHOOTO july 15 Foundation-events-two-thirds-Scoop-2015.indd 1

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➾ U N D E RG RO U N D U T I L I T I E S

CORRECTION

Table 1: Uniform Color Code for Utility Locations.

WHITE — Proposed Excavation

In Andrew Lindquist’s article in the May 2015 issue, “National Electrical Code: 2014 Code Update,” a statement on page 59 needs some clarification: “Listed” means that the receptacle has been tested and approved by an independent listing organization.

While UL and other listing organizations “test” and “list,” they do not necessarily “approve.” These organizations act as disinterested, third party testing centers and generally test product performance against a standard or minimum performance criteria. There is no “UL-approval”; there is a “UL listing” indicating a product conforms to criteria under which it was tested.

Once a product has received a UL listing, it still must be “approved for use by an authority having jurisdiction.” Codes often reference the standards or performance criteria under which a product must conform.

Once a product receives a listing, a product can be approved by reference or the manufacturer/sponsor will make application for that product to be accepted into a code or local jurisdiction.

PINK — Temporary Survey Markings RED — Electric Power Lines, Cables, Conduit and Lighting Cables YELLOW — Gas, Oil, Steam, Petroleum or Gaseous Materials ORANGE — Communications, Alarm or Signal Lines, Cables or Conduit BLUE — Water, Irrigation and Slurry Lines PURPLE — Reclaimed Water, Irrigation and Slurry Lines GREEN — Sewers and Drain Lines

where you expect the utility to be, but off to the side. Then use a prying motion to break away soil as you approach the utility laterally.

• Once the utility is exposed, always treat it as if the utility is live.

• If you discover an unmarked utility, do not assume it is abandoned, retired or out of service. Notify the property owner and contact 811 to verify utility.

So, where is the utility actually located? The flag/color markings establish a center line of a “Tolerance Zone” (probable width) in which the utility (99% of the time) is located. The Tolerance Zone is where hand excavation is required. The specific Tolerance Zone varies by state. For example, Minnesota and North Dakota have established 24 inches on each side of the flag/markings (48 inches total width) as the Tolerance (hand digging) Zone. Our neighboring states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota have an 18 inch (36 inches total width) as their required Tolerance (hand digging) Zone.

What to do if a utility is hit: • Stay clear until you determine the extent of contact/damage.

• Contact 911 as needed.

• If it is a power line, don’t try to rescue the equipment or victim.

• Stay away until rescue workers assure you the power has been turned off.

The 811 Call Center motto is “Safe digging is no accident!” Make this a motto of your work crew when planning and performing excavation work.

ANDREW LINDQUIST, owner of Links Systems, Inc., can be reached at alindquist@linkssystemsinc.com.

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➾ MDA

MDA NEWS N EW N URSERY I N SPEC TO R H I R ED

ERIC NOOKER STARTED WORKING for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture as a Nursery Inspector on May 11. Eric takes over Lola Youngblom’s southern Minnesota territory, working from the Mankato area.

Eric has a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, majoring in horticulture and an M.S from the University of Minnesota in Soil Science. Prior to his hire as a nursery inspector, Eric worked for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, so he is

familiar with many of the state’s protocols and policies. Eric also has horticulture experience, having worked in the West Madison Horticulture Research and Demonstration Garden inspecting plants for insects and diseases. He was also involved in evaluating over 400 plant varieties including many annuals and vegetable plants for overall performance in scientific plant trials.

Welcome aboard Eric!

Photo credit to Darlene Zangara

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➾ MNLA FOUN DATION

2015 GARDEN PARTY Y O U’ R E I N VI T E D !

Steve Kelley and Arla Carmichiel

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO INVITE YOU TO OUR RESIDENCE,

Bide-a Wee, for the 2015 Garden Party, benefitting the MNLA Foundation. This year’s event boasts two opportunities to see our gardens. An Open Garden experience in the afternoon for guests to visit the gardens and stroll through the property and the Garden Party Reception in the evening when guests can share their experiences and love of plants, while enjoying appetizers and refreshments.

Both of us have been interested in plants and gardening all our lives, and feel extremely lucky to share that interest. It makes gardening infinitely more enjoyable to be able to garden alongside one’s spouse. Even after working at gardening for a living, we both delight in designing, planting and maintaining our ever expanding gardens.

We bought our three and a half acre place in 1994, which at one time was part of a farm named Bide-a Wee. There was a generous lawn around the house and toward the barn, with simple planting at the base of the house, but not a perennial was to be found on the site! We have soft spots for epimediums, solomon’s seals, grasses, hellebores and anything else that strikes our fancy. We

couldn’t possibly suggest favorite plants, we love too many, and each year more are added to the list. Therein lies the thrill of gardening: maintaining that interest by being receptive to the new. The garden constantly changes, kindling a constant curiosity. We tend to favor plants that provide a long season of interest through bloom, foliage, silhouette, and branch color and texture.

These are plants that earn their place in the landscape, and are plants we never tire of seeing. We are thrilled to share all of these with you during the 2015 Garden Party.

This event is a perfect opportunity to take a break and reward your hard-working employees, or treat your family and friends to see and enjoy our remarkable property.

Join us as we support the work of the MNLA Foundation.

We encourage you to purchase your tickets early! While the Open Garden portion of the event is open to all, the Garden Party Reception is limited to just 100 guests.

The 2015 Garden Party will definitely be an event to remember; we look forward to seeing you at Bide-a Wee on August 6, 2015.

Steve Kelley and Arla Carmichiel

WELCOME NEW MNLA MEMBERS!

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Above the Fray LLC Melissa Stevens River Falls, WI, 715-222-4611

Garden Expressions Bruce Johnson Lakeville, MN, 952-221-5680

Big River Custom Builders LLC Ryan Reed Shafer, MN, 651-491-7340

Brad Fritch Elk River, MN, 612-282-2462

MNLA .biz

july 15

Northern Lights Landscape Construction, Inc. Steve Nelson Sandstone, MN, 651-462-0444 Valley Green Lawn & Landscape Care Adam Bressler Stillwater, MN, 651-983-5618

➾ MNLA FOUN DATION

SILENT AUCTION Have you ever heard the phrase ‘plagiarism is the finest form of flattery’? Sometimes stealing someone else’s idea works, without hurting anybody and helping many!

That’s what we did in January 2015 at the Northern Green Expo. We had our first Silent Auction, and it was a great success.

I had seen this done many years at the Perennial Plant Association Symposium; they raise funds for their Foundation by holding a silent auction during their trade show. If it worked for them, it could work for us!

We raised over $5,000 for the Foundation and we are planning on doing this again in January of 2016. We had a lot of great MNLA members and trade show vendors who donated a wide variety of auction items, including fabulous Minnesota grown wine, a beautiful watercolor print, jewelry, gift baskets, tickets to the Tangletown harvest dinner, and lots of nursery oriented items, such as fertilizers, soils, Felco pruners, pottery, etc. It was a great mix of items and many of you had fun trying to outbid each other! We had a small but dedicated group of volunteers working the auction, including Sarah Fowler from Bailey Nurseries, Bert Swanson, and Dennis Ullom.

We are looking for donations for the 2016 auction, and really appreciate all the trade show vendors who donated. For those of you that didn’t, consider this — signage at the auction can direct potential buyers to your booth once they get a look at your donated item. We’d love to keep directing members into the trade show to see your booths, so consider donating something for our next auction!

And for all you members, please consider finding the silent auction this year and bidding! It will be held starting on Wednesday and will go through early afternoon on Thursday. You are supporting the Foundation with your bid, and funds are earmarked to scholarships.

DEBBIE LONNEE,

Bailey Nurseries is a member of MNLA’s Foundation Board of Trustees.

She can be reached at Debbie.lonnee@ baileynursery.com

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➾ NE T WORKIN G N EWS

NETWORKING NEWS

LOOKING FOR NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES THIS SUMMER?

The following MNLA events and tours will provide an excellent opportunity to connect with fellow green industry professionals. Register today. Space is limited.

• July 20: Saints Game at CHS Field. Check out the new ball park in St. Paul!

Your ticket includes: a pre-game picnic buffet and an outfield reserved seat.

• July 30: Landscape Design Tour. This year’s tour of MNLA award winning designs will inspire you, and provide opportunity to connect and share ideas with other landscape design professionals.

• July 30: Bus Trip to Horticulture Night at the West Central Research and Outreach Center. Join us as we travel to the Horticulture Display Gardens at the U of M-Morris. The bus ride to Morris will provide growers time to connect and network. Horticulture Night offers live music, food, and a wide variety of demonstrations, presentations and tours, including an annual flower walking tour, a tour of the low tunnel day-neutral strawberry plot, and farm tours.

• August 4: Garden Center Tour. We will tour garden centers south of the Twin Cities including: Pahl’s Market, Bachman’s — Apple Valley, Knecht’— Nurseries & Landscaping, Switzer’s Nursery & Landscaping/The Gardens of Castle Rock, and Bachman’s Cedar Acres. Spend the day networking with other industry professionals and take away great ideas to implement at your own garden center.

ENERGIZE AND REWARD YOURSELF AND YOUR EMPLOYEES WHILE SUPPORTING THE MNLA FOUNDATION.

Sign up for these great MNLA Foundation networking and fund raising events: • July 21: Widmer Golf Tournament. Sign up a team from your company and/ or recruit your clients. This year’s tournament is at Oak Marsh Golf Club.

Proceeds benefit the MNLA Foundation Research Fund.

• August 6: Garden Party. This year’s garden party will be in the private gardens of Arla Carmichel & Steve Kelley. Please join us for an evening of food, drink, and fellowship.

• September 23: MNLA Shootout. The Shootout is a fun sporting clays tournament at the South St. Paul Rod and Gun Club that raises money for scholarships. Teams, pairs, solos, and even non-MNLA-members are welcome!

FOR DETAILS ABOUT UPCOMING NETWORKING MEETINGS AND EVENTS,

visit the education/events page at www.MNLA.biz.

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➾ T H E LAST WORD

MNLA DAY FAIR AT THE

I N TH E M I N N ESO TA G RO W N BO O T H

Paul Hugunin

MN Grown Program Coordinator

Filler Needed MNLA MEMBERS ARE INVITED to

“take over” the Minnesota Grown State Fair Display for a day. The Minnesota Grown booth has a simple, straightforward message for fairgoers: buy locally grown and raised products! With approximately 1,250 members, the Minnesota Grown program promotes a wide variety of Minnesota products and businesses — including nurseries and garden centers, Christmas tree farms, meat and dairy producers, farm wineries, farmers market vendors, and pick-your-own farms. Fairgoers who visit the booth can pick up a free copy of the Minnesota Grown Directory as they interact with our member-volunteers that staff the booth from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.

Instead of scattering their members throughout the 12 days of the fair, several organizations group their volunteers together on a single day to “take over” the booth for a day. The MN Buffalo Association, MN Association of Meat Processors, MN Maple Syrup Producers Association and the St. Paul Farmers Market each take a full day at the fair. Organizations that take a full day are invited to bring display items that highlight their industry and attract fairgoers interested in their particular products and services. The MNLA Board of Directors has agreed that MNLA will be one of the organizations to “take over” the booth for a day in 2015.

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MNLA .biz

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There are limited spaces available, but all MNLA companies that wish to be involved should contact MNLA staff member Jon Horsman (jon@mnla.biz) as soon as possible. The three shifts will be 9 a.m.–1 p.m., 1 p.m.–5 p.m., and 5 p.m.–9 p.m. Shifts will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis. The main task for booth volunteers is to hand out Minnesota Grown Directories, but they are also allowed to have business cards and/ or flyers at the booth during their shift (they can’t leave them behind when they’re done, though) as long as they focus on the general message of “buy local plants.”

Minnesota Grown provides volunteers with admission tickets (we give up to four tickets for a 4-hour shift). We also provide each volunteer with a Minnesota Grown hat OR t-shirt. We provide name tags for each volunteer, a daily sign for the booth indicating who is staffing the booth during each shift, and an additional sign declaring it to be “MNLA Day at the Minnesota Grown Booth” for days staffed by a single organization like MNLA. The Minnesota Grown booth is located in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) wing of the Ag/Hort Building. The MDA takes up the entire North Hall of the building. All MNLA companies that wish to be a part of the “booth take over” should contact MNLA staff member Jon Horsman (jon@mnla.biz) as soon as possible.

Join in the FREE fun!

Mem ber

h Mont See you at the...

“Thank You” Socials It’s time to celebrate our 90th year and your awesomeness by joining in the fun during the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association’s Member Appreciation Month. The “Thank You” Socials will be held: • August 11th in St. Cloud at Central Landscape Supply 4026 County Road 74 South, St. Cloud, MN 56301 • August 13th in Waconia at Waconia Tree Farm 12150 County Road 32, Waconia, MN 55387 • August 19th in Roseville at the MNLA office 1813 Lexington Ave. North, Roseville, MN 55113 All events will take place from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., and food and adult beverages will be provided!

RSVP to 651-633-4987 or on www.MNLA.biz.

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