Feature


Dr. Allan M. Armitage


Dale Pierson presents YNP Award to his son, Jake


Jesse O’Brien presents Al Black Award to Bob Bangs Dr. Donglin Zhang via Skype


MELNA Annual Meeting & Trade Show Highlights


By Tom Atwell Te Maine Landscape and Nursery Association’s Annual


Meeting and Trade Show was held Jan. 23 at the Augusta Civic Center with 225 members and 56 exhibitors in attendance. Te highlight of the program was morning and evening


lectures by Allan Armitage, author, researcher on herbaceous plants and University of Georgia professor. Dr. Armitage ran well beyond his allotted time during both the morning session on annuals and the afternoon session on perennials, filling his lectures with facts, opinions, stories and barbs at many people, including Jeff O’Donal, who chauffeured him to and from the Trade Show. Although Dr. Armitage gave a lot of information about plants, including the ones he likes best, some of the best new ones and some that are easiest to grow for home gardeners, his talk was peppered with information about the approaches landscapers and retailers can take to make money and keep their customers happy. Ann Gibbs, Maine State Horticulturist, gave detailed updates during her lecture on Insects and Diseases to Watch For. She discussed the spread of hemlock wooly adelgid, boxwood blight and winter moth, and the continued threat of Asian longhorn beetle and emerald ash borer. Te problem that everyone was talking about, including Armitage


and Gibbs, was impatiens downy mildew, which arrived in Maine in full force during the growing season of 2012. Caused by the fungus-like Oomycete ‘Plasmopara obducens,’ impatiens downy mildew is widespread across the United States. Te disease is spread by the wind, and winds can carry it a great distance. And if garden plants were infected one year, the disease remains in the soil and will infect any impatiens placed there in following years. Armitage discussed some plants that landscapers can use and


retailers can sell instead of impatiens, but they are limited. Te include New Guinea impatiens, Sunpatiens, begonia and caladium. Other talks held during the day were by Dale Pierson on designing sustainable and native landscapes, although the actual talk was mostly about expansions of water ponds at the Pierson Nursery; new plant introductions by Meghan Owens of Syngenta Flowers and “Site Management, Civil Engineering and Wetland Site Creation and Management” by Colen Peters, a wetland scientist formerly with TRC Environmental.


GrowingMEGreen


Te Trade Show floor included dealers in plants, seeds, mulch, heavy equipment and more, and attendees spent a good amount of time talking, finding out what is available and in a few cases actually making orders. Te annual awards lunch included a Skype presentation with


Dr. Donglin Zhang, who recently left his position as professor of horticulture at the University of Maine to teach at the University of Georgia, where he was one of Dr. Armitage’s students. It was announced that the MELNA scholarship for UMaine students would now be named the Donglin Zhang Scholarship. Robert Bangs, MCSL, of Windswept Gardens in Bangor, won the Al Black Award for 2013, given for outstanding contributions to the horticulture industry. Bangs started his company in 1972 as Robert Bangs Landscaping, and has expanded to include a full garden center as well as full landscaping. He has a regular television segment on WABI-TV in Bangor, and has been active in MELNA operations and committees. Jake Pierson, nursery manager at Pierson Landscaping, a wholesale nursery in Dayton, won MELNA’s Young Nursery Professional of the Year Award. Jake lives in Portland and is the son of the Dale Pierson, the nursery founder. Sara Tryzelaar of Greenbush won the Donglin Zhang Scholarship for students studying horticulture at the University of Maine and Paul Bronder won the scholarship for students at Southern Maine Community College.


At MELNA’s Annual Business Meeting, the following were elected:


Officers: Betty Ann Listowich, President Tom Estabrook, Vice-President Stephanie Burnett, Treasurer


3-YEAR TERMS: Bill Crawford, MB Bark Tom Estabrook, Estabrook Farm and Greenhouses Jake Pierson, Pierson Nurseries, Inc.


1-YEAR TERMS: Emily Buck, Plants Unlimited Betty Ann Listowich, Norpine Landscape


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