State plant officials and the nursery industry hope to eradicate a plant disease new to Oregon before it gets a foothold.
State officials uncovered boxwood blight in a Washington County nursery in December after tracing back infected plant material that had moved from the nursery to an outlet i ...
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 10:12 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- It's no sudden oak death, but Oregon agriculture officials say a new fungal plant disease has been detected in Oregon for the first time.
Unlike the pathogen that causes sudden oak death, the state Agriculture Department says boxwood blight is no threat to the stat ...
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 8:43 AM
Stan Armstrong's cactus business sprouted from a packet of seeds.
Several years ago, Armstrong's daughter returned from a business trip to Arizona with a small present for her dairyman father: seeds of the saguaro cactus, the prototypical desert species with upraised arm-like appendages.
Armstro ...
Thursday, January 05, 2012 9:00 AM
Exports of U.S. nursery stock have been buoyed by a surge in shipments of fruit-bearing plants to Mexico, according to federal trade data.
Shipments of live plants to Mexico have been increasing for years, with the value of such exports rising from $7.4 million in 2000 to $19.6 million in 2010.
...
Thursday, December 15, 2011 10:00 AM
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Minnesota's two state-owned tree nurseries are preparing to phase out much of their seedling production as they comply with an order from the Legislature to stop selling to private buyers.
Although the nurseries recently celebrated their billionth tree planted, starti ...
Monday, November 14, 2011 8:59 AM
Watts and Associates to evaluate program, customer opinions
The USDA Risk Management Agency has contracted with Watts and Associates to evaluate the nursery crop insurance program, currently in its pilot stage.
Randy Landgren, project director and research associate for Watts and Associates, said ...
Thursday, October 27, 2011 12:00 PM
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- A federal judge in Delaware is weighing whether to order the Dupont Co. to tell customers who used its weed killer Imprelis how to preserve evidence of tree damage they might use in lawsuits against the company.
Imprelis was registered in October and marketed to p ...
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 4:29 PM
PORTLAND -- The Oregon Association of Nurseries has released a manual to help growers improve pest and disease prevention in their nursery and greenhouse operations.
The Safe Procurement and Production Manual emphasizes a proactive approach to managing for pest prevention.
The manual includes chec ...
Thursday, September 08, 2011 12:00 PM
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) -- The housing market decline has hurt producers of turf grass in the state, according to Mississippi State University.
Turf sales are down because of slow home sales and a lack of new construction, Wayne Wells, Mississippi State University Extension turf specialist, said ...
Monday, August 22, 2011 5:19 AM
WILSONVILLE, Ore. -- Oregon Association of Nurseries executive director Jeff Stone is an outspoken critic of federal immigration policy -- or the lack of it.
"Congress, through its inaction, has given oxygen to states to try to do their own bills that are enforcement-oriented and not comprehensive, ...
Thursday, August 18, 2011 12:00 PM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is advising homeowners not to compost grass clippings from lawns treated with Imprelis herbicide from DuPont or use the clippings as mulch around trees and gardens.
The department and officials in other states began receiving report ...
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 1:50 PM
ABERDEEN, Idaho -- In 2005, research professor Stephen Love stepped down as manager of the University of Idaho's potato breeding project and turned his expertise toward native Idaho plants and the consumer horticulture world.
He has no regrets, and Idaho's horticulture industry continues to benef ...
Thursday, August 11, 2011 12:00 AM
DOVER, Del. (AP) -- The DuPont Co. is halting sales of a new herbicide that has been blamed in several lawsuits for damaging trees in many parts of the country.
The company sent a letter to distributors on Thursday informing them that Dupont was implementing a voluntary suspension of the ...
Friday, August 05, 2011 6:16 PM
The national supply of new, noncitrus fruit trees will be tight for the next couple of years after last winter's double-barreled freeze caused more than $13 million in losses at key Washington commercial nurseries.
Several nurserymen said this year's losses were the worst in a half century, and o ...
Thursday, August 04, 2011 9:00 AM
With a tight supply of replacement fruit trees caused by the freezes that cut nursery production, a federal program to help orchards with the cost of replacing trees killed last winter may not work well.
Under the program, new trees must be delivered within a year.
It takes two years to grow fin ...
Thursday, August 04, 2011 9:00 AM
LOWELL, Ore. -- Blueberry growers look to one source for comprehensive information on the world 's production of blueberries.
It's not the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service and its bank of statisticians.
They turn to Cort Brazelton, a 30-year-old business development manager at Fal ...
Thursday, July 14, 2011 10:00 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon crops hurt by troubles in real estate are recovering but are still worth far less than before the Great Recession.
New state figures show greenhouse and nursery products remain the state's most valuable sector. They brought in $667 million last year. But, the d ...
Thursday, July 14, 2011 8:42 AM
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. -- From those setting up their first cut-flower venture to veterans of two decades, members of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers met here June 26 for their regional meeting.
It was part "how to," and part dreams of taking on the South American floral importers th ...
Thursday, June 30, 2011 12:00 PM
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) -- Ann Dolney, Ann's Greenhouse namesake and its multi-tasking matriarch, can usually be found in Greenhouse No. 1, answering the phone, cashing out customers, or responding to gardening questions, her lively blue eyes in constant motion as she talks and jokes with custo ...
Thursday, June 09, 2011 3:48 PM
A large wholesale nursery in California has filed for bankruptcy, citing overly optimistic forecasts about the speed of the economic recovery.
Nurserymen's Exchange near Half Moon Bay, Calif., is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which prevents creditors from seizing collateral while the ...
Thursday, June 02, 2011 12:00 PM
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A local institution that heralded spring -- the Wichita Garden Show -- is shutting down.
The show, which had taken place for 44 years, was going to have only one centerpiece "great garden" next year, garden show manager Alex Lingg said. Board member Cathy B ...
Thursday, May 26, 2011 8:34 AM
Damp and cool conditions are typically conducive to sudden oak death, but Oregon nurseries haven't seen a surge in the fungal-like pathogen despite the dreary weather this spring.
The disease has been detected at three Oregon nurseries so far in 2011, which is the same number as at this point las ...
Thursday, May 19, 2011 11:00 AM
SILVERTON, Ore. -- Hundreds of FFA competitors from across Oregon last month learned about one of the top agricultural industries in the state -- nursery.
The FFA Floriculture Contest, held on the new campus of Silverton High School, is a career development event that aims to build knowledge and ...
Thursday, May 19, 2011 12:00 PM
SEATTLE -- Growers from Oregon, Washington and Alaska have joined forces to meet Seattle's demand for cut flowers, greens and ornamentals.
The Seattle Wholesale Growers Market Cooperative has set up shop in a historic brewery, with 15 members so far planning to bring in a wide variety of plants.
...
Thursday, April 28, 2011 12:00 PM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A federal agency says that Willamette Tree Wholesale Inc. has agreed to pay $150,000 to four Oregon farmworkers to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday the Molalla company failed to inves ...
Friday, April 22, 2011 8:58 AM
Cameron Nursery LLC, one of central Washington's major commercial tree fruit nurseries, sustained damage from last fall's pre-Thanksgiving freeze, a spokesman said.
Located near Eltopia, 17 miles north of Pasco, the nursery was in an area where temperatures had been relatively high and took a dra ...
Thursday, March 24, 2011 9:00 AM