Horticulture 2

Floral design

  • line flowers
    • creates shape
    • Tall spikes of flowers with florets
    • Creates an outline
    • Establishes height and width
    • Snapdragons or gladiolus
  • Mass flowers
    • flower head on the of a stem
    • Mass and weight
    • Helps Fill in empty areas
    • Carnations, roses, chrysanthemum
  • Form flowers
    • unique in shape or colour
    • focal point
    • Bird of paradise or orchid
  • Filler flowers
    • Small spray of flowers or like ferns
    • Used to fill in empty spaces
    • Covering or hiding mechanics of the design
    • Baby’s breath, or statice

Floral design shapes

  • Round
    • Circle
  • Oval
    • Egg
  • Fan
    • Semicircle
  • Triangle
    • equilateral or asymmetrical
  • Right angle
    • makes a L shape
  • Inverted T
    • upside down T
  • Vertical
    • straight up and down
  • Horizontal
    • Side to side
  • Diagonal
    • Half way between vertical and horizontal
  • Crescent
    • Quarter moon
  • Hogarth curve
    • S curve

Design principles

  • Balance
  • Focal point
  • Proportion
  • Scale
  • Accent
  • Repetition
  • Rhythm
  • Harmony
  • Unity

Turf Grass Management

Turf characteristics

  • cool season grasses
    • grows best in the spring- fall
    • Stays green in the winter
    • Established in the fall
  • Warm season grasses
    • grows better in the summer
    • Brown in the winter

Growth habits

  • rhizome
    • underground stem, grows horizontally
  • Stolon
    • above ground stem, grows horizontally
  • Bunch
    • blades grow in small clusters

Tall Fescue

- cool

- medium green

- medium to coarse texture

- bunch

- very good wear

- sun/part shade

Kentucky Bluegrass

- cool

- medium to dark green

- rhizome

- very good wear

- sun

Red Fescue

- cool

- medium green colour

- fine texture

- rhizome

- fair wear

- shade

Creeping Bluegrass

- cool

- bluish green

- fine texture

- stolon

- poor wear

- sun

Centipede

- warm

- light to dark green

- medium texture

- stolon

- poor wear

- sun

St. Augustine

- warm

- light to dark green

- fine texture

- stolon and rhizome

- excellent wear

- sun

Bermuda

- warm

- light to dark green

- fine texture

- stolon and rhizome

- excellent wear

- sun

Zoysia

- warm

- light to dark green

- fine texture

- stolon and rhizome

- good wear

- sun and part shade

(Not used alone for lawns |)

Annual Rye

- over seeding fields and some lawns

- cool

- light green

- medium texture

- bunch

- good wear

- sun

Bahia

- not for lawns, used for high way grass

- warm

- medium to dark green

- coarse texture

- rhizome

- good wear

- sun

Perennial Rye

- seeded with Kentucky bluegrass

- cool

- medium green colour

- fine texture

- bunch

- very good wear

- sun

Viable = easy to germinate

Inert ingredients = plants that are not viable

Weed seed = any seed not labelled as other crop ???

Noxious weed = invasive and hard to control

Principles of Design

  • balance
    • symmetrical
    • Assymetical
    • Proximal (left right, near and far)
  • Macro Range
    • Seeing the landscape from the most distance
  • Micro Range
    • Seeing it from other locations that are not distant
  • Focalisation
  • Simplicity
  • Rhythm and line
  • Proportion
  • Unity

Types of landscape plans

  • sequential
    • each getting increasingly more specific with detail
  • Outdoor
    • private area, public area, utility area, family/play area
  • Preliminary designs
    • Breaks the bubble diagram down
  • Final plans
    • Suggestions and reactions to make a master drawing
  • Computer assisted or drawing board
    • computer aided design or hand drawn

3 branches of the landscaping industry

  1. Landscape architects
  2. landscape contractors
  3. landscape maintenance

Planting and Maintenance

  • Balled and burlapped (b&b)

    • Handle by the root ball
  • Bareroot plants

    • Mound or dome
  • Mulching

    • suppresses weed
    • Needs to be refreshed or replaced sometimes
    • Ground bark, pine needles, stone shredded rubber

    Pruning

    -forsythia, azaleas and spirea need to pruned immediately after their flowers fall off

    - roses, butterfly bush, crepe myrtle should be pruned in fall or early spring

  • Methods of Pruning

    • Thinning (removing certain branches to open up the plant)
    • Heading Back (removing the end section of branches for a thicker plant)
    • Renewal (removes old branches that are large and unproductive)
    • Root (done during growing season prior to transplanting)
  • Tools

    • Pruning Saw (live or dead limbs)
    • Pole pruner (removing high up branches)
    • grass shears
    • Lopping shears (long handle, short limbs)
    • Hand Shears/Pruning shears
    • Hedge Shears (long blades, trim hedges or shape shrubs)
    • Chain Saw

Greenhouse Managment

The “Greenhouse Effect” is when heat collects and is stored from the sun.

which provides a protective environment to grow plants

Greenhouse structures:

  • Detached Houses //easy to maintain temperature, and ventilation but higher cost and more energy

    • Quonset (half moon, plastic panels)
    • Lean To (slopes one way, faces south)
    • Even Span (roof is equal width)
    • Uneven Span (one side of the roof is longer than the other)
  • Connected houses //requires less area, heat loss is less, but gutters shade part of the greenhouse and snowbuilds up in the gutters.

    • Ridge and Furrow (even span structures placed one after another)
    • Barrel Vault (Quonset houses set on sidewalls)
    • Dutch Venlo (ridge and furrow contruction, a lot of light)
    • Saran Covered (Increases intensity of bright sunlight, florist crops

Greenhouse Equipment

- heaters

- thermostats

- timers

- evaporative cooling systems

- Exhaust Fans

- vents

- circulation fans

- misting systems

- overhead irrigation system

- drip irrigation

- lights

Annual= plant that completes their life cycle in ONE year

Biennial= plant that completes their life cycle in TWO years

Perennial= plant that lives MORE than 2 years

Sow= to plant seeds (direct which is no transplanting necessary, and indirect which needs to move between soils, flats, trays and pots)

Media= soil

Deadheading= removal of spent or dead flowers

Pinch= removal of the top part of a plant

Full sun= at least 6 hours of sun each day

Part shade= morining sun till 12, no afternoon sun

Shade= few hours of morning sun, then filtered light/full shade

Bedding Plant soils (Media)

  • Vermiculite (sterile, mica)
  • Perlite (volcanic rock)
  • Peat Moss (moss found in bogs)
  • Sand (grounded up stone)

Bark

Containers

  • flat
    • platic tray, holds cell pack
  • Cell Pack
    • several small cells
  • Peat Pots
    • insulate the roots, goes in the soil
  • Eco Pots
    • expensive, plants and vegetable oil
  • Jiffy 7
    • compressed peat moss covered in mesh, expands in water

Bedding Plant Problems:

  • Cultural disorders
    • seed germination problems (wrong temp, over/under watering, low quality seeds)
    • Seed germination solutions (the opposite of the problems)
    • Fertilisation issues
    • uneven growth
    • Tall and spindly growth
  • Diseases
    • damping off
    • Botrytis
    • Use STERILE soil
    • improve air circulation
  • Pests
    • plants or seedling missing because of snails, slugs, roaches
    • Holes in leaves, damage, missing parts
    • aphids (green)
    • Mealybugs (white)
    • Spider mites (red)
    • Scale (brown)
    • Thrip (translucent)
    • Whiteflies (powdery)
    • Fungus gnats (wet environments)
    • Leaf Miner
    • Cut worms (chew stems)
    • Slugs (slimy)
    • Caterpillars (eat plants)

Nursery Production

tree containers = PNP, B&B, Bareroot

Shrubs = container, PNP, B&B

Perennials = container, PNP

Sexual (seed)

  • stratification (chilling seeds to stimulate winter conditions
  • Scarification (breaking the seed coat)

Asexual

  • cuttings
  • Grafting
  • Budding
  • Layering

Soil for containers:

  • must be POROUS
  • soilless media
  • Ex) peat, perlite, vermiculite, bark, amendments

Soil for planting in the ground:

  • use NATIVE soil
  • Soil testing
  • Organic fresh material being composted
  • Ex) grass clippings, saw dust, compost, manure

Marketing

Use this formula to determine your price

Materials + overhead + labour = Selling Price

Promotion!

  • advertisement
  • Public relations
  • Personal contacts
  • Communications

Placement!

  • convenient for the customer
  • Shipping, delivery, internet ordering, nursery pick up

Nursery management

Structure and growing environment

  • climate
  • Soil
  • Topography
  • Water source
  • Plant material
  • Production method

(AI)

Horticulture is the science and art of cultivating plants. It includes the study of plant physiology, genetics, breeding, propagation, and management. Horticulturists work to improve plant growth, yield, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to pests and diseases. They also develop new plant varieties and techniques for growing plants in different environments. Horticulture is an important field for agriculture, landscaping, and environmental conservation.