Students Canadensis

Horticultured

[students-canadensis]

Christmas Tree Insight

Student E: 

Since it is getting close to Christmas, there is buzz going around my home to get all the Christmas chores done before the big day. The are some seemingly hard tasks like picking out gifts for that special someone, and then there is seemingly easy ones like picking out a Christmas tree. 

Photo Courtesty: Wikipedia Commons

There are many different species of Christmas trees popular in North America, that can be broken up into the main species: white pine, Douglas fir, and Norway spruce. 

White pine is a good Christmas tree since they don’t shed their needles but they do come with some cons like a lack of scent and weak needles that can’t support heavy ornaments. I prefer a nice strong tree to hang my John Deer ornaments on, so this one is out for my family. They would be number 3 on my list overall. 

Norway spruce has a fair color and aroma, while the needle retention can be considered poor if not fresh cut. I don’t want to be vacuuming every other day this year so, this tree ranks 2nd on my list. 

Douglas fir is next being the most aromatic of the three trees. The overall color of this tree can vary from a dark green to a blue green. They also have great needle retention. 

This tree would rank 1st on my list- and so it does! Douglas is coming to Christmas at my home.

If you want to invest the time and money, there are many variations to choose from! But get your priorities ready before your go. Do you want long needles, soft needles, dropping needles, or colored needles? I hope this brief description of three popular trees will aid in your selection process.

Happy Holidays!

E

[students-canadensis]

Avocado Propagation/How to get extra guacamole

Student D:

Who doesn’t love Guacamole! As horticulture students we all have a plant or two growing at home. In my house, it’s avocados! It’s A fun and easy experiment to do at home with the kids too! You can eat your nachos, and grow a new avocado from the stone of your proven delicious avocado!

Materials needed:

1)  4 toothpicks

2) an avocado

3) glass of water

4) pot and soil

Steps:

1) Make guacamole (not necessary but why waste good avocado?) *save avocado pit.*

2) The roundish pit will be narrower at one end, puncture a few holes in this end with a toothpick.

3) Insert the tooth picks inside the pit around all four sides and leave them in.

4) Place the avocado pit, narrow site up, on top of a glass of water to so the toothpicks hold the pit up on top of the full glass.

Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

5) Make sure the water is submerging half of the pit.

6) Place in sunlight and wait for a sprout.

7) Transfer to soil when the sprout reaches 6 inches.

Whats happening? 

When you puncture the papery seed coat and place it in the glass, the seed starts to take up water, this is known as imbibition. When the water finds its way into the seed the material awakens from its dormancy and starts to grow, that is to say it metabolically activates. The punctured holes in the top of the seed provide a path of least resistance out of the protective seed coat for the sprout.

**Just like you an avocado likes clean water, warm sunlight, and good air circulation!**

**Now you can have an entire tree from that one bowl of guacamole!**

[students-canadensis]

Entry the Third: The Dreaded Trademark

Student M:

I was walking through the tree nursery on a research trip. Reading all of the names of the plants, I had to ask... Are these names, as it were, natural?

In some cases, the name we are seeing might be a trademarked name. Such names are followed by a ® or a ™ denoting a registered or unregistered trademark respectively. This indicates a plant name that can only be used by the owner of the trademark unless permission has been given. Usually, the plant has been given this name because the owner of the trademark has cultivated the plant and placed a patent upon it.

Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons

What is a patent? A patent restricts anyone from growing or selling a plant without permission, while the trademark restricts only the usage of a name. These patents last for only 20 years, after which they no longer apply and the plant is fair game to anyone.

Now, when a patent is placed upon a new cultivar, the owner is able to register the cultivar name on top of the trademark name. This is where the problems occur. Let us look at an example quickly to sum up how all these things come together to make a problem.

For our example, here is the plant Ilex vomitora ‘Gremicr’ Micron®. The base plant is Ilex vomitora, or yaupon holly. The nursery has developed a cultivar and named it ‘Gremicr’ which is a name anyone may use without issue once the patent has run out. However, they have registered the name Micron®. 

So, the issue, then. Gardeners will come to know this specific plant as Micron®. Once the patent has run its course and other nurseries are permitted to propogate and sell the plant, they may not advertise it by Micron® and may only use the name ‘Gremicr’.

‘Gremicr’ is a much uglier name, which may drive customers away from a nursery, even though they do indeed carry the plant that the customer seeks. And this is a common problem in the horticultural community. 

[students-canadensis]

Student J:

Even though our classes were still scheduled, the school always takes a moment of silence to appreciate those who serve and have served to afford us this freedom.

On our lapels to show support: A poppy. Or was we know it Papaver rhoeas - common poppy

This plant is an herbaceous annual flower that has become a symbol of our fallen soldiers since the First World War where it grew between the trenches of no-man’s land. Its flowers a bright red in the summer and grows 1-3 ft with a spread of 6-12 inches. This plant was originally thought to be native in southern Europe and North Africa however it has naturalized itself in many other places around the world including North America, Asia, and Much of Europe. Ways to identify this plant are by its bright red flowers where the sepals are petaloids and look like part of the flower, also the plant has attractive seed pods which are in the center of the flower.

Lest We Forget

Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

[students-canadensis]

This is a blog! Written by four Horticulture students! E, D, J,&  M! 

Over the month of November we will be posting interesting facts regarding our exploits in horticulture education! 

First we’ll teach you the first thing we learned!                                           

Binomial Nomenclature!

It means giving things two names!  All living things are assigned a scientific name by the community. Most are Latin based. The first word is the Genus, or family. For instance, Quercus Macrocarpa, commonly known as bur oak. Anytime you see the name Quercus you know it is of the Oak family. Quercus is the Genus and Marcocarpa gets more specific with describing which oak it is. This is known as the Specific Epithet. In this case Macrocarpa designates this Quercus as a burr oak. Macrocarpa is Latin for “large fruited” because these oaks have large acorns.

In case of our blog’s name “Student: we are Students! Students from Canada, and therefore Canadensis. Check back with Students Canadensis for more Horticultured updates. Get it? Horticultured. ha!

Regards,

E, D, J, & M.

Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons