News

2011 Plant Select winners announced
Plant Select annually chooses new and underutilized plants to promote to regional gardeners and landscape professionals. New plants are evaluated on their ability to thrive in a broad range of garden situations in the Rocky Mountain region, their resilience to the region’s climate, disease and insect resistance, ability to flourish in low water conditions, long season in the garden and noninvasiveness.

Two of the 2011 winners, Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’ and Osteospermum ‘Avalanche,’ are new to horticulture and have proven extremely hardy in regional trials. Five of the plants have been grown or known for years, but have been underutilized in regional landscapes. They include: Chrysothamnus nauseosus var. nauseosus, Amsonia jonesii, Erodium chrysanthum, Penstemon mensarum and Crataegus ambigua.

For more: Plant Select, (970) 481-3429; www.plantselect.org.

New banana variety has multiple uses
Americans eat 33 pounds of bananas per person each year and consume 31 percent of the world’s bananas. Bananas are also seeing increased use as ornamental plants. About 99 percent of the bananas consumed by Americans are imported, reports University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences economist Greg Fonsah.

Fonsah, who is head of the university’s banana project, is studying varieties that have the potential to be grown in the Southeast for commercial fruit production. One variety, Veinte Cohl, which was discovered in Florida, looks promising.

Veinte Cohl, is a short cycle banana that can be planted in April and produces fruit ready to harvest in October. Unlike other varieties that need three months to mature on the tree before harvest, Veinte Cohl bananas need just four to six weeks. Compared to the Cavendish variety that most Americans consume, Veinte Cohl bananas are smaller and have a tangier taste with a slight citrus flavor.

Veinte Cohl is hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 8A and can be grown as an ornamental or nursery plant. The university’s banana team is also looking at using bananas and their byproducts as alternative fuels.

Veinte Cohl is the right size for small growers since it can be produced for fun, part-time and for agri-tourism to supplement income, Fonsah said.

For more: Greg Fonsah, University of Georgia, (229) 386-3512; http://georgiafaces.caes.uga.edu.

APHIS requires advance shipping notice for some plants
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a Federal Order, effective March 1, 2011, requiring that interstate shipping nurseries located either in counties that are established as quarantined areas or in regulated counties that have previously tested positive for Phytophthora ramorum, to provide advance notification to destination states in non-regulated areas for certain high-risk plant species. Advance notification is necessary to enhance the traceability of potentially infected nursery stock and prevent the spread of harmful plant diseases such as sudden oak death, ramorum leaf blight and ramorum dieback which are caused by P. ramorum. This Federal Order supersedes the May 27, 2010, Federal Order regarding P. ramorum.

Under the requirements of the Federal Order, all nurseries located in the quarantine area that ship any species of Camellia, Kalmia, Pieris, Rhododendron (including Azalea) and Viburnum interstate to non-regulated areas must provide advance notification. Also, nurseries shipping any species of the above mentioned high-risk plant genera interstate to non-regulated areas must provide advance notification if they are located in regulated counties, with one or more interstate shippers that have tested positive for P. ramorum, since 2003.

For more: Greg Rosenthal, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, (301) 734-3265;  www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom.