Page 37 - MNLGA Free State Summer 2024_WEB
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Quince buds are harvested before for years. When they were planting in spring to force straight annual
Christmas, then stored to be sold woody shrubs, they bought almost all growth.”
in January. Other woody stems their stock from vendors they met at
The Uvas deal with the same pests
produced at Seaberry are apple the show. They joined MNLGA during
the rest of the horticulture industry
blossoms, Bridal Wreath spirea, the COVID pandemic in 2021. “We
does, such as scale and fungus.
dogwood, forsythia, hydrangeas, haven’t been nursery growers, so we
lilac, mock orange, red bud, star didn’t join earlier,” Rick explained. Cherries present a particular problem.
magnolia, viburnum, winter hazel “We want flowering cherries. We have
“It’s interesting,” Rick continued. “When
and witch hazel. issues controlling vigor, where we get
I grow woodies for floral use, I need too much vegetative growth and not
Fruiting branches include Callicarpa good annual stem length, so I can cut enough flowers. We try to balance
americana (native beautyberry), off stems 3 to 4 feet long. The industry that out culturally,” Rick said.
crabapple and winterberry in yellow, is trending toward dwarf woody
orange and red. plants. However, the faster growing, Harvest for their flowering stems
larger stuff works for us: willow, large can start in late October, with sales
“We sell a lot of winterberry holly at through April or March. “With cherry,
Christmas. We come close to selling forsythia, red stem dogwood… They or peach, if it gets warm, we can push
out. It’s one of our most popular get tall fast. The new varieties are not out and move quickly to cut at once
crops. Another is pussy willow.” what we can use. and keep stems in the cooler for a few
“Most of the stuff for landscape
Even bare stems have value. The weeks.
farm sells curly willow, fantail willow, planting, buyers want compact “We can force branches in the
walking stick, pussy willow with plants. We want vigor, plants that are greenhouse in water. We have been
white or black fuzzy flowers and red grown for use as stems. How to space doing that for a while. We’ve got
or yellow stem dogwood or Winter these has always been challenge. pretty good records of dates, what
Flame. Some of our stuff should have been
spaced farther apart, especially if we stage to cut so buds will open. We
The Uvas have attended MANTS miss a harvest, then have two years experimented with forcing when we
growth. We do a lot of cutting back (continued on next page)
Membership Matters • SUMMER 2024 37
