ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS 



Turfgrass, 1999 



The second annual New England 

 Regional Turfgrass Conference 

 and Show (NERTCS) will take 

 place March 2-4, 1999, at the 

 Rhode Island Convention Center 

 in Providence. 



The three-day trade show will 

 feature over 300 exhibitors; semi- 

 nars will include sessions on golf 

 course management, lawn and 

 landscape care, sports turf, and 

 machinery and shop maintenance. 



Presented by the New England 

 Regional Turfgrass Foundation in 

 cooperation with the University 

 of Rhode Island and the Univer- 

 sity of Massachusetts, NERTCS 

 welcomes additional exhibitors 

 and all interested attendees. Pro- 

 ceeds go to support turf research 

 and education. 



For information, contact the 

 show office at 401-848-0004. 



New President at BPI 



Henry Huntington, Pleasant View 

 Gardens, recently became presi- 

 dent of Bedding Plants Interna- 

 tional (BPI), a national growers 

 organization (at one time, known 

 as the Professional Plant Growers 

 Association) that recently has 

 been through some turbulent 

 path-finding and redirection. 



With a new executive director, 

 Dick Goodson of Diversified Man- 

 agement Services, Des Moines, 

 and an upbeat ("Mile High with 

 BPI") convention in Denver, the 

 foundations for focus ("member- 

 ship participation is key") and 

 growth seem in place. We wish 

 Henry a successful term. 



While on Otiier Boards... 



Greenhouse Grower, 

 September, 1998 



The Ohio Florists' Association 

 (OFA) has elected Lisa Graf, Dou- 

 glas Cole, Deborah Sweeton, Dave 



Cuthbert, and Kathy Benken to 

 three-year terms on its board of 

 directors. 



Anotiier Factor Codified 



Most people are familiar with the 

 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 

 Maps. Using these maps — first 

 published in 1960 and updated in 

 1990, a serious gardener can de- 

 termine what plants will winter 

 over in his or her part of the 

 country and choose appropriately. 

 Today, most reference books, 

 nursery catalogs, and gardening 

 magazines refer to these zones. 



Now, the American Horticul- 

 tural Society (AHS) has catego- 

 rized and mapped another zone. 

 This is the Heat Zone. The effects 

 of heat are more subtle than those 

 of cold — cold will kill instantly, 

 while heat damage can occur in 

 many ways: buds wither; leaves 

 droop or become more attractive 

 to insects; chlorophyll disappears; 

 roots stop growing. 



The AHS heat zone maps are 

 used in the same way as the har- 

 diness maps. The map's twelve 

 zones indicate the average num- 

 ber of "heat days" that a given 

 region experiences. A heat day is 

 a day with temperatures of at 

 least 86 F (30 C)— the point at 

 which most plants begin suffering 

 physiologically. The zones range 

 from Zone 12 (210 heat days) to 

 Zone 1 (no heat days). 



In coming months, heat zone 

 designations will be joining plant 

 hardiness zone designations in 

 reference books and catalogs. Des- 

 ignations will be indicated by 

 four numbers. The first two show 

 the hardiness range; the second, 

 the range of heat that can be tol- 

 erated. The hardiness numbers 

 give the coolest zone — the lowest 

 number first; the heat zone, the 

 hotest. A tulip may have "3-8, 8- 

 1" beside it and if you live in 

 USDA Zone 5 and AHS Zone 4, 



you will know that you can leave 

 tulips in your garden year-round. 

 You will know that ageratum (10- 

 11, 12-1) can withstand summer 

 heat throughout the United States, 

 but can overwinter only in the 

 warmest spots. 



Gardeners often categorize, us- 

 ing terms such as "annual," "pe- 

 rennial," and "tropical," but many 

 of what we consider annuals are 

 capable of living for years in a 

 frost-free environment. The heat 

 map will begin to clarify this mis- 

 nomer. 



The data used to create the 

 map were obtained from the ar- 

 chives of the National Climatic 

 Data Center. From these ar- 

 chives. Meteorological Evalua- 

 tion Services Company, Inc., in 

 Amityville, New York — which 

 was also involved in the cre- 

 ation of the hardiness map — 

 compiled and analyzed National 

 Weather Service (NWS) daily 

 high temperatures recorded be- 

 tween 1975 and 1995. Within the 

 contiguous 48 states, only data 

 from NWS stations recording 

 maximum daily temperatures for 

 at least twelve years was in- 

 cluded. (Due to the amount of 

 missing data in Alaska and Ha- 

 waii, the 12-year requirement 

 was reduced to seven.) Informa- 

 tion from a total of 7,831 

 weather stations was processed; 

 information from 4,745 was 

 used. 



It will take several years for 

 the majority of garden plants to 

 be coded (after almost 40 years, 

 the zone ratings of the hardiness 

 map are still being perfected). In 

 this age of information, more in- 

 formation than ever is at a 

 gardener's disposal. 



(This information was taken 

 from an AHS Resource Bulletin 

 compiled by Marc Cathey. To or- 

 der a full-color poster of the AHS 

 Heat Map— at $14.95 each— call 1- 

 800-777-7931.) 



OCTOBER.NOVEMBER.199i 



