Perennial
WOOSTER, Ohio The fifth
annual Perennial School will be
conducted on the Wooster
campus of the Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development
Center June 27-28.
The two-day event is co
sponsored by OARDC’s Secrest
Arboretum and Ohio State Uni
versity Extension’s Nursery,
Landscape, and Turf Team.
The school is an intensive
two-day course (17 hours),
which will pertain to perennials
including selection, horticul
tural practices, and pest man
agement. Participants will
explore Secrest Arboretum,
attend presentations, and par
ticipate in hands-on learning
through interactive exercises
and diagnostics.
Registration for the event is
limited to 70 participants and
the deadline for all registrations
is Friday, June 16. Cost for the
two-day event is $175 and in
cludes a continental breakfast
on Wednesday, lunch both days,
dinner on Tuesday, the diagnos
tic clinic, outdoor labs, and a
notebook of materials and pres
entations.
The school will begin at 8 a.m.
on Tuesday with check in at
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School Set June 27-28
Ohio State University Agricul
tural Technical Institute’s Ap
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At 8:25 a.m., guest speaker
Alan M. Armitage, a horticul
ture professor from the Univer
sity of Georgia, will be talking
about “Up and Coming Peren
nials.”
“He (Armitage) is an expert
in perennial plants, perennial
herbaceous plants and the cut
flower industry,” said arbore
tum curator Ken Cochran. “The
cut flower industry is where a
person grows acres of a plant
and then sells them to florists.
The grower also may conduct
research on these types of
plants.”
After a break at 9:35 a.m., Ar
mitage will speak about “Herba
ceous Perennials for Cut
Flowers.”
This year’s school will also
feature something new two
field trips have been added into
Tuesday’s events. The trips in
clude a tour of Quailcrest Farms
in Wooster, and Wade and
Gatton Display Garden and
Nurseries in BeUville, Ohio.
“We decided to try something
new this year,” Cochran said.
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“Both of these places have ex
cellent display gardens for
perennials.”
Participants will board buses
at 11 a.m. and head for Quail
crest Farms in Wooster. They
will arrive at the farm at about
11:30 a.m. and form two groups.
Group A will tour Quailcrest
Farms and Group B will partici
pate in a seminar titled “Diag
nostics of Herbaceous
Perennials.’ After lunch at
12:30, the two groups will switch
places.
“The diagnostic clinics will
allow participants to bring in
specimens with various prob
lems, and we will then help them
identify what type of problem it
is,” Cochran said.
The group will leave the farm
at about 3:30 p.m. and head to
the Wade and Gatton Display
Gardens and Nurseries.
Participants will again be split
into two groups. Group A will
tour the gardens and Group B
will participate in another diag
nostic clinic. The groups will
switch places after dinner at
6:30 p.m. Events will conclude
on Tuesday evening at about
8:30 p.m.
On Wednesday, participants
will be served a continental
breakfast at 7:45 a.m. Ohio
State’s Michael Knee, professor
of horticulture and crop science,
will speak on “U.S./British Gar
dens” at 8:15 a.m.
At 10:15 a.m., participants
will be taken to an OARDC
home off of route 83 in which
they will participate in a hands
on planting demonstration
called “Landscape Planting
with Perennials.”
“We are going to incorporate
woody landscape plants with
perennials for foundation plant
ing around the home,” Cochran
said. “Foundation planting is
around the house as opposed to
landscape planting, which
simply plants everywhere.”
“We will divide the people up
into six groups, and they are
going to go around the house
and physically work on this for
about an hour and a half. We
will have the ground and beds
prepared so they are going to ba
Robert Foster Receives Big E
Agricultural Adventurers Award
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 17, 2000-A29
sically just install the plants, and
when they get done they will see
the finished project as opposed
to when they arrived and the
around was bare.”
After lunch, participants will
learn “Propagation of Herba
ceous Perennials,” taught by
Jim Brady of Sunbeam Gardens,
Inc., in Avon, Ohio. At 1:45
p.m., Dave Shetlar will talk
about perennial plant insects,
and “Weed Management in
Perennials” given by Randy
Zondag of the OSU extension in
Lake County, will be the last
topic of the day at 3 p.m.
For more information about
the event, call Sandy Winkley at
Secret Arboretum, (330) 263-
3761; Jack Kerrigan, Cuyahoga
County office of OSU Extension,
(216) 397-6000; Charles Behnke,
Lorain County office of OSU
Extension, (440) 326-5851; or
Denise Ellsworth in the Stark
/Summit office of OSU Exten
sion, (330) 497-1611, ext. 21.
WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. The New
England Fellowship of Agricultural Adven
turers presented Robert Foster, Middiebury,
Vt., with the 2000 Agricultural Adventurers
Award here at the annual meeting of trustees
of Eastern States Exposition May 18.
Foster, who operates the 1,900-acre Foster
Brothers Farm with his wife, Nancy, his
father, and other family members, is credited
with producing a new product electricity
from cow manure from the farm’s 380
milking Holsteins. The year was 1982 and the
concept was new at the time in the U.S., but
had been used in several foreign countries.
The Fosters’ environmental concerns led
them to build an anaerobic digester, which
acts as a large incubator for methane
producing bacteria. The fresh cow manure is
warmed and “ferments” to produce methane
gas, a clean burning, environmentally safe
source of fuel used to generate electricity. The
electricity became a source of energy for the
farm and the excess was sold to a local power
company.
In 1991 the Fosters began using the solid
residue, which is odorless and free of contam
inants and weeds, to develop a line of com
post potting materials. The material, which
contains no volatile nitrogen compounds, is
composted to yield a peat-like substance.
Unlike peat moss, the digested manure is a re
newable resource. The products, marketed by
Vermont Natural Ag Products, a subsidiary
of Foster Brothers Farm, are found in nurser
ies and garden stores throughout the North
east under the names of Moo Doo, Moo Grow,
Moo Dirt, and others.
Foster is an active member of Agri-Mark
and Yankee Milk dairy cooperatives, serving
as a director from Region 10. He is a past vice
chairman of Agri-Mark, holding that position
from 1992-1997. He serves as vice chairman
of the Vermont Beef Promotion Council and
the Green Mountain Dairy Cooperative Fed
eration. He is also a member of the University
of Vermont’s College of Life Sciences Advi
sory Board and the Vermont Dairy Promo
tion Council.
A graduate of the University of Vermont,
Foster has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural
engineering and a master’s degree in agricul
tural economics.
Since 1953, the fellowship has honored out
standing leaders in New England agriculture.
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