LSU AgCenter
Ornamental Horticulture
E-News & Trial Garden Notes
Late October 2015
Nursery, Landscape & Garden Center Updates
Compiled by Allen Owings, Professor (Horticulture), Hammond Research Station, LSU AgCenter
Edited by Rick Bogren, Professor (Communications), LSU AgCenter
Phone 985-543-4125; Email aowings@agcenter.lsu.edu; www.lsuagcenter.com/hammond
Landscape News Articles (from Allen Owings and Rick Bogren)
Best New Bedding Plants for 2016 in 2015 Trials – October 16
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/news_archive/2015/October/headline_news/LSUAgCenter-names-top-bedding-plants-in-2015-trials-.htm
Locally Grown Landscape Plants – October 23
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/news_archive/2015/October/headline_news/The-bestlandscape-plants-are-grown-locally-.htm
Six Years of Louisiana Super Plants – October 30
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/news_archive/2015/October/headline_news/Enhance-yourlandscape-with-Louisiana-Super-Plants-.htm
Louisiana Super Plant – Homestead Purple Verbena
Louisiana Super Plant – Leslie Ann Camellia
Establishing a new fig orchard at Hammond (from Allen Owings,
Charlie Johnson, Jason Stagg and Joey Quebedeaux)
Figs (Ficus carica L.) have been an important fruit crop in Louisiana for over 150 years
and are one of the most popular small fruit crops grown here. Small orchards supporting
local market areas can be found primarily in south Louisiana, but trees are still grown as
a residential dooryard fruit crop in every parish. With local farmers markets becoming
more prominent in major population areas of the state, there is now more demand for
fresh figs for local sales. Fig trees are relatively easy to grow and can easily fit into an
organic food production system.
About 10-15 varieties of figs are commonly sold in Louisiana, but some individuals and
small nurseries have numerous additional varieties. Interest is growing about fig
cultivars that perform well in Louisiana – not only those released previously by the LSU
AgCenter but also some of the historically important older varieties. Because this
interest in figs is creating demand beyond the normal fruit harvesting industry, a new fig
research orchard will soon be established at the LSU AgCenter Hammond Research
Station.
In the 1950s, a fig breeding program was initiated by the LSU AgCenter to develop
cultivars for the Gulf South region of the U.S. Although this breeding effort was officially
discontinued in the early1960s, elite selections from this program were maintained over
the years. Selections from this group were eventually chosen to be released as cultivars
because of their superior fruiting characteristics. The releases were named
Champagne, LSU Gold, LSU Purple, O’Rourke, Tiger, and Scott’s Black (previously
listed as breeding number L55-2-66). These selections are distinct from other available
fig cultivars and offer a unique blend of color and size for commercial and residential
use. These cultivars enhance the diversity of fruit characteristics offered for sale and
produce larger, good quality fruit that can increase demand.
The LSU AgCenter has one of the few accurately current “true-to-type” fig variety
collections in the multi-state area. The new research orchard at Hammond will serve as
an accurate germplasm collection, which will allow industry cooperators to obtain
cuttings of desired varieties for 10-20 years into the future.
Figs are easily propagated and can be grown to a saleable tree in about 10 months, so
this should present a good opportunity for local plant nurseries. Over a 24-30 month
period, the orchard will also provide data on initial growth habit and patterns, initial
fruiting, ease of propagation, cold damage and disease susceptibility. A revised LSU
AgCenter list of recommended fig varieties will be developed (not updated since 2001).
The new fig orchard at Hammond will be located on the site of the former grape orchard
and will be prepared by establishing 12-to-18-inch raised rows that will be 20 to 22 feet
apart. The site will continue to be limed to raise the soil pH to 6.0-6.5. Between 20 and
25 cultivars of figs will eventually be planted in replication in the orchard. Besides the six
released LSU cultivars noted above, the station has collected the following varieties that
will also be planted: Alma, Celeste, Hardy Chicago, Hunt, Ithaca, Jack Lily, Kadota,
Magnolia, Marseilles, Smith, Southeast Brown Turkey and Texas Everbearing.
Gulf States Horticultural Expo (January 20-22, 2016)
HOLD THE DATE
EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS – Wednesday, January 20
TRADE SHOW – Thursday, January 21, and Friday, January 22
Louisiana Super Plants 2016
Native Plant Demonstration and Evaluation (from Yan Chen, Allen
Owings, Gina Hebert and Jason Stagg)
A native plant is one that occurs naturally in a particular region, ecosystem or habitat
without direct or indirect human intervention. For urban and suburban environments,
native plants help minimize negative impact of human dwelling by improving overall
continuity of natural habitats for insects, birds and other wildlife. For consumers,
landscape designs incorporated with native plants provide a sense of place, an
experience with local flora and fauna, and most importantly, less reliance on fertilizer,
pesticides and water if the native plants are planted with preferred site conditions.
At the Hammond Research Station, many native plants can be found in the Penny
woods, Mrs. Margie’s Azalea Garden and the urban forestry area. Since 2014, a new
native plant demonstration and evaluation area was developed in the Care &
Maintenance area featuring native grass, forbs and small shrubs.
Plantings were designed to have increasing amounts of native plants as design
components and demonstrate completely non-native plants, natives as companion
plants to non-natives, and designs that use native plants only. Plant growth and
maintenance requirements are being recorded and compared among designs, and
overall plot aesthetic appearance and consumer preference will be assessed by
gardeners with different gardening experience levels (Photo 1).
For native grass, efforts have been made to demonstrate locally collected species that
(1) provide seasonal interests in the gardens with leaf/inflorescence color, shape and
texture, or (2) are excellent candidates for manipulation to produce dwarf and turf-type
plantings for non-mown areas or areas requiring minimum mowing. Grasses selected
for these purposes will be further evaluated for planting time, growth and maintenance
requirements, and container production requirements.
Native grasses that can be viewed in the plots include:
Indiangrass, Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash
Little bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx) Nash
Narrow-leaf bluestem, Schizachyrium tenerum
Purple-top, Tridens favus L.
Purple lovegrass, Eragrostis spectabilis (Pursh) Steud.
Sideoats gramma grass, Bouteloua hirsuta
Split-beard bluestem, Andropogon. ternarius Michx
Switch grass, Panicum virgatum L.
Native forbs:
Rudbeckia nidita, R. grandiflora, R. maxima, R. subtomentosa
Liatris elegans, rain lilies (Zephyranthes spp. and hybrids), several milkweeds,
etc.
Native shrubs that will be available in designed plots include:
Eastern sweetshrub, Calycanthus floridus L.
Sweet pepperbush, Clethra alnifolia L.
Swamp titi, Cyrilla racemiflora L.
Strawberry bush, Euonymus americanus L.
Gall berry (inkberry), Ilex glabra (L.) A. Gray
Dwarf southern waxmyrtle, Morella cerifera (L.) Small
Common hoptree, Ptelea trifoliate L.
Elliott’s blueberry, Vaccinium elliotii
Swamp-haw, Vaccinium nudum
Sparkleberry, Vaccinium arboretum
Why locally collected natives?
 Local herbivores, including native insects and birds, fish and toads that are
essential in the food chain, often cannot recognize non-native plants as food.
 Not all cultivated native plants can serve the local food chain the same as natives
and may even have negative effects, i.e., interbreed and weaken local
genotypes.
Production of narrow-leaf bluestem (front) and split-beard bluestem from seeds to 6inch size plants in a research greenhouse at the Hammond Research Station
Native plant demonstration plots at the Hammond Research Station Care &
Maintenance Area, featuring little bluestem, rudbeckia and indiangrass planted with
Double Knock Out roses.
LSU AgCenter Plant Diagnostic Clinic
LSU AgCenter Soil Testing and Plant Analysis Lab