Plant Talk
APRIL2015
by Michael Yanny
Homegrown—It’s Good Stuff!!!
Back in the 70’s, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
when my hair was halfway down my back, when Robin
Yount was truly ‘the kid’, when Pink Floyd was on tour, and
when a “google” was a drunk giggle,-- ‘homegrown’ had a
different meaning for some of us than it does now.
With the passing of time, things have changed. We have
grown up, matured and now refer to homegrown as those
fabulous, flavorful Wisconsin grown tomatoes. You can’t
beat them. The same goes for homegrown sweet corn. It’s
the best. No one would argue with that.
When it comes to nursery stock, it’s not so clear cut. First
off, clients don’t usually know if what they are buying is
homegrown or not. It is not as easy to distinguish which plants
came from here or were shipped in from who knows where.
Even at our nursery it is not always clear to our salespeople
which is which. We do both. To be perfectly honest with
you, in many cases it doesn’t matter. Kind of like carrots
or onions, most of us wouldn’t be able to taste a difference
between locally grown and bought in. But tomatoes,--come
on—there’s no comparison! In some cases, locally grown
nursery stock makes all the difference in the world.
Mike likes his homegrown Buckeyes. If he would move a little faster
they wouldn’t sprout in his hand.
This is especially true with items grown from seed for field
production. Our native Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor)
is a perfect example. When we purchase starter plants (liners)
from producers elsewhere in the country, trees typically
have problems with alkaline soil induced chlorosis. The
leaves turn yellow in our soils with pH readings from 7.27.8. To top it off, the growth rates become ridiculously slow.
Sometimes less than 50% of the crop can be sold. When we
produce homegrown stock from acorns that we select and
screen for chlorosis as babies, our percentages of saleable
trees typically goes to 90% or higher. (See pictures below)
In addition, our clients have much greater success with our
Swamp White Oaks establishing in their yards.
This is one of the reasons why our nursery decides to propagate
and grow certain plants. The plants that are available to buy
can be significantly inferior to the ones we can home grow.
Another example of homegrown superiority is Ironwood
(Ostrya virginiana). In the past, when we purchased liners
from outside producers, we ended up with trees that were not
sufficiently hardy for our area.
Quercus bicolor in the nursery with alkaline soil induced chlorosis (yellowing).
These trees came from acorns off of trees from another part of the U.S.
Quercus bicolor hybrid trees (Q. x schuttei) from homegrown locally collected
acorns. These were screened for alkaline soil tolerance as youngsters.
262.252.4980
APRIL
2015
Homegrown cont.
The seed provenance (the genetic origin) of the trees was
not known but was likely from an area considerably south
of Wisconsin. Genetically, the trees we purchased were
designed by nature for a climate with much longer seasons
and much milder winters than ours. Trees which we have
produced from our local seed sources perform beautifully in
our nursery and in the landscape. (See picture right)
Plants from different seed provenances can also have
variable ornamental characteristics. The Wisconsin ecotype
of American Filbert (Corylus americana) that we grow at
Johnsons Nursery has beautiful fall colors, mostly oranges
and reds. Those from eastern seed sources sometimes only
turn yellow at best (See bottom right picture). Homegrown is
definitely better in this case.
When dealing with clonal plant material (cultivars), buying
local is not as important but still can be very helpful when
you are specifying plant materials that you are not familiar
with. Predictability of ornamental and cultural characteristics
will typically be uniform throughout the crop. The advantage
to buying local cultivars is that the producer is successful in
getting a plant to size under your same local conditions. This
should give you a good indication that the plant will survive
in your prospective landscape. At JNI we are constantly
trying new plants to diversify our product line. Some turn
out to be great new plants and others have problems that we
only learn about by trialing them. (See winter burn pictures
on next page)
Ironwood fruit.
Hardy Ostrya virginiana from a local seed source.
Feel free to ask us about plants that we don’t have listed for
sale. Often times we have tried them and been unsuccessful
for some reason or other. We’d be more than happy to share
this information with you. If there is some plant you are
itching to know about, you can contact me.
At Johnson’s Nursery, an extensive line of native plants is
produced from locally picked seed. We are participating in
an effort by a number of environmentally conscious people
in our area to help preserve and use as much of our local
native plant material as is economically beneficial to our
business. By doing this we are helping support the ecology
of our region. Homegrown at its finest!
I like to think of ourselves and our businesses as just another
component in our ecosystem. When you think of it like this
you realize how important all of us are to each other. Our
job is to provide you with the best plants we can grow here
in Southeast Wisconsin. We want to help you help your
customers so that you will help us by buying our plants.
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Local Corylus americana with beautiful fall color.
Homegrown cont.
Your company and ours, along with all of our employees,
end up pumping more money into the local economy. It is
very similar to what happens in a natural ecosystem where
organisms depend on each other for various services.
Because we are in the same area, we have more insight and
understand each others problems better than those who are
not dealing with our geographically specific obstacles. If you
lost a plant out on a job over the winter due to climactic
circumstances, chances are we had the same thing happen
in our nursery. We can help you understand what happened.
If you have a problem with a plant that we sold you, it is
possible to come over and talk to us in person if you’d like.
We’re right here in the neighborhood.
For me personally, buying local has always been something
I’ve appreciated. I enjoy knowing the person that baked my
bread or grew my sweet corn. I really like talking to them
about what they do and how they do it. It’s fun meeting my
dentist’s kids and seeing how much they look and act like
him. My lawyer is one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to
meet, except in court! He has four kids and loves taking them
on walks in the park. He’s the youngest of 17 children and
his mother still remembers his name! (See picture bottom
right) It’s great when you can have a relationship with the
people you do business with, when you can get to the point
where you understand why they do things the way they do.
Buying local is about getting to know your neighbors and
being a part of a community. We at Johnson’s Nursery
certainly appreciate your business and enjoy knowing you
and helping you. We are proud to be a part of the community
and look forward to getting to know all of you more in the
future.
Picea glauca ‘Conica’ suffered winter burn throughout
the Milwaukee area in the winter of ‘13-’14.
The little known Picea abies cultivar ‘Will’s Zwergform’
had no winter burn in the winter of ‘13-’14 at the nursery.
My lawyer, Rob, is one of 17 children. That’s him
with his siblings, just to his Mom’s right.
Plant Talk Available Online
Each Plant Talk article is available online on the Johnson’s Nursery
website under the Contractor Sales section. Feel free to comment,
ask questions or begin new topics! As always, Mike Yanny can be
Employee Appreication Day 2014. These are just some of the
people you support when buying from Johnson’s Nursery.
reached by e-mail: [email protected]
262.252.4980
APRIL
2015