A top teacher and researcher — and sought-after mentor within the classroom and floral industry — is the 2014 recipient of the Society of American Florists’ (SAF) Alex Laurie Award. The honor was presented to John Dole, Ph.D., head of the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University, in Marco Island, FL.
Are you familiar with the NEW Horticulture Extension Portal? The Horticulture Extension Portal launched recently in an effort to centralize many of the Department of Horticultural Science efforts. NC Cooperative Extension portals allows the department to deliver more relevant content and integrate superior services within the website. The Horticulture
Extension Portal is organized into core fields of study, defined areas of expertise, publications, plant identification tools, custom search engines and the latest news and events from department programs,
Horticulture fields of study have been divided into Gardening, Ornamentals, Fruits, Vegetables, Specialty Crops, Organics, Pesticide Management, Weeds, and For Agents. Many of these core categories include other important programs, such as: Commercial Horticulture, Floriculture, Small Fruits, Tree Fruits, Center for Environmental Farming, Extension Agent training materials and more.
Visible on the left hand side, are several helpful links and custom tools for industry and consumer specific resources. The Plant Database helps visitors identify plants based on primary characteristics. The Floriculture, Fruit, Vegetable and Weed InfoSearch are custom search engines based on their specific topic that pull from industry magazines, association websites, scientific literature and NC State University repositories.
In coming months, you will see the Department of Horticultural Science Extension web pages fully integrate and transition to the Horticultural Extension Portal as we extend services.
Greetings from the Center for Environmental Farming Systems!
CEFS: 1994-2014
We are fortunate in that 2014 marks our 20th anniversary and we have many events planned throughout the year to celebrate this extraordinary accomplishment. In case you were curious of our humble beginnings…
In 1994, a small circle of leaders in sustainable agriculture came together with a single vision: to create a center for the study of environmentally sustainable farming practices in North Carolina.
A task force of university faculty and administrators, state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, farmers, and citizens was charged with developing strategies to build a strong sustainable agriculture program in North Carolina. Out of that effort grew the CEFS Research Facility, a 2,000-acre research farm in Goldsboro.
The farm became home to CEFS’ core research programs and units. The Farming Systems Research Unit, Pasture-based Dairy and Beef Units, Alternative Swine Unit, Organic Research Unit, and Small Farm Unit all provide research opportunities for faculty, graduate students and visiting scientists, and educational opportunities for farmers, extension agents and students.
Over the years, CEFS has broadened its focus to include community-based food systems and local food supply chain development. CEFS also transformed the niche meat supply chains with the formation of N.C. Choices. In addition, CEFS has partnered with community organizations to support youth engagement and leadership development initiatives in areas most affected by food system inequities, educational programming – including NC A&T’s Discover Ag, NC State’s Agroecology Program, our Summer Internship and Apprenticeship Programs and so much more. CEFS has grown to become a local, state, national and international leader in sustainable agriculture and the local foods movement.
As we celebrate our 20th Anniversary, we have many exciting events planned. We are fortunate to have CALS bringing in as part of their “Future of Food” lecture series, Dr. Ricardo Salvador of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Previous to his position at UCS Dr. Salvador served as the program officer for Food, Health and Wellbeing at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and in this capacity helped CEFS secure twin endowments for both NC State and NC A&T State University. Find more events at cefs.ncsu.edu
By: JJ Richardson & Lisa Forehand
The Department of Horticulture’s website! Each year our department produces a huge volume of information from factsheets and presentations to research reports and journal articles. In academics, we have dozens of scholarships, internships and travel and research opportunities for students. But alas, for many years the information was not easy to find, if available at all. Now, however, through the work of Brandon Hopper, the wonderful folks at CALS Extension IT, and many faculty and staff, you can find a wealth of useful information on the Horticulture Department Website. Looking for information on a specific crop, check out our portals, such as the Blackberry and Raspberry portal. Not sure where to find something, try our powerful search engines (lower left corner). Enjoy browsing!
– John Dole, Department Head, Horticultural Science
Expanding upon the redbud cultivars previously released in his research program (‘Ruby Falls’, ‘Merlot’, and ‘Whitewater’), Dr. Dennis Werner has introduced a new cultivar to the line-up of currently available offerings. ‘Pink Pom Poms’ is a unique redbud derived from hybridization of the double-flowered ‘Flame’ (eastern redbud) with a popular cultivar of Texas redbud ‘Oklahoma’. ‘Pink Pom Poms’ has reddish-purple flower color, double flowers, and small glossy leaves typical of the Texas rebud. ‘Pink Pom Poms’ is also female sterile, and sets no unsightly seed pods. ‘Pink Pom Poms’ is a distinct improvement over the cultivar ‘Flame’, previously the only other double-flowered cultivar available. ‘Pink Pom Poms’ was developed in conjunction with Hidden Hollow Nursery in Belvidere, TN.
Plants of ‘Pink Pom Poms’ are available from only a single mail-order source in spring, 2014, but will be available from additional sources in late spring, 2015.
