Mid-Am Midwinter Conference Sessions
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

8:30 am - 9:30 am
Plants for the Chico Landscape
OGA Panel: Rich Eyre, Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery; Dave Wanninger, Beaver Creek Nursery Representative

OGA members Rich Eyre of Rich's Fox Willow Pines and Dave Wanninger of Beaver Creek Nursery will enlighten you with some great evergreens and woodies for those small landscape designs. These locally grown compacts, dwarfs and pyramidals are sure to have a big impact on your spring projects.

9:45 am - 10:45 am
Elms are Back
Kris Bachtell, Morton Arboretum

Once a major landscape tree, the American elm (Ulmus americana) was the dominant tree in most street tree and park plantings in northern regions of the United States. Due to its broad range of environmental tolerances, classic cathedral-like form and other attributes, it was viewed as the “perfect” tree. Unfortunately, it was extremely vulnerable to Dutch Elm Disease (DED) and millions of mature specimens have been lost to DED since the 1930s. Today, as a result of a number of selecting and breeding programs, a completely new generation of elms is becoming available to beautify and green American cities. Kris Bachtell will cover specific characteristics of these selections and how they can be propagated and trained to become assets to the urban landscape.

11 am - Noon
Rising from the Ashes
Kunso Kim, Morton Arboretum

Emerald Ash Borer infestation presents us with both challenges and opportunities. It's difficult to imagine what urban landscape will be like without ash trees. Diversifying tree inventory is one of the key strategies that can protect us against such devastating pests as EAB in the future. Kunso Kim from The Morton Arboretum will discuss some desirable alternative trees for urban landscape.

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