July 2015 Volume 18 : Issue 2

Strong spring garden centre and landscape sales have spread their effects back to the wholesale nursery growers who have been stretched for supplies. Success for our company includes strong sales of Never Alone® rose, continued strong interest in Parkland Pillar® birch and an across the board sales increase in potted trees. We have seen a nice increase in sales to the northern states and our CVI program in fruit trees has been welcomed in this market. We appreciate this cross border support and have responded by passing on some of the currency exchange on larger orders.

We will welcome some special events next month including the August 12th commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Morden Research Centre. Although the Morden Centre has unfortunately moved out of horticulture, we in the nursery trade are still benefiting from earlier work in landscape plants. As a former employee at Morden, we welcome its past contributions and look forward to the day when the pendulum swings back in the direction of horticulture. We will also welcome the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association Board to our company headquarters for a brief visit on August 18th, during their summer meetings in Manitoba. Mike Touchette of our staff and many others have worked with CNLA over the years. It is 20 years ago since we last had a visit from the national group.

The 150th anniversary of the founding confederation of Canada will be celebrated nationally in 2017. We are seeking to encourage a national commemorative tree planting program to go along with the year. There are some new flowering crabapples developed here in Canada and well suited to zones 2-6, where most Canadians live. Several cultivars could form the basis for a national tree program: Gladiator® (purple foliage), Starlite® (green foliage) and the new upright Purple Spire® & Emerald Spire® are long lived trees suited to smaller yard landscapes. Secondly, we have been growing hardy strains of Sugar maple, Canada’s national flag emblem. We are encouraging communities to recognize this tree in commemorative plantings. We would welcome input and ideas from our customers.

Wilbert Ronald

Proudly serving northern gardeners since 1982

P. O. Box 402 Portage la Prairie, MB.

R1N 3B7

Toll Free: 1-888-857-5288 Fax: (204) 857-2877

e-mail: jeffnurs@mts.net www.jeffriesnurseries.com

Office Contacts

President wilbert.ronald@jeffriesnurseries.com

Sales Manager michel.touchette@jeffriesnurseries.com

Saskatchewan / Alberta Sales Rep pete@jeffriesnurseries.com

Accounts / Inside Sales shawna.ronald@jeffriesnurseries.com

Field Manager andrew.ronald@jeffriesnurseries.com

Research / Marketing philip.ronald@jeffriesnurseries.com

News Briefs

Wilbert Ronald has been invited to attend the 2015 International Trial Conference in Portland, Oregon and will also attend the Farwest Show from August 27th to 29th.

Michel Touchette will attend the Canwest Hort Show in Abbotsford, B.C. September 9th & 10th.

We are happy to announce that Korah-Lynn Heibert will be joining our company in mid July as our new administrative assistant

Access updated availability lists online. Use the password: xxxxxxxxxx to access protected files.

From the President

OSCAR PETERSON

ROSE

THE LATEST CANADIAN

ROSE

Available spring 2016

Growing Matters

Smoky Saskatoon

Pete’s Perceptions By Pete Van Vliet

This spring I have had a great many visits all around Saskatchewan, Alberta and North Dakota. There seems to be a few topics that keep coming up in all the areas that I have been to. The weather has been irregular, and the spring has been fantastic. The rains that have been falling (at the rare times that they have) tend to be torrential downpours, as opposed to a nice, soft, refreshing rain. The heavy rain doesn’t have much time to soak into the soil, and ends up in drainage ditches instead. These heavy storms have a tendency to drop hail as well, and leave shredded plants behind after the ice melts. There have been tornado warnings and even a few funnel clouds touching down in southern Manitoba recently. At Jeffries Nurseries we have been extremely blessed with timely rains, accredited to our close proximity to Lake Manitoba. The other concern for nursery growers has been the late frosts this spring. The late frosts were quite an issue for people all over, increasing already-high stress levels at this busy time of year. Fortunately for us (and you), Jeffries’ plant product was still on the more dormant side, and not affected as much by these below freezing temperatures. Here’s what I have come to realize about the weather: “we can’t do anything about the weather, but complain!!” As a relatively green (new) person in the prairie nursery industry, I don’t have much for a past knowledge to gauge this year’s sales overall. I do, however, have a lot of very happy customers. I have heard a lot of very positive feedback, from all parts of the industry. Overall, sales are up! From annuals and perennials, to trees and shrubs, sales have been phenomenal this season. Some folks were apprehensive with the lull in the oil industry, but my perception is that the oil field won’t just stop. The workers will tend to forego their vacations, and beautify their yards instead, creating their own backyard oasis. This trend has been actually beneficial for us all. There are still lots of residential and commercial developments going up throughout the prairies, all of which require trees and shrubs to green up the concrete jungle. I would like to say a very heartfelt “THANK YOU!” to everyone, for receiving me so readily as Jeffries’ new western sales rep. I was a tad apprehensive at first, but am overwhelmed by the open-armed welcome I received as I visited with you all. I am truly blessed to be in this position!

TRY OUR 1 GALLON PERENNIALS THIS SUMMER

Looking back...Looking ahead By Wilbert Ronald

In 1967, Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of the country’s founding as the nation of Canada. The country came together on many projects that strengthened the fiber of the nation and gave memories for those of us in the older generation. We now are facing the approaching 150th anniversary of Canada‘s founding and we need to look for enduring concepts in beautification and horticulture. In 1967 there were plantings made of flowering crabapples to commemorate the occasion. Probably there are but few of the plantings remaining however the flowering crabapples still remain an important element in our landscape and significant improvements have been made with new introductions.

Flowering crabapples are very Canadian and some of the best cultivars have been developed right here in Canada. They are very hardy trees and adapted to zones from the Niagara region to the northern zone 2 areas of human settlement. They flower profusely in the May to June timeframe in a range of flower colours from white to dark purple-red. Disease resistance and crown forms have been much improved in new cultivars so that they are both low maintenance and designed to fit the smaller yards of today’s home landscapes. Some of the best we can grow include:

Starlite® – white flowers, tiny small red retained fruit and excellent disease resistance to fireblight and scab. The retained fruit hang on to the trees and are eaten by birds in late winter and early spring.

Gladiator® – purple foliage, dark red purple bloom, compact upright oval crown form and good disease resistance.

Purple Spire® & Emerald Spire® – two new columnar flowering crabapples for narrow planting spaces and accents plantings. Purple Spire® offers deep purple foliage in summer and sparse fruit production. Emerald Spire® features more prolific flowering and fruit set and should be planted where fruit drop is not an issue. A second tree species that is very Canadian is the Sugar Maple, our iconic national emblem. Emblazoned on Canada’s flag since the mid 1960’s, the sugar maple leaf is a widely recognized national symbol. Even in Western Canada we can now successfully grow adapted northern strains of Sugar maple which have been developed out of northwesterly Minnesota’s native forests. These strains are the hardiest available and have been named the Lord Selkirk strain in honour of the 200th anniversary of the Lord Selkirk Red River settlement. Sugar maple is known for its excellent fall foliage colours in shades of orange and red.

Our company has also been developing Freeman maples which are hybrids of the Silver maple and red maple. These hardy new forms will enable the popular Freeman type maples to be grown in our colder climatic zones. With the approaching 150th national commemoration we have time to discuss an enduring planting program that can be remembered with pride. Let’s discuss what we can do and how we can work together to leave something for our children and grandchildren to remember.

Lord Selkirk Sugar Maple seedling selection

GLADIATOR® Flowering Crabapple

STARLITE® Flowering Crabapple

PURPLE SPIRE® Columnar Crabapple

Freeman Maple seedling selection

NEW PLANT LISTINGS FOR SPRING 2016

Ruby Slippers® Amur Maple

Viking Aronia

Scent & Sensibility® Lilac

Double Play® Blue Kazoo® Spirea

Oscar Peterson Rose

Royal Mist® Rosybloom Crabapple

Aurora Haskap Sky High® Juniper

Klondike® Amur Cherry