Research and Education
A Common Sense Approach to Root Pruning
Founder Connor Shaw explains in Nursery Magazine how a root pruning system helps our plants grow faster and healthier with effective and effecient management practices.
A Common Sense Approach to Root Pruning (Nursery Magazine link)
Tree Shopping Facts and Myths
Co-owner and lead botanist Kelsay Shaw shares some guidelines on how to choose trees, with reference to their parts and things to consider, both good and bad. These should not be considered hard and fast rules, but rather a helping hand in determining either if a tree has a potential problem or if it is truly a "stinker."
Tree Shopping Facts and Myths (PDF)
Changing What's Possible
Possibility Place Nursery uses the RootMaker system to develop native plants and trees. (Connor Shaw and PPN profile from Nursery Magazine)
https://www.nurserymag.com/article/rootmaker-possibility-place/
From Potential to Practical: Conserving Bees in Urban Public Green Spaces
Urban pollinators are challenged by habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. Nevertheless, cities often support rich bee faunas, and public green spaces such as parks, gardens, and vacant land offer tremendous potential if managed as bee habitats. When designing urban bee habitats, ecologists must optimize pollinators’ needs in a manner that both is economically feasible and respects societal norms and values. Codesigning public green spaces with a diverse team of stakeholders is therefore necessary to achieve long-term pollinator conservation in cities
Download From potential to practical: conserving bees in urban public green spaces (PDF)
City-Living Bees Benefit Most From Specific Types of Urban ‘Greening’
Converting vacant urban lots into greenspaces can reduce blight and improve neighborhoods, and new research shows that certain types of such post-industrial reclamation efforts offer the added bonus of benefiting bees.
City-living bees benefit most from specific types of urban ‘greening’ (Link)
The Effects of Nursery Production Methods on the Growth and Survival of Bur Oak
This study compared the transplanting and survival of balled in burlap (B&B) vs. Knit Fabric Container grown bur oaks. It also compared trees that were spring planted vs. August planted. All trees were spring dug. Trees planted in August were held in RootBuilder® containers after digging. Survival rates and height were significantly better in August transplanted trees. Nine of 16 B&B spring planted trees died. Of 16 trees in each treatment losses in fabric bag spring planted, B&B August planted, and fabric bag August planted were 2, 2 and 1 respectively. The purpose of August planting was to bypass the oviposition period of the Two-Lined Chestnut Borer (TLCB). Although the trees were planted in a turf landscape among mature oaks, none of the trees were attacked by the TLCB during the study.By Thomas Green, Connor Shaw, Fredric Miller and George Ware.
PDF currently unavailable
Arrowwood Growing/Planting Study
Derek Snyder, one of our very talented interns, did a study of Viburnum dentatum. It involves the growing and irrigation method used on the plants and the outcome produced after planting in the landscape.
PDF currently unavailable.
