\u3ci\u3eCercocarpus ledifolius\u3c/i\u3e var. \u3ci\u3eintricatus\u3c/i\u3e ‘DoubleDown’

Bonsai (tray landscape, potted scenery, potted landscape, miniature trees, and rockery) is an artistic horticulture practice of developing aesthetically formed trees and landscapes in miniature with appropriately aesthetic containers. This has been practiced over a few thousand years in oriental cultures, including the ancient Chinese tradition of penzai or penjing, from which the art originated; the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ; and the Japanese variations of bonsai and “tray planting” (Gustafson 1995). To produce bonsai plants that share similar shapes and styles of mature, full-size trees, cultivation techniques are used, including leaf trimming, pruning, wiring, clamping, grafting, defoliation, and deadwood techniques (Zhao 2012). This practice is distinct from dwarfing in that dwarfing is a process to discover, breed, or genetically create a plant cultivar that is a permanent genetic miniature of standard members of its species (Ferrero-Serrano et al. 2019). Bonsai can be created from specimens of woody source materials that include cuttings, seedlings, or small trees. The source specimen should be relatively small and meet the aesthetic standards of bonsai. Nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species is suitable for bonsai development (Owen 1990) if they produce true branches and remain relatively small in a container environment through crown and root pruning. Slow-growing plant species with small leaves or needles are popular bonsai materials

Selection and Vegetative Propagation of Native Woody Plants for Water-Wise Landscaping

Native woody plants with ornamental characteristics such as brilliant fall color, dwarf form, or glossy leaves have potential for use in water conserving urban landscapes. Individual accessions with one or more of these unique characteristics were identified based on the recommendations of a wide range of plant enthusiasts (both professional and amateur). Documentation of these accessions has been done through locating plants on-site where possible and then developing a record based on digital photography, GPS determined latitude and longitude, and place marking of Google Earth© images. Since desirable characteristics are often unique to a single plant, utilization of these plants by the landscape industry requires that they be clonally propagated. Methods of asexual propagation including grafting, budding, layering and cuttings may be successful with native plants, but are species and even accession specific. We report on the successful cutting propagation of Arctostaphylos patula, A. pungens, and Cercocarpus intricatus, and lack of success with Juniperus osteosperma, and Mahonia fremontii

Selection and Culture of Landscape Plants in Utah - A Guide for High Mountain Valleys

What traveler, driving across Utah, has not marveled at its diversity of geography, climate and vegetation? From Joshua-trees in the Mojave Desert, to alpine meadows, to pinion-juniper forests set against the red sandstone of the Colorado Plateau, it is truly a state of contrasts

Stewardship and the concept of yield in landscape water conservation

Growing up in what was rural Salt Lake County, my peers and I never knew a time when questions of water did not flow through our lives as surely as it flowed through the canals and irrigation ditches. We played in the flood of water pumped from the ditch onto our lawn, and we floated homemade rafts down the canal in the heat of the summer. We listened in amazement to descriptions of how the canals were built and wondered when we would be big enough to be asked to join the cooperative crew that skimmed the ditches in the summer to keep the water flowing. We saw the technology of weed control change from dragging a burning tire down the ditch to using a propane torch. We pondered the stories of water disputes, and we watched our mothers hover over open ditches and warn us of their danger. We also learned why the water was really there as we rose at two o’clock in the morning to take our water turn and irrigate our crops. To us, irrigation water was obviously a shared resource with limited availability. But it was also part of our lifestyle and actually somewhat of an entitlement. Legally we owned the land and the water rights that accompanied it. Therefore, we believed, as long as we were on the land, we were entitled to the water to irrigate that land. As high-desert dwellers and descendants of pioneers, we felt that satisfaction of watching little rivulets of water run down dry furrows was as much our right as having the Wasatch Range tower above us or enjoying the cool, dry breezes of a summer evening. Times have changed along the Wasatch Front. Much of the farmland has been sold for development, and many ditches have been removed. Nevertheless, there is still a demand for water to sustain new and existing homes and businesses. These new households demand water, yet they may be located on old dry farms or steep foothills where water has historically been absent. Not only do they demand water, but they are using it at one of the highest per capita rates in the nation.1 Concurrent with this demand, there is an ever-increasing realization that beneficial use of water should include environmental uses such as in-stream flows for fisheries. A 1997 editorial responding to demands for increased water rates stated: “Once again, it appears City officials want to discourage residents from keeping beautiful lawns and gardens. They say home owners can get by with half as much water. Most serious gardeners know better. In a desert, beautification and water go together.”2 Are beautification and water inexorably linked? The ever-increasing demands for a finite yet renewable resource are forcing us to ask important questions of our stewardship of water

Etiolation Improves Rooting of Bigtooth Maple (Acer grandidentatum) Cuttings

Bigtooth maple (Acer grandidentatum) has potential as a small, water conserving landscape tree in western landscapes. This potential has been hindered in part by the difficulty in asexually propagating superior accessions. The ability of etiolation to enhance rooting of softwood cuttings of selected wild accessions was determined by grafting six accessions onto seedling rootstocks to use as stock plants. Etiolation was applied to stock plants by placing open-ended, black, velour, drawstring bags over the end of pruned shoots at bud swell allowing new shoots to develop and grow out the end of the bag while leaving the base of the shoot covered. In 2009 and 2010, cuttings from etiolated and nonetiolated shoots were treated with 4000 ppm indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) + 2000 ppm naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), stuck in a premoistened 3 perlite:1 peat (by volume) rooting substrate and placed under intermittent mist. After 4 weeks, 89% (2009) and 85% (2010) of the etiolated cuttings rooted and only 47% (2009) and 17% (2010) of the nonetiolated cuttings rooted. Etiolated cuttings produced on average 11.3 (2009) and 7.2 (2010) roots per cutting and nonetiolated 2.1 (2009) and 0.5 (2010) roots per cutting. Etiolation, and its application through the use of black cloth bags, can be an effective way to increase the rooting of bigtooth maple cuttings and the availability of these plants for use in water conserving landscaping