Wisconsin Nursery Association hosts Winter Workshop

A wide variety of topics will be discussed at the upcoming Winter Workshop, the Wisconsin Nursery Association’s largest educational event of the year. The all-day event returns to the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012.

Dave Wanninger will kick things off at 8:30 a.m., right after a continental breakfast and registration. Wanninger is the horticulturist in charge at Boerner Botanical Gardens. He also spent years working at Beaver Creek Nursery and Klehm’s Song Sparrow Farm, operated a landscaping company, was the nursery manager at a large garden center and has taught horticulture classes for many years at Blackhawk Technical College. Calling on his extensive experience with ornamentals, Dave will talk about his “Five Favorite Plants – Some Good Woodies for Wisconsin.”

Social media for some is akin to foreign language. However, business owners must speak the language of commerce and nowadays, that includes social media. Shane Fell will answer questions and more in his presentation, “Social Media – Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn:  How They Fit in Your Marketing Strategy.”Fell is the vice president of business development for Top Floor Technologies and will enlighten attendees on how social media can work for their business. He’ll speak at 9:15 a.m.

Then George Radtke, co-owner of W. & E. Radtke, Inc. and Michael Yanny, Plant Propagator at Johnson’s Nursery, will team up to give an NR 40 Update. Both men are members of the Species Assessment Group (SAG) Committee and will report on Wisconsin’s Invasive Species Identification, Classification and Control Rule, what has been deemed “prohibited” and “restricted,” and how these decisions impact the green industry in Wisconsin.     

Dr. R. Chris Williamson returns to Winter Workshop with a presentation about “Insects in the Nursery.” Williamson is an associate professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is an extension/research entomologist in urban landscape entomology including turfgrass (golf courses, lawns, athletic fields, and sod farms), nursery and landscape ornamentals, Christmas trees and greenhouses. He focuses his extension programming on IPM with alternative, non-pesticide control strategies including cultural and applied plant resistance. 

Wanninger returns to the podium to present the candidates for Plant of the Year. Each year, the Plant of the Year committee goes through an extensive list of top notch plants suggested by WNA members and by the committee members themselves. After much discussion, they put forward a field of four candidates in each category – Perennial Plant of the Year and Woody Ornamental Plant of the Year. Wanninger will describe the attributes of these plants, and then attendees are asked to vote for their favorites. The plants with the most votes in each category will be the 2014 Plant of the Year selections, allowing for a two-year window to give nurseries plenty of time to stock the plants. The winners are announced at the end of the workshop.

After a hot lunch buffet, at which WNA will hold its General Membership Meeting and receive an update from ANLA Senator Ed Knapton, the day’s events will continue with Dr. Brian Hudelson, director of the plant disease diagnostics clinic of UW-Madison. Hudelson will talk about “Diseases in the Nursery.” Hudelson, aka Dr. Death because of his interest in plant diseases, received his Ph.D. in plant pathology.

Finally, two new features take center stage. Winter Workshop surveys indicated that attendees want to learn from each other, and so the Nursery Spotlight and the Gadget/New  Idea Spotlight was added to the schedule. In the Nursery Spotlight, a state operation will be examined in a short presentation. Pioneering this feature will be Jason Jacobs, who happens to be on the WNA Board of Directors, and is the nursery and production manager for Northern Christmas Trees & Nursery.

Then attendees can share their best gadget or time-saving idea with the group at the Gadget/New Idea Spotlight. What gadgets are must-haves to running a business?  Is there anything that can save businesses time, money or aggravation?  Attendees can share their findings with other attendees. Those who share their best idea will receive five more raffle tickets, which means a better chance at winning one of the fun raffle prizes. The drawing for prize winners of the free raffle will close the day’s events at 3:55 p.m., directly after the Gadget/New Idea Spotlight. 

The relaxed atmosphere of Winter Workshop provides an opportunities to collaborate with speakers and colleagues. Questions are encouraged, comments welcome, participation encouraged. 

To register, call (414) 529-4705. Special prices are offered for those who sign up before Jan. 31.