News

The Value of a Golf Course

May 24, 2019

Golf courses are often viewed as elitist playgrounds that consume land and require extensive inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and water. They tend to be contained within a community and only perceived as valuable assets by those that use them for recreation. But what are the unseen benefits that golf courses contribute to the surrounding communities?


Weeds in the Walkways

May 24, 2019

Mai Moua is no stranger to cover crops; but neither is she a follower. She’s an innovator growing a variety of vegetables and flowers for local farmers markets, food co-ops and the HAFA Flower CSA, and her practices helped inspire a collaborative research project between HAFA and Dr. Julie Grossman’s lab at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Horticultural Science.


Land of ten thousand brews: swapping brewery wastewater for traditional fertilizers

May 24, 2019

With over 150 local breweries stretching from Luverne to Ranier, Minnesota might very well be the land of ten thousand beers. Combine Minnesota’s rich agricultural industry with dozens of breweries opening in rural and urban farming communities, and a unique collaboration opportunity arises. This graduate student is hoping to combine Minnesota’s love of beer and agriculture in an unlikely way: wastewater.


Choosing the Perfect Wine

December 21, 2018

We’ve all been there - you are invited to a holiday party and tasked with bringing the wine, but where to start? We asked Drew Horton, enology specialist at the UMN Horticultural Research Center, and graduate student, Anna Underhill, their tips on the art of choosing the perfect wine.


Transitions in Teaching Plant Propagation

December 19, 2018

It’s hard to think about learning horticulture without first learning how to propagate plants. HORT 1001 (informally known as “Plant Prop”) has been around as long as we have been teaching horticulture at the University. Many faculty have taught the course over the years, but the glue that has always held the course together is the lab, that is where the magic happens. . . 


The Heat is On

December 18, 2018

You can’t visit a nursery, greenhouse, or your neighbor’s back porch without seeing them: black plastic pots. Department of Horticultural Science graduate student takes issue with that blind acceptance in defense of the root system. George Guenthner tries to find an answer to the burning question: just how much heat can a root system take?


Lighting the Way

December 18, 2018

Like many students, Melanie Ruha was not exposed to horticulture until partway through college. She never thought horticulture was something you could make a career of. Internships, scholarships, and study abroad opportunities helped to solidify her choice of majors and guide her career plans. 


Herman Cohen honored by son, Professor Jerry Cohen, with graduate education gift

October 4, 2018

Herman Cohen was an accomplished horticultural professional whose life and career touched almost all areas of horticultural science, including gardening, plant breeding, landscapes, floriculture, and plant and soil relationships. His son, Jerry Cohen, a professor in the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota, is keeping his father’s legacy and love of horticulture alive by establishing the Herman Charles Cohen fund for graduate education.


Flowers from the last frontier: Professor Neil Anderson’s quest for the arctic daisy

June 26, 2018

Alaska: A home not only to enormous glaciers and wild salmon, but to a wide and unique variety of plant life. This was the destination for Horticultural Science professor Neil O. Anderson in fall of 2017 and again this spring, with the goal of expanding the germplasm collection for his chrysanthemum breeding program. Anderson’s focus species was Chrysanthemum arcticum and its two subspecies, commonly known as the arctic daisy, all of which grow primarily in coastal areas within the “last frontier” of the United States.


Student Spotlight: Abigail Diering’s journey from cooking veggies to mapping grape genes

June 25, 2018

Abigail Diering, a Plant Science and Chemistry major from Denver, Colorado, speaks enthusiastically about her experience working in two Horticultural Science research laboratories. Her interest in plant research can be traced back to one of her first classes at the University of Minnesota: Plant Propagation, Horticultural Science’s introductory course covering the fundamentals of plant biology and a wide variety of growing techniques.