School Publications, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
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Browsing School Publications, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences by Author "Harris, Roger"
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- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : 2010Harris, Roger; Shelton, Joyce (Virginia Tech. Department of Horticulture, 2010)Greetings all alumni and friends! It is our time of year, when horticulturists are on the move with the long anticipated spectacle of spring upon us. It was truly a stunning winter here in Blacksburg, but I for one am ready to get out in the garden! We have had a very positive year in the department. First of all, we welcomed Alan Grant as the new dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in fall 2009. Dean Grant came to us from Purdue University, where he headed their animal sciences department. He brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the college, and we can anticipate a bright future for CALS.
- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : 2011Harris, Roger; Shelton, Joyce (Virginia Tech. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Communication and Marketing, 2011)Greetings all alumni and friends! As always, it has been a very busy year around Saunders Hall. Fall semester began with a department-wide self study in preparation for an overall review by the federal government to be held in late January. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), part of the USDA, periodically reviews all aspects of departments in colleges of agriculture. Our last review was in 2003, so it was our turn once again! The review is made by a team headed by a NIFA employee and comprises several professors from approximately equivalent departments across the U.S. The team spends several days meeting with faculty, staff, and students to look at all our programs. Our team leader was Dr. Mary Peet (National Program Leader for Organic Agriculture and Horticulture at NIFA), and team members included Dr. Robert Augé (Professor and Department Head, Department of Plant Science, University of Tennessee), Dr. Robert Geneve (Professor of Horticulture, University of Kentucky), Dr. Cecil Stushnoff (Professor of Horticulture, Colorado State University), and Dr. Ted Bilderback (Professor of Horticulture and Interim Arboretum Director, North Carolina State University). The review basically affirmed our recent efforts in teaching, research, and extension/outreach and provided helpful suggestions on how we might better focus some of our programs.
- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : 2012Harris, Roger; Shelton, Joyce (Virginia Tech. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Communication and Marketing, 2012)Greetings all alumni and friends! As always, it has been a very busy year around Saunders Hall. A whirlwind tour of this past year begins with our seventh annual Garden Gala festival at the Hahn Horticulture Garden last June. The “Lucky Seven” theme was very popular and everyone had a great time playing the Las Vegas-style games of chance. This year’s Garden Gala is June 9 and the theme is “Key West.” Last summer, Donna Long retired from her administrative assistant position after a career of making a real difference in the lives of our students. Maura Wood moved into the position vacated by Donna and Ashley Wills was hired to fill Maura’s former position. Fall semester began with a first-ever (at least in recent memory) meeting of all undergraduate students, where we explained our new curriculum and our overall departmental culture of service and scholarship. All students were given a horticulture T-shirt and a drawing was held for a new iPad, generously donated by Steve and Juanita Grigg of Grigg Designs in Manassas. The fall highlight was the trip led by Robert McDuffie to garden centers and botanical gardens in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. The group even attended a Broadway musical! In October, we celebrated the life of our first department head, William Bradford Alwood.
- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : 2013Harris, Roger; Niemiera, Alexander X. (Virginia Tech. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Communication and Marketing, 2013)I hope that this 2013 edition of Seeds finds everyone in good spirits and enjoying the horticultural bounty of summer. As always, it has been a very busy year around Saunders Hall. We have just welcomed 10 new graduates into our alumni family. This graduating class was comprised of stellar students, five of whom graduated with honors. Our student body is vibrant and our overall numbers are increasing. We expect to have a just over 100 students in our program this fall semester. The Horticulture Club, advised by Barbara Leshyn and Velva Groover this year, continues to be very engaged with the local community and the plant sale this past spring was perhaps the best ever. The outstanding weather certainly helped! A whirlwind tour of this past year begins with our 8th annual Garden Gala festival at the Hahn Horticulture Garden last June. The “Key West” theme was very popular with the approximately 225 attendees as they enjoyed a bit of “Margaritaville” in the garden. Fabulous food, drinks, and entertainment by The Key West Band made it an evening to remember – all capped by an exciting live auction. Gala ticket sales, sponsorships, and auction proceeds raised more than $17,000 in funds for the Hahn Horticulture Garden. The theme for this year’s event was “Wine and Roses” and featured Virginia Wines.
- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : 2014Harris, Roger; Niemiera, Alexander X. (Virginia Tech. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Communication and Marketing, 2014)Greetings all alumni and friends! I hope you are enjoying all of the horticulture wonders around you this summer. There is always something new in the horticulture world to be savored, be it a fresh picked tomato from your garden, the glory of a owering plant, or just the wonderful progression of our seasons. As always, it has been a very busy year around Saunders Hall and our family is growing! We have just welcomed 21 new B.S. graduates in our spring ceremony. Coupled with seven in the fall ceremony, we have 28 from this past academic year. Colleen Beard, an environmental horticulture major, was chosen to be our outstanding senior for the academic year. In addition, we are proud to have three new M.S. and ve new Ph.D. graduates over this past year.
- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : Fall 2008Harris, Roger; Shelton, Joyce (Virginia Tech. Department of Horticulture, 2008)Greetings all alumni and friends! I hope that you all had a bountiful summer and that you are enjoying this beautiful fall. Jerzy Nowak, former Head of our department, has moved on to be the Director of the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention (CPSVP). We wish Dr. Nowak all the best in this exciting new endeavor. He is a dear friend to our department, and we look forward to collaborating with him in his new mission. With Dr. Nowak's departure, Dean Sharron Quisenberry appointed me as Interim Department Head as of July 1 of this year. I feel truly honored to be named to this position. I have just completed my 15th year as a faculty member in the department and look forward to serving in my new position. During the past 15 years, I have taught Plant Propagation, Landscape Establishment and Maintenance, Nursery Crops, Urban Horticulture, Internship Seminar, and Landscape Practicum classes. Before graduate school (M.S. at University of Florida and Ph.D. at Cornell University), I spent two years at Campbell's Nursery in Franklin, Virginia, and 10 years with Jacksonville Landscape Co. in Jacksonville, Florida.
- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : March 2017Harris, Roger; Niemiera, Alexander X. (Virginia Tech. Department of Horticulture, 2017-03)I hope that this new edition of SEEDS finds you enjoying the beautiful world around you. It is indeed a great time to be a Horticulturist as business in the green industry is booming and interest in nutritious local food has never been higher. In addition to a very strong job market upon graduation, our students find that Horticulture is a great foundation for lifetime learning and that the critical thinking and communication skills learned in our majors serve them well in whatever career they pursue. As mentioned in last year’s SEEDS, we will soon be joining the Plant Pathology, Physiology, & Weed Science (PPWS) and the Crop & Soils Environmental Sciences (CSES) departments to create the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. The time line for formation of the new school keeps getting shifted forward as we jump through the organizational hoops one at a time, but it seems like we may be organized by this time next year. I would like to assure you that Horticulture is not going anywhere; it will just be living under a new banner. There is plenty of innovative Horticulture in the other two departments and our flag will be flying considerably higher when the three departments become the new school. I am probably most excited about the potential for a stronger undergraduate program. Although we constantly work on improving our programs, the new organization gives us some great opportunities that were not previously available. For example, turf students will now become part of our Landscape Contracting (now Landscape Horticulture and Design) major. This was not possible before since the program was in the CSES department. New cross-cutting majors, such as Ecological Restoration, Sustainable Agriculture, and Plant Science will also be offered by the new school and should attract many new students.
- Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : November 2015Harris, Roger; Niemiera, Alexander X. (Virginia Tech. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Communication and Marketing, 2015-11)I hope that you are enjoying this beautiful Virginia fall. It is a special time of year for horticulturists as we enjoy the annual display of colorful foliage and the transition to the end of another good growing season. Many of you are savoring the fall harvest from your own vegetable garden or from your local farmers market and you are hopefully enjoying some wonderful Virginia apples. As always, it has been a very busy year around Saunders Hall. Our horticulture family has grown since our last edition of SEEDS! We welcomed two new faculty members in August 2014. Ramon Arancibia joined us as assistant professor and vegetable crops specialist at the Eastern Shore AREC in Painter, and Auréliano Bombarely joined our Blacksburg campus as assistant professor in translational plant genomics and bioinformatics. Hannah Neuse has come on board as our new financial administrator, since we recently had to say goodbye to Ashley Wills, whose husband was transferred to Kentucky.