New Jersey property managers and commercial property owners looking for help in selecting pest and disease resistant shrubs and plants should check out the Jersey Grown website. Jersey Grown, a designation for landscaping grown in New Jersey, has been developed to help consumers find plants better suited for New Jersey. The Jersey Grown program has been expanded to include bedding plants just in time for the spring landscaping season.
“New Jersey has many great growers known throughout the region and beyond our state’s borders who will soon be able to identify their annual plants as Jersey Grown,” said NJ Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher. “As people head to nurseries and garden centers for their spring planting, they should look for this brand new designation, which means the plant is accustomed to our state’s climate and is disease and pest-free.”
New Jersey floriculture represented $178 million in sales in 2010, of which bedding and garden plants represented $110 million. The Garden State ranks number eighth in the US in terms of wholesale value of floriculture crops according to a survey conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Statistics Service.
All annual and bedding plants are eligible to be labeled Jersey Grown if grown in New Jersey and meet or exceed the Department’s standards. The Department is adopting two Rutgers Cooperative Extension publications: “Pest Control Recommendations for Shade Tree and Commercial Nursery Crops” and “Insect Control Recommendations for Shade Trees and Commercial Nursery Crops, 2011,” for use as guides by New Jersey plant and nursery stock producers to ensure freedom from injurious plant pests and diseases. The program includes Christmas trees, firewood, sunflower seed birdseed and wood products.
Participants in the program will be listed on the Jersey Grown website. The website explains how the program works and has a search engine to find New Jersey nurseries and garden centers. Find answers to frequently asked questions about commercial landscaping in New Jersey.
* Source Hunterdon County Democrat – March 27.
