We recently attended the Iowa State Shade Tree Short Course and were treated to some excellent educational opportunities. One of our favorite presentations was by Guy Meacham from J. Frank Schmidt Nursery. Guy is the New Plant Development Manager for the nursery, and he shared some of the recent new introductions to come out of the nursery breeding & selection program. We have been planting J. Frank Schmidt nursery liners since the beginning of our nursery, and we are always excited to try new varieties. 

Guy shared how the plant breeding and selection process takes many years – sometimes over 20 – to find and select a new tree variety. Through careful observation in the landscape and breeding methods in the nursery, superior specimens are chosen for particular traits. The end result is often a tree that exhibits better color, habit, tolerance or beauty than the straight species. 

At Spring Grove Nursery we grow over half of the trees Guy featured in his presentation. We are always eager to try new varieties that we think will perform well in our nursery and for our customers in the landscape. Click the link to Guy’s presentation for his full list. The varieties that we are currently growing are Northern Glow Maple, Armstrong Gold Maple, Redpointe Maple, Crimson Sunset Maple, Urban Sunset Maple, Emerald Avenue Hornbeam, Heartland Catalpa, Prairie Sentinel Hackberry, June Snow Dogwood, Espresso Kentucky Coffeetree, Emerald City Tulip Tree, Royal Raindrops Crabapple, Afterburner Tupelo, Autumn Treasure Hophornbeam, Mountain Sentinel Aspen, Pink Flair Cherry, American Dream Oak, Beacon Oak, Urban Pinnacle Oak, Crimson Spire Oak, Streetspire Oak, Green Whisper Bald Cypress, Emerald Sunshine Elm. 

Thanks Guy Meacham for a great presentation. Keep up the good work finding new trees for us to grow!

2018 Iowa State Short Course JFS Handout