UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Anyone associated with the ornamental horticulture industry--including business, production, landscape and maintenance -- can find information and ideas at the 2002 Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Conference, Feb. 5-7 at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in University Park.

Sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Extension, Penn State's department of horticulture and the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association, the conference will feature workshops and discussions of interest to the state's landscape and nursery industry.

"This year's program offers a variety of informative sessions for veteran and new business owners and employees in retail sales, landscaping or nursery production," says Jim Sellmer, assistant professor of ornamental horticulture in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

A Feb. 5 preconference seminar features skill-building workshops on business, production, landscape and maintenance. "We expanded the session length and choices, with three new topics on producing and using native plants, perennial production and maintenance, and managing invasive plants," Sellmer says.

"We also developed a good workplace safety program with some hands-on activities. Finally, Tom Shay of Profits Plus Seminars will present business-related strategies -- from staff development through cashflow management -- that are a must for upper management, owners and future owners."

Shay will open the conference Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. with "Small Businesses Don't Die; They Inadvertently Commit Suicide!"

Wednesday's sessions will include over-wintering container-grown nursery stock, pay-as-you-go landscaping, invasive plants (new strategies for biological protection), bare root tree production, tree protection during construction, customer relationships to build sales, fertility in field-grown nursery soils, masters of legendary service, concrete paver installation, rendering landscape designs, looking at your garden center through your customer's eyes, propagation irrigation system decisions, 10 rules for financial success, bacterial diseases, effective suggestive selling, controlling weeds and vehicle inspection preparation.

The conference resumes Thursday at 8:15 a.m. with Jerry Gaeta's talk on the P.R.O.F.I.T. Model for Success. Thursday's sessions will cover landscape graphics, pot-in-pot irrigation, elms, pest management, green roof technology, the Chicago Botanic Garden's Evaluation Program, propagation tricks, new trees and shrubs from the National Arboretum, landscape operation evaluation, garden center exchange, management and leadership, robotics and automation, and water garden plants.

Registration fee for pre-conference workshops is $110. The fee for the conference is $200 for both days, or $105 for a single day.

For more information, call the Conferences and Short Courses office at 814-863-7715 or visit the Web at http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/index.html. Registration forms are available on-line. Registration can be submitted online, faxed 814-863-6139) or mailed to Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Conference, The Pennsylvania State University, 102 Tyson Building, University Park, PA 16802.

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EDITORS: Jim Sellmer can be reached at 814-863-2250.

Contact:

Jeff Mulhollem jjm29@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-865-1068 fax