Mile High Growing - Vol. 12, No. 11

A Newsletter for Professionals Growing Greenhouse Crops in the Rocky Mountain Region	Cooperative Extension Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523
November 2000	Vol. 12, No. 11

Contents	Other issues:
CSU Annual Trial Garden Best of Show Fitting a Respirator Sixth Annual Poinsettia Cultivar Evaluation

CSU Annual Trial Garden Best of Show

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The early results are in and there will be no hand counts of the ballots. Listed below are the results of the Best of Show from the 2000 CSU Annual Trial Garden for each group.

Category	Cultivar	Description	Thumbnail click on image for larger view
Best of Show	Verbena 'Aztec Plum'	‘Aztec Plum’ is an outstanding edition to the Aztec series from Ball Flora Plant. It has a low growing spreading habit, and completely fills in to form a dense mat of foliage that grows to 5 inches in height. The foliage is totally covered by a velvety deep plum colored flower.
Outstanding New Cultivar	Argyranthemum 'Comet Pink'	This entry from The Flower Fields was chosen as the outstanding new variety with good reason in our 2000 trials. This newcomer to the field outperformed the other entries by holding flowers even through the full heat of summer.
Calibrachoa	Colorburst Red	From The Flower Fields is an excellent choice for container plantings. This vigorous plant has a full, rounded growth habit with good uniform flower coverage. The flower color is an excellent, long-lived almost metallic red, which fully covers the plant throughout the summer.
Wax Begonia	Party Red	This entry from Benary Flower Seeds showed excellent vigor in our plots even through the full heat of summer. Individual plants were fully covered with abundant red blooms. Each flower was highlighted by sharp yellow stamens, which provided great contrast against its red petals.
Dianthus	Bouquet Purple	This upright airy form of dianthus entered by PanAmerican Seed displayed an excellent purple flower held both high above and also within the foliage and gave a naturalistic airy feel to the variety.
Exotic Geranium	Wilhelm Langguth	From Fischer U.S.A., this unique geranium was overwhelmingly voted best exotic. Wilhelm Langguth’s white and green variegated leaf created an excellent accent in the garden. What makes this plant even better is its clear red blooms.
Ivy Geranium	Picasso	This ivy geranium from Fischer USA is known for its excellent vibrant flower color. Its bicolor burgundy and white flowers provide an exceptional point of interest in any container planting.
Seed Geranium	Maverick Red	From Goldsmith Seeds, this geranium showed great growth even in our high alkalinity soils. The leaves held good zonation, and the flowers held a very clear red color.
Zonal Geranium	Morella	Distributed by Agrexco Ltd., ‘Morella’ proved to be an outstanding geranium adaptable to our high alkaline soils. This vigorous variety of geranium maintained deep green leaves and lush growth throughout the growing season. The flowers were evenly dispersed across the plant and provided a wonderful combination of pure red flower color with a deep green leaf.
Helianthus	Sunrich Orange	This entry from Ernst Benary of America proved that a simple classic style of sunflower still holds power in the minds of our judges. Its large heads held bright yellow ray flowers in a perfect pattern around its face.
Double Impatiens	Fiesta Pink Ruffles	The Fiesta series from Ball Flora Plant as a group had an excellent full growth habit. This variety pulled ahead because of its early flower color, and uniform well-balanced flower placement.
New Guinea Impatiens	Celebration Rose Star	‘Celebration Rose Star’ from Ball Flora Plant is a more vigorous variety of New Guinea Impatiens. It held near perfect uniform flower coverage for most of the growing season. The excellent rose-colored flowers provided great balance against its dark colored foliage.
Seed Impatiens	Dazzler Merlot Mix	This selection from Ball Seed became noticed early as a true winner. This uniform mixture had a wonderful display of very elegant soothing flower colors.
Marigold	Sweet Cream	PanAmerican Seed Company’s ‘Sweet Cream’ is a very uniform variety with a very vigorous growth habit that makes it an instant eye catcher in the garden. Its large cream-colored blooms that fully cover the plant. This variety also showed good resistance to Aster Yellows in our trials.
Nicotiana	Saratoga Deep Rose	This plant had a very nice form and a full and very uniform growth habit with a good balance of flowers to foliage. The growth remained lush throughout the summer, and its deep rose-colored flowers resisted fading.
Osteospermum	Dandenong Daisy White	This entry from Euro American held excellent flower coverage through the heat of our summer. Its tolerance to adverse conditions was a great combination with its large pure white flowers.
Pansy	Accord Banner Purple	This variety from Goldsmith Seeds produced an excellent dark almost velvety purple flower despite our near record heat this summer. Its growth was hampered by heat, but the power of its color pulled it to the top.
Pentas	Butterfly Deep Pink	This variety from Ball Seed performed very well in our trials this year. The glossy dark green leaves provided an excellent backdrop for its star like flowers. It was a great looking plant by any standard.
Petunia	Storm Lavender	A variety from Goldsmith Seeds, ‘Storm Lavender’ has shown wonderful performance throughout the growing season. This petunia is a very vigorous grower, and shows few signs of chlorosis in our clay soils. The plants were fully covered under a blanket of large lavender flowers throughout most of the growing season.
Portulaca	Margarita Rosita	From Waller Genetics, Inc., this variety caught attention because of its excellent growth habit. It had a uniform extremely full, mounded habit with beautifully colored double flowers spaced evenly across its surface.
Salvia splendens	Red Hot Sally	From Ball Seed, this variety performed well even when grown in full sun at our high elevation. The growth habit was quite uniform, and it flowered consistently through most of the summer.
Snapdragon	Rocket Cherry	PanAmerican Seed provided our trials with this more upright grower. Its tall vibrant red flower racemes showed resistance to lodging even in our high winds. An excellent choice where taller plants are needed in the annual border.
Vinca	Diva Scarlet	'Diva Scarlet' from Fischer USA, has proved to be an extremely uniform and vigorous member of the Diva series. This variety has great flower coverage, with very deep pure red blooms.
Zinnia	Profusion Orange	This entry from Sakata Seed Co. showed an excellent growth habit all through the summer. Its name was no misnomer with its orange flowers, which profusely covered the plant all summer long. The individual plants grew vigorously together to form a solid plant mass of uniform characteristic.

Matthew J. Boyles (see my resume)
2000 Trial Garden Student Manager
James E. Klett, Ph.D.
Professor of Landscape Horticulture
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

Fitting a Respirator

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What must an employer must do if the products that they use require the employee to use a respirator? This is a good question that impacts almost the entire floriculture industry. If you require or the label demands that a respirator be used, then the employer is required under OSHA regulations to do a couple of things.

The person who will be wearing the respirator must complete a medical questionnaire. The questionnaire can be found at www.osha-slc.gov/OshStd_data/1910_0134_APP_C.html
The questionnaire will be evaluated by a physician to determine whether the person can wear a respirator.
Those employees who the physician has questions about be be asked to see the physician in their office. I'm guessing but the cost may be between $50 to $100 per person.
Once the employee is "passed" by the physician, then the employer is required to have each employee properly fitted to wear the respirator. I always suggest that the employer buy their respirators locally so that the suppliers of those products can do the fit testing for you. And for many of these suppliers, they do not charge for this since you will be buying the respirator and cartridges from them.
You are also required to have a respirator plan for your business. Check out our website at www.btny.purdue.edu/PPP/ and look under PPP38 for an example. An example is also included in appendix of the OSHA regulation.
If dust masks are used voluntarily, then medical evaluations are not required. However, if a person wants to voluntary use a cartridge respirator, then you have to go through the whole process as if you were making them use one as part of the label.
The entire regulation can be found in 29 CFR Part 1910.134 at
www.osha-slc.gov/OshStd_toc/OSHA_Std_toc_1910.html

I know what you're thinking about this whole process that has been put in place. However, I have two reasons why I support this specific regulation. The first is that putting on a respirator may in some circumstances be more dangerous than what chemicals your trying to protect the person against. People who may be over weight, smoke, or have chronic diseases may be really stressed when putting on a respirator, especially when on top of that your putting on the rain gear. Those of you who have worn these pieces of PPE understand how they do constrict breathing.

The other reason is that a respirator is a very complicated piece of PPE. When I have done my programs on using a respirator it seems that everyone believes they can put one one so that there is a good seal. I have had only two persons in all of the years who could put one on and that it worked. Giving someone a respirator without a good fit test is a waste of your money and it gives the employee a false sense of security.

Fred Whitford
Coordinator
Purdue Pesticide Programs
Purdue University

Sixth Annual Poinsettia Cultivar Evaluation

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Please plan to join us any time between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Tuesday December 5, 2000 for the Sixth Annual Poinsettia Cultivar Evaluation. The Evaluation will be held at the W.D. Holley Plant Environmental Research Center Greenhouses, Colorado State University, 630 West Lake Street, Fort Collins, Colorado. For directions, download the brochure by clicking below.

Don't miss this opportunity to compare and evaluate new and old poinsettia cultivars under Colorado conditions. Examine several interesting reds, whites, pinks, and novelties that have not been seen before in Colorado. Many of these experimental cultivars are offered by the breeding companies and may be available in the future.