BYU-Idaho Applied Plant Science

Florida Trip

11/6/2017

Nine students and three faculty had the opportunity to travel to Tampa, Florida this semester. The students presented their research findings from their Mentored Student Research projects conducted this year. The theme of the conference was “Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future.” Some students got to enter a competition held by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. Brad Davis was awarded 2nd place out of 62 students and Chase Wilcox also received a 2nd place award in a separate session.

After the conference, the students toured citrus and fruit production farms, ranches, and horticulture nurseries in central Florida. Ag Reserves Inc. was included in the tour. Students learned about citrus and about the disease citrus greening, which is causing a lot of damage to citrus crops in Florida.
Student and faculty also got to tour Deseret Cattle and Citrus. The Ranch is the largest cow-calf operation in the United States. Part of the tour of Deseret Cattle and Citrus, the students and faculty took an air boat ride of some of the Ranch. Parts of the ranch are only accessible by boat.
Disney Nurseries at Disney World, Orlando, FL was the next stop on the trip. Disney seeks for interns to take part of a six-month internship experience below is how to apply, they are always interested in interns from BYUI. Student and faculty toured The Land exhibit at Epcot Them Park at Disney World, Orlando, FL. Several BYU-Idaho students have interned at the exhibit and a few have stayed on and worked full time after their internship experiences. The tour continued to various parts of the Disney World Theme Parks and they even had extra time to enjoy a few rides!

Explore the BYUI Plant Shop

9/19/2017

Our greenhouse and gardens have always been open to the campus and public for exploration. The horticulture students, alumni, and faculty have known this, but a large percentage of of students in other majors and of course Freshman, don't know about this little piece of heaven at BYUI. And while it is common to see people enjoying the beautiful outdoor Thomas E. Ricks Gardens, usually the only people in the greenhouses are horticulture students and faculty and occasionally a student wandering around and asking if it's okay for them to be in there.

We’re hoping to change that with the new reach of Facebook, Instagram, and new events and Promos at the Plant Shop. We want all to be able to enjoy the warmth and beauty that the greenhouses offer.

And it does have a LOT to offer. Our greenhouse is divided into several [connected] houses, each serving a different purpose.

The head house contains the potting bench, germination chamber, soil cart, work benches, and cooler. It’s filled with a collection of interiorscape plants to keep students company while they work.
The breezeway connects the east and west sides of the greenhouse. Its entrance as you come through the head house is filled and decorated with Plant Shop materials.
The east side of the greenhouse contains houses 1,2, and 3. House 1 is through the first door on the left (if you’re walking in from the head house). This is the Plant Shop’s home and is always filled with flowers, foliage, etc. for sale. Just behind the Plant Shop space, is a holding space for indoor plants used for the Interiorscaping class. And beyond that there are several cut flower beds. The flowers in these beds are harvested and sent to the Bloom Room downstairs.
The Bloom Room, also located in the Benson Building, room 144, is staffed by horticulture students and has reasonably priced flowers and floral arrangements for students and residents.
Moving south down the breezeway past House 1 will bring you to a set of doors that open up to Houses 2 and 3. There is no wall separating these two houses, but there a few significant differences between the two. Both houses have growing benches that are filled with class projects, student experiments, and growing assignments. House 1 has a few cut flower beds and usually is set to have supplemental lighting to extend the day length that plants experience. House 3 is all benches filled with plants. It typically runs a little warmer and dryer than house 2. Students use this difference in climate to get specific growth responses from their plants.
On the west side of the greenhouse across from the Plant Shop is the Hydroponic House. This room is FULL of hydroponically grown tomatoes. A recent addition has been made to the walls of this house and now lettuce is also being grown in rain gutters. The produce from this house is used to supply the university kitchens and is sold at the Plant Shop and Farmers Markets.
Next to the Hydroponic House is a glorified sand box. It doesn’t really have an official name. It’s a work room. A constant construction site. A practice room. Whatever you want to call it, it’s where many design/build students practice laying down hardscape construction designs. It’s a smaller space than the other greenhouses as it creates a balcony/overhead view of the Hind House below.
The affectionately named, “Jungle House,” is next to the practice room and across from Houses 2 and 3. It is infused with tropical plant materials, complete with a waterfall, pond, and sitting area. Most of the plants are labeled with a number. The accompanying plant names can be found on the list at the house entrance. This is a great place to study and relax. It’s also where students are quizzed on various plant identifications.
If you follow the path through the jungle it will lead you down and around to the Hind House. This room contains a wide variety of plant material— from evergreens, desert landscape plants, and deciduous trees, foliage, and creepers. The Hind House is another fun room to explore and relax and it too is frequented for plant identification quizzes.

Students Construction for Gardens

5/9/2017

Every year students in the Landscape Construction class get to design an area of the Gardens. This year the students are redesigning a corner of the gardens to make it more accessible and stable enough that it will last for generations to come.

Belgard and Brickline Pavers has donated a large and generous amount of commercial grade concrete building material from which we are using to build a new pergola in the gardens. The orginal structure was built in the 70s or 80s and was falling apart, so we thought we should make a change.

This is the first project of many to come where Universal Design is being incorporated to allow accessibility to all, including wheelchairs, so everyone can enjoy our gardens.

We invite everyone to stay tuned and watch the gardens change for the better. The project should be completed near the end of the semester.

Elevate: Fashion and Floral Gala 2017

4/6/2017

Every winter semester our department gets together with the fashion and food departments to create the Fashion and Floral Gala. This year our students went with the theme Elevate. They wanted to create designs that help us to look forward to the future of design. There were many different and futuristic designs in fashion and in floral arrangements displayed.
Part of the Elevate theme was the decor of the fashion show. On stage you could see tall and simple structures with light streaming through, creating a physical elevate for the show. Tropical flowers and tall flowing backdrops also decorated the entrances and tables of the Hart gym. It was so fun to see the results of a semesters amount of work and designing.
Check back in for next years show! We can't wait for more inspiring and fun designs to inspire the world. See you next year!

Visit our Department Facebook page for more photos of the event and follow the Fashion and Floral Gala page for future events.

Wedding Dresses From This Year

Floral Trip 2017

3/29/2017

This semester the floral students got to visit San Francisco! After driving for a day and a half the students first got to go see Golden Gate Park botanical gardens. The gardens had plants from all around the world. The students enjoyed strolling through the park and visiting food shops along the way. They also visited the Golden Gate bridge and found a perfect spot for pictures of the bridge. The day ended with dinner and the sunset.
     Day 2 in San Francisco was even more exciting. They visited the flower market in the morning and the pier in the evening. There was some free time this day and many students shopped around the pier and visited Chinatown. After lunch everyone jumped on a ferry and visited Alcatraz. Many enjoyed learning the history of this once dreaded island and loved seeing the plants and gardens there.
   Thursday was the 3rd day, the students got to visit a Japanese garden. They enjoyed the peace and quiet there and then headed off to the De Young Museum. This was a special week at the De Young Museum, they were showcasing a flowers to art exhibit. Florist from the area come to the museum and interpret a painting and create a floral arrangement of that interpretation. This was a favorite for many of the students. After the exhibit they drove to various touristy sights like the adult slide and Lombard Street. They ended the night with pizza and hotel tv.
   The last day sightseeing was Friday. The students got to visit Filoli Gardens where they enjoyed the many flowers and the historical house for viewing. Students loved eating at the gardens for lunch and wished they could stay forever. But they had to move on to the next sight, flower shops. Jmiller flowers in Oakland was one of their stops. The owner took the students on a tour of the shop and told them tips for owning a shop. After the shops they visited the Oakland Temple grounds. They enjoyed the beautiful view for a s long as they could till they set off again for Reno for the night and home the next day.
   Though this trip may have had some speed bumps along the way this trip and the relationships created will never be forgotten. If you ever can go on a field trip with our department, do it! They help you network, gain experience, and let you see places you haven't seen before, and that makes it worth it.

NALP

3/24/2017

BYU Idaho took 4th place overall as a team out of 61 colleges and universities.

Scholarship Winners are:
David Hokanson
Yvonne Peterson
Logan Castagno

People who took top three in their events:
Yvonne Peterson
Karin Cardenas
Camille Werner
Sierra Ried
Beau Merrill
Standford Nash
Phillip Waltman

Yvonnne P Karin C., Beau M, Standford N, and Phillip W all took first place in the country in their events.

Their events were: Employee Development (Yvonne and Karin)
Landscape Plant Install (Standford, Beau, and Phillip)

Edible Landscaping

3/6/2017

Students made and sampled food in the Edible Landscaping class this semester. In this course, students learn to develop the principles and practical applications for fruit and vegetables. They learn how to plant edible foods, prune and harvest, and how to store them properly. There is a prerequisite for this class, so it is not for everyone. But those who take it learn different recipes and skills that they can use for the rest of their lives! Part of the class is the eating of the food, the students are assigned a certain vegetable or fruit and they make dishes with it and share. It is lots of fun and sometimes there is a meal involved!

Spring Flower Production

3/6/2017

Spring is definitely on its way and the cut flower class is showing us the ropes on spring planting. Our students have planted hyacinths, fuchsia, tulips and many more spring flowers for our greenhouses. This course is here to help the students develop the knowledge of cutting flowers and crops through commercial production, harvesting, marketing and scheduling. It is a great place to learn and grow the skills they will use in grower and wholesale companies in the future. It is a fun class full of color and plants, students love taking it every semester they can.

Floral Students Visit The Homestead Nursing Home

12/12/2016

Here at the BYU Idaho Applied Plant Science Department, we try and offer our students the experience of not only learning but teaching and serving. Earlier this semester, floral students got to do just that. The students visited a nursing home, The Homestead Assisted Living, and were able to serve the residents and teach them how to arrange flowers. At first, there were not very many residents participating, but after the word got out we were there, the room was filled with ladies wanting to arrange flowers. Arrangements varied from sunflowers and greens to tall carnations, but they all ended up beautiful. After the experience, some of the floral students expressed how much fun they had and how they got to know and learn about the residents they had helped. Hopefully we can do this again every semester and brighten more lives with flowers.

Student Research goes to Phoenix

12/9/2016

Last month, eight BYUI students and faculty members from the Applied Plant Science department traveled to Phoenix, AZ to meet with over 3900 other people from 56 countries for the annual agronomy and soils meetings. The meetings are a culmination of the Student Mentored Research program supported by the department. During the summer, students conducted supervised research on plant and soil-related topics on the BYUI Hillview Farm, statistically evaluated the data, then prepared posters summarizing the findings. Students were able to present their posters during the competitive poster session and two of our students won second and third place in their divisions. Nice job students!

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