Landscape Architects as Related to the Landscape/Nursery Industry: III. Sources of Plant Material Information

Abstract

Abstract The top five sources of information that Georgia landscape architects use to determine which plants to specify are botanical and public gardens (86.9%), landscape architects (81.6%), grower exhibits at professional meetings (69.0%), producer trade shows (68.3%), and university personnel (67.8%). The sources of information vary by size of firm with large firms having a strong preference for botanical and public gardens (58.3%) followed by producer sponsored trade journals (36.4%), producer trade shows (33.3%), and other landscape architects (25.0%). Medium sized firms have a preference for landscape architects (63.2%) and botanical and public gardens (60.0%) followed by producer trade shows (26.3%), whereas small firms are more evenly divided among information sources. The top four journals or books that landscape architects use as a source of information concerning plants vary by size of firm. The larger firms prefer two journals: (a) American Nurseryman (16.7%) and (b) Horticulture—The Magazine of American Gardening (13.3%) and two texts, Know-It Grow-It (13.3%) and Landscape Plants of the Southeast (13.3%). Medium firms prefer three texts, Landscape Plants of the Southeast (19.6%), Wyman's texts (13.1%), Know-It Grow-It (11.8%) and wholesale nursery catalogs (7.8%) as reference sources. Smaller firms have a strong preference for the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (20.7%), followed by Extension Service publications (15.5%), Landscape Plants of the Southeast (12.1%), and trade magazines/garden catalogs (10.3%) as information sources. The preferred information sources vary by size of firm and provide valuable insight for growers developing marketing plans for landscape architects.