I am a horticulture instructor at Gateway Technical College in zone 5 Kenosha, WI. I teach classes in plant identification, greenhouse growing, pest control, marketing lawn and garden products. Our college has a greenhouse which we operate sustainably using beneficial insects and non toxic chemical controls. I have a bachelor of science degree in horticulture from Colorado State University and a Master of Education from the University of California Davis. My previous experience includes work as a senior nursery floral buyer for Safeway Stores in Dallas, TX and Oakland, CA. I’ve also worked in garden center sales and as a marketing manager for a wholesale bedding plant greenhouse. I was self employed at one point working as a farm market grower. I have been involved in horticulture my entire life, have a rich background of experiences and am a continual and enthusiastic student of all things green and growing! My purpose here is to compile all the horticulture things I do, learn and need to share, with students and industry, in one place!
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The Zone5grower 
Hello there, what a lovely blog. Please could you link me as I have set up an undergraduate blog on Horticulure that may be of benefit to other students. Many Thanks Karl.
Hi Karl – I appreciate your comment! This is my first attempt at ‘real’ blogging so may be some glitches. Thanks for your interest and helping me get started Kate
Hi Karl – I added a subscription link to the blog and here is the link. I hope it works!
Subscribe to The Zone5grower by Email
Ive just added you!
Great! I see another early riser!
Kate Field, Horticulture Instructor Gateway Technical College 3520 30th avenue Kenosha, WI 53143-1690 262-564-2418 fieldk@gtc.edu
Please can you send me between 1 -3 sentences about your blog so I can add it to your link on my blog? Thanks.
Karl – Did you read the ‘about’ section of the blog? I think that pretty much sums it up. I am a horticulture instructor at a technical college in Wisconsin. I teach a wide variety of classes from landscape plant ID to greenhouse production. The zone5grower blog will be used to assimilate information and images from trips and activities that will be useful to my students and others like yourself. The blog will cover a wide variety of horticulture topics – greenhouse growing, landscaping, field trips and events, plant pests, beneficial insects, plant biology, marketing, sustainable practices. Next week I’ll be seeding fall veggies!
Kate Field, Horticulture Instructor Gateway Technical College 3520 30th avenue Kenosha, WI 53143-1690 262-564-2418 fieldk@gtc.edu
Hey Karl – happy spring! Trees just leafing out here. What’s ahppening there?
Hi I am Ashish and I am from India… We have a green house which we used to grow grass! We have an access capacity of some 800 sq meters now and are looking to grow oriental lilies in it… there is very little literature that is available on net in terms of light requirements of the lilies… as you are growing indoors can you share your experience in that case…
Thanks in advance,
Ashish
Hi Ashish – I apologize for the delay in replying. The busy growing season hit and I abandoned my blog for awhile! Lilies and other bulbs are quite easy to grow in crates and in the greenhouse but they do need cooling treatment to vernalize and flower. So you need to purchase pre-cooled bulbs. It also helps to have a cooler to store bulbs as you will want to plant them in stages for a successional harvest. You don’t want 1,000 flowers all at once but perhaps 200 every week for a month. We purchase our bulbs from Fred Gloeckner and Co and their website has a wealth of information about growing lilies and forcing as cuts or in pots. http://www.fredgloeckner.com/
We also purchase a lot of bulbs and perennials from DeVroomen which is a Dutch breeder. We are experimenting with forcing various perennials for cuts as well as bulbs now. We purchase a lot of ‘plugs’ and seeds from Ball Horticulture which is another plant breeder and broker with excellent information on their website. They have a good section on cut flowers. http://www.ballhort.com
I’ve also heard of Zabo bulbs but have not used them.
Gloeckner and DeVroomen provide smaller quantities and mixed lots which are good for our small greenhouse and experimental use. They also carry other bulbs such as Ranunculus, anemone, calla, amaryllis. I don’t know what your climate is but you might have better success with tropical bulbs which won’t have the chilling and cold storage needs of lilies.
I would love to keep in touch with you and see how you progress. Please contact me if you have more questions. Again my apologies for such a late reply.
I just found your blog today, and it looks so interesting and you are in zone 5! I am in the western part of illinois, zone 5:-) look forward to reading your blog and learning a bit more about zone 5!
thanks Robbie! I hope to post more in the coming new year