Gloeckner Foundation Elects New Officers, Bestows Grants

The Fred C. Gloeckner Foundation, Inc. recently elected new officers and awarded 16 grants totaling $145,688 dollars. 

Since the Foundation was established in 1960, the Gloeckner Foundation’s support of floriculture research has totaled over $7 million dollars.

The board of directors and officers of the Gloeckner Foundation held their annual meeting in June. Allen Hammer was elected president of the Foundation and Margery Daughtrey, vice president. Richard Craig, past president and member of the board for 25 years will continue his participation on the board.

After reviewing proposals from many colleges, universities and research institutions in the United States 16 grants were awarded:

$9,000        Cornell University  (W. Miller) — Microbial impacts on water uptake in cut lilies.

$10,000      Kansas State University (R. Cloyd) — Effects of spray volume and application frequency on the efficacy of insecticides against the western flower thrips and citrus mealybug under greenhouse conditions.

$8,593        Kansas State University (K. Williams) – Updates to graphical tracking guidelines for poinsettias.

$5,000       Kansas State University (C. Miller) – Understanding the effects of root zone temperature in potted Dahlia production.

$10,000      Longwood Gardens, American Society for Horticultural Science also North Carolina State University, and the Seed Your Future movement collaboration (J. Dole, S. Yoder) — Seed Your Future: promoting horticulture and careers working with plants.

$9,000        University of Central Florida (C. Mason) — Toward breeding a more fragrant sunflower: Mapping the genetic architecture of floral fragrance in cultivated Helianthus annuus. 

$9,000        The Ohio State University (M. Jones) — Influence of cultural inputs on the native microbiome of floriculture crops.

$10,000      Michigan State University (R. Lopez) —  Quantifying the influence of substrate and water temperature on Caladium production.

$9,000        Michigan State University (R. Lopez, K. Walters) — Developing propagation and production protocols for potted culinary herbs.

$9,000        North Carolina State University (B. Bergmann) — Long-term storage of greenhouse-grown cut tulips

$11,000      Michigan State University (G. Owen) — Optimizing nutritional requirements of containerized succulents to hasten greenhouse production.

$12,000      University of California, Berkeley (M. Wildermuth) — Spray-Induced Gene Silencing (SIGS) as a commercially scalable alternative to chemical fungicides for powdery mildew control.

$4,095       North Carolina State University (B. Whipker, B. Krug) — Alkalinity Control Calculator (AlkCalc) Upgrade. 

New York Florist’s Club Grants

$10,000     University of Florida (D. Clark) — Collegiate Plant Initiative: connecting college students to horticulture

$10,000     Cornell University (J. Sanderson) – Investigating biological control of aphids on Calibrachoa.

$10,000      Cornell University (M. Bridgen) – Breeding for F1 hybrid Impatiens that are downy mildew resistant.

For more information on The Fred C. Gloeckner Foundation, or to learn how you can submit an application for a Foundation grant, please visit our website at www.gloecknerfoundation.org.