(Distributed 09/21/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The Friends of the LSU Textile and Costume Museum will hold its Your Friends’ Closet Sale on Oct. 10 in the LSU AgCenter 4-H Mini Farm near Parker Coliseum on the LSU campus.

(Distributed 09/29/15) PORT ALLEN, La. – As a group of 4-H’ers and leaders filled their plates with pasta, vegetables and cake, another group sat on the floor in the back of the room, debating how to divide a single bowl of plain noodles.

(Distributed 09/28/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The Burden Horticulture Society and the East Baton Rouge Master Gardener Association have each made a donation to the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden for a new welcome center.

(Distributed 09/25/15) MANGHAM, La. – Current and future cattle producers attending the Northeast Beef and Forage field day at Goldmine Plantation on Sept. 17 heard the latest information on how to improve profits in their industry.

Of all the perennial verbenas on the market today, the outstanding variety continues to be Homestead Purple.

(Distributed 09/25/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – Researchers should be integrating information science with applied plant breeding to serve a growing world population, a leading plant geneticist said during a plant biology symposium Thursday (Sept. 24).

(Distributed 09/25/15) HAMMOND, La. – Golden dewdrops is a common name for durantas, also known as sky flowers

(Distributed 09/25/15) CHASE, La. – More than 200 students from 12 parishes in northeast Louisiana watched sweet potatoes being planted and heard about beef and forage production, and careers in agriculture. It was all part of the LSU AgCenter second annual Northeast Region youth field day at the AgCenter Sweet Potato Research Station on Sept. 23.

(Distributed 09/24/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – If you had asked teenager Norma Roberts to consider a career in 4-H, she might have laughed. She was a 4-H member in Eunice, but because she wasn’t interested in livestock, Roberts dropped out.

(Distributed 09/23/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – Six Chinese dairy industry professionals are visiting the LSU AgCenter as part of a two-week (Sept. 12 to 26) U.S. Department of Agriculture training program.

(Distributed 09/21/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter will hold a conference on bioenergy and bioproducts on Oct. 21 to help Louisiana producers and residents become more acquainted with the bioenergy industry.

(Distributed 09/21/15) BATON ROUGE, La – LSU College of Agriculture students helped transform areas of a preschool playground into gardens.

(Distributed 09/21/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter LaHouse Resource Center will offer classes in October that address new residential energy code requirements for Louisiana contractors, builders, inspectors and prospective code verifiers.

(Distributed 09/18/15) Firebush, also called firecracker plant, also is known by the scientific name Hamelia patens.

(Distributed 09/18/15) HAMMOND, La. – Fall is the time of year when we include gardening maintenance and upkeep in our list of outdoor activities. Fall is also a great time to add new plants to the landscape. Many home gardeners also mulch new plantings or add new mulch to older, established plantings before winter.

(Distributed 09/18/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden has announced the call for entries for the sixth annual Brush with Burden art exhibition.

(Distributed 09/17/15) ALEXANDRIA, La. – The LSU AgCenter Dean Lee Research and Extension Center will host the third annual Beef Cattle and Forage Field Day on Oct. 8.

(Distributed 09/16/15) CAMERON, La. – It’s been a decade since Hurricane Rita ripped through southwest Louisiana, and recovery has been a long, difficult process for many who have lived in the coastal area.

(Distributed 09/16/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The 30th Annual Tomato Disease Workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss all aspects of tomato pathogens and disease management, said LSU AgCenter extension plant pathologist Melanie Lewis Ivey.

(Distributed 09/14/15) HAMMOND, La. – The LSU AgCenter and the Tangipahoa Parish Master Gardeners Association have scheduled a fall garden workshop series on Sept. 30, Oct. 28 and Nov. 18 from 9 a.m. to noon at the AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station.

(Distributed 09/11/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station will hold its annual landscape horticulture industry field day for nursery, landscape and garden center professionals on Oct. 8.

(Distributed 09/11/15) Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) is one of our best fall-flowering perennial salvias for Louisiana. This is one of the salvias that folks grew before others became more popular.

(Distributed 09/11/15) LAFAYETTE, La. – The Bayou Vermilion Preservation Association recognized Ernest Girouard of the LSU AgCenter recently (Sept. 11) for his work as this year’s chairman of a symposium that focuses on the waterway that courses through St. Landry, Lafayette and Vermilion parishes.

(Distributed 09/11/15) HAMMOND, La. – American beautyberry, sometimes confusingly called French mulberry, is a great Louisiana native shrub deserving increased use. The genus is Callicarpa, and both native and non-native species of this plant can be found in Louisiana.

(Distributed 09/04/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden will welcome the fall season with a Corn Maze Festival on Oct. 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

(Distributed 09/10/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter LaHouse Resource Center will offer a half-day Lead Certified Renovator refresher class on Sept. 22.

(Distributed 09/10/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden dedicated the second of five markers on the Louisiana segment of the Bartram Trail on Sept. 9.

(Distributed 09/09/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – Horse owners in Louisiana’s hot, humid climate need to take precautions against anhidrosis, a condition that makes horses unable to sweat and regulate their body temperature, said LSU AgCenter equine specialist Neely Walker.

(Distributed 09/09/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – Back-to-school is in full swing, an exciting time for making new friends, meeting new teachers and getting involved. While the focus for the year is on academic achievement, it’s also important for students to participate in extra-curricular activities such as 4-H, said Janet Fox, head of the LSU AgCenter 4-H Youth Development Department.

(distributed 09/08/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana’s diverse agriculture industry helps make the state an important hub of global trade, commodity group representatives told foreign dignitaries visiting the LSU AgCenter on Sept. 4.

(Distributed 09/04/15) A reliable, long-lived perennial for great summer and fall flowers, porterweed also serves as a nectar plant for pollinators.

(Distributed 09/04/15) HAMMOND, La. – Garden mums are among the most popular landscape plants for fall. These plants are also known as chrysanthemums, and some folks in north Louisiana and other parts of the state refer to them as “pinks.”

(Distributed 09/04/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – Feral hogs cost Louisiana farmers more than $74 million in crop losses and other damage in 2013, according to an LSU AgCenter study.

(Distributed 09/04/15) POLLOCK, La. – Since the 1920s the LSU AgCenter Grant Walker 4-H Educational Center has been the scene of fun-filled summer days for many generations of Louisiana youth. But what happens in the off season?

(Distributed 09/03/15) BATON ROUGE, La. – Ten LSU College of Agriculture students spent two weeks in August studying African wildlife ecology in Swaziland. The students, who are all majoring in natural resources ecology and management, spent most of the study-abroad program at the Savannah Research Centre in the Mbuluzi Game Reserve.

(Distributed 09/02/15) HAMMOND, La. – As cooler fall temperatures arrive, LSU AgCenter horticulturists are observing more cases of chilli thrips damage in nursery and landscape plants.