Horticulture

Updated October 2009

Green Roof Research

Researchers from CSU's Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture conducting green roof research are exploring the biological performance of plant species and growing medium mixes for Colorado. They are also studying the effect of green roofs on stormwater quality, runoff quantity, and mitigation of the urban heat-island effect (an effect in which metropolitan areas are significantly warmer than the surrounding rural areas.)

Green roof research is the science of using plants on top of conventional roofs. Green roofs can provide insulation and therefore reduce a building's heating and cooling demands, capture and potentially clean stormwater, create wildlife habitat, and add natural, "living roof" beauty to cityscapes. By helping to mitigate environmental extremes common on conventional roofs (e.g., temperatures can reach upwards of 150 degrees on asphalt rooftops in the summer), green roofs help to lower urban air temperatures, mitigating the heat island effect.

CSU researchers received an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Applied Research Effort, or RARE, grant. Their research is located on the EPA Region 8 headquarters extensive (shallow, 4 inches deep) green roof in downtown Denver at 16th and Wynkoop. A conventional rock ballast roof across the street on the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado building is serving as a control roof. Monitoring equipment for stormwater and weather stations are located at both the EPA building and the Alliance building to compare the differences between greened and conventional roofs.

Plant Environmental Research Center (PERC)

The Plant Environmental Research Center (PERC) at Colorado State University provides students, researchers and other interested persons an opportunity to observe horticulture plant materials "in action." The Center has been in operation for 35 years, and the CSU greenhouses are nearly 60 years old. The grounds are free and open to the public any day during daylight hours. The Colorado State University Agricultural Experiment Station, Cooperative Extension Service and Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture assist by partially funding the salaries and research projects of many of the faculty involved at PERC. Financial assistance and/or plant materials for the ground areas have come from a number of sources including state horticultural professional associations, Colorado Nursery Research and Education Foundation, Colorado Floriculture Foundation, Specialty Crops Program, Colorado Garden Show, Inc., nurseries and seed companies across the nation and other horticulture-related industries.

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