JARS v46n4 - Magnolia Society Honors August Kehr

Magnolia Society Honors August Kehr

Dr. August E. Kehr, past chairman of the ARS Research Committee and currently a technical reviewer for the ARS Journal, has been honored by the Magnolia Society with the D. Todd Gresham Award. The award is the highest given by this international horticultural society. Dr. Kehr was presented with the award on April 11,1992, in Locarno, Switzerland, at a meeting of the society.

The award reads: "The Magnolia Society D. Todd Gresham Award presented to Dr. August E. Kehr in recognition of extraordinary contributions to the improved culture, increased knowledge, wider availability, and greater appreciation of plants of the Magnolia Family-1992."

Dr. Kehr's home in Hendersonville, N.C., is ideally suited for the rapid growth of magnolias and because of this his interest in these plants has grown. He is particularly interested in developing later flowering types that will flower late enough to avoid frost damage and new breeding lines using polyploids through use of colchicine treatments. He has named six new cultivars, three of which are being tissue cultured by Briggs Nursery and will be available to the public about 1994.