Accomplished MSU coast horticulturalist honored with two national professional awards
Contact: Meg Henderson
STARKVILLE, Miss.—For more than two decades, Mississippi State University’s Patricia Knight has set the gold standard for ornamental horticulture. This summer, two major professional societies recognized the professional and commercial impact made by the longstanding research professor and director of coastal horticulture research in Poplarville.
At its recent annual meeting, the American Society for Horticultural Science, or ASHS, honored Knight’s industry-transforming research with the Distinguished Achievement Award for Nursery Crops, given by the Nursery Crops Interest Group.
Also, at its annual meeting this month, the Society of American Florists, or SAF, presented Knight with the prestigious Gold Medal Award, recognizing the originator of a widely distributed plant or flower that has achieved outstanding commercial success. Knight received the award for her Delta Jazz crepe myrtle, patented by MSU in 2010.
A scientist with the university’s Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, or MAFES, Knight’s roots are in the industry, having grown up and worked in a family nursery operation in east central Alabama.
With over three decades in the horticultural profession and ASHS, Knight has dedicated her career to advancing ornamental horticulture in both academia and industry. Her teaching, research, publications, outreach and service through MSU and professional societies have shaped the profession in many recognizable ways.
“Dr. Knight’s exemplary career in research, leadership and outreach has significantly advanced the nursery crops industry across the Southern U.S. and beyond. Her impact is enduring and far-reaching,” said Anthony Bowden, University of Arkansas assistant professor and ASHS Awards Committee member.
In 2005, she discovered the Gold Medal winner almost accidentally, while sorting through a hodgepodge of plant material at the MAFES South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station in Poplarville.
The small tree, marked by its unique dark, maroon-tinted foliage and bold pink flowers, piqued the interest of Knight and Wayne McLaurin, an MSU colleague and visiting professor. MSU patented the plant as “Chocolate Mocha,” but it sells under the trade name “Delta Jazz” in Southern Living’s plant collection.
While not as vigorous as Natchez, this cultivar grows fairly quickly, and unlike most dark-leaved plants in the Deep South, the leaves retain their vibrant color, even through the harshest summers without scorching or fading. Since its commercial introduction, Delta Jazz soared into Mississippi’s top 10 cultivars. Knight’s breeding program also has been responsible for five additional cultivars—Sequoyah, Tishomingo, Neshoba, Pascagoula and Shumaka.
“It’s rewarding to see this kind of support for our coastal horticultural research program and to be recognized for my role in introducing such a commercially successful plant,” she said.
To learn more about the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, visit pss.msstate.edu. Find MAFES at mafes.msstate.edu, or visit https://www.mafes.msstate.edu/branches/coastalhome.php
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