John Ruter from Los Angeles is a famous inventor and gardener. He specializes in breeding decorative plants. Many of these specimens can be seen across the country. Los Angeles Name tells more about the Inventor of the Year 2021.
What is known about John Ruter?
He is the Allan M. Armitage Professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. From an early age, he understood that his best place was in the garden. His childhood was spent in the San Fernando Valley, in the northern part of LA. In junior high school, he made a conscious decision to attend a horticulture class. That’s how his first acquaintance with this area happened.
At a very young age, he was already interested in everything: from sowing seeds to the process of growing a new plant. At the age of 14, he started working in a wholesale nursery.
The Ruter family later moved to Ventura County. Fortunately, there was a small Future Farmers of America (FFA) program that the young man joined. John’s advisor turned out to be a gardener and a well-informed specialist in the field of landscape design.
This program was a good start, as John Ruter not only practiced but also competed for FFA.
Education and professional development
John Ruter studied at the University of Tennessee (the oldest public university in the United States) and the University of Florida (a college in Gainesville), earning bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate and related degrees in horticulture.
He also completed a bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (California). When he was in his first year, 400 more students were learning the basics of ornamental gardening. As early as 1990, he came to UGA as a nursery crop research specialist at the Tifton campus.
His work covers many processes in the decorative field. Thus, if a person wants to test a certain plant for resistance to moisture and heat, he sends it to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
In many interviews, John Ruter has said that he is also a full-time farmer at Durham Horticulture Farm in Watkinsville. There, he works with graduate students, collecting germplasm for further exposure in the laboratory.
Achievements of John Ruter
The man serves as a head of the UGA Trial Gardens. This is an incredible botanical garden in Athens, Georgia, located at the University of Georgia. He was named the 2021 Inventor of the Year by UGA for his prolific work and results. John created many varieties of plants during his years of work. The results of his work can be enjoyed by others because these varieties of plants decorate gardens and landscapes throughout the country.
The following important theses from John Ruter can be singled out.
- The development of a new plant variety is an incredible investment of time, effort and a complex of field and laboratory work.
- Approximately 20% of the work of the College is laboratory work.
- Important resources to accomplish the required volume of work are: physical facilities (College farms and field facilities), container sites, shade and greenhouses.
John Ruter’s favorite plant is Emerald Colonnade®. This is quite a useful plant in the landscape. Thanks to it, one can grow a hedge. The advantage of the species is the absence of problems with pests. The company that sells it believes that it is the No. 1 broadleaf evergreen.
According to the inventor, it is always nice to see bred varieties of plants available for purchase. Others see only the beauty of this plant and its visual components. John Ruter looks at it from a professional point of view, understanding what work and effort it costs.
