Specifications include, but are not limited to: 1. The provided plants shall be true to the genus, species and variety and be provided with a name tag. Plants shall meet the required sizes, quantities and any other special requirements such as branching form as listed on the quote documents. No substitutions of the quoted plants will be allowed unless approved in writing by the ISU purchasing agent prior to the delivery of the plants to the ISU campus. 2. All plants shall comply with the American Standard for Nursery Stock, ANSI Z60.1 current edition. 3. All plants shall be nursery grown in a similar climatic zone and soil profile as the ISU Ames, Iowa campus. Plants grown in nurseries located in zones 6A or higher (U.S.D.A. Plant Zones Research map current edition) are not acceptable. 4. One-sided branching plants from tightly planted nursery rows will be rejected. 5. All plants shall be healthy specimens without objectionable deformities, voids, and open spaces, with well-developed branch and root systems; true to height, shape, and character of growth of the species or varieties. Plants shall show appearance of good health and vigor. 6. All plants shall be free of injurious insects, insect eggs, borers and all forms of infestation, plant diseases, moldy or dried roots or damage to trunk, bark, branches, leaders or root systems or cut leaders. All plants shall be free of defects, disfiguring knots, sunscald injuries and frost cracks. All plants to be free of rodent damage to the bark or buds. 7. All B&B plants shall be delivered with firm un-broken root balls. Container plants shall have been held in the container for a period of one growing season or less. The root collar (trunk flare, root flare) shall be at the surface of the root ball (container media). The plant root ball shall be free of stem girdling (circling) roots. 8. All plants shall be dug, packed, handled and transported in a manner that insures its arrival to the ISU campus in good condition. Plant root systems shall be protected with wet straw, moss or other suitable material which will assure its arrival to the ISU campus with its roots systems in a moist and healthy condition. Plants transported in open vehicles without tarpaulins could be rejected by upon arrival at the ISU campus. Should the roots be dried out, large branches broken, root balls broken or loosed and / or large areas of the tree’s bark arrive torn or scraped at the time of delivery then the ISU Plant Services Supervisor may reject the injured tree(s) and require that they be replaced at no additional cost to ISU. 9. Plants will be inspected at the time of delivery by the ISU Plant Services Supervisor. ISU reserves the right to un-wrap, probe or otherwise destructively examine the root balls of up to 2% of each plant shipment for compliance with the plant purchasing guidelines at no additional compensation to the supplier. If any irregularities regarding the plant’s required criteria are found or if damage to the plants during shipment is discovered then a portion or all of the plant shipment maybe rejected and the order canceled with no additional compensation due to the supplier. 10. If asked the plant vender must supply 3 references from municipal or collegiate institutions for plant deliveries of similar size within the past 36 months. References must include company name, contact person responsible for the plant purchases, current phone numbers and locations of the planting jobs.
