OVERTON — Nursery growers, greenhouse managers, landscapers and Mster Gardeners can see the latest trials of more than 300 bedding plant, rose and other perennial varieties at the East Texas Bedding Plant and Garden Trials June 16.
Held at the Texas A&M University Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Overton, the trials are designed for Master Gardeners and professional growers but are open to the general public.
The Overton Center trials are among the most extensive trials in East Texas, combining greenhouse and outdoor plot tests of bedding plant varieties, rose disease resistance trials and tests of other unusual ornamental species, according to Dr. Brent Pemberton, the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station horticulturist who heads the trials.
Bedding plant varieties tested this year are too numerous to name, but include impatiens, marigolds, petunias, nicotiana, portulaca, vinca, snapdragons, zinnias, geraniums, pentas, tithonia, plumbago, verbascum, cosmos and agastache.
Disease resistance rose trials include the Knockout, the new All-America Rose selection winner, and more than 30 other varieties of roses, both traditional and modern. Also included are some crosses from the breeding program of Dr. David Byrne of College Station, a well- known Experiment Station rose breeder.
Additionally featured will be many plants currently promoted or already in the ongoing Coordinated Education and Marketing Assistance Program (CEMAP) supported by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Recommendation of a plant through CEMAP means that the variety has been subjected to statewide testing and found to be hardy, surviving the hot dry summers of Texas, as well as tolerating diseases and insects.
In 1993, Pemberton began bedding plant trials with a few dozen varieties of petunias and pansies on small plots near the Overton Center headquarters. Since then, Pemberton has expanded the program from relatively limited outdoor trials to include hundreds of bedding plant species tested both in outdoor plots and in greenhouses. Most recently, the trials have been expanded to sites at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Dallas and the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.
Pemberton said the greenhouse component and urban components are important elements of the trials to both urban consumers and rural producers.
“We provide, in my opinion, a vital link between the urban markets and the needs of rural bedding plant producers,” he said.
The bedding plants industry spans both rural and urban Texas, with most production located in rural counties but the majority of retail sales occurring in cities. Wholesale gate receipts totaled more than $250 million for the four East Texas counties of Cherokee, Van Zandt, Smith and Henderson. Statewide, the nursery industry accounted for nearly 9 percent of all agricultural production value in 1998, with total wholesale receipts of $1.2 billion.
The open house will begin at 10 a.m. at the Overton Center’s North Farm. At about 11:30 a.m., the tour will move back to the Overton Center main complex. For the final stop on the tour, Pemberton has set up a demonstration of unusual perennials and rose disease resistant varieties in a garden setting near the greenhouses. A Dutch treat lunch will be offered at 12:30.
The Overton Center is located one mile from downtown Overton on Hwy. 3053.
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