NEW AND UP AND COMING PLANTS

It’s hard to think about summer annuals for 2010 while we are in the middle of enjoying our 2009 summer but as growers and as professional gardeners we get a little excited to see what is upcoming and new for next year. This is a busy time of year for nursery people and growers to travel around the country in search of that awesome new petunia, a new potato vine to add to our many in the collection, a calibrachoa that has double blooms or maybe a tree that in sterile that provides the beauty in its canopy but doesn’t drop messy fruit on your sidewalk/driveway. Across the country new plants are being trialed all the time. Where a lot of trials occur in the warmer climates, in particular, California there are trials taking place right here in the state of Minnesota. I encourage you to tour the trial gardens done by the University of Minnesota at the Horticulture Garden on the St. Paul campus, or while traveling to your cabin stop by the North Central Experiment Station in Morris or the West Central Experiment Station in Grand Rapids. Don’t forget the Minnesota Arboretum or the arboretum in your state.