The Horticulture Field Day at Texas A&M - Overton last week was a hot day full of hot color! A record crowd of 230 saw and evaluated petunias, coleus, geraniums, angelonias, euphorbias and many, many other kinds of plants at the North Farm and at Demonstration Garden. The day was capped with a barbeque lunch and seminars with dazzling photos of the 2009 California Pack Trials by Dr. Brent Pemberton, AgriLife Research horticulturist at Texas A&M - Overton, and Jimmy Turner, Director of Horticulture at the Dallas Arboretum.
At the North Farm, and again at the Demonstration Garden, visitors were given 2 red flags to pick their favorites - a tough job with the hundreds of entries to chose from. Brent has posted the list of the top picks (the People's Picks) at his flowers.tamu.edu web site.
The overwhelming Number 1 pick this year was Rudbeckia 'Denver Daisy', with 45 votes. It was nice,
right at the end of the row, where it grabbed everybody's attention. And, I think the red flags propagated themselves, too. The large, yellow daisy flowers and perfect foliage (I guess perfect - the flowers certainly distracted you from the rest of the plant) were like a magnet for red flags. Googling "Denver Daisy" resulted in lots of interesting stories from Denver about the Daisy that disappointed Denver, instead of celebrating the city's 150th anniversary. Seems like there were germination problems, etc. At any rate, it's doing famously in East and North Texas (according to Turner).
The next entry came in with "only" 18 votes - Lantana Landmark Sunrise Rose Improved.
One entry I heard a lot of comments about was Ptilotus 'Joey'. It didn't look to stellar in the field, but in containers it was outstanding (14 votes). 'Joey' has a different look for an annual -short, upright, light purple (don't hold me to color correctness) blooms with blue-green foliage. It makes a great container plant, and I can see it easily combining with many other types of plants, including cascading plants like Scaveloa Fanflower and Dichondra Silver Falls. Its feathery blooms are different and eye-catching. This will be a sun and heat-loving plant - don't over water it.
Another plant in the trials that could be combined with 'Joey' is Lobularia 'Snow Princess' - introduced by Proven Winners. It basically is a sun/heat-tolerant Allysum. For the end of June, with temperatures bumping 100 degrees, 'Sun Princess' looked picture perfect with a solid cover of tiny white flowers.
I'll write and show you a few more plants that caught my eye in the next blog or 2.
At the North Farm, and again at the Demonstration Garden, visitors were given 2 red flags to pick their favorites - a tough job with the hundreds of entries to chose from. Brent has posted the list of the top picks (the People's Picks) at his flowers.tamu.edu web site.
The overwhelming Number 1 pick this year was Rudbeckia 'Denver Daisy', with 45 votes. It was nice,
right at the end of the row, where it grabbed everybody's attention. And, I think the red flags propagated themselves, too. The large, yellow daisy flowers and perfect foliage (I guess perfect - the flowers certainly distracted you from the rest of the plant) were like a magnet for red flags. Googling "Denver Daisy" resulted in lots of interesting stories from Denver about the Daisy that disappointed Denver, instead of celebrating the city's 150th anniversary. Seems like there were germination problems, etc. At any rate, it's doing famously in East and North Texas (according to Turner).The next entry came in with "only" 18 votes - Lantana Landmark Sunrise Rose Improved.
One entry I heard a lot of comments about was Ptilotus 'Joey'. It didn't look to stellar in the field, but in containers it was outstanding (14 votes). 'Joey' has a different look for an annual -short, upright, light purple (don't hold me to color correctness) blooms with blue-green foliage. It makes a great container plant, and I can see it easily combining with many other types of plants, including cascading plants like Scaveloa Fanflower and Dichondra Silver Falls. Its feathery blooms are different and eye-catching. This will be a sun and heat-loving plant - don't over water it.
Another plant in the trials that could be combined with 'Joey' is Lobularia 'Snow Princess' - introduced by Proven Winners. It basically is a sun/heat-tolerant Allysum. For the end of June, with temperatures bumping 100 degrees, 'Sun Princess' looked picture perfect with a solid cover of tiny white flowers.
I'll write and show you a few more plants that caught my eye in the next blog or 2.
