East Texas Horticultural Field Day serves $500 million market
More than 250 gardeners and industry representatives attended
Moreover, Olson is one of many East Texas Master Gardeners who make the annual field day possible through their volunteer hours. For the last five years, she has put in hundreds of hours helping get the event ready for the public viewing.
"I can't kneel anymore, but I can work in the demonstration garden," Olson said.
Olson's dedication is amazing, said Dr. Brent Pemberton, Texas AgriLife Research horticulturist, who manages the field day. But it's not unusual for local gardeners to be excited about the event, he added.
Though the trial's thousands of square feet of plots, planted with purple, pink, red and white flowers, were begun to serve commercial growers and industry representatives, the field day has become a popular annual even with regional gardeners. Some, like Olson, have come annually for years.
For others attendees, such as John Makow of Nacogdoches, the 2009 field day was a first.
"Mind boggling, fascinating; I just love it," Makow said.
Makow and his wife, Anita, are recent transplants from Iowa, moving to Nacogdoches to retire. In March 2009, they earned their Texas Master Gardener certificates.
"We'll definitely be back," he said.
The main focus of the field day was the East Texas bedding plant performance trials which Pemberton began in 1994 to serve the northeast Texas bedding plant industry.
The ornamental plant industry in the northeast Texas region represents a wholesale value of more than $500 million, with about $100 million of that related to bedding plant production, Pemberton said. And as the region's industry has grown, the size and scope of the field day has expanded with it, he said.
"We had about 500 varieties this year, and that includes over 80 varieties in the container trials," Pemberton said.
For the first time in years, the 2009 field day included vegetable trials. In cooperation with Pemberton, Dr. Karl Steddom, Texas AgriLife Extension Service plant pathologist, conducted tests on controlling nematodes on tomatoes, powdery mildew on pumpkins and southern blight on tomatoes.
There was also continuing emphasis on vinca, or periwinkle.
"We included two new series that are resistant to aerial phytophthora, a serious landscape problem throughout the South," Pemberton said.
As in previous years, the Overton trials test bedding plants under some very demanding conditions of heat. Plants are grown in shade as well as full sunlight, which makes the results relevant for numerous landscape designs, he said.
Pam Smith, park landscape manager for the city of Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb, said the tests would be helpful for future landscape decisions. Park managers often must maintain landscape plants under merciless conditions, she said.
"I thought it was interesting to see plants, particularly the vinca, under very harsh conditions," Smith said. "I found the vegetable trials interesting as well because more people are getting into community vegetable gardening recently."
Accompanying Smith were several Dallas-area gardeners, including Binion Amerson, a retired technical writer.
Both Amerson and Smith said they were fans of the EarthKind rose test garden in Farmers Branch, the brainchild of Texas AgriLife Extension Service horticulturist Dr. Steve George.
The sandy soils of East Texas differ from the soils of Farmers Branch, which made the trials doubly useful, Amerson said.
Angela Storm, who came with other representatives of the west Chicago office of Ball Horticultural Co., said she found the trials "amazing."
When buyers see a variety grown elsewhere, they may get excited, but they want to know how it performs under conditions similar to where they will be marketing the plant, she said.
"Especially at the California pack trials," Storm said . "We grow new introductions. We show them off. People come see them, they get excited, but they want to see them grown here. Texas is a huge market."
Other seed companies and sponsors of the event included, Floranova, PanAmerican, Goldsmith Seeds, SunGro Horticulture, Fafard, Kinney Bonded Warehouse, Seville Farms, Timberland Pine Straw, Leon Macha (private consultant) Chamblee's Roses, Syngenta Horticultural Services, Benary products, and Master Gardeners of Smith and Rusk counties.
"We coordinate trial results with the Dallas Arboretum," Pemberton said. "Over 5 million consumers in the northeast Texas region now have the opportunity to see how promising new plants from all over the world perform in our climate." -30-
