Plant breeders, growers, suppliers and cooperating organizations that develop or market new plants will often send proposed new introductions to trial gardens in various locations to have them tested in different climates before formally introducing them to the marketplace.
Trial garden managers will grow the plants for a season or two and send their evaluations to the companies that provided the seed or plants for testing.
Trial gardens are often open to the public, and visiting them is a good way to see how a new plant will perform in growing conditions similar to your own.
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I am getting bored by the content. I need more native gardening info.
Hello Mary: I’m sorry you’ve found the website uninteresting. My suggestion would be to investigate the North American Native Plant Society (www.nanps.org). Perhaps someone with the society could direct you to other websites with more of a focus on native plants.
Hi Mary;
Native garden info depends also on your zone. However, I have found that in some ways some native plants are a little more forgiving than cultivars that have been developed usually in warmer climates. In either case one should always be concerned about something taking over an area that doesn’t have natural controls.
In Winnipeg we are finding even more garden centres, especially the larger ones, have more and more native plants available. If you are in the Ontario area, Lorraine Johnson has put out a couple of books on Natives that are good Canadian books. Sara William and Hugh Skinner’s new book Gardening Naturally also speaks to native plants, but has great natural tips for gardening generally.
When Googling or searching always add Canada or something like that for best info.
Valerie
In Winnipeg
Thank you, Valerie. Those are all excellent tips and observations.