Perennial Flowers

Merritt Melancon, News Editor with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

John Ruter, Director of The Trial Gardens at the University of Georgia and Professor of Horticulture at UGA

See original article with photos here.

Each summer the staff of The Trial Gardens at UGA selects an all-star team of plants that performed spectacularly well during the growing season.

“These Classic City Award winners are the very best plants in the trial gardens, based on year-round performance and/or eye-clutching beauty,” said John Ruter, University of Georgia horticulture professor and the gardens’ director. “We raise thousands of plants each year, and these are the best of the best.”

Since 1982, The Trial Gardens at UGA have been used as a literal testing ground for plants from around the world. By evaluating new selections of annuals and perennials, the Trial Gardens’ staff helps introduce new plants to the Southeast’s green industry and the general public.

The Trial Gardens’ plant evaluations are respected across the globe. Commercial nurseries depend on the staff’s recommendations to determine what they will grow for sale the following season.

Many of the Classic City Award-winning plants are available for sale now, but others will be available through nurseries next season. Gardeners should ask their local nurseries to stock them.

For more information about the Trial Gardens and this year’s trial results, visit ugatrial.hort.uga.edu.

2014 Classic City Award Winners (Commentary provided by trial supervisor Meg Green and gardens’ director John Ruter)

• ‘Archangel Dark Rose’ Angelonia– Ball FloraPlant “This Angelonia stood out amongst the others. It started out early by out-blooming its competitors and has remained strong through the hottest temperatures. The plants are compact and sturdy.”
• Calibrachoa ‘Superbells® Frostfire’ “Our Calibrachoas were a bit slow to bloom in early summer, however, once the flowering began, it was profuse. ‘Superbells Frostfire’ has outshone other Calibrachoas, producing countless white flowers with a yellow eye. These plants remained compact while other Calibrachoas became spindly and scraggly late in the summer.”
• Catharanthus Cora™ Series “We had 14 colors of the Cora series of Catharanthus this summer and every one of them performed outstandingly. The plants were consistent in height and floriferousness. All tolerated the heat, humidity and irregular rains quite well.”
• Coreopsis ‘Sunshine Suzie’ “‘Sunshine Suzie’ is not a loud plant that begs for attention, but more of a quiet surprise. The plants were compact but airy, and were constantly in nickel-sized, yellow flowers. Month after month, ‘Sunshine Suzie’ excelled in our climate.”
• Echinacea ‘Sombrero™ Adobe Orange’ “‘Sombrero Adobe Orange’ has completely wowed us with its extraordinary beauty. The plants produced numerous large, bright orange, cone-shaped flowers. This cultivar bloomed longer than any Echinacea we have grown ever.”
• Euphorbia ‘Star Dust Super Flash’ “Over the years, the Euphorbias have performed well in our garden. ‘Star Dust Super Flash’ outperformed the others this summer. Countless small, white flowers covered the compact plants from April through October. The plants were well behaved, not falling over, nor infringing on their neighbors.”
• Impatiens Bounce Pink Flame “This year was a great one for our New Guinea Impatiens. So many cultivars performed extraordinarily well, including the series ‘Big Bounce’ and ‘Bounce.’ In particular, ‘Bounce Pink Flame’ grew tall, but never lodged (or bent).”
• Heliopsis ‘Sunstruck’ “‘Sunstruck’ Heliopsis grew to a mere 6 inches in height. Its leaves are variegated and they accentuate the large, yellow flowers well. These plants withstood our heat and humidity and performed beautifully.”
• Hibiscus ‘Royal Gems’ “‘Royal Gems’ Hibiscus has been in our garden for several years and it has impressed us this long. The plants resist the insects that decimate many other Hibiscuses. ‘Royal Gems’ produces giant, deep rosy-pink blossoms for several weeks throughout summer. Its foliage remains a healthy, lush green until frost.”
• Lobularia ‘Bicolor Pink Stream™’ “Month after month, ‘Bicolor Pink Stream’ displayed its beauty and perfumed its environment, never surrendering to the Georgia heat. This Alyssum is truly an extraordinary cultivar.”
• Pelargonium ‘Glitterati™ Ice Queen’ “‘Glitterati™ Ice Queen’ was grown in hanging baskets in our garden where they thrived in the hot, blazing sun. The variegated leaves did not brown in the sun, but remained healthy all summer. This geranium produced numerous orange-red blooms that were evenly distributed throughout the plants, thus creating a lovely, mounding appearance.”
• Petunia ‘Supertunia® Morning Glory Charm’ “Petunia ‘Supertunia Morning Glory Charm’ performed perfectly through the hot summer. It quickly formed a mound of small, violet blooms with a large, white eye. This petunia was loaded with so many small blooms, even in the hottest months of the summer. It never ceased to be a perfect sphere of violet with only bits of green visible.”
• Scaevola ‘Scalora Amethyst’ “This fan flower amazed us with its perfection throughout the summer. ‘Scalora Amethyst’ was another cultivar that was obviously a winner from early in the summer. The plants easily grew into a mat of blue blooms atop its foliage.”

Merritt Melancon, University of Georgia 

After 30 years, the Trial Gardens at UGA — that green, flower-laden oasis sandwiched between Snelling Dining Hall and the College of Pharmacy — is being tended by a new green thumb.

UGA Department of Horticulture professor John Ruter took over the day-to-day operations from garden co-founder Allan Armitage on July 1. Armitage is officially retiring at the end of 2013. He originally retired in 2010 and came back halftime.

Ruter has spent more than two decades as a horticulture professor and a nursery crop research and Extension specialist on the UGA Tifton campus, where he also ran the Coastal Plain Research Arboretum.

He moved to the Athens campus in 2012 after he was awarded the Allan M. Armitage Endowed Professorship for Herbaceous Plant Instruction and Introduction. He now teaches classes in plant identification and environmental issues in horticulture.

Ruter doesn’t want to rustle too many leaves as he eases into his new role, but he does want to spruce up the garden a bit — mostly planning changes to attract new visitors, allow it to run more efficiently and be used for more horticulture classes.

“I’m just starting with it, but I do have lots of ideas,” Ruter said.

While the Trial Gardens serves as a testing ground for new plant varieties, it’s also an integral part of the UGA Department of Horticulture’s teaching and research programs. It’s important to Ruter to maintain all the facets of the garden’s mandate.

Plant nurseries and breeding companies send hundreds of new plants each year to see if they can survive the hot and rainfall variable Southeast. They fund the garden by paying to have their plants evaluated by an outside source. That money pays for the gardens’ upkeep and a team of student workers who keep the garden running.

While providing an important link with the green industry, the garden is also a research lab, where Ruter will work with graduate students to develop new plant varieties, and a classroom for plant identification and other horticulture courses.

Ruter plans to make the garden more useful as a teaching tool by planting more perennials and annuals that bloom in fall and early spring when classes are in session. This will also be good for the entomology, plant biology, plant pathology, landscape architecture and visual arts instructors who also use the garden as an outdoor classroom.

“We’re still going to get some perennials in there for evaluation, and they will always be there,” Ruter said. “We will always have a majority of summer blooming plants, but maybe we can have some other things that we can use for teaching purposes and that can help make (the garden) a little more showy other times of the year — rather than just during the summer.”

Planting for a more diverse blooming schedule will also bolster the garden’s reputation as a destination — both for visitors to the Classic City and for Athens’ residents. Support on-campus and from the general public will be integral to maintaining it as green space on campus for decades to come, Ruter said.

Like in every other part of the university, Ruter, Meg Green (Trial Garden supervisor), and her team of student workers and volunteers are operating within tighter budget constraints.

“We’re trying to make some renovations to the perennial gardens and work on efficiency,” he said. “How can we do things differently with the limited resources that we have?”

The garden will remain open to the public on a daily basis and continue its schedule of public and industry open houses throughout the year. Those seeking more information about the garden can visit ugatrial.hort.uga.edu.

(Merritt Melancon is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)