FAVORITE NEW PLANT FOR 2019 Flip Side™ Vitex for its great improvement in bloom quality over the species. —Dr. Jeb Fields
Much of this data collection is available to designers while researching which new varieties to trust. The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station, for example, hosts two field days annually to see the varieties in-ground. While AAS does not publish their trial data, Blazek is confident that “… if it’s an AAS Winner, you can be assured it will perform,” and that each variety’s reasons for winning are available on their website. The process of trialing new plants before market introduction is intentionally tedious and thorough. It aims to instill
confidence in each variety—and plant breeding company—as it hits the market. It provides data points to showcase how the new plant outperforms what exists in the market. So don’t be timid about trying Distylium ‘Vintage Jade’ instead of Buxus or powdery mildew-resistant Lagerstroemia ‘Purple Magic’ in a more compact space. Move forward confidently knowing there are years of trial data to support a new introduction’s place in the landscape. When you find the right partners that share trial data, you can produce cutting-edge planting designs without the risk of poor performance.
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