If the displays in your annual flowerbeds have become somewhat predictable over the years, consider trying a few winners from the 2004 Annual Trial Garden at Colorado State University. These plants, with dazzling colors and striking combinations of flowers and foliage, were selected last summer from among 1,000 varieties and judged on vigor, uniformity, quality of flowers and tolerance of Colorado’s growing conditions. Many are available in local garden centers.
The Annual Flower Trial Garden, located in a park at College and Remington streets across from the Colorado State campus in Fort Collins, is planted and tended each summer by students in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture under the direction of professor James Klett and with help from master gardeners in Larimer County. In early August the winners are chosen by a group of more than 50 judges from the green industry, trial garden advisory committee, master gardeners and staff from CSU.
– Colorado State University Cooperative Extension
