Mad Dash Through Michigan
I made a very quick trip up to Michigan last week to check out the trial gardens of several of the young plant producers during the 2015 Michigan Garden Plant Tour. The weather was gorgeous for my 36-hour, 650-mile tour and so were the trial gardens.
The Tour takes place at C. Raker & Sons, Four Star Greenhouse, Mast Young Plants, Pell Greenhouses, Walters Gardens and Michigan State University.
Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t allow me to visit all of the locations, but I was able to make it to four of them before the “official” closing day last Friday. And even though the tour concluded last week, many of the trial gardens will remain open for several more weeks. Check with the companies to see if you can still visit their gardens.
This is the twelfth year of the Michigan tour that provides growers, garden centers, landscapers and other industry professionals with an opportunity to learn about new and existing varieties and how they perform in different settings.
It was very interesting to see how many of the new introductions from California Spring Trials were performing in the ground and in containers and baskets after a relatively cool and wet Michigan summer. Mother Nature was kind to some of them and not so nice to others.
If you’ve never had a chance to experience this tour, you might want to put it on your 2016 calendar. It will take place again in late July and early August. Stay tuned to GPN Weekly for the official dates.
Go to GPN’s Facebook page to see some of the photos I took during my whirlwind tour.
And speaking of Michigan, don’t forget GPN’s Plant Health Management Conference will be taking place in Grand Rapids on Oct. 6. Click here for all of the details.
It will also take place in Springfield, Massachusetts on Oct. 27.
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