May 30, 2014

East Texas Horticultural Field Day Adds VegetablesSource: Texas A&M

The 2014 Overton Horticultural Field Day will include vegetable trails for the first time since 2009, in addition to the hundreds of bedding plant trials.

The event will take place June 26 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center.

Dr. Brent Pemberton, AgriLife Research ornamental horticulturist, started the trials in 1994 as a way for gardeners, professional landscape managers and seed company representatives to learn which plants do well in the region’s heat.

The field day will feature more than 500 bedding plants, including everything from geraniums to petunias to verbena to begonias in outdoor plots, said Pemberton. The vegetable trials are a collaborative effort between AgriLife Research and Kilgore College. Vegetable trials include more than 30 tomato varieties, five pepper varieties, cantaloupe, strawberries in low tunnels, a fungicide trial on watermelon and a pruning trial on watermelon.

There is no cost to attend or for the barbecue lunch. To see a full list of the day’s events, visit flowers.tamu.edu/field-day.