Trial Garden 2009 - Methods

Bed Preparation & Planting

A 10,000 sq. ft. area behind the Fisher Greenhouse was rototilled in May. The soil was not amended, and the beds were mulched prior to planting with a 3-inch layer of wood chips.

Staff and volunteers planted the selections on June 5. Seven plants of each variety were planted 1 ft. apart in rows, with 24-inch spacing between rows. The rows were organized into seven 8 ft. by 100 ft. beds.

The plant selections were organized in alphabetical order according to their botanical name, and identified by white labels listing their botanical name, selection, and supplier.

Maintenance
Once established, the Trial Garden received minimal maintenance. Staff irrigated the beds for the first three weeks, and applied an all-purpose soluble fertilizer (21-5-20) twice during the first two weeks. No supplemental watering or fertilizer was provided for the remainder of the summer, nor were insecticides or fungicides applied. Staff hand-weeded as necessary. None of the trial plants were dead-headed or pruned.

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Evaluations

The UDBG’s nursery manager evaluated the Trial Garden plants bi-weekly from June 26 through September 18. For each of the dates, the manager awarded each plant two scores: one based on flowering and the other based on foliage, taking into account attractiveness, pest and disease resistance, habit uniformity, and overall ornamental value. The overall scores for flowers and foliage represent the average of all individual scores for each category.

	Score		Foliage
	5	Excellent	Rich color; clean appearance	All plants full of flowers
	4	Very Good	Good color; few imperfections	Most plants with flowers
	3	Good	Good color generally; some minor problems	Some plants with flowers
	2	Fair	Weak color; some significant problems	Few flowers on plants
	1	Poor	Very poor color with sickly appearance	No flowers
	0	Dead	All plants dead or almost dead-----------------------------------------------

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Results

The Results pages offer information about each selection, including botanical and common names, supplier, flower and foliage scores, and its light conditions.

Charts. The average foliage and flower scores for each month are shown. If the flower and the foliage scores are the same, only the flower score will show.

Light conditions. A sun icon is shown for plants grown in full sun

Comments. A clipboard icon appears when the evaluator provided comments for the selection. Move your mouse over the clipboard to read the comments, or click to open a PDF that lists comments for all selections.

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Weather

The following charts were generated from weather information obtained from Delaware Environmental Observing System Network at the UD Farm.

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