May 24, 2019

2019 Southern Garden Tour Rapidly Approaching

The 2019 Southern Garden Tour is set to take place June 4-6, in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. This is your chance to check out the trial gardens of some of the leading growers and educational institutions in the south.

The hosts for the tour are Young’s Plant Farm, Auburn, Alabama; the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia; and Metrolina Greenhouses, Huntersville, North Carolina.

Young’s Plant Farm will host the first open house on June 4. The Young’s trial garden consists of 26,400 square feet of raised beds, which include both sun and shade conditions. The garden features total of 750 annual and 75 perennial varieties including 432 single varieties, 40 combination landscape beds, 56 hanging baskets and 180 combination planters. Every year the garden features four landscape beds that illustrate current gardening trends. Additional information is available by contacting trialgarden@youngsplantfarm.com.

The University of Georgia is the second tour stop on June 5. The UGA garden is located in the heart of the university’s south campus with 23 raised beds, 190 stone cast containers, 150 hanging baskets, a perennial collection and 121 rose cultivars. 2019 will feature 500 trial varieties from all over the world from most of the major breeding companies and many botanical gardens from Asia, South America, South Africa, and Europe. To learn more, contact the university at trial-gardens@uga.edu.

Metrolina Greenhouses (pictured above) is the final stop on June 6. Metrolina’s trial garden consists of 104 sun and shade raised beds and includes 1,200 varieties of annuals (introductions and Metrolina benchmarks) planted in ground and in containers. The trial also includes an extensive perennial garden with 700 varieties, 400 sun and shade combinations in hanging baskets and planters, a hydrangea comparison trial, and a second year echinacea and phlox comparison trial. This year Metrolina is also adding display gardens and 40 vegetable combinations. For more information send an email to: Trialgarden@metrolinagreenhouses.com.

GPN contributor Vaughn Fletcher has been attending these trials for many years and has written about them extensively in his regular feature Vaughn’s View.  Be sure to check out “Hot Performers from the Southern Plant Trials” and “Stunning Begonias in the Southern Trials” to get a feel for what the tour has to offer.

You can get update on the tour by following the Southern Garden Tour Facebook page  @SouthernGardenTour.