Trial Garden

TRIAL GARDEN EVALUATION RESULTS

The Trial Garden is a test site for Proven Winners—providing visitors with a glimpse of new or improved cultivars for our area. These are plants that are not available for purchase yet.  The trials help the company decide whether to market the plants, based on their performance in various areas of the country.

Master Gardener volunteers plant the trial plants and take detailed notes over a 4-month growing period. The research includes bloom coverage, disease and insect percentages, comments, and an overall rating (a “5” means - “Oh, my gosh, this plant did so well!”; a “1” means - “This looks miserable.”). The ratings judge how well these new varieties do in our area -- they are being tested for the conditions here. Detailed notes and photos are then sent to Proven Winners at the end of the growing season. In 2022, we obtained new large self-watering containers for better evaluation of plants bred for containers.

Champaign County Master Gardeners are the only volunteer program and only Master Gardener program in North America of Proven Winners' 47 trial sites, along with other nationally known trial sites including the University of Georgia, University of Colorado, The Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina, and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. We have partnered with various plant companies as a trial site since 2001.

A presentation is open to the public, offered by a Champaign County Master Gardener volunteer in July or August annually after the final evaluation of the trial plants. To view the presentation from 2019, click here. To register for the next presentation check the Extension events web page in July or August at https://extension.illinois.edu/cfiv/events or the Champaign County Master Gardener Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Champaigncountymastergardeners.