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Ontario trial garden open house at two sites

Aug. 12, 2009, Guelph, Ont. — One of Canada’s largest bedding plant
trials will host an open house at its two locations on Aug. 20.

Aug. 12, 2009, Guelph, Ont. — One of Canada’s largest bedding plant trials will host an open house at its two locations on Aug. 20.

Rodger Tschanz of the University of Guelph is a co-presenter, along with Denis Flanagan of Landscape Ontario, in a discussion on “New Varieties and How to Use them in the Landscape.”

The morning session will be held at the Landscape Ontario site at 7856 Fifth Line South in Milton, from 9 a.m. to noon. Over 300 different bedding plant cultivars (annuals and perennials) and a vegetable garden will be highlighted in the Landscape Trial Beds. New this year is a “shady area” trial garden on the boulevard. Plant material is from Ball Horticulture, Blooms of Bressingham, Floranova, George Sant Greenhouses, Goldsmith Seeds, Ontario Seed Company, PanAmerican Seed, Proven Winners, and Sakata. Visitors can vote for their favourites.

They can also view the newly installed high efficiency subsurface point source and landscape dripline irrigation systems. Participating companies include Hunter Industries, The Toro Company, Rainbird, John Deere Irrigation, Turf Care Products Canada, and Vanden Bussche Irrigation.

Visitors can also vote on their favourite hanging basket from participating municipalities – Town of Aylmer, Town of Cobourg, City of Guelph, City of London, City of Oshawa, and City of Toronto. This display is hosted by the Ontario Parks Association.

Rodger Tschanz (University of Guelph) and Denis Flanagan  (Landscape Ontario) will lead a presentation on “New Varieties and How to Use them in the Landscape.”

Refreshments will be served at noon, sponsored by the Grounds Management Industry Sector Group of Landscape Ontario.

AFTERNOON IN GUELPH
The open house moves to the Guelph Trial Garden at the Turfgrass Institute at 328 Victoria Rd. S., (at College Avenue), in Guelph from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Note: attendees must provide their own transportation from Milton to Guelph.

Featured will be:
• The All-America Selections Flower & Bedding Plant Trial.
• New plant cultivars for containers and ground beds.
• Perennials from Blooms of Bressingham, Vanhof & Blokker, and Ball.

A turf program is being held in conjunction with the Guelph Turfgrass Institute. Featured is research for residential and public park turf maintenance.

Admission is free with plenty of free parking. For more information and to RSVP, contact Kathleen Pugliese at 800-265-5656, ext 309, or e-mail kpugliese@landscapeontario.com.

The open house is co-hosted by Landscape Ontario, the Ontario Parks Association and the University of Guelph. It is sponsored by Goldsmith Seeds and A.M.A. Plastics Ltd.