UGA Horticulture Trial Gardens shares updates for the 2020 season

On Wednesday, May 27, Brandon Coker, garden manager for the UGA Trial gardens, sent an industry-wide email regarding the 2020 trial season. Read the latest updates, below:

• Per Coker, UGA has successfully managed to plant all trials and Coker will begin taking ratings this week. To view ratings, go to http://ugatrial.hort.uga.edu. At the bottom of the home page, select 'perennials' or 'annuals', with the correct year selected. UGA does not have pictures up yet but will soon.
• Coker will take ratings every other week during the summer and post online to be viewed.  This year, he will also include additional comments for each cultivar.
• UGA will not be hosting an official tour of the garden due to campus restrictions and COVID-19. 
• Despite this, UGA will be happy to host visitors to the gardens through the summer and fall. 
• Email Coker at bcoker20@uga.edu to schedule a visit, and he will be happy to meet and talk about the trials for this year. 
• The trial gardens are open all day everyday year-round, so visitors may feel free to come out anytime.
• The catalog that UGA usually prints and distributes at the open house will be emailed to all the breeders this year as a PDF. As of now it is not ready, but it will be emailed once it is completed.
  

For breeders who have plants in the trials this year, they can reach out to Coker for any additional information regarding their selections. UGA will also be sending out its Plants of Distinction Awards this year every other week beginning in a couple weeks.  This year, UGA will also be including a separate category for plants to win awards for varieties that were grown by seed.