Despite thunderstorms, nearly 140 attend East Texas horticultural field day

The 2010 East Texas Field Day, held June 24 at Overton, included nearly 400 entries of bedding plants, said Dr. Brent Pemberton, the Texas AgriLife Research horticulturist who has conducted field trials every year since 1994. (Texas AgriLife Extension Service photo by Robert Burns) OVERTON -- Despite thunderstorms and soggy fields, more than 140 international seed company representatives, professional growers and Master Gardeners attended the 2010 East Texas Horticultural Field Day held June 24 at Overton.

Though 140 was far short of the usual attendance, which usually ranges from 200 to 250, Dr. Brent Pemberton, the Texas AgriLife Research horticulturist who manages the field day, said he was pleased with the attendance.”

Included in the trials were nearly 400 varieties were everything from petunias to verbena to ornamental sweet potatoes. Texas conditions present special challenges for some ornamental plants, which are often developed in other states.

Some plants do well -- even thrive -- under Texas heat and sometimes droughty summers, Pemberton said. Others do not, and it's important for both amateur garden enthusiasts and those who develop and market new varieties to find out which is the case before they make substantial investments.

This was his third year to visit the field day, said Tim Runte, with Calloway's Nursery, which operates retail stores in the Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston.

"We just have stores in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, so we're mostly concerned with how plants do in Texas," he said.

Runte's strategy is to make note of promising varieties he finds at trials in other areas, but performance at the Overton and Dallas trials is critical, he said.

Duane Deibert, of Syngenta Horticultural Services, Lisle, Ill., said he's been to the field day numerous times.

"It's an opportunity to see how varieties my company breeds and develops perform in an open field environment -- a Texas environment," Deibert said.

Jerry Soukup, owner of Southwest Perennials, said he's a regular attendee of the Overton field day. Southwest Perennials sells herb and pe- rennial liners (plugs) for traditional, native, Xeriscape, and green roof landscapers.

JoAnn Carter, who came from Nacogdoches, has been a Master Gardener since 1995.

"The plants. It's all about the plants. The field day is the best way to find out what's new and what's coming on for the nursery trade. We can use it in our Master Gardener's demo-garden. I can go back to educate the landscapers at home about what's going to be available for them."

The ornamental plant industry in the northeast Texas region represents a wholesale value of more than $500 million, with about $100 million of that related to bedding plant production, Pemberton said.