 The North Dakota State University Discipline Gardens is one of the most historic and colorful gardens in North Dakota. It's open to the public right here in Fargo and it is bursting full of beautiful flowers. Tonight to update us on the happenings in the Discipline Gardens is Barbara Lashkowitz. She's a research specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences. Barb, welcome to the forum. All right, thank you very much, Tom. And unfortunately the gardens aren't really exploding with color yet because everything's covered in white snow but it's gonna change. We're gonna have a late spring but it'll come eventually. So let's talk about first of all where they are and what they are for maybe somebody in the audience that is not really familiar with the gardens. They're on the west edge of the NDSU campus, right on the corner of 18th Street and 12th Avenue North. So here we have 18 streets. Here's 12th Avenue North down here. So it's these gardens right on the corner and we've been there since about 2005. So quite a few years prior to that we were a little bit further north. But for various reasons we moved an hour here and like Tom said, it's open to the public. You can go and wander through whenever you want. I can also give tours or Esther McGuinness can also give tours. I hear a lot of people that they say they drive by it all the time. They don't realize that they can walk through because they think it's research but it is open to the public. Okay, so what are they for? Well, the three main reasons that we have the university are the same reasons we have the gardens. For teaching, research and extension I see in the fall entomology classes out there getting bug samples. There's some botany classes that look at the flowers. I've had some art classes out there that drawings when they're out there. So teaching research, we have some different trials on perennials and hardiness studies and then through the extension service to like to extend that information. And above all enjoyment again, just for people to walk through and look at the flowers, everything. We try to label everything. Everything out there is a name to cultivar that should be on the market. If it's not labeled, we can certainly get the information to anybody that's wondering what something might be. Okay, one of the main parts of the gardens are the bedding plant trials or the trials with the annual flowers. We have kind of three main areas. The corner gardens are the largest. They have the most color. So they're the ones that catch people's attention. Right by the parking area. We have some handicap accessible beds that we put into annuals. These were meant to be utilized by somebody with a physical disability or in a wheelchair that's easily accessible. We used to have some vegetables in there. I don't like to do a lot of vegetables out in the gardens because people tend to help themselves. So we kind of just stick to the ornamental flowers. Now we do have a small area. There's an area with poplars and pines, some shade. We do have a small area there that we also plant some annuals. Now I put a report together. The seeds that I get, I get from some companies. I also go through catalogs. So again, they're all named cultivars. And then twice a year, usually July, late July and then late August, early September. I walk through. I take some really general notes on the annuals like height spread. If there's any bloom problems, any insect problems, that sort of thing. And I put a report together that's on the plant sciences website, which is the address is right there. And right here, very small, it says 2017 trial results. So if you click on that, you pull up my report and you can see how the flowers did. But also where I got them from, I list my seed or my plant sources. Most everything is seed started, but I do get a few vegetative plants in. Or if I find before I plant, I have some holes to fill. I've visited some local garden centers and purchased plants that I have not started myself. Now we're also an official display garden of all America's selections. And many of you have probably heard of this organization. It's been around since 1932. It's a national organization that tests new plant varieties across the United States. And the ones that perform well across all their test states are given that designation as an All-America selection winner. Now their categories that they have are ornamentals from seed. A new category, ornamentals from vegetative cuttings, which in 2015 they started having those. And there's also fruits and vegetables from seeds, which we don't trial. And then another new category is herbaceous perennials and the first winners that we're gonna see from that will be next year. So that's gonna be kind of fun to see. Now in 2015, I believe I also designated a special area in the garden just for the winners that I get sent each year. They're also worked into the corner beds. But this bed further into the gardens is strictly for the All-America selections that we get. And they send these seeds from the current year plus the four previous years. So this year we'll have from 2014, 2015 up through the new ones, 2018 as well. So let's take a look. Whoops, too fast. At those winners from starting with 2014 and how they've been performing. So 2014 again, all seed propagated annuals. We had a nice little angelonia, which has done really well. Supposedly deer and rabbit resistant. However, I have first-hand experience with the fact that they're not rodent resistant. I had one year they were plowed down by a mouse or a mole or a vole in not a mole but a vole in the gardens. They came back really nicely and performed well that they were a tasty treat for something. Gora, this is a drought tolerant Texas native. And it does get quite big. It can get two to three feet high. But very, I mean, once it starts blooming, like with most annuals it does keep going but it's just a really good performer. Now the new guinea and patients, Florific sweet orange, it was, it has a really unique by color and that's oftentimes they'll select a plant because of its unique coloration. This is one that I have not ever had good success with any of the new guinea and patients that I try growing. They do need a lot more water than some other things on a little bit of a low maintenance gardener. So they don't usually get as big as they might get in a basket or a pot where they have nicer soil. So I personally, I couldn't recommend that one. There have been quite a few peppers introduced by All America Selections. This one is Numex Easter. It's a bit of a shorter one. It's about six to eight inches but it gets a lot of peppers that start out with a light purple coloration and they turn into these bright oranges and yellows. Osceo spermum here. The unique thing here is the yellow center and again, it's very fairly uniform in the garden. And then this penstemon which is an annual penstemon. Arabesque red, which has got that nice tubular flower that attracts the hummingbirds and the pollinators. It does need a little more maintenance with a deadheading but I've been really happy with that one. Okay, in 2015, that's when we started seeing some of the vegetatively propagated plants. So these will not come true from seed. You have to propagate them from cuttings or divisions, that sort of thing. And the two we saw were this impatient sparse pink flame and then some patients spreading shell pink. And the reason they chose these was because of the impatient's downy mildew that was starting to destroy the impatient's crops across the United States. So the impatience that's really affected by the downy mildew is the impatient's walleriana. These two are hybrids with the New Guinea impatience which is not that typical one. Plus I'm not really sure but I think a wild type of impatient. So they show resistance to the impatient's downy mildew. They also do very well in full sun. Like we don't have enough full sun plants. They took a shade one and made it tolerant to full sun. But you can see here, this one's in full sun, really did well. But again, they do take a little more water than other plants. Then this dianthus, look at their huge bright pink balls of color, great for a cut flower. This tidal wave red, any of the tidal wave petunias are very large and will fill a space, four feet by four feet very easily, just constant color. And then this salvia, there's a whole series of the summer jewel ones that have been selected as all America selections. And again, very tough and hardy and drought tolerance. 2016, there was only four winners, two geraniums. And again, these were both vegetatively propagated. So they won't come true from seed. And the unique thing here is the foliage. And the brocade fire, for me, has been much more vigorous than brocade cherry night. But there's a nice contrast here with the darker kind of chocolate foliage and here with the more chartreuse screen. Another pepper, blackhawk. Another pepper, blackhawk. Not as showing as the Numex Easter. These deep black peppers should turn red if the season is long enough. I don't see a lot of that happening in the shorter season up here, but there's still a nice, very vigorous, there's Numex Easter back there. So this one is quite a bit larger than that one. And then here we have another summer jewel, salvia. And this one's lavender. 2017, there's quite a few. I've got two slides of 2017 winners. I love this Salosha Asian Garden. It's just like Medusa's snaky hair. Very vigorous, constantly producing. Very nice, Diantha's super pink. There was a super purple in like 2006, I believe. It's a shorter one, not needing deadheading and keeps blooming even in the heat of the summer. This penstemon, I was not happy with at all. It was chosen because of its unique purple color, but I just, it didn't do well last year. Maybe this coming season, it'll do better. And here's a really unique Petunia evening sensation. It's got not only a real unique blue color, supposedly. And I said, I never caught it. Says in the evening, it should be more strong and I'm not usually out in the gardens in the evenings. So maybe this coming year, I'll try to get out there and see if they do have that unique odor. And then another vegetative geranium, Calliope medium dark red, which my picture here doesn't do a justice when it's just got a really neat, velvety red color. And then also from last year, another vegetative one, this Verbena. Enduriscape pink bi-color, just six. This was six plants that just totally covered this whole area here, constantly blooming. Two Vincas in the Mega Bloom series and they do those blooms. Again, you can't tell they're like three inches across. Just huge, nice colors, drought tolerant again. And then a Zinnia profusion red. And the profusion series has been around for a while. In like 2019, 1999, we saw the first All America selection winners in profusion white, and profusion cherry, and profusion orange, I believe. Now they've got more of a true red color, which is very, again, productive. And the profusion Zinnias are a hybrid that are bred to be resistant to the powdery mildew that attacks a lot of the Zinnia elegans. So in 2018, we have six winners. And again, these photos are all courtesy of All America selections, because I haven't had a chance to grow them yet. But we'll have a Canna, South Pacific orange. And in 2013, I believe we had South Pacific scarlet. It's supposed to be more compact, but it can still, for a seed-started Canna can still get up to four feet high in the garden. Vegetative one is this Cufia. Mexican heather is another common name. The key thing here I think is the blooming, just a lot of blooms. We've got a little gypsophila. Gypsy white improved with kind of a semi-double flower, a little French marigold, another pepper. And the key thing here is that dark foliage against the red berries. And then a Zinnia, Zinnia elegans, Queenie lime orange, which has a real unique coloration. Okay, so going on from the annuals, another big part of our gardens are the Dailele collection. This is the first public American Hemerochella Society historic Dailele display garden that's a mouthful, but it is a great honor to have this designation. We were currently, we have about 2,000 named cultivars and 24 species out in the gardens. They're not currently all labeled, we're working on it, but as a garden of the American Hemerochella Society, the labels need to have the cultivar name, the breeder, and then the year they were officially registered. So when they are labeled, they have all that information on there. So some of our oldest ones, yelled is the name of the breeder again, Springer Euler, but we have apricot from 1893, orange men from 1902, barone from 1903, Dr. Regal, which I don't know if you can see this, but the backs are a darker color, which I think is unique. And then gold dust 1905, and we do have some more contemporary ones as well, but our key is to have these historic ones, which currently is anything registered prior to the 1980. And unfortunately, every 10 years, they're gonna move that up. So shortly it's gonna be up to 1990, which kind of disrupts where we have them planted, but we'll work around that. So one of our newest gardens with the day, Lillies, is the Lenington American Award Winners' Bed, and this was an award started in 1970 by the American Hemorrhocal Society. It's given annually to a daylily that's been voted the best performer over a wide geographic area, named from George Lenington, who was a member of the AHS, and a breeder of daylies. And cultivars have to have been introduced for at least 10 years before they're eligible. For this award, we have almost all of them were missing the last couple of years, and then there are a few that have died in the gardens, but a few of those that we have, Bella Legosi was named in 2007, Designer Jeans in 1995, Peggy Jethcode in 2010, Jans Twister, and these have real unique twisted petals that was 23, Paper Butterfly, again, that unique coloration, Smokey Mountain Autumn, 1997. So again, there's 40 some of them, and we do have most of them, and they are labeled. Okay, getting on to some of the other gardens. In 2015, I started working with Darwin Perennials, which is a division of ball horticulture to trial some of their perennials. I had been trialing some of Ball's annuals, and one of our grad students got me connected with their perennial grower, and the rest is now we've got these nice Darwin Perennials. So in 2015, these were the ones they sent, Agastaki, a geranium, couple heliopsis, some hukera, Monarda, this should be somewhat resistant to powdery mildew, although I have noticed it on the plants, and there's that series over here. Parovskia or Russian sage Crazy Blue, which is right here, and I've noticed that mentioned in some articles recently up, you want a smaller Russian sage, that's a nice one. And then a couple Salvia, Salvia Nemerosa, lyrical blues and lyrical white, which are right here did really well. They bloom fairly early with Salvia. After they bloom, you can whack them back, and I took them back to like six inches, and then within a month, they were just blooming greatly again. Now the Agastaki is actually his own five plant, and there are still a few left, but out of 10 plants, I put in 10 plants of everything. Out of those 10 plants, there's only a couple left. The geranium is totally gone. The heliopsis, both of these got struck by red aphids two years ago, just totally covered, which kind of made them less vigorous, so they weren't very good last year. We'll see if they come back. Hukera frosty morn should have been hardy, but those are almost all gone, and the other hukeras are still here. So all these plants that are around are still out there if you'd wanna come and look at them this summer. 2016, they sent me four Acolya, which are right here, just really did well, but anybody that's grown Acolya knows that can be somewhat invasive, and these definitely are sending out side roots that have to be pulled out, but again, once they're done blooming, you can whack them back, and they come back not quite as full, but they look nice. We've got Adelaide, and another Monarda in that balmy series, and then another of that salvia blue marble right there. And then last year, they sent quite a few, but unfortunately, again, quite a few of these are zone five, and I'm not expecting them to show their sunny little faces this year. All of these Dianthus, which we see a couple of them here are zone five. The Echinacea should come back, and this Sangreta, sombrero Sangreta right here, got a lot of good ratings last year. The Miscanthus is definitely zone five. I don't think that's gonna come back. The Helianthus is questionable. Iberus should come back. The Leucanthum, again, zone five, but the Phlox and the salvia should come back. So in 2018, they've sent me some things, not only for the perennial beds, but some vegetative things for the annual beds too. Again, some zone five things, so we'll see what happens. All right, going on to some other areas of the gardens. We do have some sun shade areas out there. Again, this area with some poplars and some pines, where the annual bed is, which is over here, we've put in some hostas and some other shade tolerance stuff. It's very dry though. It's a dry shade, so a lot of it as much as I can, but there are a few things that aren't doing as well. And then over here in that more central area, there's no trees in this area, but it gets sun and shade about half of the day. So we've got, again, some of the same hostas that we have in the tree area, we have over here to see if there's any difference. This huge lameum is orchid frost, which is just taken over the place. I'm gonna have to probably turn it back a little bit. This coming season. Okay, we have a meadow garden, which for those of you that tuned in last year, I talked about that, trying to get a base of native grasses and wildflowers established, started it in 2011. This is how it looked last year, kind of from the same angle. I want the grasses to be more of the focus and some of the wildflowers are kind of taken over, so it's a little more work than I wanted it to be, but we'll just keep at it and hopefully the grasses are getting more established. We have a ziric garden, which is plants with low water use. So once they're established, they shouldn't need a lot of water or maintenance. Of course, we have some sedums. Right here is a baptizia. Baptizia is a great plant. Just, you know, from the ground, it'll grow four to five feet in a season. And so they have this, lots of different things there. And then of course, you know, pollinators, the big word these days, and we do have a garden with pollinator attractors. And it's got stuff blooming, you know, in the spring, summer, into the fall. Here's some mums. And hopefully, I don't know if you can see this, but Kathy Widerhold, who spoke with you guys last year, got this photo of a great golden digger wasp out in the beds. And this is hard to miss. He's like an inch long, totally friendly, just wants the flowers. But you know, it's, I haven't really taken the time to see what kind of pollinators we get out there. So I was glad that she got that shot of that, which is fun to see. And then we also have an area with perennial ornamental grasses up here. And we have a class every other fall, cultivation ornamentals. And we have a little area set aside for that class. The instructor needs to get some examples of the plants. She can go out and dig up a clump. So we have that as well. Then we also have four raised beds, which you can't see them all here, that originally we're going to be irises. We had a disease go through that stays in the soil. So we had to rethink our plan. We're still gonna try to get iris in some, but we have turned those beds over to a few other things. We have an area here for the perennial plant association, perennial plants of the year area. We have another area for pollinators that are mostly native plants. And I believe some master gardeners are gonna work on that a little bit more this year to make it a little more attractive. And then just a lot of miscellaneous perennials that you've probably, they're probably pretty common in gardens up here. And then Esther McGinnis, your next speaker, has a hookra echinacea trial she's been looking at for the last couple years. She hasn't really crunched all the data together there, but some of these hookra are just really pretty. And then again, the echinacea, the big thing there is all these new colors. Are they hardy? Are they not? Well, she will let you know when she crunches all her numbers together. Okay, so getting to the end here, what's coming in 2018 to the gardens? Well, we're gonna do a pollinator-friendly perennial study looking again at winter hardiness and also what kind of pollinators are attracted to the plants. We're gonna look at four genera, sedum, baptizia, monarda, and aster. Then grow them here in Fargo at our research farm up by Epsiraka and then up by the Myra Arboretum, Arboretum up by Laramore. And then we're gonna have an entomology student kind of watch them over the summer and see what kind of pollinators are attracted to them. And we'll have a yard and garden day, which at this point is scheduled for September 6th, a little bit later than normal. But we're gonna see how that works and just stay tuned for information on that as well. And that's it. So at this point, I'll take questions. Thank you, Barb. Let's get the questions out there. Can we ask any questions? First of all, there's a question about the vincas that were the 2017 All-America winners, the mega blooms. Yes. Do you have an idea about how tall they grow? Yep, they were a lower growing one, probably 10, 12 inches, not too tall, a little bit more of a spreader. And a cana that comes from seed, does that bloom in year one? Yes, the canas that bloom from seed, it's amazing, but they will get three to four to five feet high on the bloom all summer once they start going, so. And then can you dig up the bulbs in any cana forever? Just like a normal cana? The seed-started ones, the roots don't get as established as the ones that you start from roots already, but you certainly can try. You might lose some, but you can still get some to keep from year to year. Okay. What's the best time of year to see day-lilies in bloom? Oh, good question. Usually July is a good time. Mid-July through early August, that's kind of our peak. So how many day-lilies are there? I think we have almost 2,000, yeah. There's like 40,000 named cultivars, so yeah. So Barb, what's your five favorite day-lilies? If you're gonna go to the garden center, you're gonna buy five day-lilies. Tell me what you're gonna buy. I don't have an answer to that. You're gonna have an anti-don't-show-favoritism. If you're a scientist, you're not Stella de Oro, huh? That's too plain for you, huh? There's mixed emotions about Stella among the day-lilie community, so. Yeah, she gets no respect. How about the gardens that are open to the public, right? They are, yep. Anytime, any day. Even today, no, yeah. Go ahead. How about for shade perennials? Is there a difference between morning shade and evening shade? I think there is. I think the hotter part of the day, the earlier shade is easy. I don't wanna say this. I think afternoon shade is cooler for the plants than the morning shade. That's a morning pack. Yeah. That oscule sperm, mom, daisy. Easy for me to say. That white one, how tall does that grow about? That's about 12 inches, or 12 by 12, Bush. Are pookies that zone five seeds? And what are they doing that for? You're not zone five. You're not zone five. That's somebody from NDSU giving you those zone five seeds. No, it's, they're coming out of Chicago. Chicago. Yeah. No. You know what? We might find some that survive really well. And that's good to know. Cause micro climates play a big part. And sometimes plants don't know that they're not supposed to survive in many ways. So, you never know. That's right. That's what research is all about, right? Finding the winners and the losers. And but now your gardens are not that protected. No. And I don't cover anything and pretty much low maintenance. How do you protect any of your plants, your perennials over the winter? There's a few Dailele's that get protected cause they're not quite so hardy. But I haven't protected them. It's been Price Farnsworth, who is my former coworker, who's the Dailele fanatic. And he will do that soon. I like those Darwin perennials. You don't give them any special protection. They're just out there. Why are they called Darwin perennials? Is there a... I don't know. That's just the name. Is there anything special about that group of perennials? Or just ball of horticulture seed company? It's their perennial tradition. Which is no. I don't know what their significance is. Is that Gypsophila gypsy white improved invasive? That is a good question. Gypsophila moralis, which is not the invasive type, which is Gypsophila penicillata, I believe. But no, it's not invasive. It's not gonna take over your burden. Very small, compact, short plants. And you like that one? We'll see. I haven't grown it yet. Okay, what's that disease that kills those irises? We believe it was a botrytis rot that stays in the soil for like 10 years. There are some new work on just sides on the market. They don't like to use a lot of chemicals in the beds, because of the public accessibility to the beds. There's a question about where do you get your can seed? I've had it sent to me by All America's Selection, but you should be able to look in any of the catalogs or go online. Yeah, just Google it. Yep, pretty much. Just writing, help you can find it. And you kinda start that indoors first, right? Yeah, I started mine probably two, three weeks ago already. Let's see what else we got here. You know, that's an interesting thing you see about the All America's Selection that sometimes they get the award just because they're a little bit different. Not because they're overall superior, but just because they have a new twist and color. Yep, something unique about them that they decided they're gonna give it to that. Because there's been a few in the past years that have not done well here for whatever reason, so. I know it sounds vegetables too. They get some vegetables or the varieties aren't really that good, but there's like, you know, it's a watermelon with a yellow rind, so okay, gotta give that an award. Any other questions out there in the audience? Now's your chance. And of course, you know, Barb is available for your personal tour. You can contact Barb this summer, and I think that would be a great tour, especially get a group of friends to gather and our garden club to gather, and then you can just see all that beauty and tap Barb's knowledge. Right, something like that. Something like that. That's what she said. How do you plant amaryllis seed? Amaryllis seed. Amaryllis seed. I guess, I guess, Seen was a cat, my dad. Yeah, I have not had experience with that, so. You know, what happens at that field that you have? That's another good question. This past year, we added a children's activity with Don Carey, the bug man, which is really popular and brought some families in. We usually have tours of the annuals, tours of any of the vegetable trials that are going on. We have a new grape industry in the state. We've got some great research that they'll talk about. It's been in the past, a walk through campus looking at the trees. So we try to hit a broad range of the horticulture research that's going on. And like there's educational classes out of the tent. Is that right? And also like you have an A-ride that go look at the various gardens. Yep. Okay, they did not hear the answer to the amaryllis question. That's because there wasn't an answer to the amaryllis question. We grow our amaryllis by bulbs. Right, yep. Amaryllis. Not that they don't produce seeds. That's right, that's right. Yeah, so get your bulbs. It makes a great Christmas gift. There you go, holiday. Thanksgiving gift, anything. And they'll bloom around Christmas. Right. Any other questions out there about the display gardens? How about, what does the display garden is going to look like in 2021? What do you got up your sleeves? I don't know, I don't know. Is that a secret stuff? Secret, tough secret. Hopefully more flowers, more plants, more day lilies. Yeah, that sounds good. How about, is there a lavender that's hearty for this area? There is. Lent stead is one I've grown. Although I had a really nice catch in my own yard. If it gets good snow cover, it seems to do well. If we have an open winter, that might take it out. So it's kind of hitting this. Okay, any other questions out there? What do you think about seeding that they plant in an old bird bath? Will that overwinter? Uh, I'm gonna say no, but it depends. Depends, right? You know, if it stays open on the bottom, the colar is going to hit the roots more. Protected, bury it, and it probably will. Yeah, that's special. Okay, there you go, Barb. I think we got one last comment, is a participant finds the seed at the base of the trumpet of her amaryls, I think, and they pollinate it by hand. How about that? That's a really serious amaryls. You know, it's just in the lily family, so you just care for it like we have here. So there you go, Barb. That's all the questions. Thank you for that colorful, creepy, we're gonna have a great year this year. I hope so. And can't wait to stop by and see the gardens this summer. Thank you, Barb. Everybody, come on. All right, all right, thank you. Okay, we're gonna take a short five-minute break, and before our next presentation, so take a quick break, everybody.