The LSU AgCenter's Burden Center is located on Essen Lane near the intersection of Interstates 10 and 12 in Baton Rouge. (Photo by John Wozniak)

Burden Center is the home of a wide array of horticultural research projects as well as formal and informal gardens and woods. (Photo by John Wozniak)

Dedicated in June 1998, the orangerie enhances Windrush Gardens and serves as a gathering place for a variety of events. (Photo by John Wozniak)

The Burden Center is one of the LSU AgCenter’s 16 research facilities across the state, which are part of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station. Situated on a tract of 440 acres of open land in the heart of Baton Rouge, this station is home to a wide array of horticultural research projects – turfgrass, vegetable and fruit crops, trees and ornamentals. Plants are evaluated for their performance under south Louisiana conditions. Research results help support the nursery and landscape industry. Display gardens include roses, camellias, azaleas and crape myrtles. The center is a member of the All-America Rose Selection national network.

Research
At the Burden Center, LSU AgCenter researchers evaluate a broad range of landscape plants to determine disease and insect resistance, bloom quality and duration, cut flower potential, cold and heat tolerance, and overall landscape performance and adaptability. In addition, the station is home to trials to evaluate various varieties of tomatoes, sweet potatoes, strawberries and many other commercial and home garden vegetables and fruits.

Cancer therapy. Zhijun Liu of the School of Renewable Natural Resources has several projects at the station. He’s growing 21 campotheca trees for a study with the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Seeds from the trees contain camptothecin, a naturally occurring compound that holds promise in cancer therapy. Liu is also growing a second tree, eucommia, for studies in cooperation with the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Eucommia bark contains substances that have anti-hypertension properties.

Sweet potatoes. Sweet potato researchers at the Burden Center are studying host-plant resistance to sweet potato weevils and banded cucumber beetles. Sweet potato weevils are a pest under quarantine and are not present in most north Louisiana parishes. Other research includes screening lines from the AgCenter breeding program for resistance to major diseases and determining the role of viruses in the decline in yield and quality of sweet potato varieties.

Fruits, vegetables. Other researchers use the facilities to evaluate performance of varieties of strawberries, mahaws, figs, peaches and pawpaws while vegetable studies include tomato variety performance and new technologies and practices to improve the profitability for small and medium-scale fresh-market producers.

The AgCenter’s fig breeding and selection program recently released new varieties ORourke, Champagne and Tiger. Other fruit research is investigating low-chill peach varieties for coastal areas and pawpaws for fruit production and landscape use.

In Burden’s greenhouses, researchers are working with tomatoes and hydroponic lettuce. In addition, they’re investigating the effects of heat stress on bedding plants and developing a method for determining heat tolerance.

Organic gardening. Sustainable agriculture research includes organic vegetable production, summer and winter cover crops, production practices and variety trials. Extension demonstration projects feature field days and organic vegetable production demonstrations.

Bedding plants. The Burden Center also hosts ongoing evaluations of roses, crape myrtles and bedding plants to develop recommendations for the production and landscape industry. Plant researchers are looking at postharvest longevity of sunflowers, rose diseases and poinsettia stem strength. Turf grass research includes a national turf grass evaluation and research in plant nutrition and weed control. Researchers also are evaluating the use of biodegradable containers and investigating particle size and distribution of various wood products for use as a soilless substrate.

Windrush Gardens
Windrush Gardens feature about 15 acres of gardens with winding paths, lakes and open areas designed and planted by Steele Burden, former landscaper for the LSU A&M campus. The crape myrtles, azaleas, camellias and other plants are representative of flora in 19th century plantation gardens. Numerous bronze or marble statues, mostly from Europe, are placed throughout the gardens.

The original Windrush Garden was a 3½-acre area around the original Burden home. The Burden Center maintains it exactly as it was when Steele Burden designed it. “We don’t add to it or take anything away,” said Pat Hegwood, station coordinator. “We have a documented inventory of the original Windrush Garden.”

The cultivated area has since grown to about 15 acres with the design in keeping with Steele Burden’s original design. In the newer area, the AgCenter has been adding and enhancing the garden with newer plant varieties. In areas where Steele Burden planted camellias, the AgCenter has planted camellias; where he planted azaleas, the AgCenter has planted azaleas.

Camellia Gardens
Complementing Steele Burden’s original plantings, the AgCenter acquired more than 450 identified camellia varieties from the private collection of Violet Stone in 2002. When Violet Stone died in 2001, she left a Baton Rouge garden brimming with about 500 named varieties and 200-300 more unknown or duplicated camellia bushes. With the help of Violet’s daughter, Stella Stone Cooper of Paramus, N.J., and longtime family friend and camellia collector Art Landry of Baton Rouge, staff from the Burden Center identified and collected cuttings from all but about 30 varieties in the Stone collection. The cuttings were cataloged and propagated. Later, the camellia bushes themselves were removed from the Stone residence in Baton Rouge’s Garden District and transplanted to Burden Center.

Now planted in several locations at Burden Center, the camellia gardens are supported by the Baton Rouge Camellia Society, which propagates plants from the collection and sells them. Burden Center receives a portion of the proceeds of the sales. Plans are being developed to create “camellia rooms” featuring different types or colors of camellias – white, red, pink – under a comprehensive landscape plan.

All-America Rose Garden
Burden Center is a member of All-America Rose Selection’s nationwide network of approved public gardens. AARS public gardens contain a minimum of 800 rose bushes and offer special displays of outstanding new varieties chosen by AARS for their beauty, novelty and vigor. The garden at Burden Center was recognized with an “Outstanding Rose Garden Maintenance Award” for 2009, Hegwood said.

Other features at the research station include:

• Barton Arboretum, which includes a pond and gazebo.
• Memorial Live Oak Garden features trees dedicated to friends of the AgCenter.
• Steele Burden Memorial Orangerie displays tropical and subtropical plants, including hibiscus.
• Ione E. Burden Conference Center includes a 2,400-square-foot meeting room.

Rural Life Museum
Along with the AgCenter’s research and demonstration activities, LSU A&M operates the Rural Life Museum in a 16-acre corner of the Burden Center. Through its extensive collection of tools, utensils, furniture and farming equipment, the museum preserves and interprets an important part of the state’s and nation’s rural heritage. The museum also serves as a research facility for LSU students engaged in heritage conservation studies.

The LSU AgCenter is one of 11 institutions of higher education in the Louisiana State University System. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, it provides educational services in every parish and conducts research that contributes to the economic development of the state. The LSU AgCenter does not grant degrees nor benefit from tuition increases. The LSU AgCenter plays an integral role in supporting agricultural industries, enhancing the environment, and improving the quality of life through its 4-H youth, family and community programs.