Allen D. Owings Sun Garden

Sun Garden with beautiful yellow and orange flowers.

Apply your sunscreen and grab a wide-brimmed hat as you embark on the best-known trial garden at the Hammond Research Station! This area was designed to capture the perfect sauna-like conditions of Louisiana’s long growing season – high humidity, heavy rainfall, extreme sun exposure, and high daytime (and even nighttime) temperatures. Annual and perennial bedding plants occupy most of the bed space here as you start on the east end, with the west end housing some woody ornamental shrubs and root-hardy tropical plants. Some selections sent by our trialing partners are intended to be short-lived shoulder crops or color designed to be planted more than once during the growing season (like zinnias). Other selections are expected to get better as the summer gets hotter (like ornamental peppers) or beautifully endure the entirety of the growing season (like pentas). In contrast, some of our perennial beddings plants tend to wait until their second year of growth to really pop in the landscape. Trial plants are evaluated in a typical raised landscape bed setting and are irrigated regularly during establishment. After that, supplemental irrigation is given during dry periods.

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The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture

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