Background. 2008 was the fifth year of our "annual" evaluation program. Our goal is to provide valuable information on plants that are currently available, as well as those not yet released. This information is used by the industry to develop better plants for consumers. Better plants mean happier consumers, and potentially more sales. You can review pictures and data from previous research in our Archives section. This research is effort is headed up by Dr. Bill Miller (wbm8@cornell.edu), Horticulture Section, Cornell University, Ithaca N.Y.

Sponsors. This year we were happy to have seven sponsors, listed below. Interested in becoming a sponsor? Get sponsorship details.

• Ball Horticultural Company (2 entries)
• Ball FloraPlant (12 entries)
• Grolink Specialties (17 entries)
• Oro Farms (21 entries)
• Pan American Seed (16 entries)
• Proven Winners (50 entries)
• Syngenta Flowers (118 entries)

Evaluation criteria. We evaluated the plants every two weeks, usually by about six people, including a mix of staff members and students. Plants are given a 1-5 rating (1 = awful, 5 = great) on the following attributes:

• Flowering impact (except for foliage plants such as coleus)
• Foliage appearance
• Plot uniformity
• Overall landscape value

Evaluations also include written subjective comments and photographs. At the end of the season, we average the numbers across all raters, for all evaluation dates, giving an overall seasonal average. View data in an Excel spreadsheet. Photographs are compiled into a timeline of performance throughout the season. View 2008 Gallery.

Recognition. We reward the best performing plants with the titles "Best Overall" or "Best in Category." These plants are marked with either a red or blue stars on the Gallery page and their individual profile pages, and are also featured on the "Best of 2008" page.

Maintenance. We grew plants from seed, plugs, or rooted cuttings in 4-inch pots in the spring, and transplanted at the Bluegrass Lane Research site in early June. Maintenance was minimal (mulching, weeding and some grooming). We applied Osmocote fertilizer in mid-June, and irrigated via subirrigation.

Weather. Ithaca is located in Zone 5a-b. We had a rather normal season as far as temperatures go. June's average was 68F, July's was 69F, August's was 65F and September’s was 61. Precipitation amounts were close to average, with 4.5 inches of rain in June, 5.5 inches in July (2 inches more than normal), 3 inches in August and 2.5 inches in September (1.5 inches less than normal). Additional weather information can be found at The Ithaca Climate Page.

Thanks. Thanks are expressed to the breeding and supply companies who provided plant materials and financial support for these trials. These trials would not have been possible without the great efforts of Ron White, JC Mosher and Louise Gray of Cornell's Bluegrass Lane Turf and Landscape Research Center, my Trial Garden Coordinator Melissa Kitchen, undergraduate students Cheni Filios, Abby Nedrow, Estelle Meunier and Molly Smith.