We are going back to our beginning and creating a true trial garden!

In 1952 the Trial Gardens were commissioned by the Garden Center and used as testing gardens for local growers’ new annual and bulb varieties, to learn how they fared in our area. Over the years the gardens became more focused on design competitions among local garden clubs, which still continues today.

In 2021 we returned to our roots dedicating the largest plot as a true “trial” garden. The Garden Center partners with various local midwest growers testing their new plant introductions for a 3-year period and report our findings

The first grower is a Midwest star by the name of Brent Horvath. His wholesale nursery, Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, is in Hebron, Wisconsin. He volunteered to supply plants after seeing the WM Trial Gardens following a delivery to the Oudolf Garden Detroit.

Brent has done a lot of work with native grasses, selecting for color and other key characteristics. He has also introduced selections of other plants including Geums and you will see some of those in the planting. Release for new varieties and for warm-season grasses takes place in June.

Stay tuned for this exciting phase in the GPGC Trial Gardens. This page will offer information on each of the plants and our success and challenges in growing them.

Click here to view the plant list from Intrinsic Perennial Gardens.