Texas Tech Horticultural Field Day in Lubbock September 22 to feature ornamental plant varieties tough enough to handle West Texas environmental extremes.

Texas Tech Horticulture Greenhouse – The 2018 Texas Tech Horticultural Field Day will feature ornamental plant trial varieties for public viewing, along with gardening presentations by experts from Texas Tech Department of Plant and Soil Science, the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Overton, Texas and University of Arkansas Extension Service.

New trial garden plant beds at the Ornamental Trial Garden where the 2018 Texas Tech Horticultural Field Day in Lubbock will be held September 22.

The event, slated for September 22, will be held rain or shine.

Gardeners, home owners, professional landscape managers and seed company representatives can learn which landscape plants perform well under West Texas conditions. Texas Tech Plant Trials were started in conjunction with the Texas Superstar program with Dr. Cynthia McKenney and have grown to include many commercial plant suppliers.

There is no cost to attend and the field day will begin with registration at 9:00 a.m. at the Texas Tech Horticulture Greenhouse. Tours of the gardens will be conducted by horticulture students from Texas Tech's department of Plant and Soil Science.

The trials include some standard varieties from previous tests, including both old and new varieties of potato vine, salvias, coleus, periwinkles and pentas. The displays will provide excellent opportunities to make side-by-side comparisons between new series varieties and popular current series.

The Ornamental Trial Garden is at the Texas Tech Horticulture Greenhouse just north of the United Supermarkets Arena.

Afternoon speaker programs will be indoors in the classrooms at the Texas Tech Horticulture Greenhouse (space is limited).

Speakers, topics and times are:

• 11:45am Dr. Eric Hequet - Update and Vision, Texas Tech University Department of Plant and Soil Science Horn Professor and J.A. Love Endowed Chair.
• 12:30pm Janet Carson -  Using Color in the Garden, University of Arkansas Research and Extension, Little Rock, Arkansas.
• 1:15pm Dr. Brent Pemberton - Top Performers from Recent Trials – the Labor Day Report, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Overton, TX.
• 2:00pm Vikram Baliga -  Native Landscape Design, Greenhouse and Gardens Manager, Texas Tech University Department of Plant and Soil Science.
• 2:45pm Alicia Thomas - Attracting Urban Pollinators, Instructor Texas Tech University Department of Plant and Soil Science.