FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Plant Select® program is unique to Colorado, as gardening industry experts grow and trial plants for years to see how they respond to Colorado's extreme climate.
Ross Shrigley, the manager of the Plant Select® program, explains how a plant “wins” and makes it into Plant Select®.
Plant Select is a grassroots plant development program. That means the members — anyone with professional ties to the program — can submit a plant for trial.
Plants are submitted and entered into multi-site trials, spread between regional botanic gardens, universities, professional horticulturists and homeowners.
These plants are evaluated for three years against rigorous criteria to ensure they are beautiful with little water, they are low maintenance, non-aggressive and benefit wildlife.
Twice annually, Plant Select® members — horticulture professionals including botanic garden staff, university staff, nursery people, etc. — evaluate each plant in trials, scoring them on the above criteria.
The majority of plants are eliminated from trials for one reason or another, so you know by the time a plant is selected it is good!
A minority are advanced and put into commercial production. At that time, they enter the lineup for the coming year.