Regina Bracy, LSU AgCenter resident coordinator at the Hammond Research Station, explains research projects to landscape professionals and others at a fall field day. (Photo by Johnny Morgan. Click on photo for downloadable image.)

The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station plays a vital role in the horticulture and landscape industries of the state, according to Regina Bracy, resident coordinator at the station.

The role began to change around 2002, when LSU AgCenter chancellor Bill Richardson was visiting all of the research stations to determine what their visions were.

“We had traditionally been doing fruit and vegetable research, but the industry was shrinking,” Bracy said. “We weren’t getting a lot of new farmers in and then came Katrina.”

A significant number of farmers stopped growing fruits and vegetables because land values became too high. Many farmers were older and saw this as a good time to get out of the business.

These circumstances provided an opportunity to change the focus at the research station.

“The ornamental industry is one of the continuously growing industries in the state and was being underserved by the LSU AgCenter at the time,” Bracy said.

The lawn and garden area on the LSU AgCenter website receives about 80 percent of the hits. “When we did a survey of parish office phone calls, lawn and garden was No. 1,” she said.

Even though this industry is not considered traditional agriculture, it reaches a lot of people in Louisiana, Bracy said. “And it’s people the AgCenter doesn’t normally touch or the people who don’t know what the AgCenter does.”

Research at the station is not only an opportunity to educate the public about landscaping but also about all the other things the AgCenter does.

When most people visit the station, they see the plant evaluations, which Bracy says is the largest herbaceous plant-evaluation program in at least a three-state area. “We’re larger than Arkansas and Mississippi.”

Somewhere between 500-800 plant evaluations are done in the station’s sun garden alone each year, Bracy said. Another 300-plus evaluations are done in the shade-garden area.

“We have the Margie Jenkins Azalea Garden, in which we use a lot of azaleas, but also native plants,” she said. That garden is now being expanded to include 80 different Japanese maples.

A collection of rose cultivars has been installed at the easy-care garden. Bracy explained this is where researchers will evaluate roses that require minimum care at establishment and during their life.

The crape myrtle garden contains many varieties. Visitors can view bloom time, color, and plant size of old and new varieties, so they can make good decisions of which to use in their landscape.

An urban forest is now becoming noticeable, and people are beginning to wander through it. “We set it up so people could walk through to see how the trees would fit into their landscape,” Bracy said.

These trees are evaluated for how fast they grow and their horticultural qualities. Landscapers also use the forest along with classes for plant identification and other horticultural techniques. There are 32 species of trees in the forest.

“We want to have walking paths through the urban forest so people can see the quality of these trees,” she said. “We want them to be able to go from one area to the next. We will also have an area we’ll leave natural so people can see what it looks like without controlled burning and management.”

In the care and maintenance area, LSU AgCenter researcher Yen Chen is evaluating plant growth regulators, controlling thrips, which is a major problem in greenhouse plants, and pruning studies on Knock Out roses.

Recent work at the station involves the development of the Louisiana Super Plants program. The launch date for the first group of Super Plants was October 2010.

The Louisiana Super Plant program is an educational and marketing campaign that highlights hardy and beautiful plants that perform well in Louisiana landscapes. These plants have a proven track record having gone through several years of university evaluations and observations.

Bracy said the Louisiana Super Plants are “university tested and industry approved.”

Each fall and spring LSU AgCenter horticulturists release three new Louisiana Super Plants, which have been evaluated and selected for their superior performance under Louisiana’s growing conditions.

“Louisiana Super Plants are promoted using the LSU AgCenter’s Get It Growing media campaign to generate interest and awareness of these hardy plants,” Bracy said.

The plants are selected one to two years in advance of release to the public.

A selection committee, composed of LSU AgCenter research and extension personnel, selects plants based on observations made in replicated plots and demonstration trials across the state.

Then, an advisory committee of plant and landscape industry personnel from across the state meets with the selection committee for further scrutiny of each plant’s landscape ability and marketability, she said.

The Super Plant program was begun because Louisiana’s heat and humidity are demanding on plants, and most plants recommended for other states may not perform well here, Bracy said. Hence, the need for a state-based program that uses university research to identify and promote exceptional plants that perform well in Louisiana.

Funding for the Louisiana Super Plants program was provided through the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry with USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program funds.

Johnny Morgan