A primary mission of the LSU AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station is to evaluate and promote superior plant material and new specialty crops for use within the Louisiana nursery and landscape industry, writes Dr. Jeb S. Fields, Jason Stagg, and Ashley Edwards in recapping the 2019 field trials.
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Basil 'Everleaf Emerald Towers'
'Everleaf Emerald Towers' showed delayed flowering. Features an unusual columnar form and showy leaf color. Great taste, too.
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Impatiens 'Beacon Bright Red,' 'Beacon Coral'
This is a new breeding with excellent downy mildew resistance (we observed no disease), and these are the same healthy, vigorous plants that also graced the Hammond Research Station’s front entrance. These two colors seemed to be the standouts and created a lot of chatter.
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'Fire Away Hot and Heavy' Pepper
A real stunner in the edible ornamentals category, this pepper stayed fairly small, with a bushy spreading habit. Fruit production was incredible for such a small plant, displaying many colors at various stages of ripening. Fruit is a bit hot to taste, but not too hot.
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Gaillardia 'Heat it Up Scarlet' and 'Heat it Up Yellow'
Grown in full sun and part shade, both varieties blew away our expectations of gaillardias in a hot, wet summer.
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Pentas 'Lucky Star Lavender'
This variety showed unusual color in the excellent Lucky Star series with vigorous, sturdy, and compact plants with continuous blooming. Blooms are highly visible above foliage, and the plants thrived in containers as well as the landscape. Pollinators loved this variety as well.
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Portulaca 'Mojave Red Improved'
Featured an incredibly intense, showy red color on a low growing plant that’s excellent for borders. Hands-down one of the top performers in the trial garden through July.
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Sunflower 'Suncredible Yellow'
Hybrid sunflower with continuous blooms and branching, as well as a bushy habit. Plants bloomed from April to late August with excellent rainfall and humidity tolerance. These performed well in both the landscape and in containers.
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Zinnia 'Zesty Purple'
'Zesty Purple' is another entry into the newer zinnia breeding category aiming for large-flowered blooms on dense, branching plants. This color blew us away with its intensity in the garden. These plants are persisting longer than many other zinnias, with relatively less leaf spot.
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Basil 'Everleaf Emerald Towers'
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Impatiens 'Beacon Bright Red,' 'Beacon Coral'
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'Fire Away Hot and Heavy' Pepper
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Gaillardia 'Heat it Up Scarlet' and 'Heat it Up Yellow'
This is done through continuous trialing and observation of new plants, according to the professor. Many of the garden areas are designed to perfectly capture the sauna-like growing conditions of Louisiana – high humidity, heavy rainfall, extreme sun exposure, and high daytime (and even nighttime) temperatures.
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The LSU AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station Trials occupy approximately 30 acres and cover seasonal bedding plants, hardy perennials, woody shrubs, trees and everything in between.
Additionally, the LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station Trials are designed with landscape performance in mind, with trials not arranged in rows, but instead a landscape setting.
This year, the University included container trials to the trialing program, and plans to continue such into the future.
October 8, 2019 
