What to Expect at Metrolina Greenhouses’ Trial Gardens and Open House in 2023
April 25, 2023 
Metrolina Greenhouses’ annual open house will take place on June 8, 2023, as part of the annual Southern Garden tour. Greenhouse Grower Senior Editor Brian Sparks recently spoke with Mark Yelanich, Director of Research and Development at Metrolina, to learn more about what growers can expect to see and discover.
Brian Sparks: Can you offer an overview of what growers and others who are attending this year’s trials at Metrolina can expect? What are some of the goals you have for this year?
Mark Yelanich: Our industry open house will be on June 8. We’ve had pretty good attendance with that the last couple years, and people can sign up in advance or show up here anytime.
This year we have more than 1,900 annuals will be putting out, as well as 449 first-year perennials and 383 we carried over from the year before. We also have a pergola down the middle of the trials where we’ll have about 150 of our own combination baskets as well as planters from several breeders. Overall, it’s been a pretty good year for submissions.
Brian Sparks: What kind of attendance do you expect in terms of other growers, brokers, or anybody else?
Mark Yelanich: It’s often a good mixture. We get a lot of the brokers coming in, and some of our local growers also show up here. We’re tied in with the Southern Garden tour; Young’s Plant Farm has their open house on June 6, then people can stop at the University of Georgia on the 7th, and then our farm on June 8.
Brian Sparks: In addition to the new varieties, is there anything else new that you are going to have on display this year?
Mark Yelanich: Last year we planted 87 heuchera, and this will be our second year trial with them. We try to pick a focus crop every year, and the one we’re looking at this year is portulaca. We’ll be planting more than 100 portulaca in the garden and those should be outfor the open house.
Brian Sparks: Outside of varieties, is there anything else that you might be featuring there, such as new facilities or production areas?
Mark Yelanich: We’re just finishing up a new range (we call it MX5) of around 30 acres. That should be finished up by June. There’s also a soil room we started last year. We use a lot of EZ Blend from Profile Products and we have four bale shavers now to make up the soil mix. We have more than 100 table movers that are now electric instead of gas power. Everything we’ve learned in the other MX facilities, we’ve improved in the new one. At our York facility, we’ve added about 150 acres of outdoor growing, and they’re putting in the irrigation system.
Brian Sparks: Once the trials and open house are over, what are some of the next steps that Metrolina takes in response to the feedback you hear from attendees and the information you collect?
Mark Yelanich: On Friday, June 9, we have consumer focus groups taking place, and that gives us some direction on what people are looking at and asking about. Then we’ll work with our customers to be able to confirm some of the items we are looking to grow. The public garden is almost half of our testing program. We have about 2,000 items in the public garden, and we also have a confidential garden that is another 5 acres, where we’re working with all the breeding companies. The plant material in that confidential garden is the stuff that our customers would present a couple years from now. A lot of what’s in the public garden right now, we’ve already seen for a couple of years in the confidential garden.
Brian Sparks: Is there anything else you wanted to mention in terms of what attendees can expect?
Mark Yelanich: This year we’re going to try to do more focused touring and walk-throughs so the breeders can present their new items. The first day is industry-focused, and the second day is an invite-only, consumer-focused open house. That’s when we’ll have closed focus groups with our Home Garden Panel advocate-level members, who will be able to interact with gardening consumers in research discussions. We also have a garden tour for consumers.
More Details on the 2023 Southern Garden Tour
- June 6, 2023: Young’s Plant Farm. RSVP Required (https://youngstrialgarden.online-rsvp.com); 1166 Lee County Road 9, Auburn, AL, 36832; Questions to [email protected]
- June 7, 2023 – University of Georgia. No RSVP Required. University of Georgia Trial Garden address is 1030 W Green Street, Athens GA 30602; On Campus Parking -South Deck Parking- Infront of Snelling; http://ugatrial.hort.uga.edu
- June 8, 2023 – Metrolina Greenhouses, RSVP here; 16400 Huntersville – Concord Rd., Huntersville, NC 28078; Questions – contact Kayla Gibson, Research and Development Manager, 980-266-0011.
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