Field Day 2017: Our Best Yet

Lots of logos showed up at Field Day 2017 

By every internal measure—notebooks used, donuts consumed, people present—our recent Field Day was the most popular one we have presented. Over 100 attendees were on hand, many wearing their company logo on shirts, t-shirts, or hoodies. That pride inspired us—here’s a little of what we saw.

Registration turned into a meeting of the minds

When asked what they value the most about Field Day many attendees responded in a similar fashion. Far and above, it was the ability to see new material, shake things up, and get out of a rut. We’ve put a name to the concept: cool hunting. Definition: Looking around for new ideas and making them happen.

Our notebook list included every plant in each garden and combo pot—20 in all

Each year for Field Day we build notebooks so people can take home a record of our Display Gardens and the plants we used to construct them. It’s rewarding to see people jotting down notes, having discussions, and taking photographs of the beds with their phones. We put a lot of effort into these gardens, infusing each one with an individual philosophy and an attitude. In the coming weeks we’ll continue to follow their progress here in Field Notes, dissecting some of the most popular beds so you can recreate them or take an idea and fly with it.

Ron organized the voting in Display Bed 15—one of our biggest

Our Vote for Your Favorite Plant contest has become a highlight of Field Day—it’s your chance to chime in on our research and help us zero in on a possible new breakout cultivar. This year the candidates were in Display Garden 15, a large bed where we mixed a lot of our new and experimental plants with popular varieties to see how they’d do. Thank you to Ron for passing out flags to all the attendees so everyone could mark their favorite cultivar. We’ll announce the winners in Field Notes once we tally up the votes.

Explaining both hits and misses in Display Bed 11—these are our learning beds 

Another true benefit of Field Day is seeing our plants in action, at a mature size, serving specific roles next to both companions and competitors. Several series are like Coke and Pepsi, and we try to figure out which one is better. By placing similar varieties in different light or water situations we can monitor the varying effects; other times we simply combine plants in different ways just to see what happens. At Field Day you witness both the successes and the stumbles as we explain why they occurred.

Thanks to the crew at Wicked Hickory!

Of course, we’d like to send out a big thank-you to the crew at Wicked Hickory for catering the day. Your delicious fare is another Field Day highlight, and we’re impressed with your ability to work hard in a hot place on a hot day. If you hadn’t started a food truck you’d have had a great future in greenhouses!