Specialty Crop

Approximately 200 Plant Select® plants are in the Plant Select Demonstration Garden at the Wyoming State Fairgrounds. The garden, which is managed by the Converse County Master Gardeners, not only attracts many human visitors, but also many pollinator visitors, says Becky Harris, University of Wyoming Extension horticulture educator for Converse County. “It’s a beautiful garden. The Master Gardeners and the fairgrounds’ staff are really proud of it.”

Harris says that numerous Plant Select varieties were initially planted in the garden in 2012, and the ones that didn’t survive the initial planting were replaced with other varieties for testing purposes. “The ones that are in the garden now have survived three or more years,” she says. Plant Select is the country’s leading brand of plants designed to thrive in the High Plains and Intermountain West with less supplemental water.

The public is welcome to tour the garden at various stages each spring, summer, and fall, and they can also do a walk-through during the winter to see which varieties provide winter interest. The garden is approximately 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. In about 2010, three diseased trees were removed from that strip of land, and a group pondered what to do with the property.

Initially, some wanted to replace the three trees, but eventually there was agreement to plant a variety of perennials to not only beautify the area but to provide a demonstration garden for educational purposes and to bolster pollinator habitat.