Yes, winter is coming. But today, let us take a moment to appreciate flowers — one of the best souvenirs of summer — as we look forward to next year's garden. Many of the flower varieties you'll find in garden stores in the spring have just gone through a rigorous, real-world testing process at the Annual Flower Trial Garden at Colorado State University.
Our region's notoriously challenging growing season makes a great living laboratory for determining the healthiest, most vibrant plants. So each year, around two dozen companies submit flower varieties to see which ones are resilient enough for Northern Colorado.
The garden began back in the 1970s on a small plot of land near the old stadium, with only around 100 plant varieties. It's now one of the largest university trial gardens in the nation – with hundreds of varieties and tens of thousands of plants.
"It's just rows of rainbows. There's so many different colors out there," said Emma VandenEinde, KUNC's Mountain West News Bureau reporter.
She recently covered the final rounds of plant judging and joins In The NoCo to help keep our summer dreams alive.
