Southern Garden Tour participants introduce new website

Horticulture industry members can mark their calendars for the 2024 Southern Garden Tour during the first week of June. Participants of the tour — Young’s Plant Farm in Auburn, Alabama, the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and Metrolina Greenhouses in Huntersville, North Carolina — will host horticulture industry members at their respective Trial Gardens Open Houses throughout the week.

The self-led industry event begins with a trial garden industry open house at Young’s Plant Farm on June 4. The University of Georgia Trial Gardens will host an industry open house the morning of June 5, but the gardens will remain open all day, and industry visitors are welcome to return throughout the summer. The tour will conclude with the trial garden industry open house at Metrolina Greenhouses in Huntersville, North Carolina, on June 6.

Details of the week’s events are now available on a newly published website for the Southern Garden Tour, southerngardentour.com. The website was created in collaboration by the tour participants to provide one source of information and make travel arrangements and registration for the events more easily accessible to industry members.

The Southern Garden Tour website includes general information about the annual summer event, along with a page for each trial garden site location and a registration page where industry members can sign up for each open house. A resources page contains recommended hotels and restaurants, along with information about each city where the tour participants are located.

Additional events during the week of the Southern Garden Tour are also highlighted. This year’s Southern Garden Tour coincides with the 2024 All-America Selections Summer Summit, which will begin following the Trial Gardens Open House at Young’s Plant Farm on June 4. Information on the Summit, along with a link to registration, is available on the Young’s Plant Farm page of the website.

Metrolina Greenhouses is also hosting an invitation-only event for its Home Garden Panel members on June 7, which includes interactions with more than 500 consumers who will tour the operation’s 3-acre trial gardens and take part in focus groups about member products.

Visit southerngardentour.com for more information and to register for each event of the 2024 Southern Garden Tour.