Last week PJ and I went to the Penn State Seed Trials. I had never been to one of these so I was glad that I got the chance to go. The plants were beautiful... for the most part. My photo editing software doesn't work so my pics are coming out very bright.
They test seeds from Burpee, Park etc in sunny, semi shade and shade conditions to see where they will do best. They document EVERYTHING... size, germination rate, how many flowers after germination, height, width etc... EVERYTHING! The vegetables are all weighed also.
It was very interesting to listen to the conversations of the people that were there. It was like they were speaking a different language. Everything was spoken using botanical names, chemical names etc. It was pretty funny to be a guest! I do the same with some plants because that's how PJ refers to them so that's what I know!
Every grouping of plants had a label saying what it was so these growers could see what they would order to sell to their clients.

Different varieties of Ipomia, Sweet Potato. These are used a lot in hanging baskets and window boxes, more so than growing for the sweet potatoes.
Impatiens under the shade cloth. They were beautiful and HUGE! The ones in the full sun were still nice but not as huge.
Sangria, chili peppers
Dahlia
Millet
I can't think of the name of this right now!... maybe Rudbeckia?
Petunia
Portulaca


PJ on the phone with work... as usual!


Hummm, how many plants did they plant in that one pot to look like that? Let's dig through!
Impatiens under the shade cloth again
Impatiens


Then we walked through the theme gardens. This Mennonite woman was taking extensive notes. I liked how she looked behind it. Mennonites are allowed to have their pictures taken (I think), unlike the Amish.

We don't know what this was but the berries were like marbles. Very glassy and interesting.
We thought this was funny

They gave is a nice catered lunch and then we went out to look at the vegetable trials. We only got to the first row and it started to POUR. That was enough for us! We ran to the car and decided to go find some Jake and Amos jarred goods. YUM!

Now this sign would be better understood if I could zoom in but I can't. As we were driving to Lancaster, we saw one of these and I thought it said... "BRAKE... RETARDS PROHIBITED WITHIN TOWNSHIP LIMITS! We had such a good laugh that I had to take a picture of the next sign. Then we found out what it really said... Brake Retarders Prohibited Within Township Limits. It was really funny!

We stopped at our favorite market in Bird In Hand but it was closed. Oh well. Time to head home in time for volleyball!