ADS Trial Gardens

The full set of rules for the operation of the ADS Trial Gardens is available at the back of the Classification and Handbook of Dahlias. You may also click here for a downloadable PDF of the rules.

The ADS sponsors Trial Gardens across North America to provide a place for hybridizers to have their new dahlia cultivars evaluated. The Trial Gardens are generally located in parks or gardens where the public can visit and watch the dahlias grow and bloom. The ADS provides detailed specifications for the practices used to grow the dahlias and for the evaluation of the dahlias.If you wish to enter a cultivar in the Trial Gardens, you must make reservations at the Trial Garden(s) you want to use. (If, for some reason you can't send those roots at the necessary time, you must notify the Trial Garden Director(s) as soon as possible.) Contact information for specific Trial Gardens may be found here or in the most recent December Bulletin of the American Dahlia Society, Inc. Ship your entries to meet the expectations of the Trial Garden involved and ensure that each tuber has a visible eye.

Send a good, clear picture of the entry, showing the form and color, with your entry.

Trial Garden Entries

Only varieties not disseminated in North America will be accepted for trial.

A fee of $12.00 will be required for each variety at each of the Trial Gardens to which it is sent.

Cultivars can only be entered in the Trial Gardens for two years, which must be consecutive years.   The full set of rules for the operation of the ADS Trial Gardens is available at the back of the Classification and Handbook of Dahlias.

Stock will be destroyed at the end of the growing season, but it may be possible to arrange with the Trial Garden Director for stock to be returned. Confirm that possibility when you make reservations. An additional fee of $10.00 per variety, plus postage, will be required.

Varieties may not be entered again in any Trial Garden in which they have been awarded a Certificate of Merit, but may be entered in any of the others provided that they have not been disseminated.

Color mutations (sports) of standard varieties are acceptable provided they have been "fixed" to the point where there is no reversion to the original variety. An exception to this is that sports of standard variegated varieties cannot be accepted and cannot be awarded Certificates of Merit. This does not mean that the ADS will not recognize such varieties, but identical sports may occur simultaneously in several gardens, and it is not possible to determine who is the originator.

Medals will be awarded to the cultivars that achieve the highest average scores in at least three Trial Gardens.  However, the Awards will be given only to a variety which is to be disseminated the following season. In the event that the high scoring variety is not ready for dissemination, the award will be made to the next highest scoring eligible variety. The chance for the award is not necessarily lost, as the score can be carried forward to one succeeding year. Please promptly advise the chairman of the trial garden committee of any delay in dissemination.

Click Here for a Trial Garden Entry Form

The Official ADS Trial Gardens are as follows:

EASTERN - NEW YORK
Michael Shukofsky - 516-437-0143
25  Barbara Street
Elmont, New York 11003
kathleen07@optonline.net

Limit of 50 cultivars. Reservations required. Make checks payable to: Michael Shukofsky.
Send roots or plants after April 20th.

NORTH CENTRAL - MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
Chuck Spragg – 612/866-2072
2836 West 72nd Street
Richfield, MN 55423
mnspraggs@msn.com

Limit of 24 cultivars.  Make checks out to North Central Trial Garden.
Send tubers April 15th. Send plants May 1st.  

MIDWEST - BONNEYVILLE, INDIANA
S. McQuithy Boyer  574/848-4888
16816 County Road 10
Bristol, Indiana 46507
Manorsam@aol.com

Make checks payable to: S. McQuithy Boyer.
Limit of 45 cultivars. Each originator limited to 3 entries.
Roots by April 15. Plants by May 15.

CANBY OREGON TRIAL GARDEN
Bill Mishler 360/225-8925
P.O Box 1468
Woodland, Washington 98674

Limit of 25 cultivars.
Send roots and checks by April 15th to Bill Mishler with checks made out to the Portland Dahlia Society.

INLAND EMPIRE - SPOKANE, WASH.
Gary Plowman, 509-924-4394
10509 E. Dean Ave., Spokane Valley, 99206
gdplowman@q.com

Limit of 35 cultivars.
Reservations required.
Please send tubers starting April 15th, plants starting May 1st.

Please make checks out to: Inland Empire Dahlia Society

PACIFIC NORTHWEST-TACOMA, WASH.
Marilyn Walton 253/564-0459
8133 N. 12th St.
Tacoma, Washington 98406
walton50@msn.com

Call or e-mail for Reservations or more info.
Send entries, form and checks all together following the mailing directions below:
Mailing through the U.S.P.S.:Point Defiance Greenhouse, 5400 North Shirley, Box #12, Tacoma, WA. 98407
Mailing through UPS, Fed-Ex, DHL:Point Defiance Greenhouse, 5402 North Shirley, Tacoma, WA. 98407
Make checks payable to: Metro Parks District.
Send Tubers April 15 - Plants May 1. Reservations are required.

Sorry, we can no longer dig and return tubers at the end of the season.

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS TRIAL GARDEN, CASHIERS, NORTH CAROLINA
Buddy Dean, Director - 828/421-9458
PO Box 1234
Cashiers, North Carolina 28717

www.CarolinasDahliaSociety.org - click on "Contact Trial Garden"
or email: GSMTG@comporium.net

Tubers by April 10th; Plants by May 10th to Buddy Dean at above address.
Checks for return of plant material should be made payable to: Carolinas
Dahlia Society

New Probationary* TG in Alberta, CA.
PIPER CREEK TRIAL GARDEN*
Lorne McArthur  403-346-4902
RR#3 Red Deer, AB  T4N 5E3 Canada
marilyn.mcarthur@hotmail.com
Limit of 30 cultivars.  Please reserve. Send tubers April 1 – 15.  Will be started in greenhouse, for planting out June 1 – 7.
 
*There are no fees for putting entries into a probationary Trial Garden. Score results do not count for the CHD or in the determination of Medals.  A two year probationary period is the standard requirement for a new Trial Garden.

**A picture of your entry should accompany the Entry Form. **
**Hybridizers that would like to have their roots returned at the end of the growing season, must prepay for the postage plus a $10.00 digging and packing fee. **