Minnesota Hardy

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Minnesota settlers were disappointed when the plants they brought from the east experienced severe winter injury or failed to ripen before a killing autumn frost. Isolated rural families and communities depended on locally grown food to sustain them. "I would not live in Minnesota because you can't grow apples there," newspaper editor Horace Greeley is reported to have said in 1860. If only he could have tasted the Honeycrisp (TM) apple, a product of over 100 years of University of Minnesota research!

The University's Agricultural Experiment Station hired its first horticulturist, Samuel Green, in 1888 to improve tree fruits, especially apples. Breeding has expanded to encompass ornamental trees and shrubs, flowers, berries, and grasses. The teaching program that accompanied these investigations was one of the earliest U.S. college horticulture programs and is of national prominence today. The results number well over 300 hardy varieties and provide a foundation for Minnesota's two billion dollar horticultural industry--from apples to azaleas, and from Rochester landscapers to Roseau grass seed growers.

The University does not sell plant material directly to the public, but provides it to licensed propagators who then distribute it to growers, retailers and landscapers in Midwest and northern states, adjacent provinces, with some crops available worldwide. You can purchase the potted or bare root plants at thousands of commercial nurseries and garden centers. All of the plants pictured are currently available, though no single nursery carries all of them. In addition, we've included information about the characteristics of each plant to help you make informed choices, whether you're searching for a few shrubs and flowers for your yard, or for hundreds of grape plants for a commercial vineyard.

The University's success in developing hardy azaleas and chrysanthemums of every hue is unparalleled. Ornamental trees and shrubs are bred for blossom display, plant size, and early fall color in addition to proven hardiness. This is a guide to many of the hardiest plants available anywhere, ones that have survived the rigors of collection, breeding, selection and testing by University of Minnesota researchers.

As you browse, follow the design of this catalog as you might view your own yard. Start first with shrubs and trees, the backbone of a landscape, and continue with perennial flowers to fill smaller areas and add color highlights, then move on to grasses that fill the spaces between or provide areas for recreation or relaxation. Of course, edible products of the landscape are included: tree fruits, grapes and berries. Finally, we tempt you with University crops that you may taste or view a year--or a decade--from now, and tell you where you may go to see them! This includes environmental research projects that provide land managers with techniques to restore wetlands and lakeshores, capture urban runoff in rainwater gardens, and prevent the introduction of invasive species.