CSU Trial Gardens

The CSU Annual Flower Trial Gardens is a public garden located on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Spanning nearly three acres on the east side of the Fort Collins campus, the garden serves as both a beautiful public space and a research facility.

The garden's primary purpose is to test and analyze the performance of over 1,000 varieties of annual bedding plants in Colorado's unique growing conditions. Each year, expert evaluators rate the plants for vigor, growth pattern, bloom, and other characteristics. This research helps home gardeners and industry professionals identify which annual plants are most likely to thrive in the region's harsh climate.

Open daily to the public free of charge during daylight hours, the garden features wide pathways with wood chip mulch or turf along the edges of the beds. The sun containers are wheelchair accessible via concrete sidewalks. Visitors can observe a diverse array of flowers from late May through October, with cool-season plants like pansies on display in fall and early spring.

In addition to the annual flower trials, there is also a Perennial Trial Garden located across the street in front of the Center for the Arts. This area showcases newly introduced perennial varieties year-round. For those interested in more established perennials, the Perennial Demonstration Garden is situated just north of the perennial trials.

The garden relies on student gardeners, volunteers, and industry supporters to maintain the plants and conduct research. It receives no direct state or public funding, instead being primarily supported by fees from plant-breeding companies that submit entries to the trials.