NCROC receives Honorable Mention in the 2025 All-American Selections Annual Landscape Design Challenge
Each year, All-America Selections (AAS) invites public gardens across the country to participate in its annual Landscape Design Challenge—an initiative that encourages creative, educational, and visually compelling displays featuring award-winning AAS varieties. For 2025, the challenge theme was STEAM, prompting participating sites to explore the intersections of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics through purposeful garden design.Learn more about the design challenge.
NCROC Top 10 Annual Flowers of 2025
Annual flower trials are hosted at the North Central Research and Outreach Center. This research is an extension of the flower trials occurring at the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, MN. Companies such as All-America Selections, Proven Winners, Syngenta, and many others trial their flower varieties here at the NCROC in the field, in hanging baskets, and containers. During flower evaluations we grade the plants based on criteria such as color, uniformity, uniqueness, plant health, hardiness in zone 3, and insect/disease resistance.
Long-Term Agricultural Research Network (LTARN) at NCROC
Reinvigorating Pollinators with Perennial Flax
U of M professor Neil Anderson’s team studies the triple-hitter crop, which provides food resources to pollinators throughout the growing season and creates sustainable oilseed and fiber products as a cash crop for Minnesota farmers.
Urging infrastructure support for ROCs
Today, we are advocating for Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) funding of $12.9+ million from the 2024 Minnesota State Legislature for a number of upgrades throughout a number of ROCs and field stations. These upgrades include a variety of HVAC, plumbing, roofing, lighting, septic system, and electrical infrastructure projects — and more — along with safety and ADA improvements.
2023 Winter Rye Variety trial
Winter rye (Secale cereale L.), also known as cereal rye, is the most winter hardy and drought tolerant of all small grains. Winter rye performs best in sandy loam, well-drained soils compared to fine textured soils with poor internal drainage. Soil pH for optimum growth ranges from 5.6 to 7.0 but rye can tolerated pH as low as 4.5 and as high as 8. Expect winter rye to be more productive than other small grains on infertile, sandy soils. Winter rye will continue to grow until late fall, overwinter, and resume growth quickly in the early spring.
NCROC's Top 10 Annual Flowers of 2022
Annual flower trials are hosted at the North Central Research and Outreach Center. This research is an extension of the flower trials occurring at the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, MN. Companies such as All-America Selections, Proven Winners, Syngenta, and many others trial their flower varieties here at the NCROC in the field, in hanging baskets, and containers. During flower evaluations we grade the plants based on criteria such as color, uniformity, uniqueness, plant health, hardiness in zone 3, and insect/disease resistance.
NCROC Horticulture Program Donates Blueberries to Local Food Shelves
NCROC's Horticulture program recently donated 540 pounds of blueberries to Second Harvest Food Bank and other area food shelves. Berries were picked by NCROC staff and the Itasca County Master Gardeners.