MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Home gardeners throughout Mississippi know that the Truck Crops Experiment Station in Crystal Springs is the place to see award-winning vegetable and flower varieties. Now the station itself is an award winner.

The Mississippi State University facility is the 2005 All-America Selections Display Garden Exemplary Education Category II award winner. The category II designation is for locations receiving between 5,000 and 100,000 visitors a year.

All-America Selections is a non-profit organization founded in 1932 to test new flowers and vegetables for home gardening. New varieties submitted by seed companies are tested in trial gardens and winners are shown to the public in more than 175 display gardens in North America.

“The Truck Crops Experiment Station has been an All-America trial and display garden since 1990,” said MSU vegetable specialist Rick Snyder. “We grow the varieties submitted to the program and evaluate them for our growing conditions.”

Part of the All-America Selections mission is educating home gardeners about new vegetable and flower varieties. Each October, the Truck Crops Station opens its gardens to the public during its Fall Flower and Garden Fest. The two-day event typically attracts about 6,000 visitors from throughout Mississippi and adjoining states.

“The Flower and Garden Fest is designed to teach the public about vegetables, flowers, herbs, gardening and horticulture,” Snyder said. “It is an excellent forum to show the All- America Selections Display Garden to the public.”

The event is sponsored by the MSU Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.