For untold centuries it has been the custom in rural areas of the Orient--in China, Korea and the Philippines in particular--to build an earthen mound over a new burial grave and cover the mount with "wild" Zoysiagrass sod harvested in nearby hills.

This practice has assisted Nature in developing numerous strains of Zoysiagrass and scattering them over vast areas of land too rugged for agricultural crops.

In 1906 Dr. Frank N. Meyer, a noted plant explorer, collected seed in Korea and introduced Zoysia into the United States (Meyer collected the first Centipedegrass seed in China ten years later).

Japonica Zoysia, one of four distinctly different families of Zoysia, is also known as Korean or Japanese Lawngrass. A warm season, creeping perennial, Zoysias form a dense turf by means of slow growing underground rhizomes and above ground stolens (runners).

In 1951 Meyer Zoysiagrass, a Japonica selection made by Dr. Ian Forbes, was released. Soon thereafter Dr. Forbes released Emerald Zoysia, a fine textured hybrid similar to the better strains of Matrella Zoysia. Meyer and Emerald have been popular for 40 years and many people consider them the ultimate in lawn grasses. Emerald produces few viable seed and Meyer seed do not reproduce true to type. Therefore each must be established with sprigs or plugs, which can require one to three years, or solid sodding, which is expensive.

Zoysia seed are hand stripped and cleaned in the Orient and have been exported to the U.S. and other countries for many years.

Chemical treatment has overcome earlier problems with germination, but the turf quality produced by such seed is variable and generally not very satisfactory. It is marketed in the U.S. under several different grade names, Because land suitable for farming is needed for food production in countries where Zoysias are native, it is unlikely that acreage will be established there for mechanical harvest of improved selections. Some of these countries are already importing better seeded varieties such as Zenith.

Fifty years ago Zoysia researchers were dreaming of and working at finding a Zoysia which would produce a superior turf AND enough seed to justify commercial harvest.

Hundreds of selections were observed and evaluated at the USDA Research Station at Beltsville, MD as well as at other public and private research centers. Plant explorers continue to search for different and better Zoysias in Korea and China, where it has grown "wild" for centuries.

Dr. Jack Murray , who headed the Zoysia research program at Beltsville, MD, died in 1994. He retired in 1988 because of health problems, and was permitted to take a collection of some of the most promising materials with him to his new home in Florida.

The "Green Revolution" has more than doubled the world's food supply in the last half of this Century, largely through the efforts of plant breeders who created high yielding "hybrids" by cross-pollinating selected parent plants.

Murray reasoned that if two or more of his best Zoysia selections were systematically planted in a manner that invited one parent to fertilize the other(s) i.e., cross-pollinate, the resulting "synthetic" variety would produce plants endowed with the magic of hybrid vigor as well as the meritorious characteristics of the parent plants. Murray provided Patten Seed Company, one of the Nation's oldest and largest producers of warm climate turfgrass seed and sod, with five of the better USDA selections and under his guidance seed production fields and observation plots were established.

Zenith is the progeny of three parent plants which have yellow-white flowers. Each parent was selected for superior attributes such as leaf texture, color, disease resistance, drought tolerance, fall color retention, uniform color when dormant, and early spring greenup.

Zenith is in the Japonica family, as is Meyer Zoysia, and is similar to Meyer in many respects, including blade width and color. It is somewhat less dense, thus making it easier to mow and providing a better opportunity for interseeding with tall fescues for year-round color. Zenith grows well in full sun or under light shade, and is presumed to have good cold tolerance.

When compared with turf produced by Japonica seed imported from the Orient, Zenith is far superior in appearance with a finer blade, brighter color, better rust resistance, much better fall color and earlier spring greenup.

Planted shallow on a newly prepared seedbed and watered frequently, Zenith germinates readily, producing a stand of seedlings in as little as 10 days. Like all Zoysias, it grows and spreads slowly, and therefore seeding rates of one to three pounds per 1,000 square feet are recommended. Even so, users are cautioned to not expect an establishment rate com-parable to seeded Bermudas, ryegrasses, fescues and other fast growing grasses.

Cost Comparison: Zoysia sod would be a bargain at $400.00 per 1,000 square feet, plus the cost of installation on a prepared, fertilized seedbed. The cost of Zenith seed for the same area is in the $30 to $60 range.

It was a long road. After more than 50 years of searching, observing and evaluating,

ZENITH® ZOYSIA SEED IS HERE AND NOW, AND IN COMMERCIAL QUANTITY!

Characteristics

• best adapted turf for the transition zone
• low water requirement
• low nutrition requirement
• winter hardy
• less frequent mowing required -- from 1 to 2 inches -- with either reel or rotary mowers
• dense turf resists weeds