One way I have found
to pick the best plants for my garden is
to look at the All-America winners for
the new year. If it has been tested and
approved in the All-America Selections (AAS)
testing program, I can trust the plant
to grow. They have almost 50 test
gardens from Alaska and Canada to
California and Florida. It is especially
nice to have a test garden in a similar
climate as your own landscape. They also
have over 175 display gardens all across
the continent; they are not used for
judging, but instead to show you how the
plants grow in your local area.
AAS trial gardens
have tested around 50 plant varieties
every year since 1932, and they only
accept previously unsold varieties.
There is an AAS Gold Medal Award
reserved for a breeding breakthrough.
Gold Medal Awards have been rare, only
given once or twice a decade. The award
recognizes a flower or vegetable for
significant achievements, proven
superior to all others on the market.
Each testing garden
has at least one official AAS judge. The
judge supervises the trial, but no
judges are paid for their efforts.
Typically, the judge is a horticultural
professional and the site is part of a
seed company trial grounds, university
or other horticultural institution.
The judge evaluates
entries by looking for desirable
qualities, such as novel flower forms,
flower colors, flower show above
foliage, fragrance, length of flowering
season, and disease or pest tolerances
or resistance. Vegetables are judged by
searching for such traits as earliness
to harvest, total yield, fruit taste,
fruit quality, ease of harvest, plant
habit, disease and pest resistance.
The judges evaluate
AAS trials all season long, not just an
end-of-season harvest. Based on the
superior qualities, the judge scores
each entry. Only the entries with the
highest nationwide average score are
considered to be worthy of an AAS award.
When you see the red,
white and blue logo of All-America
Selections on vegetables and flower seed
packets, bedding plant tags or in
catalogs, it is a promise of gardening
success. AAS has taken the guesswork out
of finding reliable new flower and
vegetable varieties that will show
improvements over other varieties.
Last year, there were
four winners: one flower and three
veggies. This year had four winners, but
they were all flowers.
I have been looking
at Zahara zinnias for the past couple of
summers, and I was pleased to see the "Zahara
Starlight Rose" zinnia on the winner's
list. It has the typical zinnia flower
shape, but the center is bright pink
with white outer petal edges. It has
proven to be resistant to leaf spot and
mildew, which often kills zinnias, and
it is heat and drought tolerant.
Suitable for containers, these plants
grow in full sun to 12 to 14 inches tall
and wide.
I have never been
real fond of snapdragons, but I may have
to try the double flower form "Twinny
Peach" with its blend of peach tone
colors. "Twinny Peach" will produce
abundant flower spikes, plenty to cut
and place in vases for fresh indoor
bouquets. It exhibited heat tolerance in
the AAS trials and grows about 1 foot
tall and wide.
Gaillardias are great
sun-loving flowers that look like
daisies. They often grow too tall and
messy. "Mesa Yellow" has 3-inch flowers
that can be cut for bouquets or left on
the plants to attract butterflies. The
neat, 22-inch plants are adaptable to
small gardens or any type of container
in full sun. When planted near the edge
of the container, they will cascade
down.
Violas or pansies are
great winter bloomers for the warm or
cool winter states. Planted in the fall,
they will bloom all winter and spring
until the summer heat gets them. In cold
winter states, they will bloom in the
fall, go dormant over the winter, and
bloom again in the spring until the
weather gets hot.
The new blue "Endurio
Sky Blue Martien" will look great with
yellow pansies or next spring's yellow
crocus. This viola can also be planted
in the spring. It will grow to 6 inches
tall and 10-12 inches wide, creating a
bright spot in any garden. It is also
perfectly suited for window boxes and
hanging gardens, as well as balcony and
patio planters.
E-mail questions to Jeff Rugg,
University of Illinois Extension at
jrugg@illinois.edu. To find out more
about Jeff Rugg and read features by
other Creators Syndicate writers and
cartoonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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