Want a proven performer for the garden? Look to the All-America Selections for its annual picks.
The independent organization picks the best new flowers and vegetable varieties after testing them at trial grounds across the country. There are no specific number of winners; only the varieties that display a combination of stellar qualities such as disease or pest tolerance, novel colors or flavors, yield, length of flowering or harvest, and overall performance are chosen.
The AAS found four winners for 2007: Two bedding plants, a hot pepper and a plumed golden yellow flower.
The flower, a celosia called Fresh Look Gold, produces flower spikes that shed rain like duck’s feathers. The plant grows to about a foot tall and a foot wide, and its plumes can be dried for crafts. This is an undemanding plant that is heat and drought tolerant.
AAS loved a petunia called Opera Supreme Pink Morn for its iridescent shimmering flowers and nonstop color. The bedding plant doesn’t need to be deadheaded to maintain flowering and it’s adaptable to container plantings.
Another bedding plant, a vinca, Pacifica Burgundy Halo, scored big with trial judges who loved the glossy dark green foliage covered with burgundy flowers. The plant is easy to grow and adapts to full sun and containers. No deadheading needed and it stands up to low water conditions.
The only vegetable selection, Holy Mole, is a pasilla-type pepper perfect for making mole sauce. The peppers grow to 7 to 9 inches and, as they mature, the green skin turns chocolate. The dried fruit flavor is spicy, nutty and tangy. The easy-to-grow plants are resistant to potato virus Y and tobacco mosaic virus.
Seed for all four are available at the following companies: J.W. Jung Seed Co., 800-247-5864, www.jungseed.com; Park Seed Co., 800-213-0076, www.parkseed.com; and Otis S. Twilley Seed Co., Inc., 800-622-7333, www.twilleyseed.com.
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