Picking the Winners for 2018
Last week, All-America Selections announced that 11 different varieties had been designated as AAS Winners for 2018. Nine national and two regional Winners were selected after the 2017 trialing season.
All-America Selections National and Regional Winners have been tested for garden performance by a panel of professional, independent and volunteer judges across the country.
Varieties that perform best over all of North America become AAS National Winners. Entries that performed particularly well in certain regions are named AAS Regional Winners.
The “85-year-young non-profit plant trialing organization” uses the tagline of “Tested Nationally and Proven Locally” because AAS Winners offer gardeners reliable new varieties that have proven their superior garden performance in Trial Grounds across North America.
The group of AAS Winners for the 2018 garden season includes:
- Canna ‘South Pacific Orange’ F1 (National) — Takii & Co., Ltd.
- Cuphea ‘FloriGlory Diana’ (National) — Westhoff
- Gypsophila ‘Gypsy White Improved’ (National) — Sakata Seed
- Marigold ‘Super Hero Spry’ (National) — Ernst Benary
- Pak Choi ‘Asian Delight’ F1 (National) — Seed Solutions of America
- Pepper cayenne ‘Red Ember’ F1 (National) — Johnny’s Selected Seeds
- Pepper habanero ‘Roulette’ F1 (National) — Monsanto/Seminis Home Garden
- Pepper ‘Hungarian Mexican Sunset’ (Regional) — Seeds By Design Inc.
- Tomato ‘Chef’s Choice Red’ (Regional) — Seeds By Design Inc.
- Tomato ‘Valentine’ F1 (National) — Johnny’s Selected Seeds
- Zinnia ‘Queeny Lime Orange’ (National) — Hugo Dittmar
(Click on thumbnails to see larger image)
These 11 varieties join three previously announced 2018 AAS Winners from July:
- Corn, sweet ‘American Dream’ (National)
- Ornamental pepper ‘Onyx Red’ (National)
- Tomato, cocktail ‘Red Racer’ F1 (National)
Breeding companies are currently offering seed of these varieties for the 2018 gardening season.
Each AAS Winner will be marketed through an extensive Social Media and public relations campaign.
To learn more about the 2018 Winners or to obtain additional marketing tools on these varieties, just go to all-americaselections.org.
— Tim