Nov 11, 2013

And the AAS Winners Are… By Tim Hodson

After another year of thorough trialing, All-America Selections’ board of directors has announced its latest crop of winners. This is the first year that AAS is recognizing regional performance and granting an AAS Regional winner designation to five new winners.

And the regional winners are:
*Penstemon ‘Arabesque Red’ F1 (Syngenta Flowers) – Heartland, Mountain/Southwest and West/Northwest)
*Sunflower ‘Suntastic’ F1 (Clause S.A.) – Great Lakes
*Cucumber ‘Pick a Bushel’ F1 (Seeds by Design and W. Atlee Burpee Co,) – Heartland and Great Lakes
*Pumpkin ‘Cinderella’s Carriage’ F1 (Seeds by Design) – Southeast, Great Lakes and Mountain/Southwest
*Tomato ‘Mountain Merit’ F1 (North Carolina State University/Bejo Seeds) – Heartland

The entries that did well in a majority of regions are designated as traditional national winners. They include :
*Petunia ‘African Sunset’ F1 (Takii & Co.)
*Pepper ‘Mama Mia Giallo’ F1 (Seeds by Design)
*Tomato ‘Chef’s Choice Orange’ F1 (Seeds by Design)
*Tomato ‘Fantastico’ F1 (Pro-Veg Seeds)

All of these varieties were trialed next to similar varieties that are currently available. The AAS judges do a side-by-side analysis of growth habit, disease resistance and more to determine if these entries were truly better than those already available to home gardeners. Only those flower entries with superior garden performance or the vegetables with superior taste and garden performance are selected by All-America Selections.

For more information on these varieties or to lean more about All-America Selections including trial ground locations and previous winners, please go to www.all-americaselections.org.

Nominations Now Open

Don’t forget, we are now taking nominations for the Class of 2014 of GPN‘s 40 Under 40.

Click here to find out how you can nominate someone for this year’s class.

– Tim