All America Selection Winners for 2013

All-America Selections tests and introduces new flowers and vegetables each year that have done well in trials across North America. This year there were two flower winners, one bedding plant winner (two cultivars) and three vegetable winners.

Descriptions and images below are taken directly from All-America Selection materials. For more detailed information including how to grow them, go to their site, or click on the links below for any of the selections.

Canna 'South Pacific Scarlet' F1, 2013 AAS Flower Award Winner Allow 'South Pacific' to add a touch of the tropics to your garden with showy, 4-inch flowers that bloom all summer long in a delicious shade of scarlet. Large leafed statuesque plants reach 4 to 5 feet tall providing a back-of-the-border focal point.

This variety is grown from seed, not tuber. Compact in habit and well suited for both landscape and container use. Canna 'South Pacific Scarlet' prefers warm and humid conditions over 77F. This variety is more vigorous, more uniform, and has more basal branching than Canna Tropical Red.

Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit', 2013 AAS Flower Award Winner This stunning first-year flowering echinacea captures the spirit of the North American plains by producing a delightful mix of flower colors from rich purple, pink, red and orange tones to lighter yellows, creams and white. This wide range of flower colors on well branched, durable plants are sure to please the color preferences of any gardener. As an added bonus, ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ does not require a lot of water and offers a wide range of uses from the perennial border, in a mass landscape planting, in a butterfly garden or as a cut flower.

The AAS judges and their trial garden visitors raved about the attractiveness of the flowers and the range of colors while appreciating its sturdiness and low water needs. Even during wind and rain, this compact plant does not topple over like many echinacea. The variety of intense, bright colors adds sparkle to the garden from mid-summer through fall. As an added bonus, this maintenance-free echinacea doesn’t even need deadheading to provide summer long beauty.

Geranium 'Pinto Premium White to Rose' F1, 2013 AAS Bedding Plant Award Winner This addition to the 'Pinto Premium' series is a must-have! Not only is the flower coloration unique and ombre-like, but the numerous 5-inch blooms are long-lasting in the garden. Petals start out white then deepen to rose-pink as flowers mature, giving an attractive bicolor effect. Dense, well-branched plants sport deep green leaves with darker zones that contrast beautifully with the light-colored flowers. 'Pinto Premium White to Rose' is a great choice for carefree, colorful summer garden beds or patio containers.

Melon 'Melemon' F1, 2013 AAS Vegetable Award Winner The earliness, high yield on healthy, strong plants and superior taste all contributed to this melon becoming an AAS Winner. Judges related the taste of this melon to honeydew, but with a surprising and delicious tanginess. A uniform fruit shape makes it perfect for market growers as well as home gardeners. Each personal-sized fruit has refreshing crisp flesh and a unique sweet-tart taste.

Tomato 'Jasper' F1, 2013 AAS Vegetable Award Winner Excellent taste, a long harvest window and outstanding performance in the trials contribute to this cherry tomato’s success. Judges liked the texture and sweetness of the tomato as well as the uniformity of the fruits that grow on vigorous, healthy plants. Jasper is a high yielding variety with fruits that stay on the vine and then hold well after ripening both on the vine and post-harvest. Vigorous vines require little or no fertilization. An added bonus is fusarium resistance and the ability to overcome weather-related stresses.

Watermelon 'Harvest Moon' F1, 2013 AAS Vegetable Award Winner

The first ever hybrid, triploid seedless watermelon to win a coveted AAS Award! Similar to the popular heirloom variety, ‘Moon and Stars,’

'Harvest Moon' is an improvement in that it features healthy, shorter vines that produce medium-sized fruits and sweet, crisp pinkish-red flesh. 'Harvest Moon' retains the familiar dark green rind with yellow dots, like that of ‘Moon and Stars’ but is seedless, earlier to ripen, higher yielding and better tasting. As one judge said, “What’s not to like?"

Zinnia 'Profusion Double Deep Salmon' 2013 AAS Bedding Plant Award Winner
'Profusion Double Deep Salmon' features intensely vibrant, deep pink-orange flowers with double petals. Like other Profusion Zinnias, Deep Salmon flowers continuously from spring through frost and is easy to grow. It is self-cleaning, disease resistant and grows well in a range of climates, including areas with high night temperatures. The flowers can grow 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter and plants grow 14 inches tall and 24 inches wide.
     

Zinnia 'Profusion Double Hot Cherry' 2013 AAS Bedding Plant Award Winner
This award winner features rich rose, double petalled blooms which cover flower continuously from spring through frost. The bright color does not fade, even under high temperatures. Like all Profusion, 'Double Hot Cherry' is easy to grow as it is self-cleaning, disease resistant and grows well in a wide range of climates, including areas with high night temperatures. The flowers can grow 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter and plants grow 8 to 14 inches tall and 24 inches wide.

The AAS Winners for 2012 can be viewed here.

All America Selections for 2012

From the Kansas State University Horticulture, Forestry, and Recreation Website (a place where I get lots of ideas for the weekly newscolumn and blog posts - Bob Kessler introduced me to them before he left), here is a summary of the 2012 All America Selection Winners.

All-America Selections tests and introduces new flowers and vegetables each year that have done well in trials across North America. This year there were two flower winners, one bedding plant winner and two vegetable winners. Descriptions and images below are taken directly from All-America Selection materials.

For more detailed information including how to grow, go to the AAS site, or click on the individual entries below.

Ornamental Pepper 'Black Olive', 2012 AAS Flower Award Winner

The AAS Judges said this entry was a standout, especially in the southern gardens where heat was a major presence during the 2011 trials. All season long this beauty kept its upright habit with nicely draping leaves and dark purple/black fruit which appeared in small clusters along the stems. As summer progresses, the fruits mature to red giving a beautiful contrast against the dark purple foliage and bright purple flowers. Retailers and growers can sell this multi-use ornamental as a 20” border plant, a great color splash for containers or as a cut flower in mixed bouquets.

Salvia 'Summer Jewel Pink', 2012 AAS Bedding Plant Award Winner

Sister to earlier AAS Winner Salvia 'Summer Jewel Red', this dwarf sized, compact plant has a prolific bloom count throughout the growing season. As a bonus, the blooms appear almost two weeks earlier than other pink salvias used as comparisons. And of course, the hummingbirds love pink, just as much as they do red! Commercial growers will appreciate the earliness, excellent pack performance and uniformity.

Pepper 'Cayennetta', 2012 AAS Vegetable Award Winner

‘Cayennetta' is an excellent tasting, mildly spicy pepper that is very easy to grow, even for novice gardeners. This 3 to 4-inch chili pepper yielded bigger fruits from a very well branched upright plant that required no staking which would make it perfect for a container or patio planter. Unique to this variety is that it has good cold tolerance as well as dense foliage cover to protect the fruits from sun scorch and it handled extreme heat very well. This pepper is an all-around good choice no matter where you're gardening. Market growers will benefit from the heavy yield and prolific fruit set from each plant. Everyone will love the excellent pepper flavor that outshone all the comparison varieties.

Watermelon 'Faerie' F1, 2012 AAS Vegetable Award Winner

'Faerie' is a non-traditional watermelon in that it has a creamy yellow rind with thin stripes yet still yields sweet pink-red flesh with a high sugar content and crisp texture. Home gardeners will like growing something unique in their garden and the fact that the vines are vigorous yet spread only to 11' means it takes up less space in the garden. Each 7-8” fruit weighs only four to six pounds making it a perfect family size melon. Professional growers will appreciate the disease and insect tolerance as well as the prolific fruit set that starts early and continues throughout the season.

Vinca 'Jams 'N Jellies Blackberry' 2012 AAS Flower Award Winner

Extremely unique, velvety deep purple with white eye flower color will add excitment to summer gardens. This superb accent plant that will work beautifully in Americana color schemes and in combination with blue, pink, white or lavender. In some settings, the flower petals appear almost black, making this color a designer's delight. Easy to grow plants have excellent tolerance to drought and heat. Mature plants will reach 10-14 inches tall making them a perfect medium height divider. The 2-inch flowers are complimented by deep green shiny leaves creating a rich background for the richly dark flowers.