All-America Selections (AAS), North America’s most well-known and respected non-profit plant trialing organization has an additional six new AAS Winners available for the 2023 garden season. Brokers, growers and retailers have plenty of time to add these proven performers to their assortment to aid consumers who will be asking for them.
Breeder contacts are included in each winner description below.
All AAS Winners are trialed throughout North America by professional, independent, volunteer judges who grow new, never-before-sold entries next to comparisons that are considered best-in-class. Only those entries that have superior garden performance, better than the comparisons, are granted the AAS award designation.
The newest AAS Winners for 2023 are:
- Coleus Premium Sun Coral Candy (National)
- Colocasia ROYAL HAWAIIAN® Waikiki (National)
- Pepper jalapeno San Joaquin F1 (National)
- Snapdragon DoubleShot™ Orange Bicolor F1 (National)
- Squash kabocha Sweet Jade F1 (National)
- Tomato Zenzei F1 (Regional)
The previously announced AAS Winners for 2023 are:
- Echinacea Artisan Yellow Ombre F1 (Regional)
- Leucanthemum Carpet Angel Daisy (Regional)
- Pepper cayenne Wildcat F1 (Regional)
- Salvia Blue by You F1 (National)
- Watermelon Rubyfirm (Regional)
Coleus Premium Sun Coral Candy
AAS Seed Annual Winner
National Winner
The first seed coleus to win the coveted AAS Winner designation! Coral Candy features unique, multicolored foliage on a uniformly compact plant. This new plant form has narrow, serrated leaves that gracefully drape down the mounded plants. AAS Judges noted that this variety holds its color well, even when grown in full sun. This variety was entered into and trialed in the container trial meaning it’s perfect for small space gardens. Late in the season, it was observed that Coral Candy held up nicely in the fall and had almost no flowers even late in season. Just 3 seeds will produce enough substance to fill a 14-16” container!
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AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Solenostemon scutellariodes
- Common name: Coleus
- Foliage color: Multi-hued bright foliage with narrow serrated leaves
- Plant height: 10-16 inches
- Plant habit: Mounded
- Plant type: Annual
- Garden location: Sun or Shade
- Garden spacing: 10 inches
- Closest comparisons on market: Premium Sun Chocolate Covered Cherry
Colocasia ROYAL HAWAIIAN® Waikiki
AAS Non-Seed Annual Winner
National Winner
All-America Selections has another first: A colocasia winner! Trialed in the non-seed container trial, this beauty wowed the judges with its sturdy, large glossy leaves that unfurled with a bold leaf coloration featuring pink veins and creamy white centers. Waikiki is part of the Royal Hawaiian series and produces these striking colors earlier than other variegated leaf colocasia. The deep burgundy stems produce a lush, compact plant that holds up well even in wind and rain. What a way to bring a touch of the tropics to your garden, no matter where you are located!
Licensed by: Planthaven.com
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AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Colocasia esculenta
- Common name: Taro or Elephant Ear
- Foliage color: Deep green, white and pink, glossy
- Plant height: 36 inches
- Plant habit: Clump forming
- Plant type: Annual (hardy in zones 7b-11)
- Garden location: Full sun, Partial Sun
- Plant spread: 30-36 inches
- Closest comparisons on market: Nancy’s Revenge
Pepper jalapeno San Joaquin F1
AAS Edible Winner
National Winner
This new San Joaquin jalapeno pepper will make gardening so much easier! This is a determinate jalapeno that sets most of its fruit in a short window so there is a generous (~50 fruits per plant) number of fruits ready all at the same time. Perfect for canning, pickling and making roasted stuffed jalapenos for a crowd. But no worries if you won’t need them for a while as they hold their firmness and taste until you are ready to harvest. Judges loved the flavor of the thick-walled fruits that have just a hint of heat at 2500-6000 Scoville units. Leave them on the vine longer for a beautiful red, and still delicious, jalapeno.
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AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Capsicum annuum
- Common name: Jalapeno Pepper
- Fruit size: 4 inches
- Fruit shape: Typical jalapeno shape
- Color: Green to Red
- Plant height: 30 inches
- Plant spread: 30 inches
- Plant habit: Bushy
- Garden location: Full sun
- Garden spacing: 24 inches
- Length of time to harvest: 60 days from transplant
- Closest comparisons on market: Emerald Fire and Early Flame
Snapdragon DoubleShot™ Orange Bicolor F1
AAS Seed Annual Winner
National Winner
Hit me with your best shot…of double flowers! DoubleShot Snapdragon Orange Bicolor is part of a new series of intermediate height snaps perfect for the garden or as cut flowers. The stunning open-faced double flowers emerge in beautiful warm shades of orange and orange-red that transition to a dusty shade as they age. AAS Judges across the country were impressed with the strong stems that produced more branches resulting in a higher flower count. These stems produced romantic flowers all season long (even in lower light conditions) that didn’t break off in strong winds. Trialed in both the in-ground and container trial, DoubleShot will be your new go-to snapdragon.
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AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Antirrhinum majus
- Common name: Snapdragon
- Flower color: Orange bicolor
- Foliage color: Green
- Flower size: 1-2 inches
- Plant height: 18-20 inches
- Plant habit: Upright
- Plant type: Annual
- Garden location: Sun or partial sun
- Garden spacing: 12-16 inches
- Closest comparisons on market: Liberty Classic Bronze
AAS Edible Winner
National Winner
This cute, single serving sized squash is the perfect addition to your garden for a fall harvest. Sweet Jade proved itself in the AAS Trials with its high yields and good holding capability which is great news for both home gardeners and growers. Each fruit is between 1-2 pounds and can be used for single servings of squash, as an edible soup bowl or in any number of Asian-style dishes where a sweet, earthy nutritious squash is typically used. Sweet Jade’s deep orange flesh is dry yet sweet and very flavorful whether roasted, baked or pureed. Time to give this sweetie a try!
Bred by Johnny’s Selected Seeds
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AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Cucurbita maxima
- Common name: Winter squash
- Fruit size: 4-5 inches
- Fruit weight: 1-2 pounds
- Fruit shape: Flat-round
- Color: Jade Green
- Plant spread: 6-8 feet
- Plant habit: Vining
- Garden location: Full sun
- Garden spacing: 12 inches in rows, 6-12 feet between rows
- Length of time to harvest: 100 days from sowing seed, 85 days from transplant
- Closest comparisons on market: Mini Green and Speckled Pup
AAS Edible Winner
Regional Winner – Great Lakes and Heartland
Zenzei is an early-maturing, high-yielding Roma tomato for gardeners in the Midwest. This regional winner produces a great yield of fleshy plum tomatoes that are perfect for canning and freezing. Neat and tidy plants produce fruits that are uniformly shaped and are easy to harvest on unique bushy yet indeterminate plants. The disease-resistance package on this new variety will help gardeners be even more successful than before. Each fruit has good internal flesh and fewer issues like spots and blossom end rot. Plant in full sun and provide stakes or a cage when plant reaches appropriate size but there is no need to prune!
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AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Solanum lycopersicum
- Common name: Tomato
- Fruit size: 4-5 inches
- Fruit weight: 3-8 ounces
- Fruit shape: Oblong
- Color: Red
- Plant height: 72 inches
- Plant spread: 24-36 inches
- Plant habit: Bushy indeterminate
- Garden location: Full sun
- Garden spacing: 36 inches
- Length of time to harvest: 110 days from sowing seed, 70-80 days from transplant
- Closest comparisons on market: Plum Regal and Granadero
Garden communicators are free to begin writing about these varieties now. Each of the newer AAS Winners will soon be featured in custom videos on the AAS YouTube channel.
All AAS Winners are marketed through social media, public relations and trade shows and are proudly grown in 195 AAS Display Gardens across North America. In addition, the AAS office creates and maintains a wide variety of marketing pieces and resources such as:
