FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: – All-America Selections, North America’s most well-known and respected non-profit plant trialing organization has five new AAS Winners available now for the 2023 garden season. Brokers, growers and retailers have plenty of time to add these impressive winners to their product mix in order for consumers to find them for next year’s garden. 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 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)
The eighteen 2022 Winners are:
- Begonia Viking Explorer Rose on Green F1 (National Gold Medal)
- Celosia Flamma Orange (National)
- Eggplant Icicle F1 (National)
- Lettuce Bauer (National)
- Pepper Buffy F1 (National)
- Pepper Dragonfly F1 (National)
- Pepper Quickfire F1 (National)
- Petunia Bee’s Knees (National Gold Medal)
- Sunflower Concert Bell F1 (National)
- Tomato Pink Delicious F1 (Regional)
- Tomato Purple Zebra F1 (National)
- Tomato Sunset Torch F1 (Regional)
- Torenia Summery Love Pure White F1 (Regional)
- Torenia Vertigo Deep Blue F1 (Regional)
- Verbena Beats Purple+White (National)
- Verbena bonariensis Vanity (National)
- Watermelon Century Star F1 (Regional)
- Zinnia Queeny Lemon Peach (Regional)
Echinacea Artisan™ Yellow Ombre F1
AAS Perennial Winner
Regional Winner – Southeast and Northwest
Artisan Yellow Ombre is a great plant for anyone wanting vibrant color all season long in their perennial garden, or to use as a cut flower. This is the first F1 hybrid echinacea series that comes in individual colors. This winner, with an intense golden yellow bloom along with graduated colors of yellow is a gem in the garden. AAS Judges were impressed with the uniform growth habit, vibrantly colored flowers and multi-branched plants that produce a prolific number of blooms. Pollinators will flock to this echinacea, and gardeners will love this low-maintenance, long-blooming beauty. Hardy in zones 4a to 10b.
(Click link for order contact)
AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Echinacea x hybrida
- Common name: Coneflower
- Flower color: Yellow
- Flower size: 3-4 inches
- Plant height: 24-34 inches
- Plant habit: Bushy
- Plant type: Perennial
- Garden location: Full sun
- Garden spacing: 15-20 inches
- Length of time to bloom: 100-150 days from sowing seed, 70-115 days from transplant (subject to season and climate)
- Closest comparisons on market: Mellow Yellows
AAS Perennial Winner
Regional Winner – West/Northwest and Mountain/Southwest
The first-ever groundcover Shasta Daisy as well as the first ever AAS Winner from this breeder! Green Fuse Botanicals’ First Light Perennials is a program of first-year flowering perennials that are daylength neutral meaning earlier blooms that continue all season long. Large 3 inch flowers boast a second inner frilly bloom adding to the unique look of Carpet Angel. Growing only to a height of 6 inches, this unique leucanthemum can act as a groundcover spreading up to 20 inches wide. Fantastic branching on this new AAS winner means more flower stems sporting beautiful pure white blooms that look like angels dancing over a carpet of dark green foliage. A little deadheading of spent flowers will reward you with even more blooms. Hardy in zones 4a-10b.
(Click link for order contact)
AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Leucanthemum superbum
- Common name: Shasta Daisy
- Flower color: Pure White
- Foliage color: Dark Green
- Flower size: 3 inches semi-double
- Plant height: 4-6 inches
- Plant habit: Spreading
- Plant type: Perennial
- Garden location: Sun or part sun
- Garden spacing: 18-20 inches
- Closest comparisons on market: Paladin
AAS Edible Winner
Regional Winner – Southeast and Mountain/Southwest
Pepper Wildcat is a cayenne pepper with extra-large, 2-3 ounce, fruits. A high yielding plant with nice thick, fleshy walls that were thicker than comparisons. “It’s a strong compact plant with good flavor,” stated one judge. The 8” fruits are straighter than traditional cayenne fruits with a great smoky flavor and peppery sweetness and a mild pungency of 500-1500 Scoville units. Ease of harvest combined with a very even growth habit and mild heat level makes this a good multi-purpose plant for everyone’s garden!
(Click link for order contact)
AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Capsicum annuum
- Common name: Pepper
- Fruit size: 8-12 inches
- Fruit shape: Long, curled
- Color: Green to Red
- Plant height: 36-42 inches
- Plant spread: 36 inches
- Plant habit: Upright
- Garden location: Full sun
- Garden spacing: 24-36 inches
- Length of time to harvest: 105 days from sowing seed, 75 days from transplant
- Closest comparisons on market: Espana and Arapaho
AAS Perennial Winner
National Winner
Add a touch of blue to your garden with beautiful new AAS Winner Blue by You salvia. This perennial features rich blue flowers that bloom up to two weeks earlier than the comparison. With excellent winter hardiness and heat tolerance, Blue by You will be a new favorite in your perennial, pollinator, cutting and container gardens. Bursting with bright blue blossoms from late spring into fall, you’ll get repeat blooms throughout the season when spent blooms are removed. Adored all season long by hummingbirds and butterflies. Bonus: it is not favored by deer or rabbits. Hardy in zones 4b – 9a.
Bred by Darwin Perennials
http://www.darwinperennials.com
(Click link for order contact)
AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Salvia hybrida
- Common name: Meadow Sage
- Flower color: Blue
- Bloom size: 10-12 inches
- Plant height: 20-22 inches
- Plant habit: Mounded
- Plant type: Perennial
- Garden location: Full sun
- Garden spacing: 24-30 inches
- Bloom time: Late Spring – Late Summer
- Closest comparisons on market: May Night
AAS Edible Winner
Regional Winner – West/Northwest and Mountain/Southwest
This new little cutie watermelon is a small, personal sized melon that is about the size of a canteloupe. Boasting very sweet and crisp flesh with minimal seed pips means a tasty summer delight can easily be yours. Each Rubyfirm plant will yield 2-3 fruits on its long vines.
Bred by Partner Seeds Co., Ltd.
(Click link for order contact)
AAS® Winner Data
- Genus species: Citrullus vulgaris
- Common name: Watermelon
- Fruit size: 6 inches
- Fruit shape: Round
- Color: Jubilee Stripe red with red flesh
- Plant spread: 140 inches
- Plant habit: Climbing/vining
- Garden location: Full sun
- Garden spacing: 140 inches
- Length of time to harvest: 50 days from sowing seed, 65 days from transplant
- Closest comparisons on market: Mini Love, Sweetie Pie
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:
