All-America Selections winners are cream of the garden
Those of you who have been faithful readers know that right about now I start to get that spring itch. I have had enough of the winter and my mind has already moved onto things of a gardening nature. My lovely wife Julie calls this the ‘ants in the pants’ syndrome. One of the triggers for this seasonal transformation is the arrival of the emails announcing the winners of the All-America Selections trials.
There are some interesting flowers and vegetables among this year’s winners. For those of you who may not know, All-America Selections (AAS) is an independent, non-profit organization that tests new varieties, then introduces only the best garden performers as AAS Winners. Independent AAS judges determine the winners by judging and scoring the entries.
Please remember that these plants I am previewing for you may not be available in your local garden centres this year. Sometimes it takes a year for the growers to collect enough seed for the retail market. I get many emails every year from readers asking where they can find these new introductions locally. The simple answer is that I don’t know, but keep your eyes peeled.
The first winner on my list is a vegetable and (surprise) it is a tomato. Yes, I know I am addicted to tomatoes, but this new variety really did catch my eye. The variety is called Tomato Chef ’s Choice Yellow F1. This is the fourth addition to the Chef ’s Choice tomato series. These tomatoes produce hearty beefsteak-type tomatoes that are yellow in colour. Tomato lovers and culinary gardeners will enjoy the large, meaty fruits that have a sweet, citrus-like flavour with just the right amount of acid and the perfect tomato texture.
AAS judges raved about the quantity of the 10-ounce fruits that each five-foot indeterminate vine produced. You could be harvesting 30 or more fruits throughout the season from this disease-resistant plant (fusarium wilt, verticillium wilt and tomato mosaic virus among them) with dark green leaves and wellbehaved form. Yes, I know this one sounds like a must-have, but we will have to patient until it hits the market.
The next winner is a patio garden pea called Pea Patio Pride. Try saying that three times without spitting on the person next to you. This compact beauty produces sweet, uniform pods that are very tender when harvested early. With only 40 days needed to maturity, Patio Pride can be one of your first spring harvests. This pea works very well when planted in containers and is ideal for succession planting, yielding a consistent harvest over many weeks.
Plant in patio containers with cool-season flowers for a beautiful display of ornamentals and edibles. I have always been a big fan of combining vegetables with flowers in plantings. I recall one year judging the Edmonton Horticultural Society’s competition and seeing some of the most remarkable planting combinations. Carrot foliage was the star in a planting with pansies, for example. But I digress. This new pea introduction is another great plant for condo or patio gardeners, or anyone who has limited space and still wants to grow their own veggies. This variety takes up very little space but produces extremely well, according to the trials.
Finally, we have a geranium — Geranium Calliope Medium Dark Red — that looks stunning. With an outstanding deep red velvety flower colour and great branching habit, Calliope was unmatched in the AAS trials when compared to other market varieties. This AAS winner has a mounded, semi-spreading growth habit, with strong stems supporting the flower heads that are loaded with deep red blossoms.
These plants work great in containers, combination plantings, hanging baskets and inground beds. The plants perform very well under normal growing conditions, but also in more challenging high heat and drought conditions.
There are more AAS winners to be shared in future columns.