A Greener View: All-America Selections (AAS) 2024 winners, Vegetables and Flowers – Jeff Rugg

by Jeff Rugg, contributing writer

One way that I know a plant could work well in my garden is that I look for the red, white and blue logo of All-America Selections on seed packets, on bedding plant tags or in catalogs. Even AAS winners from several years ago are more likely to prove successful than non-winners.

The AAS testing program is an independent nonprofit organization that tests new plants. They have about 80 test gardens from Alaska and Canada to California and Florida. They also have almost 200 display gardens all across the continent that are not used for judging but are used to show gardeners how well the plants grow locally.

Today we’ll feature all of the 2024 vegetable and flower winners. First, the veggies:

Purple Magic is a purple broccoli. The flower buds (the part we eat) have a purple cast over a dark green, while the flower stalks are a bright royal purple. It can be cooked or eaten raw in the same way as any broccoli, but it is sweeter and more tender than regular green broccoli. It grows in full sun and can be transplanted into the garden five weeks before the average last spring frost. Harvest is in three months, and if the plant is left to grow after the initial harvest, small side shoots will be able to be harvested for several months. These smaller shoots are perfect for adding to broccoli soup.

The other broccoli winner is Skytree. It grows in a vertical shape, making it easy to harvest the tender stems and flower buds. Planted at the same time as Purple Magic, it will be harvested as much as three weeks earlier. It can be eaten and cooked the same way as Purple Magic.

The final vegetable garden winner in 2024 is the sweet red pepper Red Impact. This pepper will live up to its name in your garden. The peppers are 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, bright red and very sweet. They can be harvested green if you want to. They can be eaten raw, roasted or stuffed. Plant them when the soil warms up and they can be harvested in 75 days. The plants are very disease resistant. Each plant can have 15 of these half-pound peppers.

I am not a big fan of Celosia, but I might have to try Burning Embers. It has both bright pink flowers and bronze-colored leaves. There were more flower plumes, and they lasted longer than other Celosias in the trial gardens. It also flowered well in both hot weather and high humidity.

Geraniums are one of the most popular garden flowers every summer. The Big EEZE is a series of geranium varieties that grow very well in containers. Not being into fabrics, I didn’t know what a batik fabric was, so I tried researching it. I still don’t think I know what it is, but it appears that from a distance, some of the color patterns look speckled or freckled.

Pink Batik geranium flowers have a light pink to white background with dark pink to red freckling and striping. They are very pretty. The quantity of flowers is outstanding. If you have grown geraniums in the past, you can grow this AAS winner.

Finding the red, white and blue logo of All-America Selections on seed packets, bedding plant tags or catalogs will help you find flowers and vegetables that will grow great in your garden.

The judges evaluate the plants all season long, not at the end of the season. The flowering plants are evaluated for desirable qualities such as novel flower forms, flower colors, flowers held above the leaves, fragrance, length of flowering season and disease or pest tolerances or resistance.

Some of the species are long-time favorites, others are new. These new winners are more colorful and more disease resistant than ever before. If your garden has a lot of shade, you have probably been growing Impatiens. Solarscape XL Pink Jewel is a hybrid between species of Impatiens, so it will tolerate more sun than many in the genus and is more disease resistant to downy mildew. The plants grow about 12 inches tall and 18 inches wide. It was judged to have grown well in both pots and flower beds.

If your garden has a lot of sun, then you have probably grown marigolds. Siam Gold only grows 18 inches tall, but the orange flower balls can be 4 inches across. These large flowers are held on top of the plant for the whole season. As one flower ball starts to fade, cut it off to make room for more. Marigolds are heat- and drought-tolerant, but don’t abuse them. Give them enough water and they will reward you with color all summer.

Who hasn’t grown Petunias? They grow well for just about everyone except in full shade gardens. Sure Shot White is the ninth Petunia in the Sure Shot group, which includes red, blue, pink and purple varieties. These Petunias grow in a mound shape that works well in hanging baskets, flowerpots and garden beds. The plants are under a foot tall, and the 3-inch flowers don’t need deadheading like many other Petunias. You can mix the Sure Shot varieties in the same pot or flower bed as they are all similar in size, shape and flowering.

Verbenas are great low-growing flowers with delicate looking, ferny leaves that are tougher than they look. They grow in full sun and dry conditions, making them good for clay pots and flower beds near buildings. Sweetheart Kisses has vibrant red, pink and white flowers in small clusters covering the plant. The plants are only about a foot tall and the flower clusters only a little over an inch wide, but they make up for it by growing a lot of them.

 Have you ever heard of a Petchoa? How about a Calibrachoa? A calibrachoa is a small, short-lived shrub native to the same South American areas as Petunias. They are genetically different from Petunias but close enough to allow hybrids. Some Calibrachoas are grown as flowering plants for hanging baskets. They look enough like Petunias that you may have grown them without even knowing it.

Petchoas are hybrids of petunias and Calibrachoas. (See how they did that with the name?) They may be the best of both. They have the larger colorful flowers of the petunia and the nonsticky leaves of the calibrachoas. They are drought- and heat-tolerant like the Calibrachoa and cool weather-tolerant like the petunias. Flower colors range from yellow and orange to red and pink. The dead flowers don’t stick to the leaves like petunias.

 Enviva Pink is an excellent example of these new hybrids. It has bright pink 3-inch-wide flowers. The plants are a foot tall and 2 feet wide. They are great in hanging baskets and flowerbeds.

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To read more columns on gardening by Jeff, go to: https://rinewstoday.com/?s=jeff+rugg

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at [email protected]. To find out more about Jeff Rugg visit www.creators.com.