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Index : Flowers - Perennials
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- 7. New Year - New Award Winning Flowers & Vegetables - Top
- Every year since 1932, seed producers of flowers and vegetables across American have submitted their best varieties in a competition to determine the ‘best of the best’. Out of hundreds of varieties evaluated, only a hand full are good enough to receive the designation ‘All American Selection’. To win, varieties must, in the eyes of impartial judges, be determined to be significantly superior to like varieties currently being grown.
Flowers are evaluated on the basis of novel flower forms, flower colors, flower show above foliage, fragrance, length of flowering season, and disease or pest tolerances or resistance. Vegetables are judged looking for such traits as earliness to harvest, total yield, fruit taste, fruit quality, ease of harvest, plant habit, disease and pest resistance.
Today, there are 35 Trial Gardens across the county where new varieties are judged annually. There are also nearly 200 All American Selections Display Gardens, one of which is in Tucson, here at the UA / Pima County Extension Demonstration Gardens located at 4210 N. Campbell Ave. The current years A.A.S. winners are displayed as well as those award recipients from the past 5 years. The new 2006 winners include:
Pepper ‘Carmen’ has an unusual shape for a sweet pepper. It’s long and pointed, like a horn, rather than the typical bell pepper shape. It’s also very flavorful and sweet, even when at the immature green stage. It ripens to red in 75 days, so it’s ideal for planting early in the spring and harvesting before our desert heat sets in.
Ornamental Pepper ‘Black Pearl’ is an unusual garden plant because both it’s leaves and fruits are black. Of course the leaves are not totally black, but a dark crimson approaching black! The peppers are black, but when ripe, turn bright red, adding extra color interest. As with most peppers, ‘Black Pearl’ is very heat tolerant and makes a great container plant. It looks great combined with dusty miller, santolina or other silver-leaved plants.
Zinnia ‘Zowie! Yellow Flame’ is unique for it’s bicolor flower pattern - scarlet-rose centers and yellow petal edges. As with zinnias in general, ‘Zowie! Yellow Flame’ is very heat tolerant, ideal for summer plantings here in Arizona. It’s ideal for containers and cutting for bouquets. The University of Maryland conducted studies indicating ‘Zowie! Yellow Flame’ has a vase-life of up to 2 weeks!
Salvia ‘Evolution’ offers a new color for a Salvia farinacea cultivar - lilac! Also known as mealy cup sage, ‘Evolution’ is not only well adapted to growing in flower beds and containers, but also in landscapes here in the desert Southwest. It’s native to Texas and Mexico, and can be grown as an annual or perennial. ‘Evolution’ is relatively small as sage go, growing to a height and spread of 18 inches.
Nicotiana ‘Perfume Deep Purple’ offers something we have far too little of in gardens these days - fragrance! A perfect flower to be enjoyed in the evening garden; Perfume Deep Purple is unique among flowering tobaccos, with deep purple star-shaped flowers, and a fragrance that fills the night air! Plants stay a compact 20 inches and bloom continually without pinching or dead-heading. In the desert, afternoon shade should be provided during the summer.
As you thumb through garden and seed catalogs, All American Award winners will be marked by a distinctive red, white and blue AAS Shield.
Our weekly gardening demonstrations will resume this Wednesday with ‘Gardening Question and Answer Sessions’. They will be held on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Pima County Extension Center, 4210 N. Campbell Ave (central); at 1 p.m. at the Wilmot Library (east), and on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Oro Valley Public Library (northwest).
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161. - Updated: January 8, 2006
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