Garden Talk -Looking at this year?s All-America Selections

Each year, All-America Selections (AAS) highlight some new and promising plants. As usual, the 2016 awards include something for almost every gardener.

Vegetable selections include the first mizuna ever to receive the AAS designation: Mustard, Japanese Red Kingdom F1. It is described as mild tasting and so attractive, with deep purple leaves and a compact habit, that it is suitable for ornamental plantings. It holds well, providing the longest possible production of baby greens.

Other vegetable selections include the sweet frying pepper, ?Pepper Cornito Biallo F1? and a particularly sweet golden salad pepper, ?Pepper Escamillo F1?.

Two tomatoes round out the vegetable selections: Tomato Candyland Red, a small currant type, and Tomato Chef?s Choice Green F1.

Two quite similar geraniums highlight the 2016 flower selections. Geranium Brocade Fire offers bi-color foliage and prolific semi-double orange flowers. Geranium Brocade Cherry Night produces cherry pink blooms.

One additional flower is recognized in our Heartland region. Salvia Summer Jewel Lavender continues a series of salvia award winners with this new color.

Finally, for fruit fans, Strawberry Delizz F1 is the first strawberry ever designated as an AAS award winner. It is described as vigorous, easy to grow, and very productive.

If you are new to plant selection and gardening, you might like to know a little more about the AAS. Its mission statement is ?to promote new garden seed varieties with superior garden performance judged in impartial trials in North America.?

All of the award winners noted above are national selections except for the salvia, which is a regional winner in our Heartland region and also two other regions. Test gardens for the AAS are located across the country. Close to us, for example, are Reiman Gardens at ISU, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and the Ball Horticulture Company in West Chicago.

Experienced growers at these and other sites plant, observe, and evaluate new seed introductions. By the time the yearly list of award winners is publicized, we can feel confident that high-quality winnowing has taken place. If you choose a variety from the 2016 AAS list, chances are good that you too will be a satisfied gardener.