All America Selections (AAS) is a non-profit trialing organization for plants that demonstrate great performance in the garden throughout North America.
There were a total of 16 AAS winners for 2017. These winners will be available for purchase for the 2017 gardening season as supply becomes available. It is sometimes difficult to get the seed desired when the winners are just announced, but if you go to the All America Selections website they list the seed houses that sell seed of the winning plants. The url is http://all-americaselections.org/buy-winners/.
Celosia Asian Garden will grace your garden with continuous bright pink blooms on sturdy stems. As an added benefit, this celosia is also a pollinator-magnet adding a positive element to pollinator-friendly gardens. It is tolerant to both heat and drought so place this beautiful specimen in the hot, dry areas that may be difficult to grow other plants. It will grow up to 40 inches in height and will bloom from summer until the big frosts of fall. If you would like to enjoy this selection inside it is an everlasting so is easily dried.
Dianthus Interspecific Supra Pink F1 joins its sister Supra Purple who was a winner 11 years ago. This dianthus will bring colour to your garden throughout the growing season. It has a compact, bushy habit of growth that needs no deadheading to ensure continuous bloom. Place this selection in the forward parts of your garden as it will remain about 12 inches in height. It may over winter occasionally, but in most of the prairies will be an annual.
Fennel Antares F1 is my favourite of the selections featured today. It is the first fennel ever to be an AAS Winner and even better, we can eat it! In fact it is an edible bulb, has dynamite ornamental fronds, produces seed and is a favourite pollinator food of the swallowtail caterpillar. It reaches to about 24 inches in height and the fruit is a good four to five inches around. If you plan to sow it in the garden as seed, it will take about 68 days to harvest. I would consider it best planted out as a transplant that would only require 58 days to harvest. Make 2017 the year you grow fennel.
Geranium Calliope Medium Dark Red has an outstanding deep red velvety flower color and great branching habit. This Calliope was unmatched in the AAS Trials when compared to other market varieties. It has a mounded, semi-spreading growth habit with strong stems supporting the flower heads that are loaded with deep red blossoms. Try this selection in containers, hanging baskets or grouped together in an in-ground landscape. Plant and enjoy the exceptional landscape performance in both normal conditions as well as in high heat and drought areas.
Pea Patio Pride is perfect if placed close to where you sit and enjoy your garden. It is a compact beauty that produces sweet, uniform pods that are very tender when harvested early. It takes only 40 days to reach maturity so this pea can be one of your first spring harvests or one of the last fall harvests from the hot spots in your garden. This pea is wonderful when planted in containers and is ideal for succession planting yielding a consistent harvest over many weeks.
Fennel Antares F1 produces an edible bulb. Photo courtesy All American Selections
— Hanbidge is a horticulturist with the Saskatoon School of Horticulture and can be reached at 306-931-GROW(4769); by email at growyourfuture@gmail.com or check out our website at www.saskhort.com.
