Six New AAS National Winners for 2023
All-America Selections, North America’s only national non-profit plant trialing organization (established in 1932) is pleased to present six new national winners for this year’s garden.
Each AAS Winner is grown and trialed anonymously by independent, volunteer judges all across North America. The entry is scored next to a comparison variety across North America. Only if the entry performed better than the comparison does it become an AAS Winner. The same is not good enough in our world!
For an overall list of online retailers who carry the non-GMO AAS Winners, check out the “Buy AAS Winners” page.
What makes it a National AAS Winner?
To earn the National Winner designation, the selection had to perform in a majority of sites, proving itself to be a great choice for gardeners all over North America. There is a good variety of choices, from annuals to edibles, so you can certainly find something to suit your tastes.
The first seed coleus to ever win the coveted AAS Winner designation! Coral Candy features unique, multicolored foliage on a uniformly compact plant. This new plant form has narrow, serrated leaves that gracefully drape down the mounded plants. AAS Judges noted that this variety holds its color well, even when grown in full sun. This variety was entered into and trialed in the container trial meaning it’s perfect for small space gardens. Late in the season, it was observed that Coral Candy held up nicely in the fall and had almost no flowers even late in the season. Just 3 seeds will produce enough substance to fill a 14-16” container!
All-America Selections has another first: A colocasia winner! Trialed in the non-seed container trial, this beauty wowed the judges with its sturdy, large glossy leaves that unfurled with a bold leaf coloration featuring pink veins and creamy white centers. Waikiki is part of the Royal Hawaiian series and produces these striking colors earlier than other variegated leaf colocasia. The deep burgundy stems produce a lush, compact plant that holds up well even in wind and rain. What a way to bring a touch of the tropics to your garden, no matter where you are located!
This new San Joaquin jalapeno pepper will make gardening so much easier! This is a determinate jalapeno that sets most of its fruit in a short window so there is a generous (~50 fruits per plant) number of fruits ready all at the same time. Perfect for canning, pickling, and making roasted stuffed jalapenos for a crowd. But no worries if you won’t need them for a while as they hold their firmness and taste until you are ready to harvest. Judges loved the flavor of the thick-walled fruits that have just a hint of heat at 2500-6000 Scoville units. Leave them on the plant longer for a beautiful red, and still delicious, jalapeno.
This cute, single-serving-sized squash is the perfect addition to your garden for a fall harvest. Sweet Jade proved itself in the AAS Trials with its high yields and good holding capability which is great news for both home gardeners and growers. Each fruit is between 1-2 pounds and can be used for single servings of squash, as an edible soup bowl, or in any number of Asian-style dishes where a sweet, earthy nutritious squash is typically used. Sweet Jade’s deep orange flesh is dry yet sweet and very flavorful whether roasted, baked, or pureed. Time to give this sweetie a try!
Add a touch of blue to your garden with beautiful new AAS Winner Blue by You salvia. This perennial features rich blue flowers that bloom up to two weeks earlier than the comparisons. With excellent winter hardiness and heat tolerance, Blue by You will be a new favorite in your perennial, pollinator, cutting, and container gardens. Bursting with bright blue blossoms from late spring into fall, you’ll get repeat blooms throughout the season when spent blooms are removed. Adored all season long by hummingbirds and butterflies. Bonus; it is not favored by deer or rabbits. Hardy in zones 4b – 9a.
Hit me with your best shot…of double flowers! DoubleShot Snapdragon Orange Bicolor is part of a new series of intermediate-height snaps perfect for the garden or as cut flowers. The stunning open-faced double flowers emerge in beautiful warm shades of orange and orange-red that transition to a dusty shade as they age. AAS Judges across the country were impressed with the strong stems that produced more branches resulting in a higher flower count. These stems produced romantic flowers all season long (even in lower light conditions) that didn’t break off in strong winds.
AAS Winners
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