Yellow AAS Winners Add Cheer to Your Garden
The color yellow is associated with happiness and optimism, sunshine and creativity!
With the Pantone Color of the Year being a vibrant yellow, why not explore new yellow varieties to add to your garden? No need to limit yourself to just annual flowers either! There are many yellow perennials to choose from as well as a wide variety of edibles that come in fun shades of yellow too!
Now to decide which ones to grow?
Marigolds – a classic garden staple
Big Duck Gold sports very large golden-yellow flowers that continue blooming throughout the season. These marigolds begin the season by establishing a solid, healthy plant. Then, when it starts blooming, watch out! Full, “plump” blooms top the 15” plants and continue blooming through fall. You’ll want to use these marigolds everywhere: in beds and containers; in landscapes as mini hedges, back of the border plants, or even as a filler in new perennial beds. AAS Winner Big Duck Yellow, another color in this series, brings bright yellow to your garden.
Sometimes, it’s an AAS judge who writes the best description: “Favorite performer of the trial! This marigold not only has a strong color but while the comparison is brown and rotting [in late summer], this entry is going strong through the end of September! … it is much more resistant to disease than the comparison. Also, the vigorous habit is exactly what you would want from a cut flower for season-long flowers.”
Marigold Janie is a dwarf French marigold with blooms that are a golden-orange color and 1½ to 1¾-inches. The flowers do not hide among the foliage of Janie as they perch 2-3 inches above the low, rounded plants. They will continue to bloom all summer long making Janie a great choice for the front of a border, edging, or containers.
Perennials – a forever yellow bright spot
American Gold Rush’s bright, golden-yellow flowers with black centers and arched petals is a gorgeous addition to any garden. This compact, upright domed-shaped beauty has narrow 2-inch wide hairy foliage bred for its resistance to Septoria leaf spot. This hybrid shows no signs of the fungus even in wet, humid conditions. Blooming from July to September, with some color up until frost, this cultivar has smaller foliage and shorter height compared to other rudbeckia varieties. Incredibly easy to grow and pollinators love it.
A beautiful Rudbeckia hirta, Amarillo Gold boasts a compact form and uniform habit perfect for landscapes, bedding, and containers. The light green center disc surrounded by bold sunshiny colors makes this a versatile plant for combinations with a multitude of other colors. AAS Judges noted how this rudbeckia was earlier to flower than the comparisons and lasted throughout the summer providing weeks of stunning color in the garden. Large 4-6” blooms cover compact 12-18” plants that are sure to be a “WOW’ factor in any garden.
The first F1 gaillardia from seed delivers a more uniform plant with more flowers than other varieties. This vigorous drought, wind, and rain resistant plant won’t get loose and floppy. Attractive neatly mounded plants reach 16 to 18 inches tall and spread 20 to 22 inches in full sun. Bright yellow 3-inch daisy-like flowers won’t fade. First year flowering perennial (to zone 5) blooms in spring 120 days from sowing seed.
AAS Winner Gaillardia Arizona Apricot offers a new color for this class. Blooms are lighter in color than traditional gaillardia with yellow edges that deepen to a rich apricot center. Arizona Apricot is free-flowering, blooming heavily the first year, covering the plant with bright blooms that look great in mass. This long-flowering perennial is hardy in USDA Zones 2-10 and is relatively maintenance free, and drought-tolerant once established. Deadheading encourages additional blooming.
More yellow annuals to love
“JUST SO CUTE! WOW, WOW WOW!” When multiple judges write comments like that, it’s no surprise that it’s a Gold Medal Winner! Introducing…a beautiful new bicolor addition to the popular Profusion series of zinnias. This gorgeous zinnia starts the season with a bold vibrant red center ring surrounded by golden-yellow outer petals. As the season progresses, the aging flowers morph into soft, beautiful shades of apricot, salmon, and dusty rose to bring a plethora of color to the garden, all from one variety!
Each Bee’s Knees petunia is filled with lush blooms that put on a colorful show of deep yellow, non-fading flowers all season long. The intense yellow petunia color contrasts beautifully against the deep green leaves. Bee’s Knees offers great garden performance in a variety of conditions and requires very little maintenance. Gardeners will love its deep, rich yellow color and its versatile mounding habit. Works great as an element in mixed containers or as a hanging basket but also thrives as a long-blooming groundcover.
Suntastic is a new dwarf sunflower perfect as a cheery long-blooming potted plant or window box accent or maybe to add a burst of color to a sunny garden bed. Gardeners will love the number of flowers each plant produces up to twenty 5-6 inch flowers per plant in three successive blooming periods. Suntastic will bloom in less than 65 days after sowing so by starting indoors, sunflower lovers can get their favorite bloom fix early in the summer.
Peppers – many delicious shades of yellow
A unique snacking pepper with four lobes like a larger bell pepper, only smaller. Not only are the 3 inch fruits deliciously sweet with nice thick walls but the plants are vigorous growers (up to 36 inches tall and 15 inches wide) that don’t need to be staked because they’ve been bred to have a strong bushy habit. Many judges conduct consumer taste tests and reported back that this pepper won those tests, hands down. The Just Sweet peppers are exceptionally bright, shiny and a vivid yellow color with a flavor described as sweet with aromatic accents. Great lunchbox item for kids!
“DOUBLE YUM” was one judge’s response to our new AAS Winner Cornito Giallo F1 pepper, “The flavor on this one is totally a winner!” Starting as small green fruits, this AAS Winner develops into bright yellow jewels with a delicious sweet and fruity flavor. The peppers themselves are plentiful and durable, yet easy to eat fresh. Being an early bloomer, you will be able to enjoy these peppers throughout the growing season and well into the fall. Plant Cornito Giallo F1 in your garden this year and you can join our judges in exclaiming “YUM!”
A wonderful sweet taste on a golden yellow pepper makes Pepper Escamillo F1 a favorite. An early bearing pepper plant with a compact habit makes it an ideal choice for any home garden. Gardeners will be captivated with the high yield of peppers per plant and how the fruit itself is held off the ground for easy picking and less rotting. This plant is a winner with its all around qualities of excellent taste either raw, cooked or fire roasted, compact size and high yield.
For banana or wax pepper lovers who desire a prolific and earlier harvest of delicious and spicy (650 Scoville units) fruits, Hot Sunset is for you. Large, healthy, vigorous plants are disease-free and produce tasty and attractive fruits all season long. The AAS Trial judges noted what a great taste this thick-walled pepper has, not like other hot peppers where all you get is heat. It’s sure to be a winner with even the most particular foodie!
Sweet Sunset is a compact banana pepper that is vigorous and sets a large amount of concentrated fruit. This high yielding variety produces attractive colorful tasty peppers that are great fresh or canned. The compact upright plants do not require staking and can be grown in a container. Judges commented on the good eating quality and Sweet Sunset won the pepper taste test that one trial site hosted!
Very early maturing yellow sweet Italian pepper. Long tapered fruits with easy to remove skin. A nice sweet flavor that is excellent either fresh, grilled or roasted. Bright yellow/gold fruit are pendant on sturdy dark green bushy plants with excellent coverage from sunburn. The somewhat compact 24″ plant takes up less space and offers disease tolerance to Tobacco mosaic virus.
Yellow tomatoes? Yes, please!
If you’ve never tried an apple-shaped tomato, now is the time. This AAS Winner offers incredible garden performance, a uniquely dimpled apple-shaped fruit with a deliciously sweet citrusy taste and firm, meaty texture. Indeterminate 5’ tall vines produce abundantly in clusters, resulting in up to 1,000 fruits per plant. The fruits are an eye-catching, bright, lemon yellow color reminiscent of the “Big Apple’s” taxi-cab colors. Judges were excited that a non-splitting, long-holding, uniformly shaped tomato had such good eating quality.
Similar to the Goldilocks story, this adorable newcomer is not as small as a currant tomato and not as large as a cherry tomato, but is a “just right” in-between size. The fruits produced are super sweet pale white to pale yellow round fruits less than 1 inch in size and weigh about 1/2 oz. Delicate, translucent skins offer a mild acid flavor that enhances the sweet taste. They’re small juicy fruits exploding with flavor, perfect for snacking and in salads. Indeterminate plants must be staked or caged as they grow upward to 5-6 feet and have good disease resistance.
Chef’s Choice Yellow produces hearty beefsteak type tomatoes in a beautiful yellow color. Tomato lovers and culinary gardeners will fall for this large meaty delicacy that has a sweet, citrus-like flavor with just the right amount of acid and the perfect tomato texture. AAS Judges raved about the quantity of the 10-ounce fruits that each 5-foot indeterminate vines produced. You’ll enjoy harvesting 30 or more fruits throughout the season from this disease (Fusarium Wilt, Verticillium wilt, Tomato Mosiac Virus, Crack, and Scab) resistant plant with dark green leaves and well-behaved form.
Patio Choice Yellow is a new compact, determinate tomato developed specifically for small spaces and container gardens. This AAS Winner produces very large yields of 1/2 ounce bright yellow cherry tomatoes on short vines that grow only 18 inches tall. This mild-flavored cherry tomato sets over 100 fruit on compact plants that are perfect for urban or small space food gardeners. Consider using these beautiful tomatoes either fresh or in the oven or sun-dried for a deliciously sweet treat. For even easier picking, plant in a hanging basket.
How many yellow AAS Winners will you grow?
“This post is provided as an education/inspirational service of All-America Selections. Please credit and link to All-America Selections when using all or parts of this article.”
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