All America Selections (AAS) is a non-profit trialling organization that tests new, never-before-sold varieties of plants for the home gardener. We are covering the All America Selections 2023 ornamental winners and now I will be addressing my favourites – the edible plants that also add beauty to your garden. A watermelon was chosen for a winner this year. Watermelon Rubyfirm F1 is a small, cute and personal sized melon about the size of a cantaloupe. It has sweet and crisp flesh with minimal seed pips making it a refreshing fruit harvested from your garden. Each plant will only yield two to three fruits per vine so be sure to plant a few.
Two peppers made the cut this year and both boast of a bit of heat. Pepper cayenne Wildcat F1has extra-large, 2 to 3 ounce fruits. It is a high-yielding plant with the walls of the peppers being thick and fleshy. The 8 inch fruits are straighter than traditional cayenne fruits with a smoky flavour with peppery sweetness. It is a mildly hot pepper as it is rated 500 to 1500 Scoville units. This strong and compact pepper is a sure fit for every garden!
Pepper jalapeno San Joaquin F1 might be my personal favourite. It is a determinate jalapeno that sets most of its fruit within a short window so there could be over 50 fruits per plant all that are ready at the same time. This would be perfect for processing or for having a roasted, stuffed jalapenos for a crowd. They will hold their firmness on the plant until you are ready to harvest if you wish to consume them more slowly. A bit hotter than the other pepper winner rated at 2500 to 6000 Scoville units. If you leave these peppers on the plant for a longer time, they will turn to a beautiful red pepper!
Squash kabocha Sweet Jade F1 is a cute but small squash that has proved itself to have high yields and good holding capacity. Fruits are between 1 and 2 pounds and can be used wherever you would use your favouite squash. Sweet Jade has deep orange flesh that is very flavourful whether roasted, baked or pureed.
The last edible winner was Tomato Zenzei F1 which is an early-maturing but high-yielding Roma tomato that is perfect for canning and freezing. The plants are neat and tidy and produce fruit that is uniformly shaped and easy to harvest. They are indeterminate plants but have good disease-resistance thus making us all more successful gardeners.
The other winners chosen were perennials that unfortunately would not survive in our zone, relegating them to poorly chosen annuals for harsher climates. A beautiful salvia, a unique Leucanthemum and an Artisan Echinacea are all plants to grow when we all move to a milder climate!
I hope you have enjoyed learning about the AAS Winners of 2023. If you are interested in other winners from the previous years just have a look at https://all-americaselections.org/. AAS was founded in 1932 and the first winners were shared with the world in 1933.
Hanbidge is the Lead Horticulturist with Orchid Horticulture. Find us at www.orchidhort.com; by email at info@orchidhort.com; on Facebook @orchidhort and on instagram at #orchidhort.
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