For best success, stick with a winner

By Ron Dieter, Sunnyfield Greenhouse & Gardens

March 22, 2000

The damp weather over the weekend provided paltry relief from the current extended drought. That won’t keep die-hard gardeners from getting ready for the growing season. When you’re choosing the varieties of annuals to add to the garden this year, you can’t go wrong if you rely on the winners proclaimed by All America Selections.

This organization has trial gardens all over the United States. Each year they plant many of the new varieties being developed by seed companies and breeders. Those that perform best overall earn the All America Winner distinction. Gardeners can rely on these varieties to do well in their gardens with reasonable care. Many of today’s popular annuals are winners of the All America Selections designation. Petunia ‘Wave’, Snapdragon ‘Rocket’, and Zinnia ‘Peter Pan’ are some examples.

This year several flowering annuals got the nod. I think ‘Vinca ‘Stardust Orchid’ will be the most popular winner this year. The large one and a half-inch blossoms are a rosy orchid blushed with soft white centers. The foliage is a glossy dark green. If the drought continues through the summer this plant won’t mind. It’s heat and drought tolerant. ‘Stardust Orchid’ has a uniform, compact habit making it a good choice to outline a path or garden bed.

Another winner this year is Dianthus ‘Melody Pink’. It is touted as dual purpose, a season-long flowering annual that provides lovely long-stemmed cut flowers. The plants grow about two feet tall in a vase-shaped habit. Sprays of one inch pink blooms are produced all season long. I think it could be a great plant for patio pots and doorsill planters.

The other three flower winners are good, too, if you like orange. For some reason I’m not fond of orange in spring and early summer. It’s a color that says, "autumn" to me.

Anyway, Cosmos ‘Cosmic Orange’ has double and semi-double one to two-inch flowers on dense, compact plants. It loves poor soil and is one of the longest-blooming annuals. Tithonia ‘Fiesta del Sol’ has orange, two-inch daisy flowers on plants that grow two to three feet tall. It’s one of the last plants that deer will choose to eat. This tithonia is sensitive to cold and doesn’t really do much until the weather heats up. Sunflower ‘Soraya’ yields flowers four to six inches across with orange petals and chocolate brown centers. These sunflowers are ‘back-of-the-border plants, growing five to six feet tall. The cut flowers will last for seven days or more in a vase. Be careful with them inside because the pollen can stain linen.

Choosing All America Winners will help you have a successful gardening season. When shopping for plants look for the AAS shield and you help stack the odds in your favor.

Next week I’ll tell you about the vegetables that have won the AAS designation for the year 2000.