243 All America Selections 2023 Plant Winners

Show Transcript

GB 243 TRANSCRIPT 2023 AAS Winners 
 

[00:00:00]

Farmer Fred:

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Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred Podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot. iI may not be planting time where you live, but it certainly is planning time for your 2023 garden. If you're looking to plant something different, a good place to start is with the All America Selections Winners. 
This is a yearly compilation of the best of the new plant entries, annuals and perennials, ornamentals and edibles that have won the praises of plant expert judges throughout the country in trial gardens from coast to coast. The 2023 entries include new, winning tomato and pepper vegetable varieties, as well as colorful annual and perennial flowers, and that includes ground covers and house plants. There are 11 plants in all that have been chosen by judges as the 2023 All America Selections Winners.

We're podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful abutilon jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It's the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred Podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Let's go. 
 

2023 All-America Selections Plant Winners, Part 1

Farmer Fred:

We are in that season where we are planning our garden, not necessarily planting. So what are you going to be planting in 2023? One good place to start is with the All America Selections winners, and they have a new list of 2023 winners, plants that may pique your curiosity that you might want to try.

There are a lot great AAS winners. The All-America Selections committees have been selecting plants on for years and years. To tell us more about it, Diane Blasek is here. Diane is the executive director for the All America Selections Winners as well as the National Garden Bureau. Follow along with us with the pictures of these AAS winners in the current Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter. So let's begin with a flowering plant that has been a staple of college students for many generations, the coleus. 
 

[00:02:20]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah. So this is really fun because as a coleus, you don't want it to flower. And so this is one of the changes we've made over the years. It used to be called the flower trial. Now we call it the ornamental trial because we like to have things in there that are indicative of what people are growing and putting in their garden. 
 

So this coleus is our first ever coleus from seed that is an AAS winner. A couple years ago, we had a coleus that is from vegetative cuttings, but this one is from seed. It's called Premium Sun Coral Candy. So just by that name, it tells you a lot. It will perform well in sun or shade. It holds its colors. It's called Coral Candy because it's got this coral inner leaf, and then candy is, it's just as sweet as it can be because it’s more of a compact version, perfect for containers, and it'll just have those leaves that kind of spill over the edges of the container.
 

[00:03:20]

Farmer Fred:

And I  mentioned too that it was a very popular college student plant because it's a dorm room window plant for sure. Because Coleus do well in a sunny window. 
 

[00:03:29]

Diane Blazek:

Absolutely. Yes. They do double duty indoors or outdoors.  
 

[00:03:33]

Farmer Fred:

And this one, the premium sun coral candy, is noted because it doesn't flower, which is what you actually don't want in a coleus in order to retain the vibrant colors in the leaves.
 

[00:03:45]

Diane Blazek:

Exactly, yeah. If it starts to flower, it's gonna put all of its energy into flowering or producing seeds. 
So they've bred this one to really not produce those flower stems, that usually people just pluck out.  
 

[00:03:58]

Farmer Fred:

Now moving from coleus, let's talk about a plant that needs a little bit more space because it has big dramatic leaves. Some people may might know it as Taro or elephant’s ear. It’s colocasia. And this one is Royal Hawaiian Waikiki, which I believe is the name of a hotel, isn't it?  
 

[00:04:15]

Diane Blazek:

It probably is, but it's also the name of a series of  colocasias. Here again, this is another exciting first for All America Selections because, like I said, we've only done the non-seed trials for about four or five years, so this is the first colocasia we've ever had entered in. Wouldn't you know it, it won a national awards. 
So all of our judges were really impressed. Not only with the size, but the key thing on this one is the unique coloration and veining in each one of these leaves. It's gorgeous. You have to go to the website to see it, to believe it, because it has this really nice flamingo pink center vein, and then some creamy white, light yellow gradations in it. 
And then it's got a nice glossy green outer leaf. Very exciting. It comes from a breeder in Hawaii of course, so that's why they called it the Royal Hawaiian Series.
 

[00:05:12]

Farmer Fred:

What's nice about it, as well: it can live in other places besides Hawaii. I believe it's hardy down to USDA zone seven.  
 

[00:05:19]

Diane Blazek:

Yes, correct. I'm in Chicago, so I grow them every year. I have four or five on my front porch this year. I just brought 'em indoors. They're gonna be house plants for me and I'll take 'em back outside next year. So they’ll be exactly the same way. 
 

[00:05:32]

Farmer Fred:

I was gonna ask you about that. For colder climates with the elephant’s ear or taro, do you have to wait for it to die down first and then bring it in, or can you bring it in and treat it like a house plant? 
 

[00:05:42]

Diane Blazek:

Both. Typically I do cut them down and put 'em in my basement, it's pretty cool down there. And then I bring 'em back out in January and they just take off once they've got some water and heat. This is actually the first year I'm gonna try over wintering them indoors. So I've had 'em indoors since mid October, so almost two months. They look amazing still. So this is an experiment that I'm doing this year, I think it's gonna work out great. I will have huge plants to take outside in May instead of having to wait for them to regrow.  
 

[00:06:14]

Farmer Fred:

And the good news for us here in the West is the plant is very tolerant of drought and heat, but it does need some room. 
It gets  about 36 inches tall and wide.  And we should point out that as you mentioned earlier, some of the AAS winners are available from seeds. Some are available as plants, and this one, the Colocasia Royal Hawaiian Waikiki, is available as a plant from your favorite nursery.  
 

[00:06:40]

Diane Blazek:

Absolutely. Yes. And there's quite a few online retailers that already have it available, so that's very exciting. That is one of the things, the way that All America Selections works is it has to be new, never before sold, when the breeders are entering it. So when we announce the winners, sometimes it takes a little while for them to become available, so we always say, okay, these winners are for 2023, but just be patient. We update our website as soon as we know where they're available online. And then you can always ask your local garden retailer, when you request 'em or ask about 'em, they should be carrying them. Soon. That is another aspect of our website, is that we do have a Where to buy section.
 

[00:07:23]

Farmer Fred:

Exactly, and it's very obvious, because that's embedded into each of the descriptions of the winners. 
This particular one, this elephant’s ear, is available online from Brent and Becky's Bulbs. Monrovia is growing it as a plant as well, and they supply a lot of western nurseries with plants. The Southern Living Plant Collection offers it, as does the Sunset Plant collection.  
 

[00:07:45]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah. So it's really good. Like you say, there's some regionality there where there are some growers and companies already offering them. It's wonderful that this one is so readily available.  
 

[00:07:56]

Farmer Fred:

All right. Another 2023 award winner is a coneflower or echinacea, called the Artisan Yellow Ombre f1. And it's a perennial?  
 

[00:08:06]

Diane Blazek:

Yes. So this one is from our perennial trial, so it has been trialed over three winters, so we really put these through our paces. 
We have 25 different trial sites across North America, so we get a really good representation of all these different climates and how well it does. Echinacea is native to a big part of the United States, especially the Central United States. So it's fun to see that this echninacia has done well in a majority of regions. 
So one of the things we hadn't really talked about is the regionality of some of our winners, and this one particularly is. A winner in the northeast and the southeast. So basically when you're talking everything east of the Mississippi, this is where the echinaceas are native, and this is where this one outperforms the comparisons. 
 

[00:08:56]

Farmer Fred:

And if you know coneflowers, you're familiar with their daisy like flowers. And these flowers last a long time. Pollinators love them. There isn't much maintenance involved with an echinacea and it does bloom a long time. And as you mentioned, it's hearty for many zones, from USDA Zone 4 to Zone 10.
 

[00:09:17]

Diane Blazek:

Exactly right. It's a great performer. And then you're talking about the daisy flower, and it's such a vibrant yellow flower that really holds that vibrant color. So I think that's what's super important with a yellow echinacea.  
 

[00:09:31]

Farmer Fred:

Yeah, the bloom size is a good size, too. Those flowers are each about three to four inches across? 
 

Diane Blazek:

Yeah, exactly.

Farmer Fred:

All right. It's a coneflower, also known as echinacea, the Artisan Yellow Ombre, f1. And if you're looking for a bright orange flower for your perennial garden this would be a good choice. And it's available from seed, isn't it?  
 

[00:09:52]

Diane Blazek:

It is available from seed. In the colder climates, you'll wanna start it pretty early in the year. 
So if people are thinking for 2023, I know around here we would wanna start it in January indoors in order to get that flowering the first year. But then you're gonna get these flowers every year because you've got a perennial that's gonna survive. 
 

[00:10:11]

Farmer Fred:

Yeah, that's the one thing too, though, a lot of the plants we're talking about, if you're starting them from seed, if you want to put them out in your yard as established plants and you're gonna grow from seed, then you're better off getting the seed now and starting them in January. I'm thinking in terms of pepper plants that are good to start in January in order to set out 10 weeks later or so around here. 
 

[00:10:34]

Diane Blazek:

Exactly. And peppers. If we're talking about peppers I always have a lot more success with my pepper plants if I use a heat mat. Not everything needs the soil to be that warm, but I have found pepper plants do.
 

[00:10:46]

Farmer Fred: 
Pepper plants. We've done many episodes of Garden Basics talking about tricks to get your pepper seeds to germinate a bit quicker. You can go back in our files and look for those episodes. We'll have some mentions in the show notes about some episodes where we talk about germinating pepper seeds. 
 

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2023 All-America Selections Plant Winners, Part 2

Farmer Fred:

Let's get back to our conversation with Diane Blazek of the All America Selections Winners, and find out who those winners are for 2023. 
Since we're talking peppers, let's talk about the peppers that are 2023 award winners. You've got two. You've got a cayenne pepper and a jalapeno pepper. Two peppers with a little bit of heat.
 

[00:14:21]

Diane Blazek:

Absolutely. Yeah. So the two peppers: the cayenne is called Wild Cat, and the Jalapeno is called San Joaquin, though the San Joaquin is brand new. So I would say in the next couple of weeks we'll find it’s availability from several online sources. The Wild Cat is already available, the Wildcat, it's only. 500-1500 Scoville Units. So it's a little bit milder. The jalapeno, naturally, would just be a little bit hotter. But in all cases with peppers, what our judges are looking for, first and foremost, taste and texture are very important. The things that the breeders are working on now are traits that make the home gardener more successful. So for example, one with a higher yield or more disease resistance. In the case of peppers, it would be like less cracking. Or in the case of tomato it might be less blossom end rot. So these are the traits that the breeders are working on with these new varieties. So they wanna make sure the taste is there as well as the garden performance. And Be easy to pick, too.  
 

[00:15:26]

Farmer Fred:

in  that cayenne pepper, the Wildcat, I noticed the judges were very impressed with its size: six to eight inches long and bright red.  
 

[00:15:35]

Diane Blazek:

When you're growing something,  you don't want some shrimpy little fruit on your plant, be it a tomato or pepper, whatever. 
So yeah, this one not only will give you a large volume of peppers, but these were a larger pepper. And you say that about it being easy to pick. It is very surprising and fun little thing that we see that, for example, if you wanna plant this in a container or if you wanna plant it, this one probably would be too big for a hanging basket, but there are some that you can plant in hanging baskets and they have bred them to spill over the sides. So again, it's easier to harvest. How many times this happened to me last year, I had some Shishido peppers and I went to harvest them. Because they're the same color as the plant, they were stuck inside. And I would miss a few and go out a few days later and I had to have one like the size of a cucumber or something. So yeah, making it easier to harvest and knowing when to harvest is another thing that the breeders are working on.  
 

[00:16:31]

Farmer Fred:

And you point  out, peppers do last a long time on the plant and many of them will turn color too as they mature.
 

[00:16:37]

Diane Blazek:

Oh, absolutely, yes. In both cases for these peppers, they will turn red. 
Some of 'em might turn red sooner than others, but yeah that's another trait on these two peppers.  
 

[00:16:48]

Farmer Fred:

Since you mentioned the Shishido pepper, I've always been intrigued by that pepper. Is that a former AAS Winner?
 

[00:16:53]

Diane Blazek:

No! And for any seed breeders listening. I want a Shishido pepper in our roundup. so we would love to get a Shishido in our trials. 
 

[00:17:03]

Farmer Fred:

All right. To me, it's like playing Russian roulette with peppers because with a Shishido, I've noticed on my plants, you can pick 10 of them and nine of them will be mild, but one will have heat.
 

[00:17:13]

Diane Blazek:

Absolutely. And it's funny you say that. We actually have a pepper called Roulette. It's not a Shishido, it's a habanero, but it has been bred to have no heat. So that's unusual when you're talking about a habanero. that's one of the fun things that the breeders are working on too, is, Hey, we have this pepper that has this amazing flavor, but it's too much heat for a lot of people. Funny enough that you use the terminology Roulette and we have a winning pepper that is called Roulette. 
 

[00:17:42]

Farmer Fred:

I just hope you're not taking too big of a chance with it. And I got to say that the jalapeno pepper that was the 2023 AAS winner, the San Joaquin, piques my interest because San Joaquin is the county just south of me, so I figured it must be a California bred pepper. And it certainly is. It came from Bejo Seeds, which I believe is down in the Pismo Beach area along the central coast of California.  
 

[00:18:08]

Diane Blazek:

Yes. It's actually a Dutch company, but their US presence is down there around Pismo Beach. 
 

[00:18:14]

Farmer Fred:

Which, by the way, if you wanna move to California and grow the widest variety of plants possible, you wanna move to the central coast area of California, one of the inland valleys near the central coast. Because their climate is perfect for growing just about anything. And I think there are many trial gardens in that area as well. 
 

[00:18:32]

Diane Blazek:

I'm sure there are. Yeah. We've traveled through there obviously for the flower trials, but also for the vegetable trials and, they have that nice morning fog that kind of keeps things cool. And then it will get warm. So yeah, it, they are able to grow a huge variety of types of plants down there.  
 

[00:18:50]

Farmer Fred:

Let's back up a step as far as the award winners go. And let's talk about the Leucanthemum Carpet Angel, which is a ground cover.  
 

[00:18:59]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah. We can't miss this one, so it's perfect. And I love that this is audio only. So we get an opportunity to really define the look of this plant. And to me the name describes it perfectly. So carpet means that it forms a ground cover. Angel, when you think of angel, you think airy, white, fluttery. That is exactly what these flowers look like. So they're a double flower. So they have the pedals that will droop down, maybe think of wings, and then you've got this in a second flower, an inner pedal. So it does have a yellow center with these little fluffy pedals around that yellow center. So it just makes a really nice fluttery frilly ground cover. And this too was in our perennial trial. It's hardy from zones four to 10, very similar to the Echinacea that we talked about. But yeah, this leucanthemum, which overall it feels as though leucanthemums are really making a comeback, and the breeders are working on some unique traits among the leucanthemums. Being a ground cover, that's one of the main traits that the judges were impressed with here. 
 

[00:20:09]

Farmer Fred:

Yeah. When we say “Leucanthemum” , a lot of people would know it as the Shasta daisy. and I think this flower of the Carpet Angel, when I first glanced at it, I almost thought it was a spider chrysanthemum. 
 

[00:20:20]

Diane Blazek:

you're right. It does have that look with the long drooping pedals. Yeah. Yeah.  
 

[00:20:24]

Farmer Fred:

I was amazed that this is the first ever ground cover, Shasta Daisy, as well as the first ever winner from this  breeder.
 

[00:20:30]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah, I know. Isn't that fun? This, too, is a breeder from down in the Central Coast of California near Lompoc.  
 

[00:20:36]

Farmer Fred:

again, another Central California coastal valley that has not only wonderful gardens, but also wonderful wineries as well. Yeah. The leucanthemum Shasta Daisy does well as a ground cover around here. Those ground covers just bloom and bloom, and I'm sure this one is no different.
 

[00:20:54]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah, exactly right. And each plant it, it'll get up to 20 inches wide. So that's a pretty decent spread on a leucanthemum.  
 

[00:21:02]

Farmer Fred:

I would think too, that it would bloom more if you deadheaded it a little bit. All right. By the way, you mentioned that you were glad this is audio only. I agree for many reasons, but also in the latest Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter, we'll take a deeper dive into these AAS winners. We'll have pictures of all 11 of the 2023 AAS winners in this week's Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter, so you can see what they look like. In fact, if you subscribe and you're listening this, you could open it up and follow along as we talk about them.  
 

[00:21:38]

Diane Blazek:

Perfect. Thank you for providing those photos. That will add another element. 
 

[00:21:42]

Farmer Fred:

Thank you for providing the photos.  
 

[00:21:44]

Diane Blazek:

And we have to thank our breeders for providing the photos, so it's just a lot of thanks all the way around.  
 

[00:21:49]

Farmer Fred:

Okay. A popular plant here, especially in gardens that are trying to conserve water, are salvias. Salvias have dramatic flowers. They can be thuggish, though. Some of them can get five or six feet tall and yes, they do bloom like crazy, but they can also just take over a garden. But you have a 2023 AAS award winner that shall we say, is more polite.  
 

[00:22:15]

Diane Blazek:

Definitely A little bit more polite. It’s not gonna be the thug. It’s a little bit more compact. The great thing is, for a new planting or a new season of growth, it's going to be blooming earlier. There were some trial sites that reported that they were seeing bloom  about two weeks earlier than the comparisons, so that was a great thing. The gorgeous Purplely blue color was another good thing. Winter hardiness, heat tolerance. It's just all around a really good salvia, and I love the name, too. It's called Blue by You, Not “bayou”, as in New Orleans bayou. This one is two words, B-Y  Y-O-U.  
 

[00:22:58]

Farmer Fred:

Yeah. Or if you're musically inclined, it's not the song by Roy Orbison or Linda Ronstadt .  
 

[00:23:03]

Diane Blazek:

All right. Blue by you. 
 

But if you wanna associate the two, that's totally fine.  
 

[00:23:06]

Farmer Fred:

But it's a salvia and it does have those beautiful, dark blue, purple, straight up, growing flowers.  
 

[00:23:13]

Diane Blazek:

Yes, exactly. Some of those flowers can get to be like 10 to 12 inches in length. So total plant height. That's half the total plant height. 
So you're getting a lot of color on this plant.  
 

[00:23:24]

Farmer Fred:

And if you wanna attract hummingbirds to your garden, salvias are a great choice. Now I noticed that the description says it's not favored by deer or rabbits. Has that been tested?  
 

[00:23:37]

Diane Blazek:

That's what the judges were saying. They thought the deer and rabbits were going to eat this, but they avoided this salvia. 
But like anything, if salvia is the only thing in your yard and you have a lot of deer, they might eat it. But if there's other things in your yard, which hopefully everybody is doing a very diverse ecosystem in their yard, then the salvia will not be the first thing that they nibble on.  
 

[00:24:02]

Farmer Fred:

Yeah. You put a deeper into the garden. And on the outskirts, you put out a trap crop for the deer and rabbits. 
Yeah.  There you go. All right, so it's Salvia Blue By You, and this is another plant that will be available as a plant, not seed.  
 

[00:24:16]

Diane Blazek:

Yes, exactly. It is not from seed. It is vegetatively propagated. So it is something that you'll find in local garden centers and online, but it will definitely be as plants, not as seed. 
 

[00:24:28]

Farmer Fred:

All right. Another 2023 award winner is a snapdragon called Double Shot Orange, a bi-color. And it is really a nice bright reddish orange color.  
 

[00:24:40]

Diane Blazek:

Isn't it though? I love the name Double Shot. and the bi-color part is the variation. It's got like a white throat on the outside for this orange bi color, but it's a really nice, it's part of a series. 
 

We trialed the orange and it's a orangeish red. so I don’t want people thinking that it's an orange orange, but it's an orange-ish red, and the fact that these are double flowers just gives it way more of a punch in the garden. It's something that's gonna be a head turner instead of ho-hum.  This is gonna be something different.  
 

[00:25:15]

Farmer Fred:

Yeah. And it is a national winner. And here in the west, we think of Snapdragons as a cool season annual for our gardens; but in cooler parts of the country, you could grow them in the summertime.  
 

[00:25:25]

Diane Blazek:

Yes, exactly right. I think of 'em as a late spring and summer plant. But that's a great thing. I’ts a Snapdragon, so everybody has their favorite times of year to grow 'em, and this one will just be really strong. For one thing it’s not gonna flop over, even though it has many flowers and they're double flowered. The stems are very sturdy and it's not gonna be overly tall. 
So something really good for both containers and in-ground.  
 

[00:25:51]

Farmer Fred:

about 18 to 20 inches tall and the flower's  two inches wide yes. Is this plant available from seed, or is it only available as  plant? 
 

[00:26:01]

Diane Blazek:

No, this one is from seed. So this one we just announced a couple weeks ago, so I would say probably by January you're going to be able to find some sources, some online sources for this snapdragon. we'll have links to on our  website. 
 

[00:26:16]

Farmer Fred:

And again, that website is all dash America selections.org. We'll have a link (All-AmericaSelections.org). You can find that in the show notes, by the way. Okay, now we come to a vegetable that I'm curious to try myself because we had a recipe a few weeks ago for a pumpkin soup. 
And the trick I found out with making a pumpkin soup is you need other winter squash varieties in there, not just pumpkin. And Kobocha is one of those winter squashes that is highly recommended for pumpkin soup recipes. And you have a kobocha squash that is a 2023 award winner? 
 

[00:26:52]

Diane Blazek:

It's called Sweet Jade. And it's interesting you say that because we have heard a lot of people say that they will just grow and substitute a kabocha or a butternut squash instead of pumpkin, because a lot of the pumpkins that you're gonna buy are probably bred for jack o lantern uses or carving, not necessarily for the flesh. If you really wanna have that good old flavor of kind of a sweet, nutty, creamy, fleshy, whatever it is that you're using it for, such as baking a pie, or pumpkin bread, then one of these winter squashes would be great. 
So this Sweet Jade was one. It's a little bit smaller. That's another trait that we see with the breeders. When they're breeding vegetables,  they call 'em personal size produce. But think of the miniature peppers that you see in the supermarket. This falls into that category so that you're not getting the squash,  if it's just two of you at home fixing the squash, you're like, oh my gosh, we're gonna have to eat squash for days! So you get the personal size produce with this Sweet Jade.
 

[00:27:57]

Farmer Fred:

It's nice to have a squash around that doesn't grow crazy when you're not looking. And this one gets, what about one to two pounds?  
 

[00:28:03]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah, exactly. Let's describe it a little bit. It is a round shape squash, so if you've got one of these squash recipes or pumpkin recipes for a soup, you could use this, carve it out, take out the seeds, cut off the top, bake it, and then use it as a soup bowl. For your pumpkin or squash soup. So a multipurpose product. 
 

[00:28:26]

Farmer Fred:

I noticed that among the judges' comments about this particular squash variety, that it does have a nice internal color and as one judge said, it has incredible taste, it doesn't even need butter or salt. 
 

[00:28:39]

Diane Blazek:

That’s good. Let's make it super healthy. No butter, no salt. You brought up something that we should talk about: it is every single one of our AAS winners from say, 10 years or so ago, has comments from the judges. So obviously we use the comments in our descriptions. It's almost like a testimonial. If you click on the little green box that says “judges' observations”, those are literally the quotes that came in from our judges,that helps us determine whether or not it should be an AAS winner.  
 

[00:29:08]

Farmer Fred:

And of course, no year of AAS winners would be complete without a tomato winner. The AAS winners are famous for all the tomatoes that have won over the last 90 years or so. And the latest one is spelled a little funny, it's Zenzei.
 

[00:29:27]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah. We've been pronouncing it zen-zay. We haven't been told that we're wrong yet. It's funny, we have tomatoes from A to Z, so now we definitely have a Z one. And this one is great because it's a Roma tomato. And I think I had mentioned earlier that one of the things, or a couple of the things that the breeders are working on is disease resistance, maybe earlier or shorter maturity, maybe it won't have blossom end rot. So all of those things are characteristic of this Zenzei. So it's a nice big Roma. In fact, we have the picture on our website: It's a female's hand, so it's probably  about a four inch long tomato. But again, the key thing is better garden performance. That makes it easier for the home gardener to become more successful. 
 

[00:30:15]

Farmer Fred:

And being a Roma tomato, then it would be great for canning. Is this a determinate tomato?  
 

[00:30:21]

Diane Blazek:

No, these are indeterminate. They're bushy, but they are indeterminate plants.  
 

[00:30:25]

Farmer Fred:

It does get rather tall though. You say bushy, but it can get six feet tall, so it will need  caging.
 

[00:30:31]

Diane Blazek:

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Don't be like this particular gardener. When I first started and I didn't realize what Indeterminate meant, and I ignored the advice about having strong stakes or cages. So yeah, anytime you look at an indeterminate tomato, always look to see what the plant height will be and pay attention. If not, you're just gonna have a woody viny mess on your hands. And this could be hard to harvest.  
 

[00:30:58]

Farmer Fred:

Exactly.  Get them to grow up, not spreading, throughout your garden. And by the way, if you're wondering, indeterminate means it will produce tomatoes throughout the growing season. A determinate variety is perfect for canning because the majority of fruit will ripen at about the same time. So you can grab 20 pounds really quick for canning purposes.  And finally, we come to a watermelon called Ruby Firm f1. And it is almost like a personal size watermelon.  
 

[00:31:27]

Diane Blazek:

Yeah. So that characteristic comes up again. You may remember  the huge icebox melons that we probably all grew up with. On the 4th of July we would have a melon that serves 20 people. Now we've got the smaller watermelon. So this is another one that we have as an AAS winner, and it's called Ruby Firm, which again the description really defines what this is. It's a ruby red colored flesh, a firm flesh. It's not gonna be mushy. Who wants a mushy watermelon? This one is really good for the West. It's a regional winner in both the mountain Southwest and the northwest, so everything west of the Rockies. This would be a great watermelon.  
 

[00:32:09]

Farmer Fred:

Again, that watermelon name is Ruby Firm F1. Does best, of course,  grown in full sun. And you grow it in the summertime and you get about two or three fruits per plant? 
 

[00:32:21]

Diane Blazek:

Exactly. Now this watermelon, you do have to give it to some room. It will have some long vines, probably 10 to 12 feet, but you're going to get several fruits off of each plant. It's well worth the space, put it that way.  
 

[00:32:35]

Farmer Fred:

And  the judges love the flavor of it. They say it is quite good, It's very tasty and with an excellent texture and fewer seeds. 
 

[00:32:41]

Diane Blazek:

So we're not saying it's seedless. Seedless, when you're growing, Those are a little finicky to grow in the garden. Especially to get them started. But this one has fewer seeds than a typical watermelon and great disease resistance. 
 

[00:32:55]

Farmer Fred:

And so when this one becomes available, the Ruby Firm will be available from seed. And don't forget, we'll have pictures and more descriptions about the 2023 All America Selections winners in this Friday's, the current edition, of the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter, where you can see what they look like, and also there will be more comments about them as well. That, again, will be in the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter. Diane, the AAS winners, besides having the website, All-Americaselections.org also has a lot of social media outlets.  
 

[00:33:32]

Diane Blazek:

Yes. it's very easy to follow us. You would just search for AAS winners or Garden winners. There's links on the website that you mentioned, so Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest. We're on the most popular social media sites, so it's a fun way to be updated on what else is coming out and what else is new, and how to use the AAS winners.  
 

[00:33:55]

Farmer Fred:

And probably more about the availability as the winter goes on. 
 

[00:33:59]

Diane Blazek:

Exactly. We do add that in.
 

[00:34:01]

Farmer Fred:

Diane Blazek, Executive Director of the National Garden Bureau and the All America Selections winners. Diane, thanks for getting us into 2023 in our garden.  
 

[00:34:11]

Diane Blazek:

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing what is produced in next year's gardens. It's gonna be wonderful. 
 

[00:34:22]

Farmer Fred:

The Garden Basics With Farmer Fred podcast comes out once a week, on Fridays. Plus the newsletter podcast, that comes with the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, continues, also released on Fridays. Both are free and are brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. The Garden Basics podcast is available wherever podcasts are handed out, and that includes our home page, Garden Basics dot net. , where you can also sign up for the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast. That’s GardenBasics.net. Or use the links in today’s show notes.  And thank you so much for listening.