379 AAS Award-Winning Garden Plants for 2025

Show Transcript

379 TRANSCRIPT 2025 AAS Garden Plant Winners

Farmer Fred:

Hi, it’s Farmer Fred, Master Gardener Fred Hoffman, and today we are talking with  with Diane Blazek, the executive director of All-America Selections, the (AAS), to explore the newly announced 2025 winners of top-performing garden plant varieties. 

It’s episode number 379, the 2025 AAS Garden Plant 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 Dave Wilson Nursery. Let’s go! 

2025 AAS PLANT WINNERS, pt. 1

Farmer Fred:

 If you've listened to the Garden Basics podcast for any length of time, you know that when myself and my guests come around to recommending varieties of plants to grow in the yard, we tend to veer towards those that are winners, specifically All-America Selections winners to try if you've never tried a

particular vegetable or flower or herb before. Who is All-America Selections? Well, they're an independent nonprofit organization that tests new, never-before-sold varieties for the home gardener. They do anonymous trialing by volunteer horticultural professionals, and then only the top garden performers are given the AAS winner award designation for their superior performance. The proceeds go into conducting trials and promoting AAS winners, both old and new. There are national winners, there are regional winners. And if we start talking about certain AAS winners, and it's a regional winner, we'll mention that too, if maybe it's best for the West or best for the Northeast or whatever.

Farmer Fred:

And the AAS, the All-America Selections, just came out with their 2025 winners, vegetables and flowers that judges throughout the country have said, hey, you ought to try these. So let's begin. Diane Blazek is our guest. She is the executive director of All America Selections, as well as the executive director of the National Garden Bureau. And Diane, it's a pleasure talking with you again and talking about the wonderful new plants that are out there. And I guess we should point out that a lot of these are available as seed and some are available as plants.

Diane Blazek:

Yes, you are exactly right. But yes, thank you for having me again. And your description of AAS was wonderful. And you are exactly correct that many of these are available as seed items, but you can also find them as plants at your local retailer. Some of the newer ones, you may have to search a little bit harder, but after they've been on the market for a certain amount of time, they're very readily available.

Farmer Fred:

 You know, you don't look that old, but you've been doing this since 1932. 

Diane Blazek:

You're right. I have been. Yeah. Maybe this job keeps you young. I don't know.

Farmer Fred:

 Well, actually, let's talk a little bit about the history of it. Ray Hastings, he was a seedsman from Georgia and he got people together to do this.

Diane Blazek:

 Yes, exactly. I always like to call him a Doubting Thomas because this was the time between the two world wars when there was a lot of new hybridizing going on. So there were a lot of new introductions. I mean, some of them were F1 hybrids, some of them were selections that were Open Pollinated varieties. But he was looking at all these new varieties saying, “I’m not sure you're making all these claims. Who's going to validate your claims?” So he started All America Selections and it put together a network at the time. There were maybe a dozen or so judges across North America. And you're right. They were trialing them anonymously. They were comparing them to other varieties currently on the market. And those entries had to live up to the claims of the breeder in order to win an AAS award.

Farmer Fred:

 And the judges were from all across the country. Weren't they?

Diane Blazek:

  Yes, all across U.S. and Canada, which we still have.  There were, I think I said 12 to 15 judges back in the 1930s, but today we have a total of almost 90 judges across our different trials because we try to have at least four judges per region. You had mentioned regional awards, and yes, we have six regions. So, we try to keep a minimum of four judges in each region to get a good balance of microclimates within those regions.

Farmer Fred:

 Yeah, because let's face it, if you're talking about the Southwest, it can run from very mild to very hot. 

Diane Blazek:

 Right. And we need to test these new varieties in all of those conditions.

Farmer Fred:

 It's been growing over the years. The first winners were introduced in 1933. And at your website, the all-americaselections.org website, you can go back and look at all these winners and the descriptions. So I would heartily encourage you, if you're planning your first garden, and you're wondering, well, what tomato variety should I plant? Well, go to All America Selections and look it up and start with some of those. All right, let's talk about the 2025 winners. And since I'm kind of a tomato head, I noticed that you have one tomato winner this year. I'll let you pronounce it. What is it?

Diane Blazek:

It's called Tomato Tonatico.

Farmer Fred:

Tonatico (toe-NOT-ick-o). OK.

Diane Blazek:

 Yes. T-O-N-A-T-I-C-O. Yes. I had to ask the breeder right away, too. I was like, how are you pronouncing this one? But this one is a nice cherry tomato. And you had said that we would talk about regions. So this is a regional winner, definitely for the mountain and southwest, like basically west of the Rockies, but also for the northeast, which is kind of an interesting combination. But those are the two areas where the judges said it outperformed the comparison. So it's a cherry tomato, grows on trusses. It is an indeterminate. But it has high yield, very good tasting fruits, texture, and disease resistance. So, of course, that's what we're always looking for is the items that are disease resistant.

Farmer Fred:

 One aspect that a lot of the judges agreed on with this tomato is there's not much cracking and splitting of the fruit.

Diane Blazek:

 Right, right. Yeah, because we hate that. You go out to harvest your tomatoes and they're already split and the ants or the birds have gotten them because they split. So this way, you're going to have more usable fruits when they aren't splitting like that.

Farmer Fred:

I see where they've compared it to the Super Sweet 100. So if you're thinking about what sort of a cherry tomato it is, well, if you have ever grown or familiar with the Super Sweet 100, this would be similar to that. It is an indeterminate, which means it's going to sprawl. So you better cage it.

Diane Blazek:

 Exactly. Cage it or truss it or definitely give it some sort of support.

Farmer Fred:

 All right. So, again, if you're looking for a cherry tomato to try that's new, tomato Tonatico is the name. Good. I'm glad I got that right. But you have a pepper winner, too, as well. And there's only one pepper winner. I'm surprised,  because usually there's usually plenty of peppers each year.

Farmer Fred:

 But this is a nice little sweet pepper called the Pick N Pop. 

Diane Blazek:

Yes. Now, this one was super fun to write the description.  A lot of these this year seem to have those names that just would let you introduce something fun. So I was using the whole “Peter Piper picked a peck of…” on our description. But the reason it has its name, Pick N Pop, is because they're so tantalizing and they're smaller. So we call them a snacking pepper. So we're envisioning grabbing them, picking them off the plant and popping them in your mouth. The key here is that they're yellow. So it's a yellow pepper, a small, petite, snacking pepper, very sweet, juicy, crunchy, it makes you salivate, makes you hungry when you're talking about it.

Farmer Fred:

 The fruit itself is what, about four inches long?

Diane Blazek:

 Yeah, I would say four inches max.

Farmer Fred:

How tall does the plant get?

Diane Blazek:

 Now, the plant will get, oh, about 24, 26, 36 inches tall.

Farmer Fred:

And I noticed that one of the comparisons they're making with this pepper, the Pick N Pop yellow pepper, is they're comparing it to another variety called Lunchbox Yellow. And I think that's a great description for this pick N pop pepper. Put it in your kid's lunchbox for school.

Diane Blazek:

 Yeah, good, good point. And that is what so many people are using these peppers for. You know, get the kids to try these sweet peppers. They'll love them for life.

Farmer Fred:

 And you conveniently at your website, when describing these plants, especially for the peppers, you have Scoville ratings. And this has a Scoville rating of zero, which means there's no heat whatsoever. So you're not going to burn anybody's lips or tongue with it.

Diane Blazek:

 Right. I don't think you'd be putting them in your children's lunchbox. I don't know.

Farmer Fred:

It depends who and where you are. Here in California, peppers with heat are fairly standard these days in a lot of recipes and restaurants.

Diane Blazek:

 Yeah, this is true.

Farmer Fred:

Speaking of which, I've got a question from a listener who has an aversion to hot peppers and was looking for a pepper to include in a recipe that called for Poblanos.  And Poblanos are on the low side as far as the Scoville scale goes. Maybe before we get started on the question, we should explain the Scoville scale for people. This is a measurement of heat of peppers that was designed, I think, the guy owned a pharmacy back in 1900 or sometime like that. And it was a matter of adding water to each sample that was tasted to determine the heat?

Diane Blazek:

Well, I remember when I was first reading about this, it's interesting that it was so subjective, you know, because one person's determination. But, yes, that's what he was doing was setting up a scale for Scoville units.

Farmer Fred:

 Exactly. And the higher the number, the more heat there is. Right. And another thing, too, if you're looking at a pepper catalog and you're looking for some  low heat peppers, and this gets back to the question that I had from a listener who had a recipe that called for poblanos and wanted maybe some other choices of low heat peppers that wouldn't burn their mouth. So we're probably looking at peppers that are under 1,000 or 1,500 Scoville units. The problem is, as I said about these catalogs, they can vary widely in what they say the Scoville unit scale is for a particular pepper. So let your taste buds be your guide. And also remember that peppers can change. The longer they're in the garden, the more stress they're under. If they are hot peppers, they'll get hotter if they're stressed, if there is a drought, if they're not fed correctly. if you do get that heat wave that gets over 100 degrees for a couple of weeks in a row. So basically, buyer beware on that one.  Let's talk about some of the AAS winners over the years that would fit that category of low heat peppers.  And in my own research, besides the Poblano, I found things like the Cubanelle and the aji dulce, also known as the cachucha pepper, which are pretty low. But you had one not too long ago that was an AAS winner that I really liked. I remember growing it called the Mexibell.

Diane Blazek:

Yeah, the Mexibell. It actually looks more like a sweet pepper, but does have just a little bit of heat. And it's a nice red pepper, you know, if you let it mature to red. So that would be a good choice. I think the Mariachi would be another one. Now that one does go up to maybe 1,500 or 2,000. Now that's not a bell pepper. That's a little conical shaped pepper, but that would be a good alternative. I was pleasantly surprised the Holy Mole, you know, when you hear holy, you might think that it's got a lot of heat to it, but it actually, I think it was under a thousand Scoville units too. So that might be a good alternative.

Farmer Fred:

And some others that I've grown over the years that I've really liked that were AAS winners that have a little bit of heat, not too much, the Pota-peno, which is, I think, about a thousand Scoville units.

Diane Blazek:

Right, right. It is. And this one's really cool. The reason it's called jalapeno, it is a jalapeno pepper, but it is bred to be very compact. So it grows well in containers or hanging baskets. But yeah, I like that one, too, because it is a little bit more of a mild jalapeno.

Farmer Fred:

 Some others that I looked in one particular catalog, and they did classify their peppers in their catalog as sweet, mildly hot, and really hot. And among the mildly hot ones that were AAS winners that they listed were Mad Hatter, Roulette Habanero, Hot Sunset, and Cajun Bell. Now, all of those sound like they're a lot hotter than just a little bit of heat.

Diane Blazek:

 Yeah, exactly. I've grown Aji Rico and tried it. I think they're describing it as warm. And I didn't have the exact Scoville units on that. But I would say that's on the higher end of it. But Mad Hatter, I didn't think it had much heat in it at all. I would... It talks about that one with a citrusy flavor. So I'm thinking it's more like a citrusy hot pepper that's hardly hot at all.

Farmer Fred:

 Okay. And that one is from, I believe, Bolivia and Peru.

Diane Blazek:

 The Baccatum type peppers are from South America. So, yeah, the Aji Rico and the Mad Hatter are both used in a lot of South American dishes.

Farmer Fred:

Another one I mentioned is called Hot Sunset. That has a red flag of a name for me. but it says that it's only about 600 Scoville units. So they describe it as a delicious spicy heat.

Diane Blazek:

 Yes, yeah, yeah. That's a good one to have in there. And it's more like a banana pepper just to kind of describe the shape and everything.

Farmer Fred:

So among the winners over the years, you can find a palette of colors and different spicinesses, if there is such a word, among your mildly hot pepper selections if you have recipes or you want it to look nice in a salad or something like that. So just be aware that if the plant is stressed, if there is a drought, if there is a lack of water, if you didn't feed it properly, if it maybe didn't get enough sun, anything that may cause it stress, could, and especially later in the season, too, as it grows, that heat level could go up.

Diane Blazek:

 Exactly. Grower beware. Put it that way.

Farmer Fred:

Yeah, exactly. And another one with a name that sounds like it would be really hot, but really it's more mild than really hot, is called Roulette habanero. Habaneros are fairly hot peppers, but this one is not.

Diane Blazek:

 Exactly. Right. Yeah. I mean, with a name like roulette, you would think you're taking a chance, but you really aren't. This one has no heat, you know, so it's got all that flavor, which if you can stand the heat and taste the flavor of a roulette of habanero, this one gives you the flavor without the heat. So it's kind of a unique adventure for somebody to breed a hot pepper that doesn't

Diane Blazek:

 have the spiciness. It just has the flavor.

Farmer Fred:

 Now, we should clarify, it does have a little bit of heat, according to one catalog I'm looking at. It has 100 Scoville heat units.

Diane Blazek:

 Yeah, and that's, you know, barely discernible, I would think.

Farmer Fred:

Right. So, again, that was the Roulette habanero. And, again, go to their website, all-americaselections.org or aaswinners.com. We'll have a link to it in the show notes as well. And just start browsing through not only their 2025 winners, but all their past winners, too. And you can do it by variety. So if you're looking for a certain color, a certain heat, or a certain shape, you'll probably find it there. Because after more than 90 years of trialing, yeah, there's going to be a lot there at the website.

Diane Blazek:

 Exactly. Now, we have done one thing to help people and we're actually got another one coming up. So I'll give you a little sneak preview on that. But we used to list every single winner on our website, no matter if they were still commercially available or not. And we had too many complaints. They're like, well, why do you feature this if we can't buy it anymore? So we are slowly taking off the ones that have been removed from the market. So as you say, when you go on in search, there's a lot there. There's still a lot there. And all of those now are either currently available or will be very shortly. So that's one thing. And then also on each AAS winner is there's a little button on it that says where to buy. And then there's a dropdown of online seed retailers. So keep in mind, a lot of these are also available in seed packets. At your stores, at your local hardware, garden center, mass merchant. But we also link to a lot of online seed sources who are carrying those varieties. So we're trying to make it very easy for you to find the AAS winners. And we're launching a new website this fall. And it will be even easier for us. I mean, I don't know if anybody cares, but it's even easier for us to update those where to buy buttons. So everything will be a lot more up to date as far as where to purchase them.

Farmer Fred:

There's a full time job.

Diane Blazek:

 OK, yeah, exactly. And we're trying to make it a part time job.

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2025 AAS PLANT WINNERS, pt. 2

Farmer Fred:

All right. Let's get back to the 2025 winners of the All-America Selections.

Farmer Fred:

Let's talk about an herb, a basil variety. It's called the Piedmont. What's so special about the Piedmont basil?

Diane Blazek:

 So the big thing with basil, at least in my area and in a lot of areas, is the downy mildew that will just come and devastate your plant almost overnight. And so what the breeders are working on now is the downy mildew resistance as a trait, but also to keep that traditional Genovese flavor. And so this one is a very, very good contender in that arena as far as resisting the downy mildew. What's also really nice, of course, yes, it has that good Genovese flavor, but also the structure of this plant. It's not real tall and leggy. It's got shorter internodes so that it's going to produce a lot of leaves on a fairly compact plant.

Farmer Fred:

 Well, that's great. The plant gets what, about a couple of feet tall?

Diane Blazek:

Yeah. Yeah. Max about 24 inches. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

All right. And because it has the tolerances to downy mildew or powdery mildew or fusarium, it is a regional winter in areas of high humidity, I would guess, like the Great Lakes and the Midwest. 

Diane Blazek:

 Yes, exactly. This is where I'm located. So I'm loving this. But now I don't have to worry as much about downy mildew.

Farmer Fred:

 And the other thing, too, is if you put proper separation between your plants and put it in an area that can get good air circulation, you can help decrease the chances of coming down with those diseases.

Diane Blazek:

Oh, yes. I mean, that's true on a lot of plants, like you're saying, is give your plants some good airflow. Don't stuff them in. And yeah, you're going to right there, take the first step to preventing a lot of diseases.

Farmer Fred:

But with the basil, the Piedmont variety, even though it is a regional winner, does that mean it's not good for the West Coast or the Northeast?

Diane Blazek:

 No, it doesn't mean that. It just meant that it didn't outperform the comparison. And it was probably more in equal to the comparison, which means it's still a great variety. But that's the thing with AAS Winners is they have to outperform what's currently on the market.

Farmer Fred:

Well, there is that too. All right. But one judge did mention that the Piedmont basil has strong aroma and taste.

Diane Blazek:

 And that's what we need. I mean, that's why we're growing basil, right? If it didn't have that good basil flavor and smell, then why bother? All right.

Farmer Fred:

Another winner in the vegetable category is a cauliflower.There are purple florets on this one.

Diane Blazek:

 It's attention getting. I was just at a convention the last couple of days and I had a picture of this one on my table. And I'm telling you, everybody was drawn to it. So I'm going to try to give a visual. They've got some really nice photography and it's on a black background. So just imagine, first of all, it's a sprouting cauliflower. So it has very long stems and it's not a big cauliflower like brain looking thing. It's a stem. So it has the long florets and the long stems and a nice vivid violet purple. And the name of this is called Murasaki Fiorieto. Murasaki means “purple” in Japanese. And this is from a Japanese breeding company.

Farmer Fred:

But Fioretto sounds Italian.

Diane Blazek:

Exactly. It does. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

 All right. So, but it is, it's an interesting little, how little is the cauliflower? It's not that little, is it?

Diane Blazek:

 No, it's not.  the plant will grow to 18 inches and then the flower heads are growing about the same size to the top of that plant.

(sound of barking dogs)

Farmer Fred:

Okay. By the way, we are podcasting from Barking Dog Studios, if anybody hasn't figured that out yet. And the number of fruits that it produces per plant is four pounds.

Diane Blazek:

Yeah. So you get a decent size harvest.

Farmer Fred:

All right. And again, it's a cauliflower variety that depending upon where you live, like here in the West, you would grow it in the cool season. It's a cool season crop. Cauliflowers have been noted over the years for just being pest magnets. But when you have one that is producing instead of a tight head, but rather open florets like this one, you have less of a chance of pest problems.

Diane Blazek:

 Yeah, that's a great point.

Farmer Fred:

 All right. And the judges liked it. The variety held up to the heat with incredible durability. The color was gorgeous and it did not get sunburned at all. So I guess this one was a national winner.

Diane Blazek:

 Yes, this is definitely a national winner.

Farmer Fred:

 All right. The Cauliflower Murasaki Fioretto. Well, I'm sure at this rate we'll be done by Christmas with the 2025 ratings here for the all the winners for the All-America selections. Kohlrabi, you don't see many people trying to grow kohlrabi and you're pushing it.

Diane Blazek:

 Yes, exactly. So this one is a new one. “Constance” kohlrabi is the variety name and it's purple. That's what's so unique about this one. So not only is the color very vibrant, purple must be our theme this year with our cauliflower and now this one, but it has a crisp, sweet, peppery bulb like most kohlrabi. And I think it's one of those things you just have to try it. I mean, try growing it. I think it's great for kids to grow because you've got this huge, big, round bulb that just sits on top of the ground. And some people think it looks like a space alien or a UFO. And then once you try it, I mean, try it cooked, try it raw. I think it's a new thing that the kids would get really into.

Farmer Fred:

  And kids being the impatient people they are, don't have to worry about this kohlrabi making them wait because from sowing seed to harvest is only 42 days.

Diane Blazek:

[Right. That's very quick.

Farmer Fred:

Yeah. So you want to sow seed about four to six weeks before the average last frost, two weeks apart for an extended harvest. So at a half inch deep and in rows 18 inches apart. The judges loved it. They said good shape in color, good flavor, and a crunchy flesh. We all enjoy crunchy.

Diane Blazek:

 Exactly. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

All right. Again, that's the kohlrabi “Constance”, a purple kohlrabi, if you like to grow kohlrabi. All right. How about in the world of squash? I think you have a couple of winners for 2025.

Diane Blazek:

We do. I mean, I could say that squash is definitely gaining a lot of interest. There's so many different types. So for these, we have two. “Green Lightning” is one, and it's a patty pan type squash, but it is a dark green with light green stripes on it. So kind of a miniature one. And it would be great to use decorative or, you know, go ahead and saute it up and it's going to taste great.

Farmer Fred:

 Exactly. And for those who don't know what a patty pan squash is, it's sort of a flattened-looking squash. It sort of reminds me of a top.

Diane Blazek:

There you go. Yeah, that's a good way to describe it. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

All right. And patty pan squashes grow during the summer. They like the warm season. It doesn't need staking. How big does the plant get?

Diane Blazek:

It's more of a bushy type plant. It only gets, oh, 24 inches tall, maybe 24 to 36 inches wide.

Farmer Fred:

All right. So unlike zucchini, it won't strangle a poodle or something.

Diane Blazek:

Yeah, hopefully not.