All-America Selections, a non-profit plant trialing organization has three new perennial AAS Winners, which will be available in the 2023 garden season. They are: Echinacea Artisan Yellow Ombre F1; Leucanthemum Carpet Angel Daisy; and Salvia Blue by You F1. The three floral winners would be the perfect addition to any client’s landscape decor.
Newest Regional Winners
AAS Perennial Southeast and Northwest Regional Winner, Artisan Yellow Ombre, is a plant for anyone wanting vibrant color all season long in a perennial garden, or to use as a cut flower. This is the first F1 hybrid echinacea series that comes in individual colors. It has an intense golden yellow bloom along with graduated colors of yellow. AAS Judges were impressed with the uniform growth habit, vibrantly colored flowers, and multi-branched plants that produce a prolific number of blooms. Pollinators will flock to this echinacea, and clients will love this low-maintenance, long-blooming beauty. Hardy in zones 4a to 10b. The flora was bred by PanAmerican Seed.
AAS Perennial West/Northwest and Mountain/Southwest Regional Winner, Leucanthemum Carpet Angel®, is the first-ever groundcover Shasta Daisy! Green Fuse Botanicals’ First Light Perennials is a program of first-year flowering perennials that are daylength neutral, meaning earlier blooms that continue all season long. Large three inch flowers boast a second inner frilly bloom adding to the unique look of Carpet Angel. Growing only to a height of six inches, this unique leucanthemum can act as a groundcover spreading up to 20 inches wide. Fantastic branching on this new AAS winner means more flower stems sporting beautiful pure white blooms over a carpet of dark green foliage. A little deadheading will reward the landscape with even more blooms. Hardy in zones 4a-10b. The daisy was bred by Green Fuse Botanicals
National Winner
Add a touch of blue to a client landscape with the beautiful new AAS National Winner “Blue” by You Salvia. This perennial, bred by Darwin Perennials, features rich blue flowers that bloom up to two weeks earlier than the comparison. With excellent winter hardiness and heat tolerance, Blue by You will be a new favorite in clients’ perennial, pollinator, cutting, or container gardens. Bursting with bright blue blossoms from late spring into fall, this salvia produces repeat blooms throughout the season when spent blooms are removed. Adored all season long by hummingbirds and butterflies. Bonus: it’s not favored by deer or rabbits. Hardy in zones 4b – 9a.
All AAS Winners are trialed throughout North America by professional, independent, volunteer judges who grow new, never-before-sold entries next to comparisons that are considered best-in-class. Only those entries that have superior garden performance, better than the comparisons, are granted the AAS award designation. Each of the newer AAS Winners will soon be featured in custom videos on the AAS YouTube channel.
In the February Turf article, “Popular Plantings For Landscapes In 2022,” we profiled Petunia Bee’s Knees, as well as other 2022 AAS Winners. Here’s a video on Bee’s Knees for more information.
For a recent Turf article on three award winnings roses for client landscapes, click here.
