All-America Selections (AAS) is an independent non-profit trialing organization established in 1932 and still going strong 92 years later! AAS trial sites and display gardens are spread across the US and Canada, including nine gardens in Iowa. Reiman Gardens is proud to be both a trial site for multiple categories and a display garden highlighting recent winners. Check out the AAS website for trial and display sites, winners, blogs, and so much more!
Be sure to visit Reiman Gardens this summer to see what's in trials this year! You'll see new breeding work in tomatoes, zinnias, cosmos, and SO MUCH MORE! Make your own evaluations and see if your favorites are announced as winners for 2025!
It seems like late summer zooms by! Before you know it, it's Iowa State Fair time, your social media is full of kiddos headed back to school, and here in Ames we see new students, football fans, and much more traffic! Time sure gets in a hurry, so I wanted to highlight some winners from 2014, which was actually 10 years ago, not just last week!
Cucurbita maxima 'Cinderella's Carriage': A perfect pumpkin for imagining fairy tales in the garden, decorating for fall, or just eating! Cinderella-type pumpkins are large and flat, which would make them great for stacking, an impressive soup tureen, or a fantastical vehicle for a princess. 'Cinderella's Carriage' is a large vine, produces between 5 and 7 fruits, and is ready to harvest in about 100 days from direct sowing.
Solanum melongena 'Patio Baby': Faithful readers of the AAS article know that I do not like eggplant, but I will make an exception to highlight this perfect patio plant. Awarded a regional winner in the Northeast, I think 'Patio Baby' performs just fine here in Iowa; we have it growing in the Campanile Garden this summer and get plenty of fruit each week! 'Patio Baby' only gets around 2' tall max, so this will be perfect for your containers. One website visitor says the small 3" fruits are perfect for kabobs. Hey, this plant is also thornless so you can get your kids started on eggplants young; maybe they won't turn out like me!
Capsicum annuum 'NuMex Easter': As we move towards fall, my thoughts start to drift to ornamental peppers, my favorite way to brighten a fall display. 'NuMex Easter' has a wide range of pastel colors, reminding the breeders of Easter eggs. 'NuMex Easter' is a very compact ornamental pepper, only reaching about 6", and provides plenty of small clusters of eye-catching fruit. Ornamental peppers tend to have little edible value--I find them to be quite hot with little flavor--but they would be quite attractive dried as well.
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