Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: They’re all about the home gardener! NGB and AAS
The National Garden Bureau and All America Selections, two non-profit plant organizations, joined forces to bring plants and information to the home gardener! New, never before sold varieties are tested and shared with home gardeners. I talked with NGB Executive Director, Diane Blazek. NOTE: I would suggest using Google Chrome as your browser for NGB. The site didn’t interact well with Internet Explorer.
She explained that the breeders decide what plants go in (for testing/judging) and then the NGB gives those varieties to their judges who have a growing season to grow, evaluate and test. Those judges then send a score sheet to NGB.
A 2018 Begonia introduction! Begonia Nonstop Joy is a new type of tuberous begonia that is naturally self-branching so it doesn’t break open or split in the rain or wind.
Breeders come up with LOTS of varieties each year, some are great, some are good, some… not so much. The point of AAS is to select the best, however, breeders don’t always want their plants to compete with each other. SO, they may choose a couple of varieties to have judged under AAS, but NGB has NO LIMIT to the number of selections they choose as great plants. Those are the ones you see on their website, along with the AAS winners.
For instance, there are some new begonias (beautiful in shade) …
‘Funky Pink’ from Proven Winners
Check out all the features like
- The Year of… Each year an annual, a vegetable, a perennial and a bulb are chosen to highlight. This year’s vegetable is the BEET! And they have recipes too.
- New Plants
- Gardening products
And if there’s a plant you love but your local garden center doesn’t have it, there’s a tab for “Shop our members” where you can order it.