How to tell which of the latest are really the greatest

Gardeners can be an emotional bunch. What else could explain the insatiable desire to get our dirt-stained hands on the newest plants to hit the market — plants for which we pay exorbitant shipping costs or drive to every garden center in a 100-mile radius to have?

Plant brands do a great job at marketing, and one of their biggest tools is their new plant promotions, which promise better, more interesting plants every year. Although I’m not immune to the temptation of the latest and greatest, I know that at least part of the hype is marketing prowess.

But the All-America Selections program is a plant evaluation system with teeth, not just marketing bluster. Plants are trialed by professional volunteer evaluators in more than a hundred gardens across North America, where they are grown alongside plants in the same category that are considered to be the best on the market. Only the plants that rise to the top of the evaluation are chosen as AAS winners.

This year’s new AAS winners start with a seed-raised variety of dahlia called Black Forest Ruby. At just 20 to 28 inches tall, this low-growing variety is well suited to garden and container use without needing much, if any, staking. It has deep black foliage, which adds interest before blooms arrive, and ruby red semi-double to double flowers. Grown in isolation, seeds will come true, but seeds saved from plants grown near other dahlias may not.

Kohlrabi is a cool-season crop that can be grown in spring or fall but is generally intolerant of heat. Konstance is a beautiful new purple kohlrabi that consistantly outperformed leading kohlrabi in trials when it came to tolerating warmer temperatures. Evaluators also praised the flavor and texture over other varieties.

Three new additions to the Baby series of nasturtiums also received top marks. The new winners are Baby Red, Baby Gold and Baby Yellow, which join several other colors — some also previous AAS winners — in the series. All are known for a tight, compact habit that stands out from most nasturtiums along with smaller, uniformly dark leaves. The new winners are a goldy yellow, true red and soft yellow.

Doubleshot Yellow Red Heart snapdragon has soft yellow azalea-type flowers with a deep reddish-pink throat that tolerates heat better than most snapdragons. At 20 inches tall, it’s a nice garden size that should last longer into summer than other snapdragons. It also sports a sweet candy scent.

With no end to the number of the tomato varieties out there, a winner needs to offer a lot to make it to the top of the list. Tonatico is a highly productive cherry tomato with excellent disease resistance, less cracking and a sweet, mild taste. An indeterminate variety, it grows to 60 inches tall, producing between 150 and 200 tomatoes per plant on easy-to-harvest trusses in about 60 days from transplant.

It’s always fun to grow new and different plants. It’s even more fun to grow new plants that have been proven to make the cut.