Garden

All-America Selections

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The seven winners are:

1. Petunia ‘Limbo Violet’ differs from other single grandiflora petunias as a unique combination of large flowers on a compact plant. Designed for small-space gardens or formal gardens requiring neat and tidy plants, this petunia is only 15 or 18 centimetres in height, spreading only 25 to 30 centimetres.

2. Celosia plumosa ‘Fresh Look Red’ decorates a garden or patio container with rosy red plumes. It won the Gold Medal for consistent performance with minimal maintenance and pest-free growth. The plant always looks fresh and needs no grooming.

Celosia plumosa ‘Fresh Look Yellow’ provides season-long garden colour with minimal care. The golden-yellow plumes are produced in such abundance that at times they cover the plant. Like all C. plumosa, flowers can be cut for arrangements or dried as an everlasting bouquet.

3. Gypsophila muralis ‘Gypsy Deep Rose’ features dainty, rose-like blooms that are double and semi-double and larger (up to one centimetre) than other varieties. Easily grown from seed or bedding plants, ‘Gypsy Deep Rose’ reaches a height of 20 to 25 centimetres and spreads 30 to 35 centimetres.

4. Alcea rosea ‘Queeny Purple’ is the first purple hollyhock available as a single colour, not part of a mixture. These plants, with frilly-edged blooms, reach a mature height of 50 to 75 centimetres – perfect for smaller-space gardens.

5. Sunshine Winter Squash requires a growing season of 80 to 95 days. This three- to four-pound squash is a flattened globe shape and its bright-orange flesh is completely stringless and has a sweet nutty taste when cooked.

6. Sweet Beauty Watermelon offers consistently sweet flavour and crisp texture. Improved for earliness, Sweet Beauty melons can be harvested in 77 to 80 days from sowing seed directly into the garden.

7. Amy Melon is a bright golden-yellow melon with a smooth skin. Amy plants will produce melons in 70 to 80 days from transplanting. The vigorous spreading vines need 1.8 metres of garden space, or they can be trained up a trellis.