Each AAS Winner is grown and trialed anonymously by independent, volunteer judges all across North America. The entry is scored next to a very similar variety (we call it a comparison variety) across North America and only if the entry performed better than the comparison does it become an AAS Winner. The same is not good enough in our world!
Keep an eye on this website and as each variety becomes available from National Garden Bureau members, the “Where to Buy” buttons will be updated so you can purchase your own AAS Winners for your gardens. For an overall list of online retailers who carry the non-GMO AAS Winners, check out the “Buy AAS Winners” page.
What makes it a National AAS Winner?
To earn the National Winner designation, the selection had to perform in a majority of sites, proving itself to be a great choice for gardeners all over North America. There is a good variety of choices, from annuals to edibles, so you can certainly find something to suit your tastes.
Sunflower Concert Bell F1: Multiple clusters of sunflowers
Concert Bell puts on quite a performance with a unique flower presentation of multiple clusters of 10 to 12 flowers on an erect columnar stem. Beautiful golden yellow blooms appear earlier than the comparisons. Each plant grows to a very uniform height of 5 to 6 feet and if used as a cut flower, makes an instant, ready-made bouquet from just one cut. Excellent seed germination makes this beauty very easy to grow and is perfect for continuous sowing to keep blooms going through the end of summer. Concert Bell was trialed in a year of adverse weather conditions and multiple judges commented on its durability and sturdiness even through strong storms and winds.
“Novel blooming habit. A sunflower bouquet on a single stalk!” commented one judge. “A very pretty compact branching sunflower with large size bloom that would be perfect for the garden border,” mentioned another. “This variety had unique flowering with multiple flowers on the same stalk,” said another judge.
View the rest of the selections here.
All-America Selections