Superbells. Supertunias. Superbenas. Super small. Super large. Super great. Super sucky. Super bloomer. Super fruiter. Super foliage. Super flowering. Super yields. Super disease resistance. Super narrow. Super broad. Super weeping. Super tall. Super short. Must be time for the Super Bowl.
Since this is Super Bowl XLVI weekend, let’s take a look at some plants from 46 years ago and today that received awards for excellence.
The 1966 All-American Rose Selections were ‘American Heritage’, ‘Matterhorn’, and ‘Apricot Nectar.’
Photo of Rosa 'Apricot Nectar' at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, taken October 2004 by Stan Shebs (Wikipedia).
The 2012 winner is ‘Sunshine Daydream.’
Photo courtesy of White Flower Farm.
For the All-America Selections® 1966 we have considerably more plants. The All-America awards are for seed propagated plants. In vegetables there was lettuce ‘Butterking’ and winter squash ‘Gold Nugget.’
Photo courtesy of bestcoolseeds.com
Flower winners were snapdragon ‘Bright Butterflies,’ dianthus ‘Red Monarch,’ marigold ‘Spun Yellow,’ verbena ‘Amethyst,’ and pansy ‘Majestic Giants White Blotch’ and ‘Majestic Giants Mix.’
Photo courtesy of harrisseeds.com
Things have changed since then. In 2012 we have vegetables winning the 2012 Flower Award. Ornamental peppers have won before (‘Black Pearl’) and they win twice this year with ‘Black Olive’ and ‘Cayenetta.’
Photo courtesy of All-America Selections®
A third Flower Award goes to vinca ‘Jams ‘N Jellies Blackberry.’ Loving this color.
Photo courtesy of All-America Selections®
The AAS Bedding Plant award goes to salvia ‘Summer Jewel Pink.’ The vegetable award goes to watermelon ‘Faerie.’
You can find more on all these plants and how they are selected at the All-America Selections® website.
The Perennial Plant Association wasn’t around in 1966 but the 2012 Perennial Plant of the Year is Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost,’ a great selection of a great species.
Photo courtesy of Walters Gardens.
Photo courtesy of Walters Gardens
And the music? Topping the charts of Billboards Hot 100 the first week of February 1966 is none other than Miss Petula Clark.
And the women are still topping in 2012 with Adele.
Filed under: Horticulture
February 3rd, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Dang. I just realized that I’m a little older than the Super bowl.
February 6th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Super clever article! ‘Majestic Giants’ pansies are still great. I appreciate the look back.
February 6th, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Great shots of super large plants, the question is, are they safe? As I read about organic food at
http://www.mercola.com/Downloads/bonus/real-organic-foods/report.aspx, and it is a great awareness
February 7th, 2012 at 8:09 am
Paul, you will be forever young. And your knees will last a lot longer than an NFL player’s.
Thanks Sue. When I was looking at the AAS site I was surprised at how long ago some of them had won. And how many are still good plants.
Marilyn, I’d say any of these plants can be grown organically. It’s up to the individual to choose to grow or buy them as such. It is certainly the better way to go.
February 16th, 2012 at 10:21 pm
“Superfantastic” blog…flowers are a beautiful tease for spring.
February 17th, 2012 at 8:03 am
Thanks, Marcia. Welcome to the blog. Visit often please. And you know spring will be here any minute now.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Super article about super plants & vegetables. Love the All-America Selections Winners.
March 2nd, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Thank you, Marge. Thinking I ahve to have that ‘Jams ‘N Jellies Blackberry’.
Trackbacks