By Lee Homyock, Farmpark Administrator
Lake Metroparks Farmpark has become part of the network of nearly 200 dedicated All-America Selections (AAS) Display Gardens across the country. Farmpark’s display garden will include both flowers and edibles (fruits and vegetables) and is located outside the Plant Science Center. Farmpark is one of nine display gardens for flowers and edibles in Ohio.
All-America Selections is an independent non-profit organization that tests new, never-before-sold varieties for the home gardener. After a full season of anonymous trialing by volunteer horticulture professionals, only the top garden performers are given the AAS winner award designation for their superior performance. Each year, Farmpark will receive winning seeds to propagate and display in the garden.
Founded in 1932, All-America Selections is a way for home gardeners to learn which new varieties are truly improved. To do so, they encourage all seed companies to set up trial grounds, cooperatively test new varieties and agree to develop marketing efforts for new vegetables and flowers. AAS winners are introduced each year. The winners are then distributed to AAS Display Gardens throughout North America.
AAS Display Gardens provide the public with an opportunity to view the newest AAS winners in an attractive well-maintained setting. A typical display garden is a public botanic garden or arboretum, a municipality, a garden retailer, a university garden and many others. Display gardens may also provide educational programs about the AAS trialing and award process during “open house” or “field day” events during peak growing seasons. The earliest AAS Display Garden, Norseco, Inc. of Quebec, Canada became an AAS garden in 1962.
Along with the new AAS Display Garden, Farmpark is also providing space for an AAS Trial Ground where breeders have their new, never-before-sold varieties grown and compared against industry-standard varieties by a panel of unbiased, volunteer judges. This type of garden is often a non-publicly accessible area used for horticulture research. Officially approved AAS judges manage the trial ground by growing and observing AAS entries next to chosen comparisons. After the trialing period, judges submit their scores to the AAS office for compilation. Those scores determine which entries qualify to become AAS winners.