Along the Garden Path: Plan your New Year garden

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Happy New Year! Hope you are starting out the New Year with creative ideas and ways to improve your garden in 2018.

We plan to try several new plants in our garden and have been searching through all the books and catalogs that came in November and December. Some companies are offering free shipping and an early discount!

The All-America Selections (AAS), the 85-year-young non-profit plant trialing organization, announced eleven new and exciting AAS Winners. Each of the varieties was trialed throughout North America by professional, independent, volunteer judges who grew them next to comparisons that are considered best-in-class.

The AAS Winners for the 2018 garden season are: Canna ‘South Pacific Orange’, Gypsophila (Baby’s Breath) ‘Gypsy White Improved’; Marigold ‘Super Hero™ Spry’, Pak Choi ‘Asian Delight F1, Habanero Pepper ‘Roulette F1’, Hungarian Pepper ‘Mexican Sunset F1’, Ornamental Pepper ‘Onyx Red’, Sweet Corn ‘American Dream’, Tomato ‘Chef’s Choice Red F1’, Tomato ‘Valentine F1’, Cocktail Tomato ‘Red Racer F1’ and Zinnia ‘Queeny Lime Orange’.

The All-America Selections website currently lists 10 AAS Display Gardens in Ohio. Visit http://allamericaselections.org to read more about the 2018 winners.

Burpee Seed Company has a new Sun-Fill Hybrid Series Sunflower that grows 5-6 feet tall and spread 12-24 inches with blooms of 3-4 inches. The colorful corona of the calyx-the spiky leaves at the base of the flower in colors of green and purple. These cut flowers would make a dramatic addition to any arrangement. They offer many new additions to the vegetables with a new cucumber, sweet peppers, snap peas, radish, sweet pepper, and of course, tomatoes.

‘Atlas’ Hybrid Beefsteak tomato is a compact bush beefsteak that thrives in porch, deck and patio containers, producing dozens of 1 lb. tomatoes all season. This great tomato can be right outside your door! It’s available with a packet of seed or you can order 3 plants, ready to go!

The 2018 Plant of the Year is Allium ‘Millenium’. (‘Millenium’ is spelled with one “n” as registered). The Perennial Plant Association (perennialplant.org) has awarded the title Perennial Plant of the 2018 to this outstanding herbaceous perennial, relative to the common onion, stating it is a workhorse of the late summer gardens and a butterfly and pollinator magnet. Strappy leaves will reach 10 to 15 inches tall in spring; in midsummer, two to three flower scapes rise above the foliage with each scape producing two or three showy 2-inch spherical umbels of rose-purple florets that last as long as four weeks. It hardy to zones 4 to 9 (we are zone 5) grows best in full sun and well-drained soils.

Check the websites or catalogs and plan your 2018 garden.

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By Charlene Thornhill

Along the Garden Path

Charlene Thornhill is a volunteer citizen columnist, who serves The Daily Advocate readers weekly with her community column Along the Garden Path. She can be reached at [email protected]. Viewpoints expressed in the article are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints or the independent activities of the author.

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