2025 All American Selections
by Ray Novitske, Fairfax Master Gardener
All-American Selections Inc. is out with its picks for the best flowers and edibles in 2025. Selections are based on trial garden performances across North America over the past few years. Plants are judged with current varieties on the market that have similar traits and that are considered market standards. Selected industry experts, past judges, universities, public gardens, growers, brokers, extension agents and retailers all participate in the evaluations.
The selected winners represent the plants that demonstrate the best garden performance across North America as a result of growing in these trial and test gardens. Since the selections are made several times a year, the plants listed below represent the current winners as well as past selections that we have not yet featured.
Dahlia ‘Black Forest Ruby’
This new dahlia features striking deep black foliage and abundant ruby-red flowers. Semi‐double to double blooms enhance its diversity on plants that are sturdy and do not flop open. It also remains disease free all season long.
Dianthus Interspecific ‘Capitán™ Magnifica’
Judges were impressed with its continued blooming and growing even through summer’s heat. Quick shearing after blooming gets it bouncing back with a profusion of beautiful pink blooms that are more heat tolerance than traditional dianthus varieties. Stems are also long enough to be used as cut flowers.
Kohlrabi ‘Konstance’
This new purple variety gives you a longer harvest window than most kohlrabi. Its flavorful crunchy bulbs that are crack-resistant and long-lasting. The leaves are also highly flavorful when roasted or sauteed.
Marigold ‘Mango Tango’
This marigold sports a stunning, super-saturated bi-color flower of yellow and red. The compact, vigorous plants bloom prolifically over a long flowering window, maintaining its form and color through the summer.
Pepper ‘Pick-N-Pop Yellow’
These cute, snack-sized mini peppers that are extra sweet with just the right amount of juiciness and crunch. They produce continuously on a moderate sized plant with outstanding bacterial resistance. A prolific number of bright, canary yellow-colored, uniformly shaped peppers are common.
Petunia ‘Dekko™ Maxx™ Pink’
This dazzled the judges throughout the summer with its fast, compact spreading habit featuring loads of blooms. Non-fading flowers literally covered the plant that held up extremely well to heavy rains and inclement weather, workong well in garden beds, borders and landscape installations.
Petunia ‘Shake™ Raspberry’
The bloom of this petunia has the coloration of a blended raspberry milkshake swirled with lemon-lime green sorbet. Naturally compact, this petunia will not melt in summer heat but instead will provide season long, delicious color.
Snapdragon ‘DoubleShot™ Yellow Red Heart’
The snapdragon blooms early and holds up well through summer’s heat better than the comparison varieties. Judges loved the early blooms, healthy plants, vibrant colors, and long-lasting flowers.
Squash ‘Green Lightning’
This squash brings new psychedelic color patterns to your fall decor. Shallow vertical ridges alternate between a variegated cream and green with bright orange. Fruit colors shift and change as they mature for early to late season color.
Tomato ‘Tonatico’
Judges were very pleased with the superior taste and texture, and the uniform fruit clusters that held on long, easy-to-harvest trusses. This cherry tomato’s high yield and resistance to disease and cracking was also a plus.
Zinnia ‘Zydeco™ Fire’
Its fiery orange fully double flowers that are noticeably larger than the comparisons. Judges were impressed with its long-lasting blooms on sturdy stems, blooming all summer long up until the first frost, as well as its disease-resistant foliage.
Squash ‘Thriller’
This squash brings new psychedelic color patterns to your fall decor. Shallow vertical ridges alternate between a variegated cream and green with bright orange. Fruit colors shift and change as they mature for early to late season color.
Nasturtium ‘Baby Gold’
The Baby series is known for being a petite-flowered, mounding variety with healthy, dark foliage. Uniformly compact plants produce intense gold-colored flowers that did not fade. This mounding variety is ideal for containers and small space gardens. Less “flower flopping” of their blooms means they remain upright throughout the season.
Nasturtium ‘Baby Yellow’
Nasturtium ‘Baby Red’
If you are interested in viewing the trial plants on display during the growing season, visit these nearby gardens:
Rapidan River Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden, Rapidan, VA
Hahn Horticulture Garden, Blacksburg, VA (edibles)
Hampton Roads AREC Virginia Tech, Virginia Beach, VA (flowers)
Knitting Mill Creek Garden, Norfolk, VA
Norfolk Botanical Garden, Norfolk, VA
Reynolds Community College, Goochland, VA
Community Arboretum at Virginia Western, Roanoke, VA
Clyburn Arboretum, Baltimore, MD (flowers)
Frederick County Career and Technology Center, Frederick, MD
Parkside High A+ Garden, Salisbury, MD
University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anna, MD (flowers)
Reference
All American Selections, winners