Superplants for Your Garden

Superplants for Your Garden

Today's fruits, vegetables, and flowers are being bred for perfection

Car designs are always being improved, so are tennis racquets and home computers. So why shouldn't the technology of a tomato plant or an impatiens be perfected? Each year horticulturists at botanical gardens, seed companies, and universities stake a claim to gardeners' gratitude by successfully breeding superior new varieties of flowers, vegetables, and fruits.

Take the plant officially known as the Tomato f1 Big Beef. Introduced in 1994, the Big Beef is a tomato plant  that produces fruit earlier than other beefsteak types and maintains impressive yields throughout the growing season. Even late-season tomatoes developed high on the plant are large, flavorful, and meaty. Or say your passion is for flowering perennials. You'll enjoy the Lavender Lady, which is an English lavender that blooms early and profusely.

Seed catalog aficionados know that each new season's editions carry wondrous claims for their new superplants. But if you are uncomfortable accepting the word of a catalog copywriter, you should be on the lookout for seeds that bear a commendation from All-America Selections (AAS), a nonprofit organization that annually cites what it regards as the best new gardening species. University horticulturists, seed companies, and backyard gardeners submit newly developed seeds to AAS, which then tests the entries at 55 locations across North America. The test sites include private and public gardens from Pennsylvania State University to Disney World.

Superplants for Your Garden. Photo by Elena.

Anyone can enter their seeds as long as they are brand new and have never been sold anywhere in the world say experts which promote the home garden seed industry. New varieties are matched against the closest comparisons currently on the market, and three winners are selected each year from the realm of vegetables, flowers, and bedding plants. Among the winners were many flowers, starting from Petunia f1 Celebrity Chiffonmorn, the Petunia f1 Purple Wave, the Rudbeckia hirta Indian Summer and others.

So what will be the superplants of tomorrow? The hunt is on for plants with more uniform growth patterns. Experts are encouraging the development of produce with old-fashioned flavors. One such fruit, the Showing watermelon, boasts an 11 percent sugar content and tastes almost like a sugar lump. In the past, breeders concentrated on developing hearty commercial varieties, paying relatively little attention to flavor, although that is what backyard gardeners value the most. But now, manufacturers are trying to get the breeders to understand that people need to breed for the home gardener, too.