For the second year All-America Selections is conducting its American Garden Award program. The public has the opportunity to vote for the plant they think has the most appealing garden characteristics.
This year breeders have submitted 4 entries: Echinacea ‘Prairie Splendor’, ornamental pepper ‘Purple Flash’, Rudbeckia ‘Denver Daisy’ and Zinnia ‘Profusion Knee-High Red’.
The plants can be viewed by the public at 18 public gardens throughout the U.S. All of the gardens will be planted by June 1.
Voting is open from May 1 through Aug. 31. People interested in participating can cast their vote in several ways: texting a specific code to a polling number, go to the American Garden Award web site and click on the voting button, submitting a postage-paid voting postcard located at most of the gardens or by becoming a Facebook fan.
Last year’s winning plant was Rudbeckia ‘TigerEye Gold’.
Pictured: The 4 plant entries in this year’s American Garden Award competition are: Echinacea ‘Prairie Splendor’ (top left), ornamental pepper ‘Purple Flash’(top right), Rudbeckia ‘Denver Daisy’ (bottom left) and Zinnia ‘Profusion Knee-High Red’ (bottom right)