All America selections 2026 part I

- Patricia Hanbidge

January 4, 2026

key points from this story:

• All America Selections announces 2026 winners
• Non profit trials new plant varieties
• Awards given for superior garden performance
• Features basil, bean, kale, squash, tomato
• Each winner tested by horticultural experts
• More winners coming in next article

When January rolls around, it is with great pleasure I bring to you the most recent AAS winners! All America Selections (AAS) is a non-profit trialing organization that tests new, never-before-sold varieties of plants for the home gardener. After a full season of anonymous trialing by volunteer horticultural professionals, only the top garden performers are given the AAS Winner award designation for their superior performance. The AAS Winner label is like a stamp of approval as their mission is to promote new garden varieties with superior garden performance. Their tagline “Tested Nationally and Proven Locally®” most definitely says it all!

AAS is therefore the place to go for the next best thing to guarantee success in your garden. Once or twice each decade there is an AAS Gold Medal Award that honours a breeding breakthrough. Standard AAS National Winner designation recognizes an ornamental or edible that shows significant breeding achievements, and demonstrates superior garden performance compared to other varieties available. Judges also evaluate characteristics such as earliness, taste, disease-resistance, uniqueness and more depending on the species. AAS Regional Winner designation is given to varieties that do not perform exceptionally in all regions but in specific regions of North America. Certain regions are named AAS Regional Winners. The AAS Winners offer gardeners reliable new varieties of plants to grow in your garden.

The 2025 winners will be available for purchase for the gardening season as supply becomes available. It is sometimes difficult to get the seed or the plants desired when the winners are just announced but if you go to the All America Selections website, they list the seed houses that sell seed of the winning plants. The url is https://all-americaselections.org/buy-winners/.

Basil Treviso is an outstanding basil to grow in any kitchen garden. It is a compact but highly branched plant that stays tender for a longer time, maintaining leaf quality late into the season. It is vigorous, has good heat tolerance and is slow to flower so is a high-performing selection to grow.

There is a pole bean that I plan to grow as Bean, pole Majesty is an outstanding purple pole bean with high yield and superior quality. The dark, dense foliage is resistant to insect damage and recovers quickly from summer heat stress. The beans are delicious and have a sweet, tender, non-bitter texture that can be harvested all season long.

Kale Rubybor F1 is a dual-purpose kale that is beautiful and edible. With deep purple foliage and a compact habit, it works well in containers or beds. It is high yielding and exceptionally tender with no bitterness, so we can enjoy this plant that is suited for both landscape and dinner!

Squash, winter Butter Lamp F1 is a mini, pumpkin-shaped butternut squash that delivers both charm and performance. The strong plants are resistant to powdery mildew, heat and insect pressures and it matures early into uniform fruits with rich, yellow flesh.

The last edible winner is Tomato BadaBing! F1 which is a large cherry (almost cocktail-sized) tomato that produces early-season tomatoes with outstanding flavor and crack-resistant fruit. It grows only up to about 40 inches (about 1 metre) so fits well in containers or in your garden.

Watch for the next article which will share more of the 2026 AAS Winners!