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GARDEN•REAL ESTATE•RECIPIES•DECOR•ANTIQUES
Try Some Delicious New Varieties This Spring
BY LORI ROSE
(SENIOR WIRE) It’s that time of year again.
New varieties have been announced for
2019, and these have all won the coveted
All-America Selections Award that judges and
awards only the tastiest vegetables and easiest
to grow flowers.
JUST SWEET PEPPERS
The Just Sweet pepper is a unique snack-
ing pepper with four lobes like a larger bell
pepper, only smaller. Not only are the 3-inch
fruits deliciously sweet with nice thick walls,
but the plants are vigorous growers (up to 3
feet tall and 15 inches wide) that don’t need to
be staked because of their strong bushy habit.
The Just Sweet peppers are exceptionally bright
and shiny with a vivid yellow color. Its flavor is
described as sweet with aromatic accents.
The judges raved about this pepper. “The
entry grew larger plants than the compari-
sons, with higher yields, but did not require
staking at all! ... This is the one taste test
that excited the testers—everyone agreed the
sweet yellow fruits were delicious.”
FIRE FLY TOMATOES
The adorable Fire Fly tomato is not as
small as a currant tomato and not as large
as a cherry tomato, but is a “just right,”
in-between size.
The round fruits are super sweet, pale
white to pale yellow, and less than 1 inch in
size. Delicate, translucent skins offer a mild,
acid flavor that enhances the sweet taste.
The small juicy fruits explode with fla-
vor, perfect for snacking and in salads.
Indeterminate plants have good disease
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Nasturtium Baby Rose.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ALL-AMERICA SELECTIONS.
resistance and must be staked or caged as
they grow up to 6 feet tall.
“By far the best tasting yellow cherry we
have had in any of our trials.”
CHEF’S CHOICE BLACK TOMATOES
Chef’s Choice tomato varieties have
won the coveted AAS awards for years. This
year’s winner, Chef’s Choice Black, is a
beefsteak type tomato with a dark green/
brown/black hue.
AAS judges reported vigorous, healthy
plants with clean and uniform fruits that
were early to set and had a meaty interior
with great flavor. This hybrid boasts a prolific
yield of 8-ounce fruits grown on strong,
5-foot indeterminate vines. You’ll harvest
blemish-free fruits throughout the season
from this disease-resistant plant with dark
green leaves and well-behaved form.
Grow all the Chef’s Choice varieties for the
most colorful tomato salads.
< 2018 winner Chef’s Choice Red
< 2016 winner Chef’s Choice Green
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< 2015 winner Chef’s Choice Pink
< 2014 winner Chef’s Choice Orange
“Good early fruit set. Soft, meaty interior
flesh with good flavor.”
In cold areas, start tomato and pepper
seeds indoors six weeks before last frost. Keep
the seedlings warm, give them as much light
as possible, and water them from the bottom
to prevent the fragile stems from rotting.
Wait to transplant them outdoors until night
temperatures are over 45 degrees and there
is no threat of frost.
Cold temperatures can cause severe dam-
age to these heat-loving plants.
BABY ROSE NASTURTIUM
How about a lovely flowering plant for
the vegetable or container garden with edible
flowers and leaves? Nasturtiums give a lovely
peppery flavor to salads and sandwiches.
Nasturtium Golden Gleam was the last
nasturtium to win the AAS Gold Medal Award
back in 1933. It has bright golden blossoms
that add fragrance and color to hanging
baskets, window boxes, containers, or when
spilling over a low wall. It makes a good
ground cover in beds and does well on a trellis
or fence.
Now AAS introduces a wonderful rose-col-
ored nasturtium perfect for containers and
small-space gardens.
Baby Rose nasturtium is a petite-flow-
ered, mounding variety with healthy, dark
foliage. AAS’ expert judges praised the uni-
formly compact plants that sported flowers
with consistent coloration. Their compact
habit means less “flower flopping” with
their blooms remaining upright throughout
the season. The rose color is uncommon in
nasturtiums and contrasts beautifully with
the dark-green foliage.
Here’s what the judges had to say:
“Outstanding new compact form opens up
many new possibilities for nasturtiums in
small space plantings and containers. The
healthy dark green-blue foliage helped high-
light the flower color.”
Sow nasturtium seeds after the last frost,
and cover seeds lightly with soil. Keep soil
moist until seedlings appear. If the seeds
are spaced 3- to 4- inches apart, there is no
need to thin them out. Nasturtiums bloom all
season long until the first frost. ISI
Lori Rose, the Midnight Gardener, is a Temple University
GardenComm: Garden Communicators International.
She has gardened since childhood, and has been writing
about gardening for nearly 20 years.
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