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 Winning
Vegetables for Gardens and Containers
By Melinda Myers
[January 24, 2026]
Include some winning vegetable varieties in this year’s garden. Look
for the 2026 All-America Selections (AAS) winners that have been
tested nationally and selected for their suitability in home gardens
and containers. Winners must have improved appearance, flavor,
performance or other features than those varieties already on the
market.
Whether you like kale for its beauty, flavor or nutritional value,
consider the Gold Medal winner Rubybor. This kale is both pretty and
edible. The deep purple ruffled foliage is uniform and compact,
making it perfect for ornamental planting beds, vegetable gardens
and containers. You’ll enjoy a continuous harvest of tender
non-bitter kale all season long. |
This breakthrough in breeding resulted in a kale with outstanding
flavor and beauty, causing Rubybor to become an AAS Gold Medal
Winner in both the flower and vegetable category. This award is only
given once or twice in a decade. Some past winners include Ruby Ball
Cabbage, Sugar Snap Pea, Profusion Zinnia, Purple Majesty Millet,
and Fresh Look Red Celosia.
Grow the award-winning Treviso basil for use in pesto, pastas, sides
and your other favorite recipes. This basil was selected for its
disease resistance to powdery and downy mildew, its tight compact
growth habit and season long productivity. The flavorful leaves stay
tender longer and maintain quality even late in the season. The AAS
judges, volunteers with horticulture expertise, were impressed with
its vigor, heat tolerance and its slow-to-flower nature.
Wait for the danger of frost to pass and air and soil to warm before
planting any basil in the garden. This is about the same time you
plant your tomatoes. You can start seeds indoors six to eight weeks
before moving transplants into the garden. Wait for the soil to warm
when planting seeds directly in the garden. Grow basil in a sunny
location and water thoroughly and often enough to keep the soil
consistently moist but not soggy wet.
Boost the disease resistance in your tomato patch with BadaBing!
Tomato. This large cherry tomato boasts resistance to septoria leaf
spot, early blight, late blight and other diseases. You’ll enjoy the
1.5-inch diameter juicy red fruit that resists cracking. This
indeterminate tomato will keep flowering and fruiting until frost
but only grows 36 to 40” tall.
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It was selected as a regional winner in the Great Lakes, Heartland,
Mountain/Southwest and the Southeast. AAS judges praised BadaBing!
for its productivity, flavor and meaty texture.
Check out other AAS winning vegetable and flower varieties. This
nonprofit organization has been trialing never-before-sold varieties
and selecting winning plants for home gardeners for more than 90
years. Trial gardens are located at seed companies, universities and
botanical gardens. Judges are volunteers who monitor and rate
varieties’ performance compared to similar varieties already on the
market.
Plan a visit to one of the nearly 200 AAS Display Gardens located at
public gardens, extension offices and some retailers. You’ll have a
chance to see the winners in a garden setting to help you plan for
future additions. In the meantime, look for the AAS Winner logo when
searching catalogs and your favorite garden center.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books,
including the Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small
Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything”
instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s
Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and
contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned
by Summit for her expertise to write this article. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.
[Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com]
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