AAS winners provide garden bounty and beauty
Our preview of the 2002 All-America Selections continues with Sparkler Blush. This first hybrid cleome, right, celebrates by flowering freely all season.
Plants covered with pink flowers reach only 3 feet tall and wide. This smaller variety of an old-fashioned favorite takes less space and won't overwhelm the garden.
Sparkler Blush is easy to grow, needing only sun and soil nutrients. It is heat- and drought-tolerant and adaptable to most soil types and growing conditions.
AAS Vegetable Award Winner Magical Michael is an ornamental, edible sweet basil with a clearly refined plant size and shape, 15 inches tall and 16 inches to 17 inches wide. The lush, aromatic green leaves, left, can be harvested within 30 days of transplanting and are rich in essential oils for cooking.
Plants may flower when mature about 80 days to 90 days from seed. The small flowers are a curiosity because the calices are purple and corollas white. They are attractive for use as a garnish, adding color to any salad.
Round out your garden with AAS Vegetable Award Winner, cucumber Diva, right. The fruit will be sweet and crisp when harvested at 4 inches to 6 inches. Diva produces all female flowers and does not require pollen to set fruit, resulting in high yields.
Expect mature cukes about 60 days from sowing seed in warm soil. Plants are resistant to scab and tolerant to powdery and downy mildews.
Get away on the Plaza
"Home and Away" host Cathy Hamilton this week visits Southmoreland on the Plaza an Urban Inn. The bed-and-breakfast inn is two blocks off the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo.
Southmoreland has 12 guest rooms in the main inn and a luxury suite in the carriage house. Each room has a special feature such as a treetop deck, fireplace or jacuzzi.
A new show airs at 6:30 p.m. Monday each week on Sunflower Broadband Channel 6 and repeats at 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The show is also broadcast at 9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m. Sunday.
Free trees available
The National Arbor Day Foundation is offering 10 free trees to anyone who joins the group this month.
To become a member, send a $10 contribution by Jan. 31 to Ten Free Flowering Trees, National Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Ave., Nebraska City, Neb. 68410.
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