Rudbeckia selected as most popular flower

Since April, visitors to 17 U.S. public gardens have been voting for their favorite garden plants. The votes have been counted and the winners of the 1st American Garden Award competition are rudbeckia ‘TigerEye Gold,’ followed by petunia ‘Baby Duck Yellow’ and pentas ‘Northern Lights Lavender.’ The well-branching ‘TigerEye Gold’ produces long-lasting, 3-inch bright golden flowers with a dark eye on compact 16-24 inch tall plants. These F1 hybrid plants are tolerant to heat, humidity and powdery mildew. The American Garden Award, a brainchild of the All-America Selections board of directors, is a new competition that enables garden visitors to text message or phone in their votes. 6 new seed-produced varieties were submitted by breeders for the 2009 competition. 10 entries is the maximum for the competition and no AAS winners will be allowed. The gardens were chosen based on their prestige, location and relationship with AAS.

Photo courtesy of C. Raker & Sons