
组织沿革与独立定位
全美优选是北美唯一具有全国范围的非营利植物品种试验组织。二十世纪二三十年代,家庭园艺媒体缺少可靠的新种资料,种业从业者雷·黑斯廷斯于一九三二年提出建立跨气候试验网络,让种子企业共同提供新品种,由独立园艺专家进行比较。首批优胜品种在次年公布,一九三四年曾一次推出三十个获奖新品种,此后每年持续评选。该组织以公正试验帮助家庭园丁识别真正改良的花卉、蔬菜与多年生植物,所得收入继续用于试验和传播历届优胜品种。
匿名试验与评审机制
参评材料在试验期采用匿名代码,并与一至两个公认的市场标准品种并排种植,形成接近科学对照的比较环境。约八十处试验点分布在美国和加拿大,评委来自大学、公共花园、育种企业、生产商、经纪机构、推广服务部门与园艺零售体系,均以专业志愿者身份观察完整生长季。评审采用五级评分,重点考察早花或早熟、风味、产量、株型、抗病虫性、颜色与花型新颖度、花期或采收期以及整体园艺表现;近年的候选品种通常至少要具备两项显著改进,才会进入获奖审议。
试验类别与奖项体系
试验体系覆盖食用作物、种子繁殖观赏植物、无性繁殖观赏植物和草本多年生植物,并可按地栽或容器栽培分别测试;多年生植物还要经历连续三个冬季的长期观察。奖项分为金奖、全国优胜和区域优胜三层:金奖只在出现育种突破时授予,通常十年仅有一两次;全国优胜要求在北美多地表现稳定,区域优胜则表彰在特定气候区域尤其突出的材料。评委汇总评分后,组织每年在十一月、一月和七月分批公布新品种结果。
历届优胜品种与公共传播
历届优胜品种数据库从一九三二年延续至今,可按年份、植物类别、花色、用途与获奖范围检索,也提供完整历史名单。通过评审的新品种会立即进入种子目录、网络渠道和园艺零售体系,获奖标志相当于独立园艺表现认证;参评与获奖材料不采用基因工程育种。组织不以购买商业广告作为主要传播方式,而是借助报刊、园艺杂志、花园社团、公立推广机构、行业媒体和数字社区介绍试验方法、育种背景与实际栽培表现。
展示花园网络与使用指南
近二百座展示花园把获奖结果转化为公众可观察的实景种植,其中五十五处已连续参与至少二十五年,最早的展示点于一九六二年在加拿大魁北克加入。成员包括植物园、树木园、大学花园、推广中心、园艺零售场所、市政绿地与公共公园,并在生长旺季通过开放日、田间日和标牌讲解试验及评奖过程。主站同时提供优胜品种搜索、试验点和展示花园地图、育种者参评说明、展示花园申请与年度资源,便于家庭园丁、教育机构和种业人员分别查阅。
History and Independent Mission
All-America Selections is North America’s only national nonprofit plant trialing organization. It emerged from the shortage of dependable information about new garden varieties in the 1920s and 1930s. Seedsman W. Ray Hastings proposed a cooperative, impartial trial network in 1932; the first winners were announced in 1933, followed by a record thirty new award winners in 1934. Winners have been introduced every year since. The organization reinvests its proceeds in conducting trials and communicating the performance of both historic and newly selected flowers, vegetables, and perennials.
Anonymous Trials and Expert Judging
Entries are identified by anonymous codes and grown beside one or two current market standards that serve as scientific controls. Approximately eighty trial sites operate across the United States and Canada. Volunteer judges are professional horticulturists from universities, public gardens, breeding companies, growers, brokers, extension services, and retailers. They score each entry on a five-point scale after a full growing season, considering earliness, flavor, yield, plant habit, disease and pest tolerance, novel colors or forms, harvest or flowering duration, and overall garden performance. In recent years, an entry generally needs at least two significantly improved qualities to merit award consideration.
Trial Classes and Award Levels
The program evaluates edibles, seed-propagated ornamentals, vegetatively propagated ornamentals, and herbaceous perennials, with in-ground and container options where appropriate. Perennial entries are observed through three winters. Awards include the rare Gold Medal for a true breeding breakthrough, the National Winner designation for consistently superior performance across North America, and Regional Winner recognition for exceptional results in defined climates. Scores are tabulated centrally, and new winners are announced in November, January, and July.
Winner Archive and Public Communication
The winner database spans the program’s complete history and can be explored by year, crop type, color, use, and award scope, with a downloadable list connecting historical and current selections. Winning varieties become available through seed catalogs, online sources, and garden retailers. The winner mark functions as an independent seal of garden performance, and AAS states that entries and winners are bred and produced without genetic engineering. Rather than purchasing conventional advertising, the program works through newspapers, garden magazines, clubs, extension educators, trade media, blogs, and social communities to explain trial results and breeding stories.
Display Gardens and Practical Resources
Nearly two hundred Display Gardens turn trial results into public plantings; fifty-five have participated for at least twenty-five years, and the earliest joined in Quebec in 1962. The network includes botanic gardens, arboreta, universities, extension centers, garden retailers, municipal spaces, and public parks. Many sites add open houses, field days, plant labels, and educational programs during peak growing seasons. The main site also provides winner search tools, trial and display-garden maps, breeder entry guidance, Display Garden applications, and annual program resources for gardeners, educators, and the horticulture industry.








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