All-America Selections announces winners

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – Three years ago, All-America Selections (AAS) launched a new contest for almost 200 Display Gardens to encourage new and exciting landscaping ideas with AAS Winners. The success of the program has been beyond expectations and continues to grow and impress every year.

2014’s contest asked participants to expand on a theme of using containers in the landscape.

This contest is a landscape design contest incorporating AAS Winners, past and present. Each garden is responsible for creating and executing the design, generating publicity surrounding the contest then submitting the photos, proof of publicity and an overall description of their design. All-America Selections is extremely pleased with not only the number of gardens that participated but also the broad range of garden types: large and small public gardens, seed companies, community gardens, master gardener programs and university gardens. All-America Selections salutes all the gardens and their impressive efforts to produce an attractive display of AAS Winners.

There were three categories, based on number of visitors to the garden in one year:
Category I: fewer than 10,000 visitors per year
Category II: 10,001 – 100,000 visitors per year
Category III: Over 100,000 visitors per year
 
All-America Selections recognizes and thanks the contest judges who are industry experts in the field of horticulture and landscaping:
 
Jeff Gibson, Landscape Business Manger, Ball Horticultural Company
Bruce Hellerick, Senior Horticulture Specialist, The Brickman Group
Susan Schmitz, Trials and Education Manager, Ball Horticultural Company
Barbara Wise, author and Director of Floriculture, Landscape Services, Inc.
 
THE WINNING GARDENS ARE:
(A complete collection of photos from all contest entrants can be found on the All-America Selections Flickr and Facebook accounts.)

Category I: fewer than 10,000 visitors per year
 
First Place Winner: University of Wisconsin Spooner Ag Research Station, Teaching and Display Garden, Spooner, Wisconsin.
Second Place Winner: Noelridge Park Gardens, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Third Place Winner: Purdue Extension Tippecanoe County Display & Idea Gardens, Lafayette, Indiana.
Honorable Mention, “Best Inspiration” Garden: Kenosha County Center Demonstration Garden, Bristol, Wisconsin.
Honorable Mention, “Most Creative” Garden: Jennings Park, WSU Master Gardener Demo Garden, Marysville, Washington.

Category II: 10,001 – 100,000 visitors per year
 
First Place Winner: The Arboretum - State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
Second Place Winner: Jardin Daniel A Séguin, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.
 
Category III: Over 100,000 visitors per year
 
First Place Winner: Rotary Botanical Gardens, Janesville, Wisconsin.
Second Place Winner: Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, Colorado.
Third Place *TIE* Winner: Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Ontario.
Third Place *TIE* Winner: State Botanical Garden of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.
Honorable Mention, “Most Artistic” Garden: Norseco at the Botanical Garden of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec.
 
Each of these contest winners are profiled on the AAS website, under “Display Gardens”

For more information about the contest winners or how to participate in 2015, contact Diane Blazek, All-America Selections at dblazek@aas-ngb.org.