All - America Selections is pleased to announce the succeeder of their 2023 Landscape Design Challenge . This year ’s musical theme of “ A Whimsical Garden ” was , in the starting time , one that create some cautious interest and more than one online search to see what could be done with such an strange theme .
But the AAS Display Gardens come through again in a big way !
The AAS Display Gardens were tasked with using their AAS gain flowers and plants in and around a theme of “ A Whimsical Garden ! ” and each garden stave came up with a wide sort of ways to showcase their own garden ’s whimsey in and among their AAS Winners !
For the challenge , AAS provided the garden with late AAS Winner seeded player and plants along with motley marker that , for the first prison term , included a QR computer code that place exploiter to the AAS website for that variety .
The gardens had the choice to also integrate older AAS Winners in their blueprint to illustrate the composition . Gardens were advance to generate promotion and hold issue to share the news report of All - America Selections and AAS Winners .
Gardens are divided into three categories based on the bit of visitors per year :
All - America Selections recognizes and thanks the contest jurist , who are industry expert in the field of gardening and landscaping :
AAS is proud to herald the following winning garden from the 2023 Design Challenge :
Category I : Under 10,000 visitant per year
First Place Winner : Mississippi State Univ - South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station , Poplarville , Mississippi
The AAS Display Garden at Mississippi State University ’s South Miss Branch Experiment Station is a whimsical garden with a bridge , gazebo , and ornamental hardscape features . The garden feature 24 cosmetic and 10 vegetable AAS - winning variety show . Visitors can enjoy the current of the color palette as they take the air through the garden , starting with reds and pink at the entryway and leading to vapours , purpleness , and white on the other side . After brainstorm , the garden staff jibe that a wacky , whacky , odd , and overall playfulness approach would be the way to go to interpret this class ’s theme . Going back to the sixteenth - C origin of the word of honor ‘ whimsical , ’ they learned that it get with ‘ whim - wham , ’ a noun mean to trace an ornamental physical object or trinket . This “ whim - wham ” approach led to the integration of many ornamental hardscape feature film , such as a small bridge over a teetotal creek seam and a gazebo used to showcase AAS Winners in hanging plantation owner and traditional garden planting . Garden visitors enjoyed the impulsive theme and all the fun “ stuff ” to bump in the garden . One visitor described it as a “ non - bar , visually eye - catching raiment of whimsical feature that ravish you to a place where worry are carried off on the backs of fairies , gnomes , and porcelain frogs ! ”
Second Place Winner ( a three - way railroad tie ! ):
Third Place Winner :
Honorable Mention Winners :
Category II : 10,001 – 100,000 visitant per year
First Place Winner : Noelridge Park Gardens , Cedar Rapids , Iowa .
The Shoe - Bee - Dew ! A Whimsical Garden Walk at Noelridge Park was inspired by a desire to include the public in every step along the way . The park invited the world to donate used shoe , which were then constitute with AAS Winners and other works pick out ground on their look or name . A wander way was created through the garden , allowing visitors to get close enough to see the special surprises tuck here and there , read plant tag , and identify which local famous person ’s shoes were on presentation . For representative , they imbed fireman ’s boots with Red Ember Cayenne Pepper and winter boots with Icicle Eggplant . Local Pop Star vocaliser / ballad maker Alisabeth Von Presley ’s sparkly pinkish sandal were potted with Sweetie Pie Pepper , surrounded by Kelos Candela Pink Celosia and a hoop of Main Street Beale Street Coleus , in a nod to her Memphis ties . They establish tall Concert Bell sunflowers in ( or through , actually ) the merry andrew shoe . The Hawkeye football shoes were surrounded by blossom using team people of color black and atomic number 79 – Gold Rush Gloriosa Daisy and Big Duck Gold Marigold .
On the eve of the garden walk , the world enjoyed a beautiful eventide in the park . Many pictures were take , and volunteers were on manus to reply question and talk about the AAS change . Volunteers help kids who were invite to plant in a skid they kick in . These were add to the plant tire caterpillar , which carried the Shoe - Bee - Dew ! composition over to the nearby children ’s garden . The Shoe - Bee - Dew ! A Whimsical Garden Walk was a success , with irrefutable feedback from social media attempt showing that all the efforts paid off .
Second Place Winner :
Honorable Mention :
Category III : over 100,000 visitant per year
First Place Winner :
Toledo Botanical Garden create a whimsical garden called Whimsi - realm , where visitant enter through a copper archway sport a moon and star display . A walk along the path lined with brightly biased flowers leads to a pool where one might catch a glimpse of the topiary water dragon , Finnegan . Visitors love Finnegan and the garden ’s other unequaled features .
Inspired by the Juneau , Alaska botanical garden , Toledo Botanical Garden stave flipped three downed trees upside down to create planters . The ascendent flare of the trees were filled with blossoming annuals , admit AAS winners . The Toledo Botanical Garden faculty had so much fun creating this newfangled garden space for 2023 and was able to bring novel life and foot traffic to a less often call in localisation in the garden . The positive reaction from the populace was more than anyone could have hope for . staff member were constantly stopped by visitors who want to pass along their appreciation of the AAS show . The garden was also featured on the local news and societal media .
A complete aggregation of photos of all competition entrant can be find on the All - America Selectionswebsite .
For more information about the contest success or how to participate in 2024 , contact All - America Selections .
For more information : Diane BlazekAll - America SelectionsEmail:[email protected]all - americaselections.org
