DOWNERS GROVE, IL – National Garden Bureau (NGB) and All-America Selections recently held their annual membership update meeting to elect new officers and Directors, and to give news about the organization’s activities.
The new officers for All-America Selections are:
- President: Scott Rusch, BloomStudios
- Vice-President: Alicain Carlson, Syngenta Flowers
- Past President: Jim Devereux, Green Fuse Botanicals
The new Director for All-America Selections is:
- Denise Mullins, Smith Gardens
A complete list of AAS Officers and Directors can be found here.
The two new Directors for National Garden Bureau are:
- Chris Berg, Dummen Orange
- Scott Mozingo, Griffin
A complete list of NGB Officers and Directors can be found here.
In other news, the following announcements and updates were given during the virtual meeting:
- AAS proudly announced the first gold medal winner in 17 years—Zinnia Profusion Red Yellow Bicolor from Sakata.
- In 2020, AAS rolled out a trial reporting app for AAS judges. Based on the success of 2020, all judges and all trials will use the app in 2021.
- AAS is a sponsor of Jonathan Bardzik’s new Amazon Prime cooking show called “Jonathan’s Kitchen: Seasons to Taste,” scheduled to launch February 2021.
- NGB added a Flowering Shrub to the “Year of the” program with a hydrangea in 2020. Starting in 2022, the organization is adding a houseplant to the program. The first one to be highlighted will be Peperomia.
- NGB’s social media reach grew during the pandemic: Instagram traffic grew by a whopping 317%, emails grew by 75%, Pinterest by 22% and 15% from Facebook.
- NGB’s launch of the Victory Garden 2.0 program in spring 2020 garnered a lot of interest and helped contribute to the above growth.
- 2020 saw the launch of individual videos for each new AAS Winner that are posted on YouTube, social media and the AAS website.
- NGB recently launched a “Seed Facts” campaign (consisting of blogs, social media and a webinar) to help educate consumers in response to current questions.
- The previously announced partnership with www.kidsgardening.org is ongoing.
- AAS added 3 new trials for 2021: Edible Container, Ornamental Seed Container and Ornamental Non-Seed In-ground.
- AAS trial entries may now be sold while in trial.
- The AAS and NGB Summer Summit that was postponed from 2020 to 2021 has again been postponed until September 2022 in Vancouver. There will be virtual trial visits and a virtual meeting to replace the in-person event.
