Green Thumb Awards

Enlarge Image Image Gallery From High Country Garden, the Agave Sunspot is one of the 2010 MGA Green Thumb Award winners. courtesy Mailorder Gardening Association

Five new plant varieties and five new gardening products have won 2010 MGA Green Thumb Awards presented by the Mailorder Gardening Association. Bringing home awards in the Plants, Bulbs and Seeds division were Agave neomexicana ‘Sunspot’ from High Country Gardens, Advantage Cell Grown Transplant from Fall Creek Farm and Nursery, Double Phlox ‘Tiara’ from Van Bourgondien, Spice Zee Nectaplum from Nature Hills Nursery and Botanical Selections Seed Packet Line from Botanical Interests.

Honored in the Tools, Supplies and Accessories division were Eleanor’s Garden Container Kit from Eleanor’s Garden, Territorial’s Tasty Tomato Collection from Territorial Seed Company, FreezePruf™ Frost Protector for Plants from The Liquid Fence Company, Iron X™ Selective Weed Killer for Lawns from Gardens Alive! and Critter Chaser XR™ Deer and Rabbit Repellent Strips from Gardens Alive!

Winners of the 2010 MGA Green Thumb Awards were chosen by an independent panel of garden writers and editors. The winning products were selected based on their uniqueness, technological innovation, ability to solve a gardening problem or provide a gardening opportunity, and potential appeal to gardeners.

The MGA Green Thumb Awards recognize outstanding new garden products available by mail or online. The awards are sponsored by the Mailorder Gardening Association, the world’s largest nonprofit association of companies that sell garden products directly to consumers. For more information, visit the MGA website.

Agave neomexicana ‘Sunspot,’ High Country Gardens

‘Sunspot’ is the most cold-hardy variegated Agave currently in cultivation. This succulent, evergreen native plant has stout blue-green leaves with striking, creamy-yellow variegation on the outer leaf edges. The plant’s main rosette is just 12-15 inches wide and 9-12 inches tall, making it small enough for virtually any garden and a perfect container plant. When grown in the ground, ‘Sunspot’ will produce “pups” which will grow to form a multi-stemmed cluster of variegateed rosettes. Agave neomexicana ‘Sunspot’ is cold hardy in USDA zones 6-9. Plants sell exclusively from High Country Gardens, (800) 925-9387.

Advantage Cell Grown Transplant, Fall Creek Farm & Nursery

Advantage Cell Grown Transplants offer an innovative alternative to bareroot plants. Fall Creek Nursery’s 30 years of experience in producing blueberry plants for mailorder garden catalogs has resulted in a unique cell growing system. Blueberry plants grown as Advantage Cell Grown Transplants have fully intact, vigorous and clean root systems, which minimize transplant shock. The plant’s increased vigor will result in faster plant growth and fruit production, as well as increased overall plant health and ease of handling. Garden catalogs that sell Advantage Cell Grown blueberry plants include J.W. Jung, J.E. Miller Nurseries and Nourse Farms.