AAS and NGB elect new officers and directors during annual meeting

Announced via press release, the National Garden Bureau (NGB) and All-America Selections (AAS) shared the details of their annual membership update meeting in which they elected new officers and directors. They also provided 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, Dümmen 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 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 three 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.