The Green Thumb Award is an annual competition for plants and products that are innovative and unique and that bring a new element to the garden.
The winning plants and products below have all been reviewed and voted upon by National Garden Bureau members for their qualities that will make your garden even better.
Winners of the 2022 Green Thumb Awards were chosen by an independent panel of National Garden Bureau members who are garden writers, breeders, retailers, brokers, and growers. 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 Green Thumb Awards recognize outstanding new garden products available by mail or online. The awards are sponsored by the National Garden Bureau (NGB), a nonprofit organization that exists to educate and inspire home gardeners.
2022 Green Thumb Award Winners
Annual
Salvia Hummingbird FallsHummingbird Falls is a groundbreaking plant to the salvia genus. This trailing, hanging basket salvia is the first of its kind and offers gardeners an extremely heat-tolerant plant with vivid-blue blooms and rich, shiny black calyces that continue to bloom all summer long. This salvia is a natural hummingbird magnet and can be used as a natural feeder around the house. LEARN MORE
Edible
A feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds! As this pepper matures, its green fruit with a white stripe changes to orange-green and then to full chocolate-cherry red. It’s not just the uniquely striped fruit that makes this pepper special. The variegated foliage of Sweet Pepper Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry will stand out among all other vegetables in your garden. It has a sweet flavor and crisp texture, perfect for eating at any stage of ripeness. LEARN MORE
Perennial
New to the ROCK ‘N GROW® collection comes an upright Sedum with near-black leaves. Enjoy the dark leaf foliage throughout the summer, and when late summer rolls around, flowers with deep garnet red centers and cream petals will appear. Great for adding a dark color to the middle of the border! Tall, upright sedums form substantial clumps of foliage which can be substituted for shrubs in the landscape. Their stout, sturdy stems support the massive flower heads which develop in summer and burst into bloom in fall. If left standing, they provide winter interest and food for birds. LEARN MORE
Shrub
This is a Calycanthus that actually lives up to – maybe even exceeds – the oft-described (but seldom smelled!) hints of pineapple and bubblegum in the fragrance. Selected and refined over an 18 year period by Spring Meadow’s Tim Wood, the blooms of this North American native are an intriguing deep maroon and appear in abundance through late spring and summer. The blooms are powerfully fragrant, even when they are wilted – you’ve really just got to smell it for yourself. LEARN MORE
Hard Goods
GardenSoxx is a mesh containment system that is like containers to grow plants in but can be used anywhere. Use your own compost, customer soil mix, or purchase a quality product to fill the empty mesh material using the EZ Filler kits which comes with irrigation and fittings in one simple pack. One 4×4 kit will produce on average 75-100 lbs of fresh organic, nutrient-dense food using less fertilizer, water, while nearly eliminating rototilling and weeding! LEARN MORE
