The Newton Centre Garden, lovingly tended by Spark Newton’s Beautification Committee, is taking on a new challenge this summer: the 2026 All-America Selections (AAS) Landscape Design Challenge! This year’s theme, “The Goodness of Gardening,” celebrates the many ways gardens bring beauty, connection, discovery, and joy into our communities.
Throughout the summer, the Newton Centre Garden will showcase a creative landscape design featuring a substantial collection of All-America Selections Winners—flowers and other plants recognized for their outstanding performance in independent horticultural trials. Every bed reflects the creativity and care of our volunteer gardeners, who have spent countless hours planning, planting, tending, and maintaining the garden throughout the season.
As an AAS Display Garden participating in this year’s Landscape Design Challenge, the Newton Centre Garden will be evaluated by an expert panel at the end of the growing season. Gardens are judged based on their landscape designs and are grouped into three categories according to annual visitor numbers. Winners in each category will be announced and recognized in October, and the AAS website will feature many photos of the gardens’ designs at that time.
Come Experience the Newton Centre Green:
The best way to appreciate the garden is to spend some time in it! Join Spark Newton and our Beautification Committee, in partnership with Newtonville Books, for the final Summer in the Garden for Everyone event of the season on September 6 at 2:00 p.m.
Come enjoy September in the Newton Centre Green garden with coloring activities, stories, and opportunities to connect with fellow nature lovers. Your presence helps us celebrate the garden and the dedicated volunteers who keep it blooming – and gives our community a chance to experience the creativity and care that went into this year’s AAS design.
About All-America Selections:
Founded in 1932, All-America Selections is the oldest independent plant-testing organization in North America. Each year, new varieties that have never before been sold are anonymously trialed by professional horticulturists at AAS Trial Grounds and evaluated for their performance in the garden. Only the strongest performers are selected as AAS Winners.
Once selected, AAS Winners are made available to gardeners through local garden retailers and online seed sources, and AAS Display Gardens across North America showcase these award-winning varieties in creative garden settings.
The annual Landscape Design Challenge gives participating AAS Display Gardens an opportunity to put those winners on display in imaginative landscapes while sharing the beauty and benefits of gardening with their communities. The Newton Centre Garden is proud to be part of this year’s challenge – and to represent Newton’s own community of volunteer gardeners in the process.