It's not too early to think about planning for this year's garden. And if colorful plants are your forte, then you might want to consider some of this year's winning All America Selections. Here are the winners for the year 2001:

Zinnia 'Profusion White', like its cousins 1999 AAS winners Profusion Orange and Profusion Cherry, is a strong vigorous disease resistant plant that produces pure white daisy-like 2 inch flowers. Tolerant to both heat and drought, these plants also perform well in containers.

With the popularity of sunflowers as a cut flower, it is no wonder that sunflower 'Ring of Fire' was a favorite of the judges. The mahogany red ring next to the chocolate brown center of the 5 inch blooms are striking from a distance, and make a stunning statement when arranged in a vase.

Blue is an illusive garden color, but Lisianthus 'Forever Blue' provides an abundance of 2 1/2 inch blue flowers throughout the growing season. An improved branching habit allows this variety to remain a compact plant reaching a height of only 12 inches.

Nicotiana 'Avalon Bright Pink' attains only a height of 7-10 inches, and with its unusual bright pink flower it blooms consistently throughout the entire season. It's smaller size makes it useful for container plantings, as well as the front of the border.

And finally Portulaca 'Margarita Rosita' has a mounded habit, unlike other spreading moss roses. One and half inch semidouble flowers cover this heat and drought tolerant plant.

If growing vegetables is more to your liking, then you may want to try these 2001 winners: Onion 'Super Star', a day length neutral sweet mild white onion; Pepper 'Giant Marconi' , an 8 inch long Italian grilling pepper tasty both fresh or cooked; Sweet Corn 'Honey Select', offers the sweet flavor of a supersweet and the tender eating quality of an old fashioned variety, and does not require to be grown isolated from other sweet corn; and lastly Tomato 'Jolly' is a sweet pink tomato produced in clusters of 9-14 peach-shaped fruit.

These new AAS winners, as well as those from past years, are plants you can count on to perform well. Look for them in you garden center or seed catalog.