Happy New Year from all of us here at Studio A Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the first Gardening Simplified Show of twenty twenty five with Stacy Hervella me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. So little time, so much to do, Let's get right to it. This week's show, we'll highlight the twenty twenty five National Plants of the Year as it relates to
Flowering Shrubs. Next week will cover the National Perennial Plants of the Year, and the following week the National Flowering Annual Plants of the Year. This week, Flowering Shrubs with a very special guest in segment four joining us, Tim Wood, a horticulturist and strategic thinker who helps plant breeders and growers and landscape designers and retailers and consumers discover the value of new and better problems solving woody plants just like you do, Stacy. Yes, every day here at Proven
Winners Colored Choice Shrubs, And of course it's Tim. We used his phrase many times last year on the show. He would say that we live in the golden age of plant breeding. That will be fun coming up in segment four, but let's hear in segment one. Kick it right off the envelope, please, And boy, we got to start with the flowering shrub of the year. And I'm excited about this one. I have this plant in my landscape, and Stacy, if I'm correct, it's the Centaura double blue lilac.
That is correct.
Yes, what a gorgeous plant. And as they say here at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, tie your shoes tight because the fragrance of this lilac will knock your socks off, right, it will.
And you know, of course people expect lilacs to be fragrance, even though they aren't all fragrant, aren't all equally fragrant. But Cintaur double blue is a syringa hyacintha flora which is a mouthful. But you might guess by the inclusion of hyacinth in there that this is an exceptionally fragrant lilac and an exceptionally beautiful one too. It's just the flowers. You have to see them to believe them. They're double flowers, so it's called Sintara double blue.
And then when you add to the mix the fact that they aggressively bloom and are I'm gonna say, somewhat disease resistant mine in my landscape. I was surprised I didn't deal with powdery mildew whatsoever.
Yeah, they definitely are much more powdery meldy resistant than your standard syringa vulgaris or common lilac.
And then of course, you know you mentioned the vulgaris. The shape also so much better than I believe than a typical vulgaris Liway.
Yeah, it's a great plant, and it is very hardy. It's hard to down to USDA Zone two, so much hardier then we're gonna need anywhere in Michigan. And it also needs fewer chilling hours than other lilacs, so you can grow it into warmer climates, even into Usdas on eight.
Flowering Shrub of the Year Centaura double blue lilac, we moved to rose of the Year the envelope please reminiscent coral rosa. Did I get that?
You did get it right, Thank you, And.
I'm glad I did because I love reminiscent roses. And if you're a person like many who is into cut flower gardening, Stacy, I believe this is one you got to have in your landscape.
It is it's called reminiscent because it is reminiscent of the days when roses used to be big and fragrant and full of petals. And what happened really is that was that was the norm for many, many years, and then disease resistant landscape roses came out and that was great, but it kind of like made everybody rethink roses and they said, oh, I don't want those old fashioned types you know that maybe get disease or require dead heading
or you know, are high maidenance spot. Yeah, and so what has had up and now since that trend started, you know, a good thirty years ago or so, is that now plant breeders are able to take all of that disease resistance and bring back the fragrance, bring back that high pedal count, bring back that great color, but in a disease resistant package. And that's what's so great
about reminiscent roses. And you're right, Rick, they are a fantastic cut flower because they're kind of like a cabbage rose, and old fashioned cabbage rose with just tons and tons of petals, glorious fragrance, and super easy to grow.
I can tell you from experience in my landscape. Wow, amazed at how well this plant grows. And when I look at it in my landscape, I'm thinking, well, of course, because it was developed in Serbia. Yes, Serbia sounds cold to me. Maybe it's not. I don't know, but they're sure doing a great job with roses.
Yeah, they are a really interesting breeding program. It's actually an all women breeding program in Serbia. And what their whole goal has been to bring back all of this classic rose feature. So they are developing roses for fragrance from the high pedal count and also edible roses like the Flavorette series. Those also come from Fenogeno in Serbia. So they're really doing interesting things just for the love of roses, so that we can rediscover everything that we lost.
Yeah, and I was just trying to exhibit a sense of humous here, so to speak. It is Serbia, not Siberia.
Ah, yes, okay.
All right. Hydrangea of the Year. I'm so excited about this. We did a summer walk through this past year, a late summer walkthrough, and this plant was putting on a show, little lime punch. Hydrangea paniculata Wow, this thing. I think the great thing about it is this thing puts on a show because it's not just one color. It's step back and watch it change as the season go.
Yeah, it has a lot of color at once, and that is the main thing I think that people notice when when they first look at pictures of Little Lime Punch, And of course we'll have pictures and the YouTube version of the show as well as in the show. Oh it's at Gardening simplified on air dot com. But it's
got more than just that color. So it is a dwarf plant, so reaching in the three to five foot range, which is so great for panicle hydranges because most of them, the old fashion ones get huge, you know, six plus feet, so not everyone has space for them. Whereas this one's going to be in the three to five foot range, so it's a lot easier to incorporate. And then the breeding on panicle hydranges, especially here at proofn Winner's Color Choice shrubs have developed really strong stems. So this is
a plant that you cannot knock down. And it's kind of one of those things. And I think we did this when we were on our walkthrough. He kind of want to bat it around like a little kitten or something, because it's so strong and sturdy, and it just bounces right back. It's really amazing.
It's an amazing plant. So hydrange of the year little lime punch hydrange of piniculata. And I think last year I heard you use this phrase, Stacey, in that it's almost like Hawaiian punch. Yes, so when you talk about the sturdiness of the stems, I think back to being a little kid and watching cartoons and they had this drink called Hawaiian Punch. Yeah, and the commercial was something along the lines of, how would you like a nice
Hawaiian punch and blammel or something like that. I somehow I recall that and I think of that every time I see this plant. What a fantastic show of color.
Well, Tim was the one who came up with the punch name, and it is if you do remember Hawaiian punch, that's the when the flowers fully mature to their reddest It is kind of similar to the old Hawaiian Punch color. I don't know if Hawaiian Punch is still that same color. They may have done something with the with the colors in it, but yeah, and the flowers. So do you remember too when we saw this plant in the garden.
The flower clusters are so dense that you kind of like it's hey, if we're talking about old commercials, it's like squeeze the Sharman and you have to kind of have to squeeze it and see because it's so oh dense full of florettes. It's really an extraordinary plant, not like any other panicle hydrange on the market.
Great description, and we'll have to ask Tim Wood about that in segment for today, Stacy the envelope, Please, Landscape shrub of the Year. I love this north pole thuya arborviti. It's a tight columnar habit on this evergreen. And part of the reason that I love north pole is that I think it's a perfect plant to create exclamation points in your landscape.
Yeah, we talked about that last year when we were doing one of our design shows. So it is a great plant for doing just that. It's very narrow at the base. So the great thing with an arborviding like this is it doesn't take up a lot of real estate if you have a small yard, whereas more conventional arborvid's are going to be taking up like ten feet or more of yard space. This one takes up just a fraction of the space. It's great on its own, it's great in small groups or clusters, and it's great
as a space saving hedge too. So it's super versatile. And of course arbovide are easy to grow, they're durable. The only thing they can, of course tolerate is deer because if you've ever smelled the delicious fragrance of an arborvity and you wanted to eat it, well, then you can imagine how the deer feel when they get a whiff of this ubiquitous shrub. Weather it's northpole or another arborvidy,
they do love it. But otherwise it's a great native evergreen that you'll find growing all over the eastern half of North America. Very hardy, pretty heat tallerant, more heat tolerant than most people expect, because certain varieties can actually grow all the way down into USDA Zone eight.
So there you have it. The twenty twenty five National Plants of the Year as it relates to woody plants or flowering shrubs. But boy, in addition to the Plants of the Year, you're going to be hearing from us about other exciting developments. Not this year National Plants of the Year, but so many developments coming along. And you know, I've talked about how I'm excited about Illuminati Spice and
mock Orange, the Flavorette roses. I'm getting my salad plate ready and I'm really fascinated Stacy by both Kodiak red a two point old dr villa and fun Yella. This clematis called Golden Dream.
Yeah, isn't it beautiful?
That looks interest.
Yeah, so that is a spring flowering clematis. Yeah, it does continue to bloom, you know, through the summer. But it's a yellow clematis high pedal count, so it almost looks like little kind of jellyfish or octopus. And it is a beautiful planet. It's fragrant. I absolutely love this clematis. It's not one that you normally see so.
Much to look forward to, including for a guy like me. I love hibiscus and Hollywood tropical hibiscus. We'll be talking about that also in the coming year for sure. Plants on Trial coming up next. I have an idea of how Stacy's going to tie into this, but stay tuned. Will continue to talk about twenty twenty five National Plants of the Year and upcoming exciting plants that you can enjoy in your landscape.
Proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's the first Gardening Simplified Show of twenty twenty five.
We are ready, we are rare and to go. And you know, I don't know if it's just me, but I wish that winter was like Thanksgiving to New Year's and then it was spring. Oh, wouldn't that be a dream?
Same here. I've always felt that way.
You know, you get over the holidays and all the excitement, and then you're left with January and February. And how is it that February is the shortest month of the year and seems the longest.
It feels that way to me. Don't get me started on that whole feel you.
Oh my, So it's a little bit of a long drag here until we get to the gardening season. But we know we'll keep you entertained, we'll keep you inspired, we'll keep you dreaming about what is just around the corner. And ultimately, I do feel like it always goes fast. But these next two months for a gardener, I think especially, can be a little bit disheartening.
Well let's make it fun and let's do some dreaming.
Yes, well, you know that's I'm dreaming even the summer about how things can be different. So but anyway, so of course, new year, new plants. We've got every year, we've got new plants in the Proven Winter's Color Choice line, and you know, it's always very exciting that they come out and they're new options. But the plant that I am going to cover is today's plant on trial is the one that I am easily the most excited about of the class of twenty twenty five for Proven Winner's
Color Choice Shrubs. And you know what, it's not even an actually new plant. It's only new to Proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs. And that is a very unusual situation because we don't normally do that. We're normally bringing in plants that are from another country that have just come to the US, or that we have developed, or one of our partners has developed and is only coming onto the market for the first time. So this plant is a huge exception. It is Kinsley's ghost honeysuckle.
Interesting, yes, interesting plant. And when I was scrolling through and looking at plants and this one popped up for me, first thing that popped in my mind was what a eucalyptus.
Yeah, it looks like a eucalyptus. So I'll get into what makes us such an amazing plant. I have one in my yard. I love this plant. It is a native honeysuckle, so it's a North American native species. So let's just clear the air right there. It is not invasive. You don't have to worry about this thing spreading around. It's mostly only shrubby honeysuckles that are invasive anyway, and
this is a vining honeysuckle. But anyway, what's really unique about this plant is it's one of those plants that if people saw it at say a public garden or you know, something like that in a landscape, they were like, oh my gosh, I have to have that, And then they would get all hyped up for it, and they'd go to the garden center and they wouldn't find any This plant was something that people always wanted but was in very very short supply for many many years, and
only a lucky few actually had it in their garden. So basically we were, you know, trialing it. We were using it in our own evaluations as something to test against. And we realize that this plant has everything that we look for in a proven winner's color choice shrubs. It's extremely beautiful and unique looking, very very low maintenance, disease resistant, pest resistant, tolerant of all sorts of different challenges, whether that's drought or our sun or deer, and so it
kind of ticked all of our boxes. And what we did is we went to Plants Select, which is a program out of Colorado that kind of highlights plants that are suitable to Colorado's extremely challenging growing conditions. And so for many years, Kinsley's Ghost Honeysuckle was really only available through Plants Select, and they just couldn't get enough plants
out there on the market. So we realized that there was huge demand for this plant, that it was a great plant, that it was a good native vine and that we could contribute our opportunity to get to scale to bring this plant to a wider audience. And so we worked with them, came to an agreement, and now we're super excited that Kinsley's Ghost honeysuckle is one of the proven winner's colored choice shrubs and that means it's going to be a lot easier for you to find. Now,
you might be wondering, why would I care. Honeysuckles are everywhere, but this is a honeysuckle like you have never seen before, So you kind of have to see it to believe it. And Adriana and I can tell you that when people have visited our trial guard and seen it, I mean it's like they're falling all over themselves to place in order for it. But it's beautiful you'll see in the pictures, but really seeing this thing in person, it just takes
your breath away. So it is a blue foliage plant, and that alone is pretty unusual blue foliage.
It almost looks metallic.
Yes, yeah, it has that kind of like beautiful powdery coated blue color. So it's like a nice kind of aqua kind of color. And that's so as soon as it comes out in spring, you're gonna get that beautiful blue foliage. But what where it really kind of kicks into high gear is a little bit later into spring, going into summer, when it starts to get ready to flower. And then what happens is this blue foliage at the tips of the branch forms a saucer shaped disc that
goes all the way around the stem. And that's what makes it look like eucalyptus.
Ah.
That's so if you've ever bought, like dried eucalyptus, or you've been to a place where eucalyptus grows or grown it as an annual, which you can do sometimes, you see how the eucalyptus foliage basically goes all the way around the stem of the and that's what Kinsley's Ghost does as well. And then out of that saucer bursts these clusters of yellow flowers. Now they are lightly fragrant.
This is not really going to be one of those honeysuckles that fills the June air and sends you off into dreamy fits, but it's worth it because it's just so unusual, and the flowers are still beautiful because they have great contrast with that blue foliage. Now, as the season progresses, those flowers fade, they leave behind a brilliant red berry, which is really really pretty. But what's more is that, especially if the plant is in a really sunny spot and in dry conditions, that bract turns a
ghostly white. So you have all this blue foliage, you've got this white bract at the tip, and a red and red berries in the center of that. It is truly an extraordinary unique plant.
So if you're listening to the podcast or radio and you're wondering what are we talking about keeping score at home, Stacy's talking about Kinsley's Is that correct?
That is correct.
Kinsley's Ghost And it's a honeysuckle vine. The botanical name Laniscera reticulata.
Yes, right, gray honeysuckle is I don't really know exactly why. The berries don't look any different than any other honeysuckle, or they don't really look like grapes, but they call it a gray honeysuckle. Now, another thing I want you to know. I do want to get to the point about who Kinsley was, because obviously there's a Kinsley in the name here, but I want everyone to know that this is an extremely vigorous, extremely easy to grow vine.
And I have known multiple people here who have started with a very small quart sized plant, so like a four inch plant, and you know, two years later, it's absolutely covering whatever structure they gave it to plan on. But it doesn't become, you know, too aggressive, like people maybe start thinking like a trumpet vine. You don't have to worry about that. It's not going to destroy your
foundation or anything like that. It's just it's enough vigor to cover what you need to cover without becoming obnoxious, without becoming a problem for your neighbors. And it's just so beautiful.
Now.
I do recommend full sun for it. It can grow in part shade, but the more sun it gets, the more you're going to really be able to bring out these amazing features. It's drought tolerant, it's deer resistant, it's so easy to grow. The only thing you really need is to just have a nice sturdy support for it. Now, it's not going to be as heavy as something like a whisteria. That's really like twining and building up those thick, thick,
you know, kind of trunk like stems. It's twining is a lot lighter but you do need to make sure that whatever you're putting it on is sturdy enough to hold this this pretty large vine. It's fine. It's about six to twelve feet tall and wide.
And aside from the unique color, here's a plant that's going to really help add some interesting texture.
Oh for sure.
Landscape.
Yeah, it looks so much like eucalyptus that at the Cincinnati Zoo they actually use it around the Australian animals to mimic the look of eucalyptus. So if it's good enough for them, it's definitely going to be an attention getter in your landscape. Now you will be able to find this plant actual local garden centers this spring. But I do want to briefly talk about William Kinsley himself. This plant actually dates back to the eighteen hundreds eighteen eighties.
Can you believe that it's pretty wild? So, like I said, it's native and sort of sort of something like what happened with Annabel hydrangea, where there was you know, speech specimens growing in the woods and growing wild and then it just took someone saying like whoa, hey, this is not your average every day nil nisro reticulata, and so it was growing in the greenhouses at Iowa State University, and William Kinsley was I don't know, I've not seen
exactly what his role there was, but you know, he collected, he took cuttings off of it, grew it in his own garden. Everyone said, hey, that's really cool. Can I have some of that? He gave cuttings to friends and family,
and then everything kind of just disappeared. There wasn't really an organized network, of course, to distribute plants back then like there is now, and it just kind of fell by the wayside until in two thousand and one, a nursery owner from Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery in Fort Collins, Colorado, driving down the road one day, slams on the break. Oh my gosh, what is that? And it's a Kinsley's ghost honeysuckle growing in this yard. He goes up to
the front door. It's William Kinsley's grandson, who is quite elderly at this point, and says, hey, this is a really cool plant you have. What's the story with it? He tells him the guy is from a wholesale nursery, so he is able to now bring it up to scale and get it into propagation. And now we have Kinsley's ghosts honeysuckle.
Who you're gonna call he's a ghostbuster? Yeah, that is so what a great story.
It is a great story. It's a great plant, and it's definitely one of those ones where people are gonna say, oh my gosh, what is that. I didn't know you could grow yuka in Michigan. Expect to hear that. But if you have something that you've been wanting to cover, like a fence or a pergola, even a mailbox if your mailbox is sturdy enough. I growing mine on a maple tree, a dead maple tree that we killed for the birds, and it's just going to kind of make
it into this beautiful column of blue. I'm really excited to see what happens this year because I just planted it last year. So a great plan to add to your spring planting list if you've got that special spot that you've just been waiting for the perfect vine, because this just may be it. So you can see pictures of it, of course at the YouTube version or at our show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We'll also have links you can see even more pictures
and video from our website. So we're going to take a little break. When we come back, we're going to be opening up the mailbag, so please stay tuned. At proven winner's color Choice, we've got a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare rose and unforget a hydrangea, or something new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested for your success. Look
for them at your local garden center. Creeting's Gardening friends and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You know you should kick off the new year having your gardening questions answered by Rick and myself. That's one of the things we do to try to simplify gardening for you. And you know, I know it's hard maybe to think about gardening challenges in January when your plants are maybe covered in snow and or just dormant not doing much.
But if you do have a gardening question, we would be happy to help you. So we're really easy to reach. You can just go to Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, click the contact tab there and send us a message. You can even attach a photo, which you know photos are important. If we don't have a photo, it can be really hard to answer a question, so definitely include that. And of course house plants are also a perfectly valid question.
And so if you have a question about plants are trying to grow indoors, reach out to us about that as well.
And share your dreams things you're thinking about doing in twenty twenty five. Let us know because when we share things like that, everybody benefit.
Yeah, that's true. You never know. People could be a little desperate for inspiration if it could be the spark. So what have we got in the mail bag this week?
John writes to us, we have had the most amazing butterfly bush plant ever this fall during a terrible windstorm. It was blown over and did not die. I pulled it back into position and placed a few steaks around for support. Should I cut it back to take the weight off of the top or simply leave it alone and take my chances that it will reroot? And Stacy, I think this is an appropriate question to start off the twenty twenty five mail bag because, again, having answered
people's questions for years and years, and years. If I had a dime for every time I was asked pruning bud lea or butterfl fly bush questions, I'd be a rich man, because people really struggle with that. They fear to prune them back. Also, in regards to what John is mentioning here, had the same I had the same issue.
They with a misviolet got really big, but they get top heavy, And I think it's just a good reminder that, at least as far as my opinion is concerned, you should prune them back because they bloom more vigorously the next year if they get a pruning. At least that's what my experience.
Yeah, I mean, butterfly bush is a plant that you definitely want to prune. It's not so much a plant health issue as it is an aesthetic issue. And you've certainly heard me talk about it on the show before. If you don't prune a butterfly bush, it will eventually become a second story plant, which is to say that it's just going to have like a little smattering of flowers way way up at the tippy top, and you'll only be able to actually enjoy it from your second floor.
And yes, it will still attract butterflies, but will also have far fewer flowers and sort of whar's the fun in that? So this is a plant that I do recommend regular pruning on. Now, whether or not regular pruning would have prevented the issue that John experienced is it's hard to say without actually seeing the plant, but if you are going to prune butterfly bush, you want to
do it in spring. I always recommend, especially if you live in a cold climate, waiting until the plant starts to leaf out, and that can take quite a long time. It's not one of the first plants to leaf out, not by a long shot. If you live in a milder climate, it really kind of never goes fully dormant. You actually will still see kind of living foliage on the planet in little buds coming out. But definitely you want to cut it down to I usually recommend the
lowest possible buds. And that might seem crazy, like, oh my gosh, how's it going to grow if I cut it back to these little stubs, But the fact is it has a huge root system underneath it to fuel that growth and to recover from that pruning, and as a result, you get a nice dense plant that's a covered in flowers rather than just a few at the top, and I think that that would help some of the
top heaviness, you know that you just described. But you know, there's still the possibility that for whatever reason, maybe it's a young plant that hasn't fully rooted in so it's not as able to withstand strong winds. There could be you know, underground damage from you know, moles or something like that that are weakening the root structure. So there's a lot of potential reasons why this could happen. I wouldn't say it's overall a consistent issue with butterfly bush.
It could really happen with anything. But the nice thing is if it does happen with the butterfly bush, they're pretty tough, so you kind of can't go wrong with resolving whatever this is. So cutting it back and fall is perfectly fine. I generally do recommend saving that pruning until spring, especially in a cold climate, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I mean, we all garden in the real world, so you do what you have
to do. And then yeah, I would kind of do my best to upright it back and rather than make it dependent on steaks, although of course if you have to stake it for one season, you can then correct that with pruning the following year and then try to get those roots back covered up in soil, because what happened probably is that they did have some breakage, and so you want to encourage the plant to roots and secure itself into the soil, and so you know, how
you go about that really depends on the situation. But I would probably personally gently dig on the side that it was uprooted, try to write it back up upright, and then put soil back over there and tamp that down real well to try to help get that contact which will help encourage greater root growth.
Nothing sad other than don't be afraid to prune, yeah my opinion.
You know a lot of times, Yeah we talk a lot about, oh, prune at this time, prune at that time. But that doesn't mean that you can't prune it at other times. It just means you need to know what any potential drawbacks are and sometimes when when something like this happens, yeah, you gotta do what you gotta do.
You got to do what you got to do and writes to us, Hello from New York six B. We live in western New York have a terrible problem with creeping Charlie in our lawn. I feel your pain. It has literally taken over about half of our lawn. We are older, so hand pulling isn't an option. We've seen a ton of different spray options out of control this crazy weed. Not sure what is the best approach. We
would love your insight. We're currently planning on killing off the entire lawn and starting over again, but not one hundred percent confident that it won't just come back. Help. I'm desperate. In six B I'm going to make a lawn story short here. This is all about competition, all about competition, and creeping Charlie is a competitor. You need to give your lawn a competitive edge on this creeping Charlie.
This plant will grow so quickly that it requires a new ZIP code at the end of summer if you don't do something about it now. If you are trying the spray approach, fall is the time to spray, because the plant is going to be sending food reserves into the root system and you're going to get better control.
But I would say, first and foremost, take a look at your lawnmower and raise the deck on the more take the mower height to the highest height that you dare set it at without getting into trouble with your neighbors, and then take it up another notch because that's the only way you're going to give your lawn a competitive edge against this creeping charlie. So raise the deck on
the mower. Attack the creeping charlie in fall. If you're using some herbicide sprays, it can be a tough one to get on top of it.
Yeah, I really hope that it's clear to our listeners that creeping charlie is a weed that not a person. Glacoma heteratia also known as lawn ivy. Sometimes it's actually in the mint family and has some ivy. Yeah, ground ivy that's the other that is used frequently, And yeah, when you have it, it is a problem. But it thrives in moist shaded conditions. So one option that you can potentially use if you're keeping your lawn is to
cut back on the water. If you can change the drainage or keep the place where it's really going strong drier, that will do a lot towards controlling and also if you can open up more sun, it does prefer to be in shade. But yeah, completely, this is a plant that will take advantage of any competitive advantage that it can get. So I think and if you are going the route of just killing off the lawn and starting again, since you've missed probably the full window to try to
chemically control it. If that's the direction you were considering going, a new lawn, especially if it's sod, should easily outcompete it because that new sod is going to be very dense and very healthy. And as long as you are able to maintain that thick, dense and healthy sod, you know, by fertilizing regularly we control high mowing, which is still important for a healthy lawn as well as an unhealthy line.
To make all the difference.
Yeah, so if it should give, you should reset it and hopefully that will work. You can also try for using a sod putting down some pre emergent herbicide just in case there's any latent seed in the soil there to come back. But I think that you can get in control. But yeah, it is one of the toughest lawn weeds to have for sure.
Stacy real quickly. This is from Blair. My wife and I are huge fans of the show. We just watched Stacy show her own yard remodel on YouTube and she mentioned Temple of Bloom seven sunflower in her future design. We have two of them that are doing well on the proven Winn site. The picture show it's more of a tree than a shrub. How does one start turning it into a multitrunk tree?
Right, So great question, Blair, and he sent two pictures and they are gorgeous. There's are beautiful plans that you have, so those were great to see. The simple fact is that for multi stem trees, whether we're talking about hepticodium or a birch or a maple or anything like that, it depends primarily on how it was grown at the grower, so it can be difficult to kind of try to reset and get multi stems. Although because Temple of Bloom is kind of half tree and half shrub, it does
have some potential for that. So Blair, in looking at your photos, I can see that these are definitely plants that if you want more of a tree like look, will benefit from being limbed up a bit. So he pretty much has foliage going all the way to the base, so I would identify where those smaller branches are and
I would cut them off. And winter is a perfect time to do this because in winter your plant is stripped back to that basic structure, so it's very easy to look at it critically and take out those lower stems. And you can easily take out any stems, you know, I would say from halfway up the plant down, really depending on the look that you're going for. Don't worry
about doing that now. It's perfectly fine. You can wait a little bit later if you want, but definitely do that pruning while it's dormant and your plants are so healthy, so happy, so vigorous. I don't think you really have to worry about harming them or setting them back.
Some of the best pruning jobs are done in January, and why not, what else are you gonna do in jail.
It's true, you can put all of your energy into it because you've got nothing else to worry about. So yeah, definitely go ahead and do that pruning now and look forward to a more treelike temple of bloom this spring. We're gonna take a riak when we come back. We've got the one and only Tim Wood joining us for Branching News, so please stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs.
Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show today for Branching News. This is really a privilege. We're going to get an opportunity to talk to Tim Wood here. He's a horticulturist and strategic thinker who helps plant breeders and growers and landscape designers and horticultural retailers like I was throughout my life and consumers discover the value of new and better problems solving woody plants. And you know, I myself, Stacy personally have heard Tim talk about this being the golden
age of plant breeding. Today we're talking about the twenty twenty five National Plants of the Year and it is it's inspiring. Tim's love for plants and people has been the foundation of building one of the most beloved and recognized home and garden brands, Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs, and Tim it is it is a pleasure to have you on the gardening simplified.
Joe, That's my pleasure as well.
Thanks for having me looking forward to this and Stacy with your diving in here. We were talking Tim about the twenty twenty five plants of the year and I got to just get this off my chest here so that I know myself. The hydrange of the year, Little Lime Punch hydrange. We walked through the garden in late summer and I was just stunned by what a gorgeous
plant that is. And I understand that you have been the key person through the years from the start in establishing the names of plants here at Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs. Is that true?
That is true? For better or worse, That's true.
It's better.
It's fantastic. I think it's fantastic. And little Lime Punch hydranges so Hawaiian punch. It gives you that feel of Hawaiian punch. Takes me back when I was a kid. I'm not going to ask you how old you are, Tim, because I'd have to reveal my age also, but I remember those commercials as a kid. How would you like a nice Hawaiian punch? Is? Are these the kind of things you think about as you name these plants?
You know, that never crossed my mind when I name that particular plant. Generally, you know, there's not many words that describe reddish pink, so you can only say, you know, lime like pinks or whatever the case might be. Whatever the plant is, you can only say pink a few different ways, and there's not really a lot of synonyms or a lot of words in the thesaurus to go to. So punch just brought did certainly did bring back memories
of you know, Hawaiian punch. And it describes a color without actually saying a color, because when you say a color, people are always disappointed because the color varies so much depending on where you live. So if I said, you know, dark pink, you know, someone in Atlanta might say, well, that's a soft pink. And so there's you know, those things to think about as well.
Through the years developing these wonderful plants. You know, naming, I guess the reason I bring it up is because naming is an important part of the process. It needs to resonate with people, and I get the distinct feeling that you're you enjoy puns just as much as I do when I see some of the names of proven winners color choice shrugs.
I enjoy words, and I enjoy word play, and certainly enjoy listening to your puns as well.
Well.
I appreciate game recognizes game over, thank you very and of course classic rock and a lot of people have written to us on the show and said, like, Hey, who's the classic rock fan naming all of these plants?
Right?
We got all sorts, you know, We've got leads up, red Zeppelin and a Swan song. Yeah.
Obviously, I guess it dates me in some ways, but I think that one of the things that I try to do at least is think about, obviously naming plants in a way that doesn't necessarily descriptively describe them, but at the same time gives people an idea of where it's going to take you, you know, what emotions I want people to feel. And you know, I go through a long process when I do plant naming, and I don't
just go through classic rock songs. I'm going to go through whatever is popular, Like I look at the top one hundred songs or something of and I'll go through thirty years of top one hundred songs. So their songs are a way that people relate, they have good memories of them. And we want to have good memories with our plants because people, you know, they have a relationship with their plants when they love their plants.
And you know, if you.
Name a plant that's just like sounds like a plant name, you forget it too easily. If it's called a little Princess or Crimson Queen, you know, that just sounds like a plant name. So I'd rather come up with a name that people kind of think twice about and say, you know, what was that guy thinking about when he named that plant, And something that evokes a memory, something that is a little bit fun, and I think that keeps it all light and enjoyable.
It goes beyond enjoyable. I think it's important. It's marketing genius. I really do think so.
Yeah, and Tim is so good at it, you know. I know when I started here, I was like, oh, I can't wait to name plants. This is going to be so great. And the fact is it's extremely difficult, you know, not only the golden age of plant breeding has also brought about the golden age of plant names. So a lot of the good ones are taken, some of them by us, and so it can be really hard.
You know, you have the perfect name for a plant, only to find out that someone else has a trademark on it, or you know that, oh, it also means this, and so it can be really challenging. You have to have extremely thick skin to name plants these days, because you know, and I think that the instinct is everyone to find out what's wrong with the name first rather
than what's right with it. So it's not easy. But in addition to plant names, Tim has actually been the person who developed some of our most popular plants incredible hydrangea, bloomerang lilac. Those are just like the top two that come to my head. You know. He was obviously instrumental in introducing limelight limelight and wine and roses, but his own work has brought so many plants that have just become you know, American standards in the garden.
Yeah, it's fantastic. Your impact on the industry, Tim is amazing. And if we can ask you about the twenty twenty five National Plants of the Year. We're talking about them today and get a little commentary from you. And let's start with the flowering shrub of the Year, the Centaura double blue lilac. Give us a comment on this plant.
Yeah, lilacs are pretty interesting plants, and that they're very low maintenance and once you plant them in your garden usually they're going to be there for years and years. And so I enjoy lilac, and of course people love fragrance, and we've been kind of taking a different look at lilac. And if you look at traditional lilacs that are on the market, there's a couple of problems that we encounter.
One is it takes them many years to bloom. So you might go to a garden center and buy a lilac and there's no flowers on it, and then even after several years in the garden, you might only have one or two flowers. And so the breeding that we're doing is actually trying to increase the amount of flowers you get at a young age, and then along with that, increase the number of branches, because the more branches you get, the more.
Flowers you get.
So n disease resistance. Those are three of the main things that we're looking for.
Wow, that's fantastic. And Stacey, you and I were talking about reminiscent rose. This thing's a beauty. I just I love reminiscent.
Yeah, I mean all of the reminiscent roses are so pretty. This is the one that's definitely got the boldest color of all of them. And I know when you were looking at all of the roses from Phenogino in Serbia, you know, I mean they've how many roses were you guys looking through in those fields?
Well, I think they put out maybe seventy thousand seedlings a year, So that's a lot of roses.
To look at, a lot of roses.
Yes, yes, And it's a really quite interesting company.
And there's not many.
Rose breeders that are putting out that many seedlings to choose from, and so it's a really nice opportunity to be able to go to a rose breeder at the beginning stages and being able to see the whole picture and then narrow it down and being able to select a series as opposed to just one plant maybe a smaller breeder. So I think it was pretty exciting to meet the people at Pheno Geno Trout. We've traveled to
Serbia repeatedly. We go in the bring when the roses look good, we go in the fall when roses don't look their best, and then we bring the plants back and we trial them very rigorously, I would say, ruthlessly, the way we trial roses to introduce a rose, I mean we have to we go through hundreds of roses that have been pre selected by breeders just to find one good rose. And this is really a nice plant.
I mean, I think the whole goal was for the series of Reminiscent was to fined what a traditional iconic rose looks like, but give it more of the modern performance that we hope for. So we don't have to spray, we don't have to do a lot of work in terms of taking care of it. They're on their own roots so that you don't have to worry about where to plant the graft and things like that. And so I think these are really nice roses. They're not what
I would say. I think it's a good combination of all the qualities that people look for in.
A rose and what really stuck out to you when you know you're looking at seventy thousand roses, how did this one kind of rise to the top for even being you know, included for trialing once you got it back here.
Well, I think it's hard to find roses that are fragrant and disease resistance, so those that combination is really hard to come by and reblooming, so that really that narrows it down greatly.
And this plant has all of those attributes.
And great color. I mean the color is eye popping on this thing.
Great color, I mean, lots of pedals, good fragrance, it's a nice plan.
We're talking to Tim Wood horticulturists here at Proven Winters Color Choice Shrubs, and Tim, I have to ask you, like I said, and I sincerely mean that you have been an inspiration through the years and your work. How many have you ever sat down and calculated how many miles you've traveled in this work?
Actually I was, I think traveling to England this year and the steward came up to me and gave me a card and it said I hit my million miles.
Oh yeah.
They gave me a nice little recognition on my airline for traveling a million miles.
So that's one accomplishment.
I guess that's fantastic. Yeah. We mentioned at the outset hydrange of the Year little lime punch. Any comment you want to make on little lime punch.
The breeding on Hydrangea peniculata since the introduction of limelight has been unbelievable. I know to a lot of people out there are Hydrangea. Limelight's probably a new plant to you, but that's a plant that I found in the Netherlands probably twenty five years ago, and since that time there's been really a lot of improvements made. I mean, limelight was a big improvement because previous to that we were selling PG Hydrangea, which was quite floppy. It couldn't hold
its blooms up. It was a plant that had been around for quite a long time and no improvements a bit made. Limelight was really a vast improvement, not just because of the green color. A lot of people think the green color is breadtaking, but it's really It holds its blooms up and it doesn't flop over much. For the size of the blooms, it's quite remarkable. But we
have much stronger blooming, stronger stemmed hydrangeas. Now we have more colors available, we have more variety available, and so little Lime Punch is probably a lot more like little Lime, you know, smaller in size, but it has really intense coloration as the bloom age and the flowers are very dense as well, which is unique. I mean, it's very full. It almost feels like you're holding a football when you
touch the blooms. And it's the plant that when we do our trials, it's the one that our visitors all put a flag into because that's their favorite plant. And whether it's in the garden or whether it's in the container over in our R and D area, whenever we have clients visiting or other breeders visiting and they come through.
That's a plant that always got a flag.
Just a perfect form, perfect flowers and yeah, I don't know if there's a better hydrange of piniculata out there.
Wow, that's some high praise indeed.
Yeah, it's really nice plant that was a developed by Megan Matthai, our breeder.
Here, and you know, I think you know you developed the original little lime correct and that was such a groundbreaking plant because it was it really started this craze of smaller piniculators, you know, I mean, sure, there was some small ish ones on the market before, but little Lime was the first kind of like, wow, I can actually grow this, it's not eight feet tall and wide kind of paniculata that came on the market.
Yeah, it was the first dwarf that didn't flop over. I mean, there was a variety called pee Wee that, you know, it was a terrible plant, and a few other dwarf varieties, and you know, little Lime is still one of the best selling hydranches in the world, and I see it everywhere I go when I travel. But I think a Little Lime Punch even exceeds what you get with little limes.
So I mean, if you like limelight, you like you know, a little lime. I mean, you will not be disappointed with Little Lime Punch.
It is a really a unique plant. Every time I see it, I'm just kind of blown away and I can't resist squeezing the squeezing the flowers. And actually we were joking about the vintage commercials that it's like squeezing the Sharman from the old Sharman commercials.
The thing I love about it, and a lot of the plants that I get to deal with, is they make you feel something. You know, when you really see a good plant and you have it in your yard and you get to see it after a hard day's work, it just changes your whole attitude. It puts a smile on your face. It makes you happy, and it's like it's therapy. It's and it's the cheapest form of therapy.
I mean, people sometimes can plain about the cost of plants, but you know, you can't get therapy for forty dollars, you know, for that's gonna last you twenty years or more. So, I mean, you look at a day to day basis of the cost of a plant in your yard, it's it's a bargain because it just makes your life better. It makes you happier and makes your house worth more money. So,
I mean, there's so many benefits of growing plants. And you know, I think that's the nice thing about this business is we get to sell a product that people like and it brings joy to people.
Wow, that's really well said, and yes, you've you've done that your entire career. Tim You're bringing those benefits to people all over the world, and there's got to be a tremendous amount of satisfaction to that. The Landscape Shove of the Year in North Pole Harborviding.
Any comment, Yeah, another good plant. This comes from Art Bau, a plant breader from Minnesota. He's deceased since we got the plant, but he was a plant breeder at North Dakota State University and introduced some really good plants. And this is a I think, just an iconic looking arbravit, a white ceedar. Some of you men may know Emerald arbrividing.
This is somewhat similar to it, probably more narrow, a little bit tighter, but the color is darker and richer, richer, and it just yeah, I think whenever you see it, you can very easily pick it out.
It looks great in the container. You can.
I have them on my deck at home because it gives me a little extra privacy from my neighbors when I'm sitting out there. It's fast growing, and it's the kind of plant you don't have to do anything to it. I mean, I love I'm kind of a lazy gardener, Okay. I don't like weeding. I don't like mulching. I don't you know. I do enjoy pruning, but it's nice to have plants I don't have to prune, and this is a plant you don't have to prune.
And I'm always looking.
For plants that, you know, require less maintenance, that are easier to grow. I want Peace to be successful. And North Pole is just a perfect narrow arbravity. It's not going to take up your whole yard if you want them screen off your neighbors. It's very narrow and just very pleasant to look at. And when you do use it, don't always just put it in a straight row. Like you know, you don't go out in nature and see
plants in a straight row. So I mean put them in little groups of three and you know, triangle shape so that it looks a little more natural, and then space them a little bit. You know, you don't have to hide every inch of the you know, your neighbors yard.
You just need to get rid of hide.
The ugly parts of the yard right and give you that privacy. So there's lots of creative ways to use the plants, and you don't have to necessarily make it look like every straight line arbravided hadgy out there.
I think it's interesting that you say that, because I love that look, you know, where there's kind of like a little family of plants. And one trick that I think that people should employ more when they do that is getting them at different sizes, you know, getting one and two three gallons for example, And that really does kind of go for more of that natural look where it's like one is the offspring of the more established plants in the garden.
Excellent observation. And I think that's I have that in my yard with my plants as well. On the north pole. I had some plants on extra plants on my deck that I didn't eat, so I ended up planning one out into the yard with the others. And so it gives you a different height, makes it more interesting, makes it look more like nature, and nature's a you can never go wrong by copying nature. I mean it's the normally the best landscaping ideas you can get.
It's for sure.
That's fantastic. Well, I wanted to ask you, Tim, twenty twenty five, Happy new year to you, and what are you most excited about in this year twenty twenty five? If you I'm going to ask you two unfair questions. I'm going to ask you that question, and then I'm going to ask you a question. A person with the experience as that you have whether or not you have a favorite plant. And I know that's a very unfair question to ask, but let's start with twenty twenty five.
What are you most excited about coming up in twenty twenty five? If you had to pick one thing.
Oh my gosh, I can't really pick one thing. That's that's like asking, you know, to pick your favorite child, and you.
Just can't do it. I mean, I told you, yeah, it's totally unfair. I mean, there's there's every year.
I mean, that's one of the more commonly asked questions that I do get. We're looking at thousands of plants, and we go out to our R and D house on a weekly basis, and we're looking at thousands of selections out there from different plant readers, and it's hard to keep them all straight. You know, if I didn't take notes and take pictures of plants and file them, I wouldn't hardly remember even though there's a lot of great plants, same thing out in the field, same thing
out in the garden. You know, we're looking at so many different plants and and comparing them against the plants that are being sold. Make sure that they're better. But there's so many exciting things going on. Like you said, it's the golden age of plant breeding. Plant breeders around the world have been bringing us really great stuff, and so it's hard to keep track of what will be introduced next year, the year beyond, the year beyond that,
and and even some of the things. You know, I'm getting older, and it's even getting hard to remember all the plants that we have in the catalog. So it's it's a lot to keep track of. But you know, I have to love a plant to really get it in the catalog and and and put it under the proven Winner's brand.
I mean, there's a brand is more than just like a logo.
It's it's the relationship that we have with our customers and the experience that they have, and I want to to have the same experience that I have.
I think that's a fantastic answer to that question, for sure. I mean, you nailed it that. That makes a lot of sense to me. And I'm certainly excited about twenty twenty five in the plant material that's coming down.
Oh, there's so much great stuff. I mean, I can't remember it all either. Because you also have to keep in mind that for us on this end of things, these were plants that were new to us like two years ago. So trying to think of what's going to be new at the garden centers requires a lot of mental We often find ourselves what year is it again?
That's why I keep like four years worth of catalogs on my desk.
I can always refer back.
Tim. There's so many people who are enjoying beautiful plants in their yards because of you, And thank you so much for everything you've done in the industry. Certainly appreciate it and looking forward to twenty twenty five, it's been a privilege to have you on the show here today.
Well, I appreciate being on the show. I appreciate all the good information that you're getting people and making guard being more enjoyable and more simplified.
That's what we try to do. Thanks too, well, that was an amazing conversation with someone who I think it's hard to overstate the influence he's had on not just the Proven Winner's Color Choice brand, but on horticulture in America over the last thirty years in general. So a privilege to have Tim with us today, a privilege to work with you, Rick and Adriana, and a privilege to have you as our audience. Thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful week ahead.