Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: That is correct.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they definitely are much more powdery meldy resistant than
your standard syringa vulgaris or common lilac.
Speaker 1: And then of course, you know you mentioned the vulgaris.
The shape also so much better than I believe than
a typical vulgaris Liway.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 2: You did get it right, Thank you, And.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was just trying to exhibit a sense
of humous here, so to speak. It is Serbia, not Siberia.
Speaker 2: Ah, yes, okay.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't it beautiful?
Speaker 1: That looks interest.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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?
Speaker 1: Same here. I've always felt that way.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: It feels that way to me. Don't get me started
on that whole feel you.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: Well let's make it fun and let's do some dreaming.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: It almost looks metallic.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 2: That is correct.
Speaker 1: Kinsley's Ghost And it's a honeysuckle vine. The botanical name
Laniscera reticulata.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: And aside from the unique color, here's a plant that's
going to really help add some interesting texture.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure.
Speaker 1: Landscape.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: Who you're gonna call he's a ghostbuster? Yeah, that is
so what a great story.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: Nothing sad other than don't be afraid to prune, yeah
my opinion.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: To make all the difference.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: Some of the best pruning jobs are done in January,
and why not, what else are you gonna do in jail.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 3: Joe, That's my pleasure as well.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 3: That is true? For better or worse, That's true.
Speaker 2: It's better.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 4: I enjoy words, and I enjoy word play, and certainly
enjoy listening to your puns as well.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: 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?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: We got all sorts, you know, We've got leads up,
red Zeppelin and a Swan song. Yeah.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: And you know, if you.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 1: It goes beyond enjoyable. I think it's important. It's marketing genius.
I really do think so.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: Flowers you get.
Speaker 4: So n disease resistance. Those are three of the main
things that we're looking for.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's fantastic. And Stacey, you and I were talking
about reminiscent rose. This thing's a beauty. I just I
love reminiscent.
Speaker 2: 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?
Speaker 4: Well, I think they put out maybe seventy thousand seedlings
a year, So that's a lot of roses.
Speaker 2: To look at, a lot of roses.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, And it's a really quite interesting company.
Speaker 3: And there's not many.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: And this plant has all of those attributes.
Speaker 2: And great color. I mean the color is eye popping
on this thing.
Speaker 4: Great color, I mean, lots of pedals, good fragrance, it's
a nice plan.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 4: They gave me a nice little recognition on my airline
for traveling a million miles.
Speaker 3: So that's one accomplishment.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: That's a plant that always got a flag.
Speaker 4: Just a perfect form, perfect flowers and yeah, I don't
know if there's a better hydrange of piniculata out there.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's some high praise indeed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really nice plant that was a developed by
Megan Matthai, our breeder.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: It looks great in the container. You can.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: And I'm always looking.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 1: You just need to get rid of hide.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 2: It's for sure.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: Just can't do it. I mean, I told you, yeah,
it's totally unfair. I mean, there's there's every year.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a brand is more than just like
a logo.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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?
Speaker 4: That's why I keep like four years worth of catalogs
on my desk.
Speaker 3: I can always refer back.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 2: 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.