Speaker 1: Happy New Year from all of us here at Studio
Speaker 1: A Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the
Speaker 1: first Gardening Simplified Show of twenty twenty five with Stacy
Speaker 1: Hervella me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Speaker 1: So little time, so much to do, Let's get right
Speaker 1: to it. This week's show, we'll highlight the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five National Plants of the Year as it relates to
Speaker 1: Flowering Shrubs. Next week will cover the National Perennial Plants
Speaker 1: of the Year, and the following week the National Flowering
Speaker 1: Annual Plants of the Year. This week, Flowering Shrubs with
Speaker 1: a very special guest in segment four joining us, Tim Wood,
Speaker 1: a horticulturist and strategic thinker who helps plant breeders and
Speaker 1: growers and landscape designers and retailers and consumers discover the
Speaker 1: value of new and better problems solving woody plants just
Speaker 1: like you do, Stacy. Yes, every day here at Proven
Speaker 1: Winners Colored Choice Shrubs, And of course it's Tim. We
Speaker 1: used his phrase many times last year on the show.
Speaker 1: He would say that we live in the golden age
Speaker 1: of plant breeding. That will be fun coming up in
Speaker 1: segment four, but let's hear in segment one. Kick it
Speaker 1: right off the envelope, please, And boy, we got to
Speaker 1: start with the flowering shrub of the year. And I'm
Speaker 1: excited about this one. I have this plant in my landscape,
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, tie your shoes tight
Speaker 1: because the fragrance of this lilac will knock your socks off, right,
Speaker 1: it will.
Speaker 2: And you know, of course people expect lilacs to be fragrance,
Speaker 2: even though they aren't all fragrant, aren't all equally fragrant.
Speaker 2: But Cintaur double blue is a syringa hyacintha flora which
Speaker 2: is a mouthful. But you might guess by the inclusion
Speaker 2: of hyacinth in there that this is an exceptionally fragrant
Speaker 2: lilac and an exceptionally beautiful one too. It's just the flowers.
Speaker 2: You have to see them to believe them. They're double flowers,
Speaker 2: so it's called Sintara double blue.
Speaker 1: And then when you add to the mix the fact
Speaker 1: that they aggressively bloom and are I'm gonna say, somewhat
Speaker 1: disease resistant mine in my landscape. I was surprised I
Speaker 1: didn't deal with powdery mildew whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they definitely are much more powdery meldy resistant than
Speaker 2: your standard syringa vulgaris or common lilac.
Speaker 1: And then of course, you know you mentioned the vulgaris.
Speaker 1: The shape also so much better than I believe than
Speaker 1: a typical vulgaris Liway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great plant, and it is very hardy.
Speaker 2: It's hard to down to USDA Zone two, so much
Speaker 2: hardier then we're gonna need anywhere in Michigan. And it
Speaker 2: also needs fewer chilling hours than other lilacs, so you
Speaker 2: can grow it into warmer climates, even into Usdas on eight.
Speaker 1: Flowering Shrub of the Year Centaura double blue lilac, we
Speaker 1: moved to rose of the Year the envelope please reminiscent
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: if you're a person like many who is into cut
Speaker 1: flower gardening, Stacy, I believe this is one you got
Speaker 1: to have in your landscape.
Speaker 2: It is it's called reminiscent because it is reminiscent of
Speaker 2: the days when roses used to be big and fragrant
Speaker 2: and full of petals. And what happened really is that
Speaker 2: was that was the norm for many, many years, and
Speaker 2: then disease resistant landscape roses came out and that was great,
Speaker 2: but it kind of like made everybody rethink roses and
Speaker 2: they said, oh, I don't want those old fashioned types
Speaker 2: you know that maybe get disease or require dead heading
Speaker 2: or you know, are high maidenance spot. Yeah, and so
Speaker 2: what has had up and now since that trend started,
Speaker 2: you know, a good thirty years ago or so, is
Speaker 2: that now plant breeders are able to take all of
Speaker 2: that disease resistance and bring back the fragrance, bring back
Speaker 2: that high pedal count, bring back that great color, but
Speaker 2: in a disease resistant package. And that's what's so great
Speaker 2: about reminiscent roses. And you're right, Rick, they are a
Speaker 2: fantastic cut flower because they're kind of like a cabbage rose,
Speaker 2: and old fashioned cabbage rose with just tons and tons
Speaker 2: of petals, glorious fragrance, and super easy to grow.
Speaker 1: I can tell you from experience in my landscape. Wow,
Speaker 1: amazed at how well this plant grows. And when I
Speaker 1: look at it in my landscape, I'm thinking, well, of course,
Speaker 1: because it was developed in Serbia. Yes, Serbia sounds cold
Speaker 1: to me. Maybe it's not. I don't know, but they're
Speaker 1: sure doing a great job with roses.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are a really interesting breeding program. It's actually
Speaker 2: an all women breeding program in Serbia. And what their
Speaker 2: whole goal has been to bring back all of this
Speaker 2: classic rose feature. So they are developing roses for fragrance
Speaker 2: from the high pedal count and also edible roses like
Speaker 2: the Flavorette series. Those also come from Fenogeno in Serbia.
Speaker 2: So they're really doing interesting things just for the love
Speaker 2: of roses, so that we can rediscover everything that we lost.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was just trying to exhibit a sense
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: We did a summer walk through this past year, a
Speaker 1: late summer walkthrough, and this plant was putting on a show,
Speaker 1: little lime punch. Hydrangea paniculata Wow, this thing. I think
Speaker 1: the great thing about it is this thing puts on
Speaker 1: a show because it's not just one color. It's step
Speaker 1: back and watch it change as the season go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it has a lot of color at once, and
Speaker 2: that is the main thing I think that people notice
Speaker 2: when when they first look at pictures of Little Lime Punch,
Speaker 2: And of course we'll have pictures and the YouTube version
Speaker 2: of the show as well as in the show. Oh
Speaker 2: it's at Gardening simplified on air dot com. But it's
Speaker 2: got more than just that color. So it is a
Speaker 2: dwarf plant, so reaching in the three to five foot range,
Speaker 2: which is so great for panicle hydranges because most of them,
Speaker 2: the old fashion ones get huge, you know, six plus feet,
Speaker 2: so not everyone has space for them. Whereas this one's
Speaker 2: going to be in the three to five foot range,
Speaker 2: so it's a lot easier to incorporate. And then the
Speaker 2: breeding on panicle hydranges, especially here at proofn Winner's Color
Speaker 2: Choice shrubs have developed really strong stems. So this is
Speaker 2: a plant that you cannot knock down. And it's kind
Speaker 2: of one of those things. And I think we did
Speaker 2: this when we were on our walkthrough. He kind of
Speaker 2: want to bat it around like a little kitten or something,
Speaker 2: because it's so strong and sturdy, and it just bounces
Speaker 2: right back. It's really amazing.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing plant. So hydrange of the year little
Speaker 1: lime punch hydrange of piniculata. And I think last year
Speaker 1: I heard you use this phrase, Stacey, in that it's
Speaker 1: almost like Hawaiian punch. Yes, so when you talk about
Speaker 1: the sturdiness of the stems, I think back to being
Speaker 1: a little kid and watching cartoons and they had this
Speaker 1: drink called Hawaiian Punch. Yeah, and the commercial was something
Speaker 1: along the lines of, how would you like a nice
Speaker 1: Hawaiian punch and blammel or something like that. I somehow
Speaker 1: I recall that and I think of that every time
Speaker 1: I see this plant. What a fantastic show of color.
Speaker 2: Well, Tim was the one who came up with the
Speaker 2: punch name, and it is if you do remember Hawaiian punch,
Speaker 2: that's the when the flowers fully mature to their reddest
Speaker 2: It is kind of similar to the old Hawaiian Punch color.
Speaker 2: I don't know if Hawaiian Punch is still that same color.
Speaker 2: They may have done something with the with the colors
Speaker 2: in it, but yeah, and the flowers. So do you
Speaker 2: remember too when we saw this plant in the garden.
Speaker 2: The flower clusters are so dense that you kind of
Speaker 2: like it's hey, if we're talking about old commercials, it's
Speaker 2: like squeeze the Sharman and you have to kind of
Speaker 2: have to squeeze it and see because it's so oh
Speaker 2: dense full of florettes. It's really an extraordinary plant, not
Speaker 2: like any other panicle hydrange on the market.
Speaker 1: Great description, and we'll have to ask Tim Wood about
Speaker 1: that in segment for today, Stacy the envelope, Please, Landscape
Speaker 1: shrub of the Year. I love this north pole thuya arborviti.
Speaker 1: It's a tight columnar habit on this evergreen. And part
Speaker 1: of the reason that I love north pole is that
Speaker 1: I think it's a perfect plant to create exclamation points
Speaker 1: in your landscape.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we talked about that last year when we were
Speaker 2: doing one of our design shows. So it is a
Speaker 2: great plant for doing just that. It's very narrow at
Speaker 2: the base. So the great thing with an arborviding like
Speaker 2: this is it doesn't take up a lot of real
Speaker 2: estate if you have a small yard, whereas more conventional
Speaker 2: arborvid's are going to be taking up like ten feet
Speaker 2: or more of yard space. This one takes up just
Speaker 2: a fraction of the space. It's great on its own,
Speaker 2: it's great in small groups or clusters, and it's great
Speaker 2: as a space saving hedge too. So it's super versatile.
Speaker 2: And of course arbovide are easy to grow, they're durable.
Speaker 2: The only thing they can, of course tolerate is deer
Speaker 2: because if you've ever smelled the delicious fragrance of an
Speaker 2: arborvity and you wanted to eat it, well, then you
Speaker 2: can imagine how the deer feel when they get a
Speaker 2: whiff of this ubiquitous shrub. Weather it's northpole or another arborvidy,
Speaker 2: they do love it. But otherwise it's a great native
Speaker 2: evergreen that you'll find growing all over the eastern half
Speaker 2: of North America. Very hardy, pretty heat tallerant, more heat
Speaker 2: tolerant than most people expect, because certain varieties can actually
Speaker 2: grow all the way down into USDA Zone eight.
Speaker 1: So there you have it. The twenty twenty five National
Speaker 1: Plants of the Year as it relates to woody plants
Speaker 1: or flowering shrubs. But boy, in addition to the Plants
Speaker 1: of the Year, you're going to be hearing from us
Speaker 1: about other exciting developments. Not this year National Plants of
Speaker 1: the Year, but so many developments coming along. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've talked about how I'm excited about Illuminati Spice and
Speaker 1: mock Orange, the Flavorette roses. I'm getting my salad plate
Speaker 1: ready and I'm really fascinated Stacy by both Kodiak red
Speaker 1: a two point old dr villa and fun Yella. This
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 2: does continue to bloom, you know, through the summer. But
Speaker 2: it's a yellow clematis high pedal count, so it almost
Speaker 2: looks like little kind of jellyfish or octopus. And it
Speaker 2: is a beautiful planet. It's fragrant. I absolutely love this clematis.
Speaker 2: It's not one that you normally see so.
Speaker 1: Much to look forward to, including for a guy like me.
Speaker 1: I love hibiscus and Hollywood tropical hibiscus. We'll be talking
Speaker 1: about that also in the coming year for sure. Plants
Speaker 1: on Trial coming up next. I have an idea of
Speaker 1: how Stacy's going to tie into this, but stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Will continue to talk about twenty twenty five National Plants
Speaker 1: of the Year and upcoming exciting plants that you can
Speaker 1: enjoy in your landscape.
Speaker 2: Proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
Speaker 2: the garden. That's why we trial and test all of
Speaker 2: our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
Speaker 2: outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and
Speaker 2: the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's
Speaker 2: gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: It's the first Gardening Simplified Show of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: We are ready, we are rare and to go. And
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if it's just me, but
Speaker 2: I wish that winter was like Thanksgiving to New Year's
Speaker 2: 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,
Speaker 2: and then you're left with January and February. And how
Speaker 2: is it that February is the shortest month of the
Speaker 2: year and seems the longest.
Speaker 1: It feels that way to me. Don't get me started
Speaker 1: on that whole feel you.
Speaker 2: Oh my, So it's a little bit of a long
Speaker 2: drag here until we get to the gardening season. But
Speaker 2: we know we'll keep you entertained, we'll keep you inspired,
Speaker 2: we'll keep you dreaming about what is just around the corner.
Speaker 2: And ultimately, I do feel like it always goes fast.
Speaker 2: But these next two months for a gardener, I think especially,
Speaker 2: 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
Speaker 2: about how things can be different. So but anyway, so
Speaker 2: of course, new year, new plants. We've got every year,
Speaker 2: we've got new plants in the Proven Winter's Color Choice line,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's always very exciting that they come
Speaker 2: out and they're new options. But the plant that I
Speaker 2: am going to cover is today's plant on trial is
Speaker 2: the one that I am easily the most excited about
Speaker 2: of the class of twenty twenty five for Proven Winner's
Speaker 2: Color Choice Shrubs. And you know what, it's not even
Speaker 2: an actually new plant. It's only new to Proven Winners
Speaker 2: Colored Choice Shrubs. And that is a very unusual situation
Speaker 2: because we don't normally do that. We're normally bringing in
Speaker 2: plants that are from another country that have just come
Speaker 2: to the US, or that we have developed, or one
Speaker 2: of our partners has developed and is only coming onto
Speaker 2: the market for the first time. So this plant is
Speaker 2: a huge exception. It is Kinsley's ghost honeysuckle.
Speaker 1: Interesting, yes, interesting plant. And when I was scrolling through
Speaker 1: and looking at plants and this one popped up for me,
Speaker 1: first thing that popped in my mind was what a eucalyptus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like a eucalyptus. So I'll get into
Speaker 2: what makes us such an amazing plant. I have one
Speaker 2: in my yard. I love this plant. It is a
Speaker 2: native honeysuckle, so it's a North American native species. So
Speaker 2: let's just clear the air right there. It is not invasive.
Speaker 2: You don't have to worry about this thing spreading around.
Speaker 2: It's mostly only shrubby honeysuckles that are invasive anyway, and
Speaker 2: this is a vining honeysuckle. But anyway, what's really unique
Speaker 2: about this plant is it's one of those plants that
Speaker 2: if people saw it at say a public garden or
Speaker 2: you know, something like that in a landscape, they were like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I have to have that, And then
Speaker 2: they would get all hyped up for it, and they'd
Speaker 2: go to the garden center and they wouldn't find any
Speaker 2: This plant was something that people always wanted but was
Speaker 2: in very very short supply for many many years, and
Speaker 2: only a lucky few actually had it in their garden.
Speaker 2: So basically we were, you know, trialing it. We were
Speaker 2: using it in our own evaluations as something to test against.
Speaker 2: And we realize that this plant has everything that we
Speaker 2: look for in a proven winner's color choice shrubs. It's
Speaker 2: extremely beautiful and unique looking, very very low maintenance, disease resistant,
Speaker 2: pest resistant, tolerant of all sorts of different challenges, whether
Speaker 2: that's drought or our sun or deer, and so it
Speaker 2: kind of ticked all of our boxes. And what we
Speaker 2: did is we went to Plants Select, which is a
Speaker 2: program out of Colorado that kind of highlights plants that
Speaker 2: are suitable to Colorado's extremely challenging growing conditions. And so
Speaker 2: for many years, Kinsley's Ghost Honeysuckle was really only available
Speaker 2: through Plants Select, and they just couldn't get enough plants
Speaker 2: out there on the market. So we realized that there
Speaker 2: was huge demand for this plant, that it was a
Speaker 2: great plant, that it was a good native vine and
Speaker 2: that we could contribute our opportunity to get to scale
Speaker 2: to bring this plant to a wider audience. And so
Speaker 2: we worked with them, came to an agreement, and now
Speaker 2: we're super excited that Kinsley's Ghost honeysuckle is one of
Speaker 2: the proven winner's colored choice shrubs and that means it's
Speaker 2: going to be a lot easier for you to find. Now,
Speaker 2: you might be wondering, why would I care. Honeysuckles are everywhere,
Speaker 2: but this is a honeysuckle like you have never seen before,
Speaker 2: So you kind of have to see it to believe it.
Speaker 2: And Adriana and I can tell you that when people
Speaker 2: have visited our trial guard and seen it, I mean
Speaker 2: it's like they're falling all over themselves to place in
Speaker 2: order for it. But it's beautiful you'll see in the pictures,
Speaker 2: but really seeing this thing in person, it just takes
Speaker 2: your breath away. So it is a blue foliage plant,
Speaker 2: 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
Speaker 2: coated blue color. So it's like a nice kind of
Speaker 2: aqua kind of color. And that's so as soon as
Speaker 2: it comes out in spring, you're gonna get that beautiful
Speaker 2: blue foliage. But what where it really kind of kicks
Speaker 2: into high gear is a little bit later into spring,
Speaker 2: going into summer, when it starts to get ready to flower.
Speaker 2: And then what happens is this blue foliage at the
Speaker 2: tips of the branch forms a saucer shaped disc that
Speaker 2: goes all the way around the stem. And that's what
Speaker 2: makes it look like eucalyptus.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: That's so if you've ever bought, like dried eucalyptus, or
Speaker 2: you've been to a place where eucalyptus grows or grown
Speaker 2: it as an annual, which you can do sometimes, you
Speaker 2: see how the eucalyptus foliage basically goes all the way
Speaker 2: around the stem of the and that's what Kinsley's Ghost
Speaker 2: does as well. And then out of that saucer bursts
Speaker 2: these clusters of yellow flowers. Now they are lightly fragrant.
Speaker 2: This is not really going to be one of those
Speaker 2: honeysuckles that fills the June air and sends you off
Speaker 2: into dreamy fits, but it's worth it because it's just
Speaker 2: so unusual, and the flowers are still beautiful because they
Speaker 2: have great contrast with that blue foliage. Now, as the
Speaker 2: season progresses, those flowers fade, they leave behind a brilliant
Speaker 2: red berry, which is really really pretty. But what's more
Speaker 2: is that, especially if the plant is in a really
Speaker 2: sunny spot and in dry conditions, that bract turns a
Speaker 2: ghostly white. So you have all this blue foliage, you've
Speaker 2: got this white bract at the tip, and a red
Speaker 2: and red berries in the center of that. It is
Speaker 2: truly an extraordinary unique plant.
Speaker 1: So if you're listening to the podcast or radio and
Speaker 1: you're wondering what are we talking about keeping score at home,
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: Laniscera reticulata.
Speaker 2: Yes, right, gray honeysuckle is I don't really know exactly why.
Speaker 2: The berries don't look any different than any other honeysuckle,
Speaker 2: or they don't really look like grapes, but they call
Speaker 2: it a gray honeysuckle. Now, another thing I want you
Speaker 2: to know. I do want to get to the point
Speaker 2: about who Kinsley was, because obviously there's a Kinsley in
Speaker 2: the name here, but I want everyone to know that
Speaker 2: this is an extremely vigorous, extremely easy to grow vine.
Speaker 2: And I have known multiple people here who have started
Speaker 2: with a very small quart sized plant, so like a
Speaker 2: four inch plant, and you know, two years later, it's
Speaker 2: absolutely covering whatever structure they gave it to plan on.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't become, you know, too aggressive, like people
Speaker 2: maybe start thinking like a trumpet vine. You don't have
Speaker 2: to worry about that. It's not going to destroy your
Speaker 2: foundation or anything like that. It's just it's enough vigor
Speaker 2: to cover what you need to cover without becoming obnoxious,
Speaker 2: without becoming a problem for your neighbors. And it's just
Speaker 2: so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I do recommend full sun for it. It can grow
Speaker 2: in part shade, but the more sun it gets, the
Speaker 2: more you're going to really be able to bring out
Speaker 2: these amazing features. It's drought tolerant, it's deer resistant, it's
Speaker 2: so easy to grow. The only thing you really need
Speaker 2: is to just have a nice sturdy support for it. Now,
Speaker 2: it's not going to be as heavy as something like
Speaker 2: a whisteria. That's really like twining and building up those thick, thick,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of trunk like stems. It's twining is
Speaker 2: a lot lighter but you do need to make sure
Speaker 2: that whatever you're putting it on is sturdy enough to
Speaker 2: hold this this pretty large vine. It's fine. It's about
Speaker 2: six to twelve feet tall and wide.
Speaker 1: And aside from the unique color, here's a plant that's
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Zoo they actually use it around the Australian animals
Speaker 2: to mimic the look of eucalyptus. So if it's good
Speaker 2: enough for them, it's definitely going to be an attention
Speaker 2: getter in your landscape. Now you will be able to
Speaker 2: find this plant actual local garden centers this spring. But
Speaker 2: I do want to briefly talk about William Kinsley himself.
Speaker 2: This plant actually dates back to the eighteen hundreds eighteen eighties.
Speaker 2: Can you believe that it's pretty wild? So, like I said,
Speaker 2: it's native and sort of sort of something like what
Speaker 2: happened with Annabel hydrangea, where there was you know, speech
Speaker 2: specimens growing in the woods and growing wild and then
Speaker 2: it just took someone saying like whoa, hey, this is
Speaker 2: not your average every day nil nisro reticulata, and so
Speaker 2: it was growing in the greenhouses at Iowa State University,
Speaker 2: and William Kinsley was I don't know, I've not seen
Speaker 2: exactly what his role there was, but you know, he collected,
Speaker 2: he took cuttings off of it, grew it in his
Speaker 2: own garden. Everyone said, hey, that's really cool. Can I
Speaker 2: have some of that? He gave cuttings to friends and family,
Speaker 2: and then everything kind of just disappeared. There wasn't really
Speaker 2: an organized network, of course, to distribute plants back then
Speaker 2: like there is now, and it just kind of fell
Speaker 2: by the wayside until in two thousand and one, a
Speaker 2: nursery owner from Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery in Fort Collins, Colorado,
Speaker 2: driving down the road one day, slams on the break.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, what is that? And it's a Kinsley's
Speaker 2: ghost honeysuckle growing in this yard. He goes up to
Speaker 2: the front door. It's William Kinsley's grandson, who is quite
Speaker 2: elderly at this point, and says, hey, this is a
Speaker 2: really cool plant you have. What's the story with it?
Speaker 2: He tells him the guy is from a wholesale nursery,
Speaker 2: so he is able to now bring it up to
Speaker 2: scale and get it into propagation. And now we have
Speaker 2: Kinsley's ghosts honeysuckle.
Speaker 1: Who you're gonna call he's a ghostbuster? Yeah, that is
Speaker 1: so what a great story.
Speaker 2: It is a great story. It's a great plant, and
Speaker 2: it's definitely one of those ones where people are gonna say,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, what is that. I didn't know you
Speaker 2: could grow yuka in Michigan. Expect to hear that. But
Speaker 2: if you have something that you've been wanting to cover,
Speaker 2: like a fence or a pergola, even a mailbox if
Speaker 2: your mailbox is sturdy enough. I growing mine on a
Speaker 2: maple tree, a dead maple tree that we killed for
Speaker 2: the birds, and it's just going to kind of make
Speaker 2: it into this beautiful column of blue. I'm really excited
Speaker 2: to see what happens this year because I just planted
Speaker 2: it last year. So a great plan to add to
Speaker 2: your spring planting list if you've got that special spot
Speaker 2: that you've just been waiting for the perfect vine, because
Speaker 2: this just may be it. So you can see pictures
Speaker 2: of it, of course at the YouTube version or at
Speaker 2: our show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
Speaker 2: We'll also have links you can see even more pictures
Speaker 2: and video from our website. So we're going to take
Speaker 2: a little break. When we come back, we're going to
Speaker 2: be opening up the mailbag, so please stay tuned. At
Speaker 2: proven winner's color Choice, we've got a shrub for every
Speaker 2: taste and every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare
Speaker 2: rose and unforget a hydrangea, or something new and unique,
Speaker 2: you can be confident that the shrubs and the white
Speaker 2: containers have been trialed and tested for your success. Look
Speaker 2: for them at your local garden center. Creeting's Gardening friends
Speaker 2: and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You know
Speaker 2: you should kick off the new year having your gardening
Speaker 2: questions answered by Rick and myself. That's one of the
Speaker 2: things we do to try to simplify gardening for you.
Speaker 2: And you know, I know it's hard maybe to think
Speaker 2: about gardening challenges in January when your plants are maybe
Speaker 2: covered in snow and or just dormant not doing much.
Speaker 2: But if you do have a gardening question, we would
Speaker 2: be happy to help you. So we're really easy to reach.
Speaker 2: You can just go to Gardeningsimplified on air dot com,
Speaker 2: click the contact tab there and send us a message.
Speaker 2: You can even attach a photo, which you know photos
Speaker 2: are important. If we don't have a photo, it can
Speaker 2: be really hard to answer a question, so definitely include that.
Speaker 2: And of course house plants are also a perfectly valid question.
Speaker 2: And so if you have a question about plants are
Speaker 2: trying to grow indoors, reach out to us about that
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: And share your dreams things you're thinking about doing in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Let us know because when we share
Speaker 1: things like that, everybody benefit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. You never know. People could be a
Speaker 2: little desperate for inspiration if it could be the spark.
Speaker 2: So what have we got in the mail bag this week?
Speaker 1: John writes to us, we have had the most amazing
Speaker 1: butterfly bush plant ever this fall during a terrible windstorm.
Speaker 1: It was blown over and did not die. I pulled
Speaker 1: it back into position and placed a few steaks around
Speaker 1: for support. Should I cut it back to take the
Speaker 1: weight off of the top or simply leave it alone
Speaker 1: and take my chances that it will reroot? And Stacy,
Speaker 1: I think this is an appropriate question to start off
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five mail bag because, again, having answered
Speaker 1: people's questions for years and years, and years. If I
Speaker 1: had a dime for every time I was asked pruning
Speaker 1: bud lea or butterfl fly bush questions, I'd be a
Speaker 1: rich man, because people really struggle with that. They fear
Speaker 1: to prune them back. Also, in regards to what John
Speaker 1: is mentioning here, had the same I had the same issue.
Speaker 1: They with a misviolet got really big, but they get
Speaker 1: top heavy, And I think it's just a good reminder that,
Speaker 1: at least as far as my opinion is concerned, you
Speaker 1: should prune them back because they bloom more vigorously the
Speaker 1: next year if they get a pruning. At least that's
Speaker 1: what my experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, butterfly bush is a plant that you
Speaker 2: definitely want to prune. It's not so much a plant
Speaker 2: health issue as it is an aesthetic issue. And you've
Speaker 2: certainly heard me talk about it on the show before.
Speaker 2: If you don't prune a butterfly bush, it will eventually
Speaker 2: become a second story plant, which is to say that
Speaker 2: it's just going to have like a little smattering of
Speaker 2: flowers way way up at the tippy top, and you'll
Speaker 2: only be able to actually enjoy it from your second floor.
Speaker 2: And yes, it will still attract butterflies, but will also
Speaker 2: have far fewer flowers and sort of whar's the fun
Speaker 2: in that? So this is a plant that I do
Speaker 2: recommend regular pruning on. Now, whether or not regular pruning
Speaker 2: would have prevented the issue that John experienced is it's
Speaker 2: hard to say without actually seeing the plant, but if
Speaker 2: you are going to prune butterfly bush, you want to
Speaker 2: do it in spring. I always recommend, especially if you
Speaker 2: live in a cold climate, waiting until the plant starts
Speaker 2: to leaf out, and that can take quite a long time.
Speaker 2: It's not one of the first plants to leaf out,
Speaker 2: not by a long shot. If you live in a
Speaker 2: milder climate, it really kind of never goes fully dormant.
Speaker 2: You actually will still see kind of living foliage on
Speaker 2: the planet in little buds coming out. But definitely you
Speaker 2: want to cut it down to I usually recommend the
Speaker 2: lowest possible buds. And that might seem crazy, like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, how's it going to grow if I cut
Speaker 2: it back to these little stubs, But the fact is
Speaker 2: it has a huge root system underneath it to fuel
Speaker 2: that growth and to recover from that pruning, and as
Speaker 2: a result, you get a nice dense plant that's a
Speaker 2: covered in flowers rather than just a few at the top,
Speaker 2: and I think that that would help some of the
Speaker 2: top heaviness, you know that you just described. But you know,
Speaker 2: there's still the possibility that for whatever reason, maybe it's
Speaker 2: a young plant that hasn't fully rooted in so it's
Speaker 2: not as able to withstand strong winds. There could be
Speaker 2: you know, underground damage from you know, moles or something
Speaker 2: like that that are weakening the root structure. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot of potential reasons why this could happen. I
Speaker 2: wouldn't say it's overall a consistent issue with butterfly bush.
Speaker 2: It could really happen with anything. But the nice thing
Speaker 2: is if it does happen with the butterfly bush, they're
Speaker 2: pretty tough, so you kind of can't go wrong with
Speaker 2: resolving whatever this is. So cutting it back and fall
Speaker 2: is perfectly fine. I generally do recommend saving that pruning
Speaker 2: until spring, especially in a cold climate, but you gotta
Speaker 2: do what you gotta do. I mean, we all garden
Speaker 2: in the real world, so you do what you have
Speaker 2: to do. And then yeah, I would kind of do
Speaker 2: my best to upright it back and rather than make
Speaker 2: it dependent on steaks, although of course if you have
Speaker 2: to stake it for one season, you can then correct
Speaker 2: that with pruning the following year and then try to
Speaker 2: get those roots back covered up in soil, because what
Speaker 2: happened probably is that they did have some breakage, and
Speaker 2: so you want to encourage the plant to roots and
Speaker 2: secure itself into the soil, and so you know, how
Speaker 2: you go about that really depends on the situation. But
Speaker 2: I would probably personally gently dig on the side that
Speaker 2: it was uprooted, try to write it back up upright,
Speaker 2: and then put soil back over there and tamp that
Speaker 2: down real well to try to help get that contact
Speaker 2: which will help encourage greater root growth.
Speaker 1: Nothing sad other than don't be afraid to prune, yeah
Speaker 1: my opinion.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of times, Yeah we talk a
Speaker 2: lot about, oh, prune at this time, prune at that time.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't mean that you can't prune it at
Speaker 2: other times. It just means you need to know what
Speaker 2: any potential drawbacks are and sometimes when when something like
Speaker 2: this happens, yeah, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: You got to do what you got to do and
Speaker 1: writes to us, Hello from New York six B. We
Speaker 1: live in western New York have a terrible problem with
Speaker 1: creeping Charlie in our lawn. I feel your pain. It
Speaker 1: has literally taken over about half of our lawn. We
Speaker 1: are older, so hand pulling isn't an option. We've seen
Speaker 1: a ton of different spray options out of control this
Speaker 1: crazy weed. Not sure what is the best approach. We
Speaker 1: would love your insight. We're currently planning on killing off
Speaker 1: the entire lawn and starting over again, but not one
Speaker 1: hundred percent confident that it won't just come back. Help.
Speaker 1: I'm desperate. In six B I'm going to make a
Speaker 1: lawn story short here. This is all about competition, all
Speaker 1: about competition, and creeping Charlie is a competitor. You need
Speaker 1: to give your lawn a competitive edge on this creeping Charlie.
Speaker 1: This plant will grow so quickly that it requires a
Speaker 1: new ZIP code at the end of summer if you
Speaker 1: don't do something about it now. If you are trying
Speaker 1: the spray approach, fall is the time to spray, because
Speaker 1: the plant is going to be sending food reserves into
Speaker 1: the root system and you're going to get better control.
Speaker 1: But I would say, first and foremost, take a look
Speaker 1: at your lawnmower and raise the deck on the more
Speaker 1: take the mower height to the highest height that you
Speaker 1: dare set it at without getting into trouble with your neighbors,
Speaker 1: and then take it up another notch because that's the
Speaker 1: only way you're going to give your lawn a competitive
Speaker 1: edge against this creeping charlie. So raise the deck on
Speaker 1: the mower. Attack the creeping charlie in fall. If you're
Speaker 1: using some herbicide sprays, it can be a tough one
Speaker 1: to get on top of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really hope that it's clear to our listeners
Speaker 2: that creeping charlie is a weed that not a person.
Speaker 2: Glacoma heteratia also known as lawn ivy. Sometimes it's actually
Speaker 2: in the mint family and has some ivy. Yeah, ground
Speaker 2: ivy that's the other that is used frequently, And yeah,
Speaker 2: when you have it, it is a problem. But it
Speaker 2: thrives in moist shaded conditions. So one option that you
Speaker 2: can potentially use if you're keeping your lawn is to
Speaker 2: cut back on the water. If you can change the
Speaker 2: drainage or keep the place where it's really going strong drier,
Speaker 2: that will do a lot towards controlling and also if
Speaker 2: you can open up more sun, it does prefer to
Speaker 2: be in shade. But yeah, completely, this is a plant
Speaker 2: that will take advantage of any competitive advantage that it
Speaker 2: can get. So I think and if you are going
Speaker 2: the route of just killing off the lawn and starting again,
Speaker 2: since you've missed probably the full window to try to
Speaker 2: chemically control it. If that's the direction you were considering going,
Speaker 2: a new lawn, especially if it's sod, should easily outcompete
Speaker 2: it because that new sod is going to be very
Speaker 2: dense and very healthy. And as long as you are
Speaker 2: able to maintain that thick, dense and healthy sod, you know,
Speaker 2: by fertilizing regularly we control high mowing, which is still
Speaker 2: 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
Speaker 2: and hopefully that will work. You can also try for
Speaker 2: using a sod putting down some pre emergent herbicide just
Speaker 2: in case there's any latent seed in the soil there
Speaker 2: to come back. But I think that you can get
Speaker 2: in control. But yeah, it is one of the toughest
Speaker 2: lawn weeds to have for sure.
Speaker 1: Stacy real quickly. This is from Blair. My wife and
Speaker 1: I are huge fans of the show. We just watched
Speaker 1: Stacy show her own yard remodel on YouTube and she
Speaker 1: mentioned Temple of Bloom seven sunflower in her future design.
Speaker 1: We have two of them that are doing well on
Speaker 1: the proven Winn site. The picture show it's more of
Speaker 1: a tree than a shrub. How does one start turning
Speaker 1: it into a multitrunk tree?
Speaker 2: Right, So great question, Blair, and he sent two pictures
Speaker 2: and they are gorgeous. There's are beautiful plans that you have,
Speaker 2: so those were great to see. The simple fact is
Speaker 2: that for multi stem trees, whether we're talking about hepticodium
Speaker 2: or a birch or a maple or anything like that,
Speaker 2: it depends primarily on how it was grown at the grower,
Speaker 2: so it can be difficult to kind of try to
Speaker 2: reset and get multi stems. Although because Temple of Bloom
Speaker 2: is kind of half tree and half shrub, it does
Speaker 2: have some potential for that. So Blair, in looking at
Speaker 2: your photos, I can see that these are definitely plants
Speaker 2: that if you want more of a tree like look,
Speaker 2: will benefit from being limbed up a bit. So he
Speaker 2: pretty much has foliage going all the way to the base,
Speaker 2: so I would identify where those smaller branches are and
Speaker 2: I would cut them off. And winter is a perfect
Speaker 2: time to do this because in winter your plant is
Speaker 2: stripped back to that basic structure, so it's very easy
Speaker 2: to look at it critically and take out those lower stems.
Speaker 2: And you can easily take out any stems, you know,
Speaker 2: I would say from halfway up the plant down, really
Speaker 2: depending on the look that you're going for. Don't worry
Speaker 2: about doing that now. It's perfectly fine. You can wait
Speaker 2: a little bit later if you want, but definitely do
Speaker 2: that pruning while it's dormant and your plants are so healthy,
Speaker 2: so happy, so vigorous. I don't think you really have
Speaker 2: to worry about harming them or setting them back.
Speaker 1: Some of the best pruning jobs are done in January,
Speaker 1: and why not, what else are you gonna do in jail.
Speaker 2: It's true, you can put all of your energy into
Speaker 2: it because you've got nothing else to worry about. So yeah,
Speaker 2: definitely go ahead and do that pruning now and look
Speaker 2: forward to a more treelike temple of bloom this spring.
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a riak when we come back. We've
Speaker 2: got the one and only Tim Wood joining us for
Speaker 2: Branching News, so please stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show
Speaker 2: is brought to you by Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs.
Speaker 2: Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed
Speaker 2: and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty
Speaker 2: and less work. Look for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs
Speaker 2: and the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show today for Branching News.
Speaker 1: This is really a privilege. We're going to get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to talk to Tim Wood here. He's a horticulturist
Speaker 1: and strategic thinker who helps plant breeders and growers and
Speaker 1: landscape designers and horticultural retailers like I was throughout my
Speaker 1: life and consumers discover the value of new and better
Speaker 1: problems solving woody plants. And you know, I myself, Stacy
Speaker 1: personally have heard Tim talk about this being the golden
Speaker 1: age of plant breeding. Today we're talking about the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five National Plants of the Year and it is
Speaker 1: it's inspiring. Tim's love for plants and people has been
Speaker 1: the foundation of building one of the most beloved and
Speaker 1: recognized home and garden brands, Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs,
Speaker 1: and Tim it is it is a pleasure to have
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: with your diving in here. We were talking Tim about
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five plants of the year and I
Speaker 1: got to just get this off my chest here so
Speaker 1: that I know myself. The hydrange of the year, Little
Speaker 1: Lime Punch hydrange. We walked through the garden in late
Speaker 1: summer and I was just stunned by what a gorgeous
Speaker 1: plant that is. And I understand that you have been
Speaker 1: the key person through the years from the start in
Speaker 1: establishing the names of plants here at Proven Winners, Color
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: hydranges so Hawaiian punch. It gives you that feel of
Speaker 1: Hawaiian punch. Takes me back when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to ask you how old you are, Tim,
Speaker 1: because I'd have to reveal my age also, but I
Speaker 1: remember those commercials as a kid. How would you like
Speaker 1: a nice Hawaiian punch? Is? Are these the kind of
Speaker 1: things you think about as you name these plants?
Speaker 4: You know, that never crossed my mind when I name
Speaker 4: that particular plant. Generally, you know, there's not many words
Speaker 4: that describe reddish pink, so you can only say, you know,
Speaker 4: lime like pinks or whatever the case might be. Whatever
Speaker 4: the plant is, you can only say pink a few
Speaker 4: different ways, and there's not really a lot of synonyms
Speaker 4: or a lot of words in the thesaurus to go to.
Speaker 4: So punch just brought did certainly did bring back memories
Speaker 4: of you know, Hawaiian punch. And it describes a color
Speaker 4: without actually saying a color, because when you say a color,
Speaker 4: people are always disappointed because the color varies so much
Speaker 4: depending on where you live. So if I said, you know,
Speaker 4: dark pink, you know, someone in Atlanta might say, well,
Speaker 4: that's a soft pink. And so there's you know, those
Speaker 4: things to think about as well.
Speaker 1: Through the years developing these wonderful plants. You know, naming,
Speaker 1: I guess the reason I bring it up is because
Speaker 1: naming is an important part of the process. It needs
Speaker 1: to resonate with people, and I get the distinct feeling
Speaker 1: that you're you enjoy puns just as much as I
Speaker 1: do when I see some of the names of proven
Speaker 1: winners color choice shrugs.
Speaker 4: I enjoy words, and I enjoy word play, and certainly
Speaker 4: enjoy listening to your puns as well.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: I appreciate game recognizes game over, thank you very and
Speaker 2: of course classic rock and a lot of people have
Speaker 2: written to us on the show and said, like, Hey,
Speaker 2: 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,
Speaker 2: red Zeppelin and a Swan song. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Obviously, I guess it dates me in some ways, but
Speaker 4: I think that one of the things that I try
Speaker 4: to do at least is think about, obviously naming plants
Speaker 4: in a way that doesn't necessarily descriptively describe them, but
Speaker 4: at the same time gives people an idea of where
Speaker 4: it's going to take you, you know, what emotions I want
Speaker 4: people to feel. And you know, I go through a
Speaker 4: long process when I do plant naming, and I don't
Speaker 4: just go through classic rock songs. I'm going to go
Speaker 4: through whatever is popular, Like I look at the top
Speaker 4: one hundred songs or something of and I'll go through
Speaker 4: thirty years of top one hundred songs. So their songs
Speaker 4: are a way that people relate, they have good memories
Speaker 4: of them. And we want to have good memories with
Speaker 4: our plants because people, you know, they have a relationship
Speaker 4: 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,
Speaker 4: you forget it too easily. If it's called a little
Speaker 4: Princess or Crimson Queen, you know, that just sounds like
Speaker 4: a plant name. So I'd rather come up with a
Speaker 4: name that people kind of think twice about and say,
Speaker 4: you know, what was that guy thinking about when he
Speaker 4: named that plant, And something that evokes a memory, something
Speaker 4: that is a little bit fun, and I think that
Speaker 4: keeps it all light and enjoyable.
Speaker 1: It goes beyond enjoyable. I think it's important. It's marketing genius.
Speaker 1: I really do think so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Tim is so good at it, you know.
Speaker 2: I know when I started here, I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can't wait to name plants. This is going to
Speaker 2: be so great. And the fact is it's extremely difficult,
Speaker 2: you know, not only the golden age of plant breeding
Speaker 2: has also brought about the golden age of plant names.
Speaker 2: So a lot of the good ones are taken, some
Speaker 2: of them by us, and so it can be really hard.
Speaker 2: You know, you have the perfect name for a plant,
Speaker 2: only to find out that someone else has a trademark
Speaker 2: on it, or you know that, oh, it also means this,
Speaker 2: and so it can be really challenging. You have to
Speaker 2: have extremely thick skin to name plants these days, because
Speaker 2: you know, and I think that the instinct is everyone
Speaker 2: to find out what's wrong with the name first rather
Speaker 2: than what's right with it. So it's not easy. But
Speaker 2: in addition to plant names, Tim has actually been the
Speaker 2: person who developed some of our most popular plants incredible hydrangea,
Speaker 2: bloomerang lilac. Those are just like the top two that
Speaker 2: come to my head. You know. He was obviously instrumental
Speaker 2: in introducing limelight limelight and wine and roses, but his
Speaker 2: own work has brought so many plants that have just
Speaker 2: become you know, American standards in the garden.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fantastic. Your impact on the industry, Tim is amazing.
Speaker 1: And if we can ask you about the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five National Plants of the Year. We're talking about them
Speaker 1: today and get a little commentary from you. And let's
Speaker 1: start with the flowering shrub of the Year, the Centaura
Speaker 1: double blue lilac. Give us a comment on this plant.
Speaker 4: Yeah, lilacs are pretty interesting plants, and that they're very
Speaker 4: low maintenance and once you plant them in your garden
Speaker 4: usually they're going to be there for years and years.
Speaker 4: And so I enjoy lilac, and of course people love fragrance,
Speaker 4: and we've been kind of taking a different look at lilac.
Speaker 4: And if you look at traditional lilacs that are on
Speaker 4: the market, there's a couple of problems that we encounter.
Speaker 4: One is it takes them many years to bloom. So
Speaker 4: you might go to a garden center and buy a
Speaker 4: lilac and there's no flowers on it, and then even
Speaker 4: after several years in the garden, you might only have
Speaker 4: one or two flowers. And so the breeding that we're
Speaker 4: doing is actually trying to increase the amount of flowers
Speaker 4: you get at a young age, and then along with that,
Speaker 4: increase the number of branches, because the more branches you get,
Speaker 4: the more.
Speaker 3: Flowers you get.
Speaker 4: So n disease resistance. Those are three of the main
Speaker 4: things that we're looking for.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's fantastic. And Stacey, you and I were talking
Speaker 1: about reminiscent rose. This thing's a beauty. I just I
Speaker 1: love reminiscent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean all of the reminiscent roses are so pretty.
Speaker 2: This is the one that's definitely got the boldest color
Speaker 2: of all of them. And I know when you were
Speaker 2: looking at all of the roses from Phenogino in Serbia,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean they've how many roses were you
Speaker 2: guys looking through in those fields?
Speaker 4: Well, I think they put out maybe seventy thousand seedlings
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 4: choose from, and so it's a really nice opportunity to
Speaker 4: be able to go to a rose breeder at the
Speaker 4: beginning stages and being able to see the whole picture
Speaker 4: and then narrow it down and being able to select
Speaker 4: a series as opposed to just one plant maybe a
Speaker 4: smaller breeder. So I think it was pretty exciting to
Speaker 4: meet the people at Pheno Geno Trout. We've traveled to
Speaker 4: Serbia repeatedly. We go in the bring when the roses
Speaker 4: look good, we go in the fall when roses don't
Speaker 4: look their best, and then we bring the plants back
Speaker 4: and we trial them very rigorously, I would say, ruthlessly,
Speaker 4: the way we trial roses to introduce a rose, I
Speaker 4: mean we have to we go through hundreds of roses
Speaker 4: that have been pre selected by breeders just to find
Speaker 4: one good rose. And this is really a nice plant.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the whole goal was for the
Speaker 4: series of Reminiscent was to fined what a traditional iconic
Speaker 4: rose looks like, but give it more of the modern
Speaker 4: performance that we hope for. So we don't have to spray,
Speaker 4: we don't have to do a lot of work in
Speaker 4: terms of taking care of it. They're on their own
Speaker 4: roots so that you don't have to worry about where
Speaker 4: to plant the graft and things like that. And so
Speaker 4: I think these are really nice roses. They're not what
Speaker 4: I would say. I think it's a good combination of
Speaker 4: all the qualities that people look for in.
Speaker 2: A rose and what really stuck out to you when
Speaker 2: you know you're looking at seventy thousand roses, how did
Speaker 2: this one kind of rise to the top for even
Speaker 2: being you know, included for trialing once you got it
Speaker 2: back here.
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's hard to find roses that are
Speaker 4: fragrant and disease resistance, so those that combination is really
Speaker 4: hard to come by and reblooming, so that really that
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 2: on this thing.
Speaker 4: Great color, I mean, lots of pedals, good fragrance, it's
Speaker 4: a nice plan.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Tim Wood horticulturists here at Proven Winters
Speaker 1: Color Choice Shrubs, and Tim, I have to ask you,
Speaker 1: like I said, and I sincerely mean that you have
Speaker 1: been an inspiration through the years and your work. How
Speaker 1: many have you ever sat down and calculated how many
Speaker 1: miles you've traveled in this work?
Speaker 4: Actually I was, I think traveling to England this year
Speaker 4: and the steward came up to me and gave me
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 1: hydrange of the Year little lime punch. Any comment you
Speaker 1: want to make on little lime punch.
Speaker 4: The breeding on Hydrangea peniculata since the introduction of limelight
Speaker 4: has been unbelievable. I know to a lot of people
Speaker 4: out there are Hydrangea. Limelight's probably a new plant to you,
Speaker 4: but that's a plant that I found in the Netherlands
Speaker 4: probably twenty five years ago, and since that time there's
Speaker 4: been really a lot of improvements made. I mean, limelight
Speaker 4: was a big improvement because previous to that we were
Speaker 4: selling PG Hydrangea, which was quite floppy. It couldn't hold
Speaker 4: its blooms up. It was a plant that had been
Speaker 4: around for quite a long time and no improvements a
Speaker 4: bit made. Limelight was really a vast improvement, not just
Speaker 4: because of the green color. A lot of people think
Speaker 4: the green color is breadtaking, but it's really It holds
Speaker 4: its blooms up and it doesn't flop over much. For
Speaker 4: the size of the blooms, it's quite remarkable. But we
Speaker 4: have much stronger blooming, stronger stemmed hydrangeas. Now we have
Speaker 4: more colors available, we have more variety available, and so
Speaker 4: little Lime Punch is probably a lot more like little Lime,
Speaker 4: you know, smaller in size, but it has really intense
Speaker 4: coloration as the bloom age and the flowers are very
Speaker 4: dense as well, which is unique. I mean, it's very full.
Speaker 4: It almost feels like you're holding a football when you
Speaker 4: touch the blooms. And it's the plant that when we
Speaker 4: do our trials, it's the one that our visitors all
Speaker 4: put a flag into because that's their favorite plant. And
Speaker 4: whether it's in the garden or whether it's in the
Speaker 4: container over in our R and D area, whenever we
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 4: Megan Matthai, our breeder.
Speaker 2: Here, and you know, I think you know you developed
Speaker 2: the original little lime correct and that was such a
Speaker 2: groundbreaking plant because it was it really started this craze
Speaker 2: of smaller piniculators, you know, I mean, sure, there was
Speaker 2: some small ish ones on the market before, but little
Speaker 2: Lime was the first kind of like, wow, I can
Speaker 2: actually grow this, it's not eight feet tall and wide
Speaker 2: kind of paniculata that came on the market.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was the first dwarf that didn't flop over.
Speaker 4: I mean, there was a variety called pee Wee that,
Speaker 4: you know, it was a terrible plant, and a few
Speaker 4: other dwarf varieties, and you know, little Lime is still
Speaker 4: one of the best selling hydranches in the world, and
Speaker 4: I see it everywhere I go when I travel. But
Speaker 4: I think a Little Lime Punch even exceeds what you
Speaker 4: get with little limes.
Speaker 3: So I mean, if you like limelight, you like you know,
Speaker 3: a little lime. I mean, you will not be disappointed
Speaker 3: with Little Lime Punch.
Speaker 2: It is a really a unique plant. Every time I
Speaker 2: see it, I'm just kind of blown away and I
Speaker 2: can't resist squeezing the squeezing the flowers. And actually we
Speaker 2: were joking about the vintage commercials that it's like squeezing
Speaker 2: the Sharman from the old Sharman commercials.
Speaker 4: The thing I love about it, and a lot of
Speaker 4: the plants that I get to deal with, is they
Speaker 4: make you feel something. You know, when you really see
Speaker 4: a good plant and you have it in your yard
Speaker 4: and you get to see it after a hard day's work,
Speaker 4: it just changes your whole attitude. It puts a smile
Speaker 4: on your face. It makes you happy, and it's like
Speaker 4: it's therapy. It's and it's the cheapest form of therapy.
Speaker 4: I mean, people sometimes can plain about the cost of plants,
Speaker 4: but you know, you can't get therapy for forty dollars,
Speaker 4: you know, for that's gonna last you twenty years or more. So,
Speaker 4: I mean, you look at a day to day basis
Speaker 4: of the cost of a plant in your yard, it's
Speaker 4: it's a bargain because it just makes your life better.
Speaker 4: It makes you happier and makes your house worth more money. So,
Speaker 4: I mean, there's so many benefits of growing plants. And
Speaker 4: you know, I think that's the nice thing about this
Speaker 4: business is we get to sell a product that people
Speaker 4: like and it brings joy to people.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's really well said, and yes, you've you've done
Speaker 1: that your entire career. Tim You're bringing those benefits to
Speaker 1: people all over the world, and there's got to be
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of satisfaction to that. The Landscape Shove
Speaker 1: of the Year in North Pole Harborviding.
Speaker 4: Any comment, Yeah, another good plant. This comes from Art Bau,
Speaker 4: a plant breader from Minnesota. He's deceased since we got
Speaker 4: the plant, but he was a plant breeder at North
Speaker 4: Dakota State University and introduced some really good plants. And
Speaker 4: this is a I think, just an iconic looking arbravit,
Speaker 4: a white ceedar. Some of you men may know Emerald arbrividing.
Speaker 4: This is somewhat similar to it, probably more narrow, a
Speaker 4: little bit tighter, but the color is darker and richer, richer,
Speaker 4: and it just yeah, I think whenever you see it,
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 4: gives me a little extra privacy from my neighbors when
Speaker 4: I'm sitting out there. It's fast growing, and it's the
Speaker 4: kind of plant you don't have to do anything to it.
Speaker 4: I mean, I love I'm kind of a lazy gardener, Okay.
Speaker 4: I don't like weeding. I don't like mulching. I don't
Speaker 4: you know. I do enjoy pruning, but it's nice to
Speaker 4: have plants I don't have to prune, and this is
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 4: easier to grow. I want Peace to be successful. And
Speaker 4: North Pole is just a perfect narrow arbravity. It's not
Speaker 4: going to take up your whole yard if you want
Speaker 4: them screen off your neighbors. It's very narrow and just
Speaker 4: very pleasant to look at. And when you do use it,
Speaker 4: don't always just put it in a straight row. Like
Speaker 4: you know, you don't go out in nature and see
Speaker 4: plants in a straight row. So I mean put them
Speaker 4: in little groups of three and you know, triangle shape
Speaker 4: so that it looks a little more natural, and then
Speaker 4: space them a little bit. You know, you don't have
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 4: that privacy. So there's lots of creative ways to use
Speaker 4: the plants, and you don't have to necessarily make it
Speaker 4: look like every straight line arbravided hadgy out there.
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting that you say that, because I
Speaker 2: love that look, you know, where there's kind of like
Speaker 2: a little family of plants. And one trick that I
Speaker 2: think that people should employ more when they do that
Speaker 2: is getting them at different sizes, you know, getting one
Speaker 2: and two three gallons for example, And that really does
Speaker 2: kind of go for more of that natural look where
Speaker 2: it's like one is the offspring of the more established
Speaker 2: plants in the garden.
Speaker 4: Excellent observation. And I think that's I have that in
Speaker 4: my yard with my plants as well. On the north pole.
Speaker 4: I had some plants on extra plants on my deck
Speaker 4: that I didn't eat, so I ended up planning one
Speaker 4: out into the yard with the others. And so it
Speaker 4: gives you a different height, makes it more interesting, makes
Speaker 4: it look more like nature, and nature's a you can
Speaker 4: never go wrong by copying nature. I mean it's the
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 1: twenty five, Happy new year to you, and what are
Speaker 1: you most excited about in this year twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1: If you I'm going to ask you two unfair questions.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you that question, and then I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask you a question. A person with the
Speaker 1: experience as that you have whether or not you have
Speaker 1: a favorite plant. And I know that's a very unfair
Speaker 1: question to ask, but let's start with twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: What are you most excited about coming up in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five? If you had to pick one thing.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I can't really pick one thing. That's
Speaker 4: that's like asking, you know, to pick your favorite child,
Speaker 4: and you.
Speaker 3: Just can't do it. I mean, I told you, yeah,
Speaker 3: 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
Speaker 4: that I do get. We're looking at thousands of plants,
Speaker 4: and we go out to our R and D house
Speaker 4: on a weekly basis, and we're looking at thousands of
Speaker 4: selections out there from different plant readers, and it's hard
Speaker 4: to keep them all straight. You know, if I didn't
Speaker 4: take notes and take pictures of plants and file them,
Speaker 4: I wouldn't hardly remember even though there's a lot of
Speaker 4: great plants, same thing out in the field, same thing
Speaker 4: out in the garden. You know, we're looking at so
Speaker 4: many different plants and and comparing them against the plants
Speaker 4: that are being sold. Make sure that they're better. But
Speaker 4: there's so many exciting things going on. Like you said,
Speaker 4: it's the golden age of plant breeding. Plant breeders around
Speaker 4: the world have been bringing us really great stuff, and
Speaker 4: so it's hard to keep track of what will be
Speaker 4: introduced next year, the year beyond, the year beyond that,
Speaker 4: and and even some of the things. You know, I'm
Speaker 4: getting older, and it's even getting hard to remember all
Speaker 4: the plants that we have in the catalog. So it's
Speaker 4: it's a lot to keep track of. But you know,
Speaker 4: I have to love a plant to really get it
Speaker 4: in the catalog and and and put it under the
Speaker 4: proven Winner's brand.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a brand is more than just like
Speaker 3: a logo.
Speaker 4: It's it's the relationship that we have with our customers
Speaker 4: and the experience that they have, and I want to
Speaker 4: to have the same experience that I have.
Speaker 1: I think that's a fantastic answer to that question, for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, you nailed it that. That makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense to me. And I'm certainly excited about twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five in the plant material that's coming down.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's so much great stuff. I mean, I can't
Speaker 2: remember it all either. Because you also have to keep
Speaker 2: in mind that for us on this end of things,
Speaker 2: these were plants that were new to us like two
Speaker 2: years ago. So trying to think of what's going to
Speaker 2: be new at the garden centers requires a lot of
Speaker 2: mental We often find ourselves what year is it again?
Speaker 4: That's why I keep like four years worth of catalogs
Speaker 4: on my desk.
Speaker 3: I can always refer back.
Speaker 1: Tim. There's so many people who are enjoying beautiful plants
Speaker 1: in their yards because of you, And thank you so
Speaker 1: much for everything you've done in the industry. Certainly appreciate
Speaker 1: it and looking forward to twenty twenty five, it's been
Speaker 1: a privilege to have you on the show here today.
Speaker 4: Well, I appreciate being on the show. I appreciate all
Speaker 4: the good information that you're getting people and making guard
Speaker 4: being more enjoyable and more simplified.
Speaker 2: That's what we try to do. Thanks too, well, that
Speaker 2: was an amazing conversation with someone who I think it's
Speaker 2: hard to overstate the influence he's had on not just
Speaker 2: the Proven Winner's Color Choice brand, but on horticulture in
Speaker 2: America over the last thirty years in general. So a
Speaker 2: privilege to have Tim with us today, a privilege to
Speaker 2: work with you, Rick and Adriana, and a privilege to
Speaker 2: have you as our audience. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: We hope you have a wonderful week ahead.