SANDY—IN MY GARDEN

Sandy has lived in the midwest the majority of her life, living in Iowa and now in Sycamore IL. She loves to garden and worked at the local garden center Blumen Gardens for many years. In the Proven Winners^® marketing office Sandy has been the voice of Proven Winners^® working with growers and retailers to help them support the Proven Winners^® brand. 

Diamond Frost^® Euphorbia Hybrid

I love, it is so versatile can be used anywhere with almost anything! Diamond Frost might look delicate and frilly, but nothing could be further from the truth. Diamond Frost^® is actually pretty much tough as nails. She has performed well from North to South and coast to coast. While she does best in sun or part sun conditions, she does surprisingly well in shady conditions also.

Graceful Grasses^® Fiber Optic grass Isolepsis (Scirpus)

Texture plant, loves bog conditions, works well in head planters, looks like punk rock hair! Fiber Optic Grass is a neutral grass. Where temperatures get colder than 20 degrees F, the plants should be treated as annuals. Once the grass turns brown it can either be removed immediately or removed in the spring.

Dolce^® Cinnamon Curls^™ Heuchera

A tidy mound of glossy, incredibly ruffled leaves. It emerges fiery orange-red in spring, then turns a unique blend of coppery orange, red, and purple tones. Try it in containers or near the front of the border.

Supertunia^® Bordeaux &
Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum 

I love them until I have to touch them, thank goodness ours are self cleaning. All time favorites are Bordeaux and Vista Bubblegum Bordeaux makes a nice mono or mixes will in combos and Bubblegum works well in the landscape, or with other vigorous plants like Sweet Caroline, sweet potato vine.

Stratosphere^™ Pink Picottee Gaura

Nice airy habit, nice movement in the wind, like dancing butterflies. Each flowering stem adds blooms, continuously to the end of the spike. As time goes on, the flowering stems can get rather long and tangled. Although deadheading isn't necessary for continued blooming you may find that you prefer to trim back some of the flowering stems at some point in mid-summer. This will encourage new flowering stems to emerge.

Superbena^® Large Lilac Blue &
Superbena^® Silverdust Verbena

Last way into the fall Large Lilac Blue and Silverdust are great! Superbena^® are our most vigorous, heat tolerant, and mildew tolerant series. While always great in containers they are also fantastic in landscape beds. They can tolerate dry soils and lower fertility. Normally either an application of slow release fertilizer or amending with compost is enough to keep them happy and blooming in landscape beds.

Luscious^® Lantana Series

Smells like heaven, good drought tolerant plant. If you are looking for a tough plant it's hard to beat lantana. Lantana are heat tolerant, use little to no supplemental water in the landscape, will tolerate less than ideal soils and usually don't need to be deadheaded.

Surefire^™ Red Begonia

Strong performance in the sun or in the shade! Here is a new series of begonias from Proven Winners^® with large blooms and a strong upright habit that will work well for containers or in the landscape.

Bluebird Nemesia

Likes cooler temps but will tolerate heat, lasts all summer. Self-cleaning, no deadheading necessary. Plants may be trimmed back with a sharp pair of scissors or pruning shears at anytime, although this is not usually necessary. Plants may flush out of flower if night temperatures begin to stay in the upper 70's or above. If this happens a light trim to shape them would be good. The trim will increase branching and will result in more flowers once the temperatures fall and the plants begin flowering again.

Sweet Caroline Bewitched Ipomoea

Will take full shade and never has to be trimmed. Ipomoeas are great additions to combination planters or in the landscape. They love the heat and humidity, cooler temperatures and low humidity will cause them to stay more compact.