Few things are as exciting as hearing that something new is about to hit the market. Every industry, from clothes to cars and everything in between, introduces new products to the market every year. Proven Winners® is no different. After careful consideration and extensive trialing, we have chosen 35 new plants to be designated Proven Winners®. While we evaluate greenhouse performance, we put a lot of weight on outdoor garden trials, wide adaptability, and low-maintenance needs. We know your lives our busy, ours are too, and we want to help you have a garden that looks like you fussed over it, with a minimum of actual fussing.
The introductions this year include: 2 new series of plants, a collection of Graceful GrassesTM, great additions to existing series and a few outstanding stand-alone plants. I can guarantee you'll fall in love with at least one plant, just remember the first year a plant is on the market it can be very difficult to find.
For the first time, we are adding a series of geraniums (Pelargonium) called DaredevilTM. This geranium series of seven colors was selected to have large, quickly growing plants with outstanding garden performance. Like all Pelargoniums they will need to be deadheaded to maximize flowering. They prefer full sun and can be quite drought tolerant. Water for several weeks to establish the plants and from there they can usually pretty much fend for themselves.
The other new series is the ColorBlazeTM coleus. The taxonomists have recently changed the genus from coleus to Solenostemon and you will probably begin to see these plants listed both ways. We took stock of the coleus on the market and chose the cream of the crop for ColorBlazeTM. This series includes black, chartreuse, brick orange, hot pink, burgundy, and speckles - something for any color scheme. The plants are late to flower, a good trait since coleus foliage will tend to go downhill once the plants flower, and generally sun tolerant. ColorBlazeTM LifeLime and ColorBlazeTM Sedona do best with some afternoon shade in Southern climates, but the others should take full sun with no problem.
We also added a collection of grasses to our program, Graceful GrassesTM. These grasses are some of the best annual ornamental grasses on the market. They work great in pots or the landscape. The Graceful GrassesTM collection includes: Red Riding Hood (Pennisetum) - a compact purple fountain grass that is perfectly sized (18 to 30 inches tall) for medium containers or the front to middle of a flower bed. Pennisetum 'Rubrum', purple fountain grass, (3-4 feet tall) will work best in large containers or in the back and middle of garden beds. For those looking to add cinnamon tones to the garden, Toffee Twist (Carex) is a great choice. The fine, curled foliage in tawny browns is a great component plant in combinations and will also do well in the landscape. Fiber optic grass (Scirpus) and Quartz Creek (Juncus) are both good in containers, landscapes and as pond edge plants.
We have 5 new introductions in the cool color class (pinks, purples and blues). Superbells® Trailing Lilac Mist (Calibrachoa) is soft lavender with dark purple veins and a trailing habit. It is best in containers, but can perform in well-drained garden beds. FlirationTM Pink is a soft pink Diascia with a dense habit and a ton of color. It is cool tolerant and as long as the plant is hardened off can withstand repeated frost with little effect. It is a great plant to put out before the threat of frost has passed. LagunaTM Heavenly Lilac (Lobelia) has soft lilac flowers and a well-branched, cascading habit. This is not your mothers' Lobelia, it will not die when the weather heats up, instead it will continue to flower through the summer.
If you have a large area to fill with color, Supertunia® Vista Silverberry is the perfect choice! This soft pink Petunia is super vigorous, doesn't need to be deadheaded, grows up to 2 feet tall while easily filling out a 4 by 4 foot space by the end of the season. Once established in a ground bed it won't need to be watered much, if at all. She is great in containers too, but she really shines in landscape beds. To see photos from my garden click here. Supertunia® Mini Blue (improved) is a dark, velvety, blue-purple with smaller flowers and a vigorous, trailing habit. She makes a great annual groundcover and is a perfect hanging basket or patio pot plant. All Supertunia® varieties do best if fertilized regularly. To absolutely maximize their performance in ground beds, make sure there is food available. Incorporating compost is a great way to achieve this. Using a slow-release fertilizer works great too.
We also have five new introductions in the warm color class (reds, yellows and oranges). These five plants can be combined to make eye-popping combinations in both containers or landscapes, just my kind of colors! 'Tuscan Sun' Heliopsis is a compact form (18 to 30 inches) that is about half the size of other Heliopsis. This native american perennial is heat and drought tolerant, pretty much tough as nails. The cheery, bright yellow flowers can completely cover the plant. It will continue to bloom without deadheading, but will maximize flower production with deadheading. Pair it with bright orange, red and yellow LusciousTM Citrus BlendTM Lantana, another heat and drought tolerant plant. This duo will be happy to hang out and be completely ignored by you. The bright colors will add pizzazz to any landscape.
Supertunia® Citrus has soft yellow flowers on a well-branched plant. It is slightly more compact than most Supertunia® varieties but we believe it is the best yellow petunia on the market. Tukana® Scarlet Star is a fabulous new Verbena. The bright red flowers are set off by a white eye and cover healthy green foliage. The plants are very slow to get mildew and heat doesn't bother them. These were in full flower for me from May through September, to see photos from my garden click here. If you are looking for something unique for a shaded area, Catalina® Gilded Grape Torenia is a great choice. The yellow and purple flowers grace a well-branched, ball-shaped habit for a sunny display for shade.
To search for ideas on combinations using these plants click here.
Superbells® Trailing Lilac Mist 'KLECA08165' US PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Flirtation™ Pink 'D 05 05-01' US PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Laguna™ Heavenly Lilac US PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Supertunia® Vista Silverberry 'USTUNI60-01M' US PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Supertunia® Mini Blue 'Kerminiblue' US PPAF, Can. PBRAF; 'Tuscan Sun' 'Tuscan Sun' US PP18,763; Luscious™ Citrus Blend™ '2003.301' US PPAF; Supertunia® Citrus 'Dancas110' US PP17,288, Tukana® Scarlet Star US PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Catalina® Gilded Grape 'Dancat266' US PPAF, Can. PBRAF; ColorBlaze™ 'Sedona' 'Sedona' US PP14,790, Can. PBR 1855
