This week we're on Mackinac Island for the Grand Garden Show!
It's been a busy weekend for me, returning from a vacation in Vermont on Thursday, packing up my youngest for her first year of college and moving her into the dorms at Western Michigan University Saturday morning, and then driving a little over 280 miles north to the island Saturday evening. But I wouldn't dream of missing either thing.
So this week, since we'll have the 2019 Plants of the Year all on display at the Grand Garden Show, I'm devoting the blog to them. It's the first year we've expanded the shrub program to include a Rose of the Year, a Hydrangea of the Year and a Flowering Shrub of the Year, alongside our already popular Landscape Plant of the Year program.
Why have a Plant of the Year program? Our top growers help us identify varieties they feel are going to be great garden performers and best sellers - we then take that information and back it up with increased marketing efforts, via the Plant of the Year program. We hope this creates increased awareness of these special varieties so that gardeners will seek them out at their local garden center. This helps garden center operators to feel confident they are stocking the varieties people want to buy each season.
So without further ado, here are the Proven Winners® ColorChoice® shrubs of the year for 2019.
The 2019 Landscape Shrub of the Year is Low Scape® Mound Aronia This dwarf Aronia is adaptable to most soils and offers dark glossy foliage, loads of white flowers in spring, black summer fruit and intense red foliage in autumn. Developed by Dr. Mark Brand of the University of Connecticut, Low Scape® Mound Aronia is a native plant and is ideal for low-maintenance, mass planting.
The new At Last® rose has been selected as the 2019 Rose of the Year. Its romantic, fully-fragrant, apricot-peach blooms, combined with the easy care of a landscape rose, makes this a truly outstanding variety. Glossy, deep green foliage that stays free of black spot and powdery mildew, plus a rounded habit with self-cleaning blooms, makes this Rose of the Year an ideal low-maintenance choice for landscapes and flower gardens.
At Last® rose was developed by Colin Horner in the United Kingdom and has proved itself to be a consumer favorite, claiming the top spot in the 2016 Shrub Madness championship.
The 2019 Hydrangea of the Year is Fire Light® Hydrangea paniculata. Held upright on strong, supportive stems, its panicles are packed with florets which transform from pure white to deep pomegranate-pink as the season progresses. This very hardy hydrangea is adaptable to most well-drained soils and is also a Shrub Madness Champion from the 2015 competition.
The 2019 Hydrangea of the Year is Fire Light® Hydrangea paniculata. Held upright on strong, supportive stems, its panicles are packed with florets which transform from pure white to deep pomegranate-pink as the season progresses. This very hardy hydrangea is adaptable to most well-drained soils and is also a Shrub Madness Champion from the 2015 competition.
Finally, the 2019 Flowering Shrub of the Year, Sonic Bloom® Weigela,1 boasts the strongest reblooming ever seen in weigela. With loads of flowers in May followed by waves of blooms until frost, Sonic Bloom® Weigela are good additions to mixed borders and make a great low-foundation planting. Sonic Bloom® Weigela comes in four flower colors, pearl, red, pink and the lighter pure pink.1Sonic Bloom® is a registered trademark of the Syngenta Group Company.
Proven Winners® also has released a 2019 Hosta, Perennial and an Annual Plant of the Year. Those varieties will also be on display at the Grand Garden Show. Want to know more about the show? Here is a link to a terrific video tour of the show from Laura at Garden Answer. But be careful! Once you watch you'll be wanting to get tickets for next year!
I'll bring back some great photos for next Monday, until then...never stop growing.
