Let me add another comment from within the industry. There are all sorts of reasons Proven Winners may decide to discontinue marketing a specific cultivar - it may be difficult or slow to propagate, it may have prohibitively restrictive royalties associated with it due to patenting or trademarks, it may not sell as well as they had hoped or they have elected to replace it with a different, typically newly released, but similar plant. It does not necessarily mean that there is anything inferior or inherently "defective" about the discontinued cultivar. Proven Winners is a marketing label, nothing more. They are profit driven and if their costs are too high for the return or the consumers are not buying, then they change their selection. It's as simple as that. They do not have a corner on the enormous perennial plant market nor are they arbitors of what is or isn't a gardenworthy plant. As a manager and a buyer for a large retail nursery and a nursery professional for many years, I can state with impunity that all of the plants included on the linked listing continue to be widely grown and sold by all manner of wholesalers and with good reason - most are great plants, some award winners. I buy, carry and sell out of pretty much every plant on that list and not once have I ever brought one in that has a Proven Winners tag or proprietary container associated with it. I choose to support my local wholesale growers and not to line PW's already very fat pockets. Unfortunately, many new releases are hyped up with heavy marketing campaigns before they have been fully tested for performance, hardiness and durability. Coreopsis 'Limerock Ruby' is one that was initially touted as a perennial coreopsis but was later determined that its parentage made it act more like an annual - it continues to be sold today as an annual coreopsis. Ditto with the 'Art's Pride/Orange Meadowbrite' echinaceas - the breeding program just hadn't been able to nail down color stability before their widespread release, which the Itsaul breeding program has very successfully accomplished. What it boils down to is consumer awareness and the ability to select plants for their reliability and performance, not because some marketeer somewhere has decided that this newest selection should be hyped to maximize their profits or that this old selection should be "phased out" because it is no longer covered by patent restrictions and is fair game to any wholesale grower. YOU as the consumer are the deciding factor as to what gets carried by and is available in your local garden centers and your favorite mail order or online nursery, not some faceless organization with a self-serving title. If you like the plant, buy it and grow it, but don't base your choices based on some arbitrary listing one marketing company has determined for purely subjective and mostly economic reasons will govern the selections they offer. There are zillions more fish in the sea than Proven Winners.

Lpink, thanks for all the info. You actually answered one of my questions in your last post. I was wondering how long a refrigerator pickle is safe to eat. I've seen recipes that say no more than a week, and that's what I was guessing. I'm assuming that the very short time they're safe is what prompted people to go one step further and freeze them. That way you could make a bunch of pickles when the cucumbers are in season, freeze them, and use just one container at a time. Not as efficient as canning but at least you'd have some sort of pickley thing available all year round. I have another question, this time about seasoning. About the same time as the pickling cukes are on sale at farmers markets, dill heads are also on sale. But sometimes they look pretty run-down. If I can't find good looking dill heads, could I substitute some dill seed? I realize the pickles would not be exactly the same, but would they be awful?

My mother separates mixed frozen veggies she gets on sale. Dad does not like the 'blends'. She has a table next to the freezer in the breezeway shed and takes a bowl with her and takes out a bowl full of frozen and takes what she wants...they don't eat much because they eat small snack meals. He likes his roasted sweet potatoes with cauliflower rice. Broccoli with a small steak. The rest in soups. In their late 80's now they don't garden much but i gave them seeds for a compact variety of zucchini and some mixed micro salad greens they have planted and are very happy with that. I did not see anything trite, self-centered or food snobby discussing frozen peas...many on a cooking food forum are just putting out there what they do and hope for some ideas for their pantry/freezer. Initially i did not see a mention of poverty or the elderly. Just a sharing of a good basic freezer stock. I stock baby peas and baby limas in the winter. Frozen spinach is just a good bargain any time of the year. Other veg frozen are from my garden. Or the farm stand like corn i cut off the cob, then freeze. I have a big freezer because of my garden and over 100 tomato plants. I keep forgetting about nutmeg! Such a special flavor and i need to try it with beans. Artichoke hearts frozen i forget as well. We have one great dish and artichokes in season are 2 for 5 dollars so it is a seasonal treat. Not very often. Frozen is often a better option for out-of-season veggies. Or those that do not grow well as Annie mentioned. I had great years for broccoli and cauliflower and nothing the past five or so with so much heat...basil was destroyed once again...bunnies maybe. No fruit on the trees from a late frost but tomatoes are gorgeous. Beets gone from a critter but radishes and garlic are beauty. Early peas are now leathery but inside are good shelled. Hoping string beans will be good this year. I plant sooo much as seeds are cheap and always get something great.... Leeks are expensive here so i grow a big bed of them and freeze. I spent high school frozen cold with a kerosene heater in a small kitchen/tv room and grandparents that layed out paper towels on the counter to dry and recycle and Pop pounded on the bathroom door to remind not to flush and only use a sprinkle of water to wash hands...with a sign that read "drips dribble dimes down the drain". I've worked very hard to not have a food budget as an adult but got up this morning at 5am and made stock from smoked organic chickens from the weekend and made salad for DH lunch and three meals and froze 4 pints for future soups not because we are food poor but because it just tastes so much better. And i just enjoy it. (then worked a 14hr day). Like every day. I bet my food budget if i cared to keep track is so much lower than most by not buying processed foods.

I like them and grow them both, as well as collards. I also eat the greens on the beets and turnips, but I don't care much for mustard or dandelion, they are too bitter for my tastes. Spinach bolts quickly here, so I've given up growing that. I invariably plant lettuce and it invariably sits in the garden and goes to seed, bolts or becomes bitter because I just don't care for the stuff. I want greens cooked, not raw, although if I HAVE to eat them uncooked, I'll use spinach leaves or lambsquarter. My grandmother used to douse cooked greens with vinegar and I detested them. Now I use butter/salt/pepper and love them. Sometimes I cook them for an hour, sometimes I just saute them, and I often toss a handful of slivered greens into soup. The kale and collards seem to hold up best to canning but chard is more quickly cooked and I've picked swiss chard right out of the snow. I've used whatever greens I have canned for spinach/artichoke dip and drained and added to omelettes, quiche and spanakopita and no one ever knows the difference. Annie