Just google shrubmadness.

===>>> but why.. im too lazy .... and im already winter mad ... so how are shrubs IDs going to help???

Ok but my electricity keeps crashing here in Tx so I will leave the research for another day.

You are not ID'ing any shrubs....just providing your opinions as to which PW selections are the most popular out of the categories provided. Those guessing closest to the winning combination can win plants.

I love Proven Winner's shrubs and grow quite a few, but I'm not playing this game. I'll just mention that my favorite shrub of theirs is Black Lace Elderberry, which I prune into a tree form. And it's large enough to be a small tree. Diane

I trust everyone understands that Proven Winners is just a very large plant broker - in other words, a marketer of plants bred by someone else. As an example, Sambucus 'Eva', aka the Black Lace elderberry mentioned above, is not a Proven Winners introduction. It was bred in England in the late 90's, subsequently patented in 2003 and now distributed all over the globe by various growers both with and without a PW label attached.

Yeah, I knew it had been bred in Europe, but PW introduced it to me, and it's been quite a few years ago. I see no other company distributing it in this area. And I like many other plants they distribute around here, too. Is that so awful? Diane

Thanks for that tip Diane. I have been wanting to replace my native sambucus that died a couple of years ago.

Black Lace sambucus hated northern Virginia: I killed three of them in succession. This time I'll find a perfect spot for it was magical thinking but it's pretty enough to inspire that kind of plant lust. Beware;)

When it’s happy it is lovely. I moved mine 4 times before it was happy. This spot is dense clay, at the top of a slight rise, and receives periodic inundation. Trying to post again as my first post disappeared into the ether.

They just want you to do their own market research for them. Not worth the time.

IGG, that is exactly the spot my old one was in and where I plan to put the new o e. Thank you!

I’m a plant nerd and so I actually look forward to this every year. I agree that PW distributes some great varieties that have done well for me and look forward to trying some of their new varieties this year.

I love their plants . It’s nice that they do so good and I feel confident in what I buy ! I’m a huge fan of their annuals . I love the inspiration book they mail out too .

They mail out a book?

Yes vapor !! It’s very pretty. Reminds me of the pics you see of mackinack island .

https://www.provenwinners.com/winners-circle

This year one of my favorite Instagram gardens is featured. Her page is

https://instagram.com/plaids.and.poppies?igshid=rw7vaui6d0vh

Gosh I hope that works . Lol

Thank you! I need to get on that one!😊

There are some special characters behind the link address (%C2%A0) that shouldn't be part of the link.

This should work:

https://www.shrubmadness.com/

I’m a huge fan of their annuals . I love the inspiration book they mail out too

Ditto and ditto!

Someone else with a similar idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9quM-wnMJQM

Oh, very nice Diane!

My comment was not intended to imply that Proven Winners was bad. It is just a brand name used for marketing purposes and a great many plants sold under the PW Label are NOT proprietary and can be sourced from dozens of other vendors. For example, the sambucus is not unique to PW and can be accessed from various suppliers who have NO relationship with Proven Winners.

Another favorite PW, Snowstorm spirea. Diane

Spiraea Snowstorm (S. xmedia 'Darsnorm') is also NOT exclusive to Proven Winners. Again, just a marketing facility, not a breeder or even responsible for introduction into the trade.

Gardengal48 you are correct that Proven Winners® is not a nursery or a breeding company. In the US, it is a cooperative brand under which four family owned nurseries (Four Star - annuals, Pleasant View - annuals, Walters Gardens - perennials, and Spring Meadow - shrubs) introduce new and improved plants. The plants, which are extensively trialed, come from either their own breeding programs or from a host of independent plant breeders around the world. For example, Black Lace® Sambucus, was developed by Dr. Ken Tobutt of the East Malling Research Station in the UK. It is an exclusive to Proven Winners (via Spring Meadow), and if you find it being sold in N. America as anything but a Proven Winners, it is being done so illegally. A small percentage of the of the genetics are not exclusive, but are under the brand to guide consumers to the best varieties regardless of who developed or who initially introduced them. But to be clear, all of the partner growers mentioned above have their own plant breeding programs, whose main purpose is to develop new and better plants for the Proven Winners brand. For example Hans Hansen, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Andrew_Hansen , the world renowned plant breeder at Walters Gardens, has developed many of the Proven Winners perennials. Ushio Sakazaki, pictured above, is responsible for many of Proven Winners best selling annuals https://bit.ly/3cOHsy4 . And lastly, meet Megan Mathey, the head plant breeder at Spring Meadow, to get an inside peak at their shrub breeding and trailing process: https://youtu.be/6t8pLydXGbQ 

Sorry but the above is NOT an accurate depiction!! Sambucus 'Eva' is NOT proprietary to Proven Winners - never has been! Proven Winners is not even the patentholder. Anyone who obtains a license to propagate from the patentholder is legally entitled to sell under that plant name.

Literally 5 seconds of googling found that Monrovia is selling it: https://www.monrovia.com/black-lace-153-elderberry.htm

And while I'm at it, I will repeat my assertion that the widespread patenting and trademarking of cultivars is having NO net benefit for American Horticulture. And, IMANSHO (in my also not so humble opinion - what would be humble about it - I've been collecting rare plants since I was 12 years old! that's over 30 years at this point!) the very rare cases where I believe it is justified are the university affiliated breeding programs to produce new fruit varieties. Why will I grant this an exception? To try to make a long story short because fruit cultivars are directly economically exploitable. Whereas ornamentals have no actual product they yield other than ornament. Now, it isn't to say novel ornamental forms shouldn't be patentable, but to say that given the totality evidence regarding the history of patenting plants, recent and not so recent, we see that there's actually no net benefit to ornamental horticulture at large. With a few exceptions, we aren't ACTUALLY getting better varieties and better gardens as a result of it. Better in all the ways that matter like garden performance. Look at all the weird Heucheras and Coneflowers bred in the past 25 years: most of them perform poorly and will not become part of the permanent "canon" of hardy perennials. Francesca was the first patented rhododendron to try to get a hardy red without catawbiense bluing, but is largely a forgotten variety now. Several other rhododendrons of the same era and/or with the same objective are NOT forgotten. In fact the rhodo cadre - some of the most sophisticated and patient plant breeders of all - largely eschewed patenting, as did - largely I think - orchid breeders. So the two most sophisticated sets of ornamental breeders realized it would be mostly counterproductive. Which it is.

It would be one thing if patented ornamental cultivars had been extensively tested for garden performance across the country but we know that's not the case. And the wholesalers are so greedy they've now started the trademarked names nonsense to try to stop anyone else from selling their usually mediocre cultivars 20 years later!

It's kind of like the back and forth in IT between open standards and platforms and proprietary interfaces and platforms. For the most part the only parties that end up benefiting from proprietary interfaces are the parties that make them so and therefore make more money off of them. The non-priority interfaces, whether hardware or software, are the ones that last with a net benefit to everyone. For thousands of years, horticulture and agriculture was 'open source' with plant decisions driven by people actually out in the field growing the plants, not bean counters in offices in high rise offices somewhere - hopefully once sanity is restored, it will go back to that.*

* I will note that unfortunately with an over-populated world this outlook isn't practical for large scale commodity agriculture anymore, of course, but that's another topic. Nobody NEEDS a new Daphne variety to survive.

Shrub Madness is awesome!! Got me thinking that I should get some new shrubs! I do want to pull out these ugly thorn bushes beneath the living room window... But.. Thorns... Lol but then again... Spots for pretty new shrubs...

One I've been growing for a few years that I like is PW Smokebush Winecraft Black (or is it Purple). It's a dwarf smokebush, so no thorns, and it is purple. I grow lots of PW butterfly bushes that I like, and they are already leafing out here in zone 7. I have several Purple Emperor, Miss Molly, and Miss Ruby. About the only thing I do for them is some pruning in late winter/early spring. Of course, everything has to be irrigated here in the desert. Butterflies and humming birds like them. Diane

Cranberry viburnum has very intricate and attractive flowers -- have to give it that as it's not the most attractive shrub after flowering (the leaves get eaten-up alot), tho the fruits turn bright red & are very tart. The outer parts are sterile and just to entice the pollinators to the center-part.

It's a dwarf smokebush, so no thorns

Cotinus never has thorns anyway

I know that. I was speaking to those who want something without thorns and aren't familiar with smokebush. Geez. This is the most unfriendly thread I've posted on. Below is my snowball viburnum--it's huge, and a lot of fun to grow. It gets no care or coddling, though I think a drip emitter is under all those branches. It's not a PW plant. Diane

Amazing, Bengs and Diane.

@Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca I just signed up to get the view book. At the end, I thought it asked me to check a box that said, "I am not a rodent." I thought that was a weird marketing strategy. Then I realized it was the box for "I am not a ROBOT." Time for glasses?

@Diane Brakefield - I asked at a local garden center about viburnum after seeing your pics, and she was quite haughty and said I might find that kind of generic shrub at a box store. !!!! What the??? Maybe it's the topic of SHRUBBERY that brings out the worst in people? I'm thinking of the Monty Python bit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69iB-xy0u4A

It would be "madness" to plant either of those viburnums around here (Cranberry Viburnum or European Snowball) - they're both highly susceptible to Viburnum Leaf Beetle.

Arbordave, mine is an Eastern Snowball--is that the same as European Snowball? It is in its 17th year of perfect health. I grew one at my previous home, too, for many years. It was large, but not as large as this one. I have read that there are some viburnum pests. I know boxwood has problems in certain areas, but I grow many of those with no problem, either. We have fewer insect pests, I think, because of our dry, inhospitable climate. No Japanese Beetles, no Chili Thrips, rose slugs, or midge. That's fine with me.

Deborah, that is hilarious--a plant snob at the local garden center. Here, we have the fantastic Edwards Greenhouse and Nursery, in business since the 1930s, and still family run. Let me tell you, there is not a plant snob among them, and they are the most knowledgeable of people and friendly as can be. Their clematis selection has to be seen to be believed. I am no plant snob, either. I like growing a great variety of plants, whether common, or more exotic. We plebeians must be taught our places, right? Diane

Oh diane...snert....

I have heard that some HOAs outlaw certain pedestrian flowers...and I think among them are petunias. But I'm enamored of a few new varieties that have knocked my socks off -- Night Sky, Evening Scentsation, and Cappucino. My Petunia Night Sky has as many admirers as my roses...

That is correct, "Eastern Snowball" = European Snowball = V. opulus sterilis aka V. opulus roseum, which is closely related to V. trilobum (American Cranberry Viburnum).

Deborah, that must be California because here I've never heard of such a thing, and neighbors love my roses and other flowers. I think that attitude is disgusting. Years ago, a man living in the neighborhood did an article about my hardy hibiscus. Most people here don't know what they are when the hibiscus are in bloom. Petunias have really gotten more beautiful, I think. So few people in this neighborhood grow many flowers, they are just happy to see some color when they walk by. I hope you show us some photos of your petunias. Diane

Diane - I could be wrong, but I think my friend was telling me about a place in Michigan that didn't want petunias (or pansies?). Above is Petunia Night Sky. With a freesia in the middle.

Gorgeous viburnum, Diane, and I can see why those petunias get a lot of attention, Deborah - they're so pretty.

Lovely, Deborah--is that blooming right now? And a pox on the anti-pansy people.

Thank you, arbordave. You know your plants and put me to shame. Diane

What is wrong with people? Seriously!

My mother's old fashioned snowball bush in late April, 2019. The shed is 12'x20'. Last year I had to get a high pole hedger to reduce it in size as it was hard to get in and out of the shed. It is a beauty when it is in full bloom.

hc, aren't they the most beautiful things, as lovely as hydrangeas, I think? Some people call them snowball hydrangeas, too. I love the way the snowball engulfs your mother's shed, and the whole green setting is so inviting. Here it's more a setting of tan and sagebrush. Thanks for posting these lovely photos. Diane

I didn't think I could find these photos from years ago, but I did. I remember that the snowball in the birdbath was a double one, so I picked it and floated it in the water. Diane

Beautiful photos Diane. "Eastern" or "Old Fashioned" Snowball (V. opulus roseum) and American Cranberry Viburnum (V. trilobum) as well as Arrowwood Viburnum used to be perfectly good shrubs in my area until VLB arrived. The other "snowball" viburnum (V. plicatum) is also nice (and resistant to VLB), and a number of cultivars are available. I have a V. plicatum Kern's Pink which has darker foliage for good contrast with the long lasting blooms (very light pink turning white):

Need one of those! I have a double file viburnum 4 which I am waiting to grow huge. I'm so glad the story is still going because I completely forgot to order that idea book oh, but was reminded yesterday and did it right away. I ordered one for a friend to. :-)