My favorite “brand” plant producer is Proven Winners (PW). PW continuously come out with new plants each year. Proven Winners is an internationally recognized plant brand known for its high-quality plants. In North America, it holds the title of “The #1 Plant Brand” and has sold over 150 million branded plants. The Proven Winners assortment includes 300 annual varieties and over 250 shrub varieties. Here are our favorite shrubs for 2024.
Cornus Sgt. Pepper (Cornus alba “Verpaalen2’) – Sgt. Pepper dogwood is the cure for the dogwood doldrums! The clean green and white variegated foliage emerges with vivid pink tones in fall. Those fade in the summer, leaving just the refreshing variegation, until the shorter nights of late summer usher in a return of pink, and all the formerly white leaf margins transform to a bright pink. The stems also begin to turn a lovely deep red then for unforgettable color. This is such an incredibly pretty and unique dogwood that is sure to have major impulse appeal at the garden center. It’s almost like a tri-color beech in dogwood form! We are delighted to make this unique European variety available in North America.
- USDA Zone: 3-7
- Height: 4-6’
- Width: 6-8’
- Exposure: Full sun, Part Sun
Little Lime Punch Hydrangea = 2025 Hydrangea of the year (Hydrangea paniculata ‘SMNHPH’) – It’s a special day when you discover a plant that’s as unique and beautiful as this one. Similar to Little Lime® hydrangea with its useful, compact stature and emerging lime-green blooms, but it differs as the flowers age to pink. New blooms emerge to give you a festive mix of pink, green, white, and Hawaiian Punch-red blooms all on the same plant. It’s hard to describe, but the plants just make you feel happy.
- USDA Zone: 3-7
- Height: 4-6’
- Width: 6-8’
- Exposure: Full sun, Part Sun
Illumanti Spice™ Mock Orange (Philadelphus coronarius ‘SMNPSDW’) – One of the showiest and most fragrant mock oranges we have seen (and that’s saying something, because we have evaluated countless), Illuminati Spice mock orange reinvigorates the category. Large flowers are doubled and borne abundantly on the elegant stems. Versatile and manageable 4′ tall and wide habit. It’s more than a replacement for Illuminati Arch mock orange – it’s an upgrade from it.
- USDA Zone: 4-7
- Height: 4’
- Width: 4’
- Exposure: Full sun, Part Sun
Stay Classy Purple Leaf Sand Cherry (Prunus x cisterna ‘UCONNPCSDR’) – Finally, a better purple leaf sand cherry! The first cross for this landscape staple was made in South Dakota back in 1910, but not much has happened to improve it since then. We’re delighted to change that with Stay Classy™ purple leaf sand cherry from Dr. Mark Brand at the University of Connecticut. Its foliage is very dark, but there’s plenty of space within its branches and leaves to avoid the dreaded “black hole” look. It’s also about half the size of conventional types, reaching a super-useful 3-4′ tall and 4′ wide. It bears pretty white flowers in spring, but this is really more of a foliage workhorse, equally suited to beautifying home and residential landscapes. Very fast to finish, too!
- USDA Zone: 2-8
- Height: 3-4’
- Width: 4’
- Exposure: Full sun, Part Sun
Reminiscent Coral Rose = 2025 Rose of the Year (Rosa x ‘BOZFRA221’) – Reminiscent® roses represent a new day for rose lovers, combining the classic beauty and fragrance of old-fashioned roses with modern-day performance. They were developed in Serbia by a breeding team that is devoted to bringing out the best in color, fragrance, petal count, and flower power. Available in North America for the very first time, Reminiscent™ roses will be the roses everyone’s looking for at their local garden center.
Reminiscent® Coral rose boasts blousy, bowl-shaped flowers with deep pink-coral tones and an appealing copper center. Dark green foliage accents the flowers and stays clean and healthy throughout the season. Deadheading is not required for continuous blooms.
- USDA Zone: 4-9
- Height: 2-3.5’
- Width: 2’
- Exposure: Full sun
Taste of Heaven Blackberry Thornless Blackberry (Robus ‘Ponca’) Taste of Heaven blackberry is the sweetest, most flavorful blackberry on the market – and now you can grow it at home. We know, that’s a tall claim, but you don’t need to take our word for it: this article in the journal HortScience confirms it. And we know because we tasted literally hundreds of different blackberry varieties before deciding this would be the one to make it on to further testing. Taste of Heaven is a vigorous, thornless blackberry that produces large, luscious fruits over several weeks in summer. It’s a floricane variety, fruiting only on second-year canes, and does not strictly require trellising or support, though in the garden, it is easier to care for and harvest with something in place.
- USDA Zone: 5b-9
- Height: 3-5’
- Width: 2-3’
- Exposure: Full sun
Scentar Double Blue (2025 Flowering Shrub of the Year) (Syringa x hyacinthiflora ‘SMNSHBBL’) Knock-your-socks-off fragrance! Selected for its fragrance and bloom color, Scentara® Double Blue lilac creates the unforgettable spring display you crave. Very large flower clusters are made up of lavender-blue double florets and cover the plant in spring. Good resistance to mildew. Long-lived and easy to grow.
- USDA Zone: 2-8
- Height: 6-8’
- Width: 6-8’
- Exposure: Full sun
North Pole (2025 Landscape Shrub of the Year) (Thuja occidentalis ‘Art Boe’ Strongly pyramidal with a very narrow habit. North Pole® arborvitae is a narrow columnar selection of ‘Wintergreen’ has excellent hardiness and dark green winter foliage color. Fast growing, with a handsome, dense habit. More narrow than ‘Emerald Green‘. Selected by Art Boe of Faribault, MN, it is resistant to winter burn.
- USDA Zone: 3-8
- Height: 10-15’
- Width: 3-5’
- Exposure: Full sun, Part Sun
Wine & Spirits Weigela (2024 Flowering Shrub of the Year) (Weigela florida ‘SMNWFGC’) Wine & Spirits® weigela is one of our favorite new plants. An update on our classic Wine & Roses weigela, this vigorous, handsome variety combines even more dramatic dark foliage with crisp white-green flowers. A real showstopper in the garden center and landscape.
- USDA Zone: 4-8
- Height: 3-5’
- Width: 3-5’
- Exposure: Full sun
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