I recently had the privilege of joining several other outstanding gardeners in Dekalb, Illinois at Proven Winners’ headquarters, to learn more about America’s most trusted plant brand. Talk about a meeting of kindred spirits! Today, I want to share with you how the 2022 Proven Winners’ Creators Roundtable went down, and some things you probably didn’t already know about Proven Winners.
Proven Winners’ Creators Roundtable 2022
When I got off the plane at Chicago O’Hare International Airport for Proven Winners’ inaugural Creators Roundtable event in mid-November, I felt like a cutthroat out of the creek! Having been in rural Wyoming for the past several years, I was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the place and all the people. The airport nearest to me is small—one tiny terminal with maybe three gates, and O’Hare, with it’s tram system and multiple terminals felt HUGE. I channeled my college days of flying back home by way of LAX though, asked many questions of the uniformed airport employees. Eventually, I made my way to my rental car! The traffic wasn’t so bad—thank goodness it was the middle of the day, and so I headed west, toward Dekalb. High rise buildings eventually turned into corn fields, and tree skeletons on the horizon, and I immediately felt like I was heading in the right direction.
Meet & Greet at Whiskey Acres Distilling Company
The Creators Roundtable opened with a meetup & dinner at Whiskey Acres Distilling Co, followed by a distillery tour and tasting. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in the same space with so many enthusiastic gardeners! Here are a few (but definitely not all) of the gardeners that I got to meet:
Heather Blackmore of HereSheGrows
Bethany Bey, also known as the ChicagoGardener
Erin Schanen, TheImpatientGardener
Brad Johnson from GardenEvolution
Eric, half of Growforme5b
In addition to meeting other gardeners, it was truly a pleasure meeting the crew from Proven Winners! They were all down-to-earth, kind, and sociable—including their Marketing Director, Marshall Dirks, who was probably one of the first friendly welcomes that Lindy from SmallTownGardenLife and I received (we carpooled to the distillery together).
The food was good, but I think we were all a little preoccupied to eat much. I had real cheese curds for like the first time ever—the midwestern staple—and of course they were delicious! In the midst of swapping stories and comparing garden seasons and social media struggles & successes, I looked around and saw smiles all around. The night ended with a tour of the the distillery, which set an overarching theme for the Creators Roundtable—steps toward sustainabililty.
Whiskey Acres Distilling Co. is an estate distillery that is almost fully sustainable, from Seed to Spirit. In other words, most of the inputs come directly from the acreage that the distillery is located on. They grow all of their own grain that they use to make mash. Their water comes from their ground well and they take care to use it efficiently and recycle what they can. Their electricity for the distillery comes from solar panels. They also age their barrels in unheated rickhouses, and they re-utilize the byproducts of making spirits to enrich their soil and feed livestock. They also talked about how they became one of the first distilleries to switch over to making hand sanitizer during the pandemic—incredible! The distillery tour ended with a tasting. I’m not much for drinking, but I did take one sip of their bourbon because, when in Rome, right?! Cleared my sinuses right up!
Proven Winners’ Headquarters
The next morning, we all met at Proven Winners’ office in Dekalb, Illinois. We spent the full day learning about Proven Winners as a company, some of the growers they partner with, and what new annuals, perennials, shrubs, and houseplants are coming into their collection in 2023. We also learned about what’s on the horizon for Proven Winners, including their efforts to be more sustainable stewards of the land we all love to grow on, as well as some of the tools and accessories they are bringing to market to help further peoples’ success with their plants. We got to meet Jack Barnwell—landscape architect extraordinaire and the inventor of AquaPots, who told us about how they are going to be making these innovative, self-watering pots more affordable and accessible. Spending a whole day with the team at Proven Winners gave me so much insight into the people behind the brand. The atmosphere had a friendly, family feel to it—nothing like the stuffy, corporate vibes you might expect from the #1 plant brand. Today, I thought I would share with you some of the unexpected things I learned about Proven Winners:
A Little Bit About Proven Winners
It’s Actually A Small Company
Proven Winners has less than 20 full-time employees, so next time you are picking up Proven Winners at your local greenhouse, you can feel good knowing that you are actually supporting a small business rather than a corporate machine.
Their plants are truly Proven Winners
Proven Winners exposes their trial plants to years of rigorous testing before choosing to induct them into their collection, so they really are superior plants by they time they end up in your garden! On average, here’s how long it takes for a Proven Winners plant to get sold for the first time:
Annuals 4-6 years
Perennials 8-15 years
Shrubs 15-18 years
Proven Winners has houseplants, too
Proven Winners has partnered with a sustainable houseplant grower in Virginia to bring a collection of houseplants to market called leafjoy. I’ll be keeping an eye out at my local Home Depot for some of these beautiful plants. They had a speaker from the grower who told us how these houseplants are being grown. They recycle water collected through a drainage system under their pallets of plants, and they recirculate the emissions from their greenhouse heaters, back into their greenhouse so that the plants can utilize that carbon dioxide to make more plant sugars—so cool!
They have humans who answer the phone
You know that phone number on all of your Proven Winners pots?
815-895-8130
If you call, they will actually answer! They have representatives at their office in Dekalb, Illinois who are available to help you with your plant-related questions.
How the first Proven Winners varieties got their names
In his own words, the first plants in Proven Winners’ collection were named by Marshall Dirks, their Marketing Director, who went to all the makeup counters of shopping malls, and to Sherwin Williams, and collected colors swatches of lipsticks and paint, to come up with clever plant names, that weren’t trademarked.
Their plants are truly non-GMO
Regardless of how you feel about GMOs, Proven Winners is the only plant brand in America that tests all of their annual plants to certify that they are free from GMOs.
They are actually doing something about the scourge of non-recyclable nursery pots. In other words, they genuinely care about the environment!
One of the coolest things I learned about Proven Winners, is that they are launching a new eco-friendly alternative to your standard, single-use plastic nursery pots next year, called the Proven Winners Eco+Grande garden pot. This is a fully compostable nursery pot that has a similar look and feel to your standard plastic pot, but it is made from switchgrass and corn & sugar beet byproducts. As it slowly breaks down, it feeds your plants and side-by-side trials, pitting the Eco+Grande up against traditional black nursery plastic, have consistently shown that the plants in Eco+Grande pots grow bigger and healthier. Proven Winners is working to scale production of Eco+Grande pots, because presently, it takes significantly longer to produce them, but this is a HUGE step in the right direction for the nursery industry as a whole. In 2023, all of your quart-sized annuals ordered directly from Proven Winners will come in this new, sustainable Eco+Grande pot!
Wish List Plants - New for 2023
Overall, my trip to Proven Winners headquarters was a whirlwind of new faces and new things to look forward to in the future. Proven Winners plants are becoming more and more available in my part of the country—the Intermountain West—and these are just a few of the new Proven Winners that I will be looking for next Spring:
‘Valentine’s Crush’ Summerific Hardy Hibiscus
Ya’ll know I love my hardy hibiscus—the #1 headturners in my garden! This one features bright red, HUGE blooms on slightly-bronzed foliage, and I’m thinking it will be the perfect compliment to the Lilac Crush Summerific Hibiscus that I already have planted.
Prairie Winds ‘Niagara Falls’ Switchgrass
I love ornamental grasses but my other half usually tells me they are boring—he wants more color! This cultivar, however, is a silvery shade of powder blue and he agreed that it will be a nice point of contrast planted amongst other green perennials. I’m looking forward to the cool season interest of it’s creamy seedheads.
Invincibelle ‘Sublime’ - Hydrangea arborescens
I have three Hydrangea paniculata by my back deck that haven’t done anything since I planted them three years ago, other than survive. I’m ready to try and new variety, and think one of the more native, smooth hydrangeas will perform better. ‘Sublime’ has super sturdy stems, to withstand our crazy winds, and gorgeous green florets that blush to a lovely shade of magenta in the fall—truly beautiful!
‘Reminiscent Coral’ Rose
I don’t normally grow roses, but they were my mom’s favorite, and since she passed away last year—I have been planning to add a few, just so I can think of her. When I saw this one was called ‘Reminiscent Coral’, I knew I had to have it. Couldn’t be a more fitting namesake as a tribute to my mom! Also, it was bred by an all-female group of rose hybridizers in Serbia, and that’s pretty cool, too!
‘Kodiak Fresh’ Diervilla
This is a new chartreuse-colored diervilla, that has orange new growth and fall color, and can tolerate shade. I also love that it’s native to the U.S. I’m thinking I will preorder a few of these, as well as a few of the ‘Kodiak Orange’ Diervilla during this year’s Green Monday sale at ProvenWinners.com. I plan to pull out some crazy weedy ditch lilies that grow in the shade behind our garage and replace them with a tidy little row of these shade-tolerant shrubs.
‘Aromance Mulberry’ Nemesia
This is an annual I’ve got my sights set on for some floriferous containers. The flowers remind me of itty bitty snapdragons and this one comes in pretty shades of fuschia, lavender, and yellow. I’ve also heard it’s hardy enough to withstand a frost and very fragrant!
Bright Lights ‘Horizon Sunset’ Osteospermum
I’ve been disappointed by osteospermum in the past, that have lacked in flower power. Hoping that this Proven Winners cultivar in bright sherbert shades of pink, orange, and purple does not disappoint! I’m thinking it will pair perfectly in a container with the Nemesia I have listed above and maybe some bright yellow and/or purple?!
