Ground Breaking Banter - Rick
In addition to the Proven Winners Shrubs of the Year, industry experts also select Proven Winners Perennials of the Year. The class of 2025 includes:
Perennial of the Year: ‘Jack of Diamonds’ brunnera
Hosta of the Year: Shadowland® ‘Miss America’
Landscape Perennial of the Year: ‘Cat’s Meow’ catmint (Nepeta × faassenii)
Join us at the YouTube link above or on your favorite podcast platform to learn more about the 2025 Proven Winners Perennials of the Year – they will be waiting for you at your local garden center this spring!
If you can grow them – which is to say, if you have shade, moist soil, and no deer – hostas are great. They’re so beautiful and easy to use that many a gardener have built their entire gardens around them, becoming collectors and rhapsodizing over minute variations and features. And during the growing season, these perennials do indeed have enough structure to hold their own in the garden. However, come the first glance of frost, there go your hostas and you’re left with nothing, not even a hint of winter interest, for a good six months or more. So while pairing shrubs with hostas is not something that is normally discussed (or even thought about), it’s worth considering – how can you make a planting of hostas more interesting all year round?
I thought long and hard about what would be a good shrub pairing with hostas and think I have a pretty good offering: Spice Baby viburnum. Spice Baby is a Viburnum carlesii, also known as a Koreanspice viburnum. Like all Koreanspice viburnum, its main feature is sweet, spicy, simply glorious fragrance in early spring. It’s something you really need to smell to believe – though as you may already know, don’t go sticking your nose in just any viburnum, some smell awful. Not Koreanspice, though! What makes Spice Baby viburnum different than other Koreanspice viburnum is its size: it reaches just 3.5-5’ tall and wide compared to up to 10’ for conventional varieties. That smaller stature helps keep it in scale with a hosta garden, making the whole scene more cohesive.
So, in early spring, before – or just as – the hostas are emerging, you’ll have the fabulous flower clusters and fragrance to bring interest to your planting. Then, as the hostas come into their own, Spice Baby viburnum will gracefully cede the stage to your hostas and its thick, slightly fuzzy blue-green foliage will stand as backdrop as your hostas unfurl and show their true colors. It accentuates, doesn’t compete. Come fall, when your hostas are looking bedraggled or tired or just too darn summery for the weather, Spice Baby viburnum will light up in shades of red and burgundy. And once all the leaves fall and your hostas are deep asleep below ground, the graceful branching of the viburnum will bring structure to the planting, and invite birds and other wildlife to take refuge where they otherwise couldn’t – because there’d be nothing to perch on.
Spice Baby viburnum is hardy to down to USDA zone 4 and heat tolerant through USDA zone 8. It grows in full to part sun and can grow in deeper shade, though it is likely to flower less and its fall color won’t be as brilliant. It is deer resistant.
If you’d like to add Spice Baby Koreanspice viburnum – or any of the 320+ Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs – to your garden or landscape, you’ll find a list of local retailers here.
Gardening Mail Bag - Stacey
We got a great comment from listener Tim, who is clearly a gardener after our own hearts. He says:
Dec 29, purchased tulip bulbs for 3 bucks
Dec 30, planted tulip bulbs 🙂
Hi! I'm new to gardening and really enjoy your podcast! I purchased two El Niño Chitalpas last year after hearing about them on your podcast- they were AMAZING performers in my garden! Unfortunately this year we had a hurricane in September and a cold snap not long afterwards and they both lost all of their leaves and are basically just sticks now. Should I cut them back to the ground or leave them as is in hopes that spring will revive them? Or did the "double whammy" take them out? I've attached photos for your review. Thanks so much! - E.A.
E.A. doesn’t say where they are located, but the reference to a hurricane suggests they are in a warmer climate. Over the years, I have heard from lots of gardeners in warm climates who are surprised to see that shrubs like rose of Sharon, big leaf hydrangea, and weigela are deciduous there just as they are in cold climates. El Niño chitalpa is no different – it will naturally lose its leaves in fall when there’s a hard frost, or the days get short enough, or when it experiences significant stress, so your El Niño losing its leaves in fall is totally normal. There’s nothing you need to do but wait until spring when it will leaf out again.
I just listened to the latest episode and am so excited to hear that Proven Winners is producing Kintzley's Ghost... it has been on my gardening wish list for years! I grow lots of honeysuckles (mostly Major Wheeler for the hummingbirds) and can't wait to add this one to the mix. Question - Stacey mentioned she is going to grow this honeysuckle up a dead maple tree. How are you going to help it climb, given that honeysuckles do not self-cling? I have a dead black walnut tree next to my driveway (we needed to kill it to stop the walnuts from hitting cars and kids). We've left the dead tree in place for wildlife, but I've been wanting to grow a honeysuckle up the trunk. My other honeysuckles twine around narrow supports, so I'm not sure how it will work with a (very wide) tree trunk. I would appreciate some insight! I'm in Zone 6B outside of Boston. - Jennifer
Sorry for not clarifying! Yes, it’s growing on a dead maple but the Norway maple that we killed was quite young and the trunk is perhaps only about 8″ diameter, so the honeysuckle will easily be able to twine around and climb up this support. Here’s a photo:
How do you care for a standard rose? I have purchased a Julia Child Standard the summer of 2024. Beautiful rose. Do I keep it staked? Trimming and when? When do I fertilize? Thanks in advance! Zone 5, Colorado. - Joni
Wow, lucky you – Julia Child is one of the best hybrid tea roses around, with lots of beautifully fragrant butter-yellow flowers, excellent reblooming, and fantastic vigor and disease resistance. In fact, Julia Child picked it herself as her namesake! A “standard rose” is the technical term for a “tree rose,” and it simply means that the plant has been trained by growers to develop a bare “trunk” with the flowering and leafy portions serving as a “canopy.” Because the plant has been artificially trained to take on this form, it requires more maintenance than other roses, and will require pretty much life-long staking. You don’t have to use the stake it came with, however – a good 1×1″ or 2×2″ piece of lumber placed fairly close to the trunk and securely tied with something soft and flexible will do the trick. Each spring, it should be pruned to the largest buds, lower down on the stems. This will mean taking out quite a bit, and that’s fine – you don’t want the top to get too large and out of proportion with the trunk, nor too heavy and damage the trunk. You should also take care to remove any thin side branches, as they will add weight without substantial aesthetic contribution. As for fertilizing, one application of a granular rose fertilizer, like Espoma Rose tone, in late winter/early spring should be sufficient, but you can also fertilize monthly through late July, or opt for a second fertilizing closer to bloom time for extra energy for flower production.
Do you have a question for us? We’re happy to help! E-mail us or use the contact tab above. Due to high volume, we may not get to your question, so if you need an answer quickly, please reach out via the Proven Winners website.
Branching News - Rick
In the final segment, we’re joined by Cayla Olson from Proven Winners Perennials partner, Walters Gardens. Cayla shares her thoughts and experience with the three perennials of the year, as well as their new for 2025 perennials.
Join us on your favorite podcast platform or at the YouTube link above to hear our whole conversation with Cayla.
