Ground Breaking Banter - Rick
In this episode, we’re talking overachievers: plants that do any (or all!) of the following:
– Surprise you with their development from something that seems rather unpromising to something spectacular, like cannas, elephant ear, gomphrena, scaevola, and Summerific hibiscus, to name a few.
– Plants that are easy to grow, requiring minimal effort but returning maximum results.
– Plants that go the extra mile in terms of their season(s) of interest.
Join us at the YouTube link above or on your favorite podcast platform to hear our whole conversation on overachiever plants.
We decided to do something a little different with Plants on Trial for the Overachievers show – speed round! Stacey picked some categories, and both Rick and Stacey name one of their top picks (okay, sometimes two) for an overachieving shrub in that category. Here’s what we picked:
- Overachiever Foliage Shrub:
Stacey: Midnight Sun weigela
Rick: Midnight Sun weigela - Overachiever Flowering Shrub:
Stacey: Double Play Doozie spirea
Rick: Fizzy Mizzy itea - Overachiever Hydrangea:
Stacey: Let’s Dance Sky View bigleaf hydrangea
Rick: Little Lime Punch panicle hydrangea - Overachiever Rose:
Stacey: At Last Rose
Rick: At Last Rose - Overachiever Native Shrub:
Stacey: Gatsby Pink Oakleaf hydrangea
Rick: Kodiak Orange diervilla - Overachiever Heat Tolerant Shrub:
Stacey: Jazz Hands Bold loropetalum
Rick: Sunny Boulevard St. John’s Wort hypericum - Overachiever Hardy Shrub:
Stacey: Ginger Wine ninebark
Rick: Tuff Stuff Top Fun reblooming mountain hydrangea - Overachiever Shrub with Berries:
Stacey: Proud Berry coralberry
Rick: Pearl Glam callicarpa - Overachiever Fall Foliage Shrub:
Stacey Brandywine viburnum
Rick: Legend of the Fall fothergilla - Overachiever Evergreen:
Stacey: Paisley Pup leucothoe
Rick: Tie between Tater Tot arborvitae and Full Speed a Hedge arborvitae - Overachiever Shrub for Winter Interest:
Stacey: Arctic Fire Yellow and Red Twig dogwood
Rick: Black Hat rhododendron
If you’d like to add these 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
Hosting my daughter's wedding on 6/7/2025 at my home in VA. Zone 7b. I'm not a gardener, but would love to add some color and festivity with fool proof annuals that are vigorous bloomers. They just need to look great on that one day! Any suggestions for white or pale/understated color annual flowers? Will also plop some annuals into large planters. - Sylvia
What a great question, and what great timing to ask it! First, I’d recommend that you find a small to medium local garden center and speak to the owner about possibly ordering in fresh material for you about 2-3 weeks before the event. The wedding date is in kind of a limbo between spring and when summer gets really hot, so I think that getting plants that are still fresh and robust from the garden center is going to be a better bet than trying to keep things in optimal growth for 4 or 6 weeks before – especially if you aren’t a gardener. You could simply ask the garden center to order material for you in white and pale pink, or you can use the plant search on the Proven Winners website to find annuals by color and make a list of plants you’d like to include.
You can also roll the dice and just shop for the plants Memorial Day weekend, or perhaps the weekend before. Garden centers in your area should still be amply stocked with fresh, vigorous plants to choose from, and be sure to look up – sometimes hanging baskets are a great solution for quickly, easily, and inexpensively filling containers.
I have an area in my landscape where my plants are struggling. I have added mulch over the years but the soil remains mostly clay (below the surface). I am considering adding several inches of good soil and mulch to the top, and I am wondering if this will smother the perennials. How much is too much? Thank you for all the garden advice that you give on your show. - Mary Lu
While it may seem like covering clay soil with a layer of top soil, compost, manure, and/or mulch will help your soil and plants, the opposite is true – it will hurt. Here’s why. All the materials that you propose adding have high porosity. In other words, they have very large air spaces between their particles. Clay soil, by comparison, has low porosity – very small spaces between its particles. This means that if you add layers of organic matter on top of your clay soil without digging it in at all, when you water or it rains, those top layers are going to be able to absorb and hold a lot of water. But as gravity takes its toll and the water starts to drain downward, the small spaces between the clay particles can’t hold as much water, so the rate slows and you end up having standing water around the crown, base, and/or roots of the plant, which can lead to rot and death.
You can put down a 2-3″ layer of shredded bark mulch over the soil and around the plants, and that will gradually break down and add organic matter to the soil, which helps to improve its texture and drainage. However, I would recommend against applying sheets of topsoil or compost unless you can dig it in around the plants. In the meantime, look for plants that can grow in heavy clay soils – your state’s cooperative extension can provide a list.
These Berry Poppins hollies were planted 3 years ago and this year I was the first year they were loaded with berries so I was thrilled, but then I saw the leaves turn kind of grayish on some branches and then blacken and some of the berries turn brown. This past year I slacked on the soil acidifier so I'm determined to correct that. But I'm not sure if something else is going on? I'm stumped. - Kate
As long as this is occurring in mid-late winter, it’s not a cause for concern: it’s just normal aging/rotting of the fruit due to repeated freeze-thaw cycles. Compared to many other berry-bearing shrubs, winterberry hollies hold their berries and color for quite a while, but eventually, repeated freezing and thawing takes its toll and they soften and rot. Sometimes birds may take all the berries before this happens, or depending on your climate or even the weather you are experiencing that particular season, it may not happen at all.
Soil pH would not cause this. If there is a pH issue, you’d see that on the foliage, and it typically manifests as yellowing leaves and/or leaves with green veins but yellowing between veins.
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
To conclude this episode, we talk more of our favorite overachiever plants. Check it out on Youtube!
