Why I Oughta...

Proven Winners has come out with their 2023 plants of the year recently and the list includes a few things of note (for me) that are worth getting to know a bit. Before I run through the ones that standout to me, I thought it was important to remind (myself) what Proven Winners uses as their criteria.  Now...Proven Winners is in the business of selling A LOT of plants, so what they say are their 'winners' are grounded in that:  commerce.  But... here's what they say are their criteria :   Easy to grow Iconic Readily available Outstanding landscape performance Easy to grow...for who?  Them...in their greenhouses?  Or, me the intermediate gardener with a shade-filled yard that lacks irrigation in Zone 5b?   Readily available speaks to their ease of growing, so they're really saying 'easy to grow' twice. That last one:  outstanding performance.  This one is the key.  Again...performance of what?   There are other groups who name X of the year - like the Perennial

Over the course of my gardening history, I think I've only bought ONE "plant of the year".  Back in 2013, I bought a single Blue Indigo (Baptisia Australis) from Luurs Nursery based on the sign calling it out as "Perennial Of The Year in 2010"  and planted it in front of our fence in Elmhurst.  I always liked that plant and thought that I should have bought more (see yesterday's post about mistakes ).   But, that might change this year.  I came across the 2021 Hosta of the Year from Proven Winners named Shadowland Wheee Hosta .  Walter's Garden bills this as the third Hosta of the Year (the 2021 version) and somehow they've already called next year's (2022) Hosta of the Year (Hosta Shadowland Diamond Lake).  Here's what it looks like: Source via Proven Winners . This year's winner (Whee) is described : Extremely ruffled, cream colored margins extend from the tip of each green leaf all the way down the petiole to the crown. This ruffled m