My Top 10 All-Time Favorite Proven Winner Annuals

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Hey friends welcome to Garney with Creek Side today it may be the end very end of the year the end of December but I am going to share with you my top 10 all-time favorite proven winner annuals now this is a very hard list and if you

Press me super hard then I probably could add another 10 to this list because there is no doubt there is no question that I do adore The Proven winter annuals we have grown them here um for many years at Creekside Nursery I have used them in the Gardens at the

House and I have used them in the Gardens at the Garden Center and they are just absolute Rockstar plants and these top 10 I will have them somewhere in my Gardens every single year now this is not in order of like you know number 10 to number one I just as I was

Thinking of them I wrote them down so without further Ado here we go because I’m going to pause for a moment sidebar it is December but before we know it the spring gardening season is going to be upon us and I am all about let’s start thinking about and dreaming

And planning of those warmer days clearly I am quite chilly here I’ve got my gloves I’ve got my down coat I have got multiple layers on and I am already starting to kind of pine for warmer days where we can be out in the garden planting these plants so all right here

We go I absolutely adore the Color Blaze colus from Proven Winners it is no um no secret that these are great annuals because they can do sun or shade but if I had to choose which would be my probably my favorite this is the one I

Go to the absolute most would be the Color Blaze wicked witch this is a relatively new one on the market and when I say relatively new within the past probably four years this is is just an amazing colus that has such beautiful color to it it’s almost um it’s it’s

Very very deep I don’t know if you would call it a deep kind of a chocolate purple and if that’s even a color um but with a chartreuse edges on it and has a little bit of a ruffle to it you remember this summer I planted it at the

End of the Privacy BM on the house side I planted it in Mass and it was beyond gorgeous it clearly loved where it was because by the end of the season it was nearly as tall as I am it was every bit of 4 feet Color Blaze wicked witch is

Very versatile because it does do the sun it does do the shade mine at the burm got full sun until probably about 3:00 in the afternoon and then it went the shade I do think that helps hold and retain that color a little bit um but it

Does do the Sun or the Sha conditions and then just is such a beautiful classic look to it that a lot of other colors of annuals or shrubs perennials will play off very nicely of it so I if I had to choose one favorite colus it would be the Color Blaze wicked witch

And then I adore The Rockin series Salvia these have just are Rockstar performers they blo Zoom their heads off from the moment you put them in the ground till the time that the freeze finishes them off for me that is November they are huge pollinator attractors and the hummingbirds love

Them they come in four different colors but again if I had to choose one I would probably do the rocking Blue Suede Shoes because uh it has a true blue flower to it and a lot of times with annuals and in your garden it is hard to get a true

Blue flower this has a beautiful really kind of a um I don’t even know how you would describe the the Bloom on it but it is nice and open so that your pollinators can get in there and the hummingbirds my gosh y’all the hummingbirds love the rocking Blue Suede

Shoes even though it is blue they adore it and come to it now this will get to be a nice size in your garden it will get to have a nice substantial um presence in the garden so if you’re going to use it in a container it is

Definitely going to be the Thriller in your container I would recommend that you put this in a large container because this plant gets quite large by the end of the season plant it as a specimen plant in your garden so you just plant one of them and then put some

Um lower things around it or plant it in Mass when I say Mass I mean basically three or more of them together especially if you have a big wide open area planting the same plant in large numbers really draws your eye to that area and is just makes a really nice

Impression in the garden of course the Rock and Blue Suede Shoes it the pest do not like it so for me my number one question is do Japanese beetles like it no they do not score is it plagued by aphids I have never had any issue of a

Mine of having aphids in the garden um nothing chews on the plant because it is a Alva and so they tend to be more naturally resistant to Pest and critters chewing on it because it is in that um minty family and has a nice herbaceous mint smell to it when you crush the

Leaves so rock and Blue Suede Shoes is my favorite um Salvia from proving winners in the annual category especially fre in those full sun Gardens oh my gosh you’ve got to have some Rockin Blue Suede Shoes classic summertime annual sunflowers the problem though with sunflowers is they bloom once and then

They are done well Proven Winners a couple of years ago saw that problem with the suncredible sunflower this is a continuous reblooming sunflower obviously it loves the sun right because it is a sunflower um loves the Sun and for us it in North Carolina a Zone 8A by

The end of the season it is easily a 3 to 4 foot by 3 to 4T so it is this beautiful mounded shrub Tech I mean it looks like a shrub of course it’s an annual but it looks like a shrub because of the size of it and absolutely covered

In these classic uh sunflower petals right and flowers I can’t even talk I’m just so excited about I’m just dreaming of it again so it’s just covered in these sunflowers now they are going to be a little bit smaller than maybe you think of like a

Single um star St of a sunflower the the the the flower part of them are a little bit smaller but it does not matter because there are literally can be hundreds throughout the season on one plant great thing too about the incredible sunflower is that it does

Bloom from the time you put it in the ground till the time that the freeze comes and they make great cut flowers and the more you cut on this plant the bushier the thicker and the more blooms you get so don’t be afraid to cut on that suncredible sunflower this would be

One that you’re going to put in the back of your garden or the middle of your garden depending if you have bigger shrubs in the back put this in the middle again in Mass it is phenomenal we did uh not this summer but the summer before Jerry wanted to do a mass

Planting of sun credible um and we did that and it was spectacular so suncredible sunflower massive flower power of course attracts the pollinators as well to your garden so I love this plant here in the South we have a very long long growing season and there towards

The end it can get incredibly hot and Incredibly humid and it is no fun to be in the garden at the end of the summer when the Heat and the humidity are cranking however the Luscious Lantana absolutely thrives in these conditions Lantana is a great great annual for us

In the South it is a rock star in the garden that requires very little maintenance if any from me as the gardener my probably my favorite would be the Luscious Citron luscious Citron is a beautiful nice a softer yellow so it can easily work with other colors in

Your garden it is not too bright is not too harsh Citron has I just can’t describe it is a nice soft buttery yellow and it PIR like I said it pairs whether you want to use blues or pinks or whites with it very adaptable but of course that that luscious Citron will go

All the way through the fall for us and is just a great plant you can use it in a container I like to do it in Mass planting in the landscape because it makes a nice pop of color I adore having my hummingbirds I call them my Hummers

The Hummers have returned I look forward to April every year when the Hummers return to our North Carolina garden and I always have vermillionaire waiting on them vermillionaire is the in my opinion one of the number one annuals that you can put in your garden to attract and keep your hummingbirds vermillionaire is

A very um upright kind of has an arching Habit to it and it is absolutely covered in these bright orange tubular flowers when you look at it you think well gosh that you know is not a big it’s not a big huge showy flower the flowers themselves are are relatively on the

Smaller side that does not matter because the hummingbirds see in this um like UV color and that orange is absolutely electric to them and draws them to the plant I tell people when uh the kids were little we had an above ground pool and I still had um

Containers you know around the pool and I would always have a millionaire and at least one pot around the pool those hummingbirds would bypass my hummingbird feeder go to the vermillionaire plant that was right on the edge of the pool with three Crazy Kids splashing around

In a pool they could care less about those kids because they love this plant so much it also attracts your bumblebees and your honeybees a lot too vermillionaire is a classic I will forever always have it in my garden because the hummingbirds and the pollinators absolutely adore this plant

Now you cannot talk about proving winter anals without talking about a super tunia Proven Winners is known for their super Tunas and I love a ton of them there are a lot of them that I use religiously in my garden but if I had to

Choose one the one I always turn to the one I will always be in my garden is the super tunia mini Vista white this is a rock star in my garden I planted in Mass at the patio I have done that um this year especially and I will probably

Forever do it I planted it right along the edges of the the raised beds within the confines of the patio and they just performed magnificently well this is a pure white flower that really stands out whether you use it in a hanging basket whether you use it in a mixed container

Or you’re like me and you use it in the landscape I like super tunia mini Vista white because it is more restrained in how it spreads now does it spread and does it fill fill in and Trail over absolutely but it is not as vigorous say as Vista snowdrift still a beautiful

Pure White still Trails over but it’s not as aggressive so if you have areas like me along in a tight spot in a flower bed or say along a a a sidewalk then that mini Vista white might be a great option for you and again of course white it pairs with just about

Everything out there in your garden so I will always have super mini Vista white one that doesn’t get a whole lot of recognition uh in the annual world is clei clei is h a old timey plant it’s a as I say it’s a grandmother plant because your Grandmama probably had clei

In her garden I love Senorita Rosalita because this is a sterile so no seeds it will not spread thornless will not poke you and it does not have quite uh the odor the uh fragrance which is a good thing when you’re talking about clomi um in the garden that the traditional seed

Varieties have Sorita Rosalita is one of those that continuously blooms because it is sterile it is continuously trying to produce something so it is producing flowers throughout the entire growing season remember how I talked about that we had um the Wicked Witch in the burm I

Also had that clomi in the burm also with the wicked witch Senorita Rosalita however is a beautiful nice pink it is a soft pink and it will get some nice height in your garden I used it in The Cottage Garden two years ago and absolutely adored it

In fact um I was looking back at my pictures just today and I was like man that is gorgeous so guess what’s going to be in The Cottage Garden this coming year yep Senorita Rosalita brings your height to your garden it brings height to a container beautiful continuous

Flowers again pests do not like it Japanese beetles don’t like it stays off of it and just is a really beautiful attractive plant in the landscape and your containers next because we are in North Carolina and we talk about the Heat and the humidity of the South

Because that is what I am most concerned about is the summertime heat not like the winter cold blew my mind EXL AV obulus blue my mind is um was the original AV obulus with Proven Winners they have now introduced the blue my mind XL extra large because the plant’s

A little bit bigger and your flowers are going to be a little bit bigger as well so go big or go home right so we uh choose the XL this is a beautiful plant again has true blue flowers on it extremely drought tolerant and when I say it is

Drought Toler an you can plant it in the spring watch it for the first I would say two weeks make sure it has adequate water and then you can literally walk away from it for the rest of the summer and I never have to put water on it this

Is a one of those plants that I use up at my mailbox that is quite a far distance away from any source of water so other than the rain that the good Lord gives it it does not get watered by me and it blooms and blooms and blooms

And blooms until hard freeze now this is a nice low growing perfect ground cover annual that you can use in your garden true blue flowers that open and close with the Sun so at night first thing in the morning they’re going to be closed they get some sun and they open up and

Will stay open all day long love this plant now all of the annuals that I’ve listed so far are going to be for your full sun to part sun Gardens shade there are beautiful shade annuals that are available as well there are two that I will always have in my

Shade Gardens the number one and I can say this for sure the number one is my favorite shade annual is endless illumination bro Alia endless illumination bralia is a nice mounded um annual that does not need pruning you don’t have to trim it you don’t have to

Dead head it you it does benefit from an occasional water soluble ferti izer and when I say occasional if you can do it once a month awesome now if you can do it more than that go for it uh sometimes this Gardener just can’t get her act

Together and be out there every week watering um fertilizing those annuals but the endless illumination is very tough and again it does those beautiful um it’s I wouldn’t say they’re true blue they’re a little bit more on the purple side of like a starsh shaped a nice

Thick star-shaped flower to it but when you have it in your shade garden mixed in with your hostas and your ukuras um maybe something that is a dark foliage like evening gown ukar right have it mixed in with that ferns helor all sorts of those great shade perennials and

Maybe some other shade annuals that we love this endless illumination just is a rock star like I said nice Mound rounded mounded Habit to it that blooms continuously again from Spring all the way till November adore this plant we’ll always have it in my shade garden and then one other one

That is perfect for the shade garden are the Rocka puko impatience now the Rocka puko series there’s quite a plethora of colors in this series now probably my all-time favorite is going to be coral reef and again I had a hard time saying that coral reef is my favorite color but

When I am thinking about a shade garden Rocka puko coral reef with its really bright bright flowers stands out in that shade garden and it pairs perfectly with endless illumination you have that blue and then that really kind of that hot pink coral color stunning when people

See the Rocka puko impatience for the very first time especially if it’s in a container what we call a monoculture where there’s more than one plant in a container but it’s just that same like maybe there’s three a auko coral reefs in one container makes a huge impact

People would think that they’re almost like miniature roses like little tea roses they’re not they are in impatient great thing about impatience is they don’t like fertilizer maybe you fertilize it twice during the seasons or three times during the seasons you can give them that proven winers uh continuous release fertilizer and they

Are good to go so they are not uh fertilizer Hogs so you’re not going to be out there maintaining them a lot if you need to prune them you can they they can handle being pruned very well but I have found that once I get them in the

Landscape I really do not have to touch them a great benefit though too about they they respond being to being pruned is if you have small children or maybe you have teenagers or maybe you have a dog maybe you have you know who knows life right and those plants get broken

Don’t worry they will bounce back it’ll take a little bit of time but they will come back nice and strong and sturdy and thick and they will be gorgeous and I would say that goes across the board for all of these annuals is that they can

Take a they can take a licking and keep on ticking and they will be just fine so go ahead and start making those wish lists of course at gardening with Creek Side um our website we are taking pre-orders so you can go ahead if some

Of these interest you and you want to go ahead and do your pre-order so that way you can make sure that you get them for your garden for next year we absolutely would love to help you and uh send some Creekside flowers your way but these again my top 10 all-time favorite proven

Winter annuals it is hard to decide but these are ones that I can safely say I will probably every year have these 10 in my garden in some shape fashion or form because they are just the bones of my annual Garden my annual flowers in

All of the gardens that we have here at Creekside Nursery I hope you found this fun and informative and inspirational spring is g to be here before we know it y’all we’re gonna be I will be thinking oh my gosh how in the world did I stand

There in a turtleneck and a sweater and a down coat and gloves I’m like so hot right now that’s going to happen before we know it but for right now we are enjoying this cool December weather looking forward to an amazing 202 2024 season y’all have a great day we’ll see

You in the next video bye friends and I adore using it in the garden because it is a rock star BR to hit the camera