Proven Winners Outdoor Living Extravaganza | Milwaukee, WI

February 1, 2014

Even winter’s worst weather couldn’t keep hundreds of garden enthusiasts away from Proven Winners Outdoor Living Extravaganza in Milwaukee. Dale and I took our fair share of “Trains, Planes & Automobiles” to make our way to our first of many Extravaganza.

This one-day event for 200 garden enthusiasts started with John Gaydos’ (Proven Winners Director of Product Development and Promotion) segment on Proven Winners vigorous and lengthy plant trials established to ensure superior plant performance and health. We were among the first gardeners to see 2014 introductions. Other Proven Winners plants were available during the day—long plant sale and prize giveaways.

Stacey Hirvela (Spring Meadow Nursery Social Media) introduced versatile, adaptable, beautiful shrubs for a variety of landscape problems (dry soil, wet soil, shade, hot sites, cold winter, animals, small spaces, privacy/screening). Her presentation was timely during the initial design stages of the Rockcastle River Trading Company | Proven Winners Botanical Trail (rockcastlerivertradingco.com), the first of its kind in the United States. Trail construction will start in 2014.

I spoke on small space gardening, and featured some of the projects we are currently working on, from the rooftops at the Google headquarters in New York City, to horse farms in Kentucky, to historic renovations and celebrations. For each larger project, we tackled one smaller ‘garden room’ at a time. We are using Proven Winners plant material and products, of course, to make our gardens more sustainable, more beautiful.

A special thanks to Marshall Dirks (Proven Winners Director of Marketing and Public Relations) for the kind invitation to speak in Milwaukee.

Join us at upcoming Extravaganza in Grand Rapids, MI on Saturday, March 8, 2014.

Click here for Jon’s 2014 plant picks presented at the Milwaukee, WI Extravaganza.