This summer, the Farwest Show in Portland, Oregon, showed record attendance, hosting more than 5,000 industry professionals from 20 countries, with nearly 400 exhibitors. A highlight of the show is the New Varieties Showcase, which gives nurseries the opportunity to present their most cutting-edge plant varieties for display and awards consideration.
The 2019 entries numbered 83, from which the judges presented a Best of Show Award and three Awards of Merit, one which went to Proven Winners ColorChoice Ground Hog Aronia, introduced by Spring Meadow Nursery and hybridized at the University of Connecticut by Dr. Mark Brand.
Ground Hog Aronia naturally grows as a thick, dense mat, eliminating the need for weeding and mulching. It features glossy foliage, white spring flowers, dark purple berries in late summer and autumn foliage in hues of brilliant orange-red. This native plant is an ideal landscape groundcover, filling in difficult spaces such as parking lot beds, slopes, or anywhere mowing would be difficult or undesirable.
Ground Hog Aronia is part of a series of dwarf chokeberry plants that the nursery has recently introduced. The other varieties are Low Scape Hedger Aronia which has a tall, narrow habit (3-5’ tall, 2-3’ wide) and Low Scape Mound, a small, mounded Aronia that tops out at 1-2’. Low Scape Mound Aronia is also the 2019 Proven Winners Landscape Shrub of the Year.
Located in Grand Haven, Michigan, Spring Meadow Nursery grows the award-winning Ground Hog Aronia, as well as over 300 additional varieties which are marketed under the Proven Winners ColorChoice brand. For more information, visit www.ProvenWinners-Shrubs.com or www.SpringMeadowNursery.com.