🍁 Proven Winners® Perennial Garden Tour | September 2025 🍁

It's that time to get out those garden journals. We're going to take a walk through the Proven Winners perennial bed here at Walters Gardens. Hi, I'm Heidi from Garden Crossings and this is the fifth month that we have walked through these gardens to show you what's blooming. So if you're looking to create a garden that always has something in color, we're going to put links below in our YouTube description if you want to go back and check out every month what's blooming. So that way if you want to create a garden that's always in color, these will be good reference videos for you to reference. So let's go ahead and take a walk through the garden. So these are the two garden beds that we've walked through in the past four videos. So we're going to go ahead and walk through these again just so you can kind of see what's blooming and compare them one video to the other. But before we go and walk through these beds, I want to take a detour to another bed that has some great Proven Winner plants that are not planted in that bed. Primarily I wanted to show you these Alstroemeria. So Proven Winners will be introducing Alstroemeria. Right now they're in the process of getting their stock built up so that they have enough to be able to introduce. But these Alstroemeria are about three, three and a half foot tall and have been blooming all summer long. We're going to put the names up on the screen. The names are kind of similar-ish so I don't want to mess them up. So we'll put the name on the screen just so you get the right names. But there's that gorgeous yellow and orange and then there's this beautiful red. I believe this one is actually called Summer Heat. And this one we do currently have and it's just another gorgeous tall hardy Alstroemeria. So hardy for sure down to zone six and even possibly in protected areas it may overwinter in zone five as well. And then the last one I wanted to show you was this gorgeous pink one. And I think this is probably my favorite because I'm kind of a pink purple person. A little bit shorter than the other two but gorgeous crisp clean pink and white blooms. So I did want to show you those because they are just doing fantastic and this garden had I videoed this all summer long these would be the plants that consistently month after month after month would have always been putting on gorgeous color. Alstroemeria are great because they are a long bloomer. Alstroemeria is another great plant because it's a great cut flower that lasts for several weeks in a vase. Let's head on over to the beds we've been looking at for the past four months and see what's going on. The bed that I'm going to head over to which has been out here for I think this is year two now. This is the second fall. This one here has a lot of the newer introductions in it so we're going to take a look at these. First off silver lining that one has looked great all season long. It's a foliage plant Artemisia and really you know with a foliage plant you can't go wrong because they're going to always be giving you interest. One thing I am going to say before we get too far in I'm not going to talk about the Mangaves in this garden bed because it's not something we sell and a lot of them don't have the name tags for me to help you with. Here's a new yucca. This is the dragon slayer yucca. Thick strappy blue green leaves. You can see it's got its spent seed head. It's about three foot tall and I just I love the texture and I'm gonna I guess I'm gonna say a little bit here. Look at how it compares to some of those Mangaves with the strappy foliage. It gives you that neat kind of oh out west or more of a rock type garden feel. The Sedum are looking fantastic. Sedum are known for their fall interest. This is the Sedum back in black with this deep dark black foliage and it's just starting to flower with its beautiful pink flowers. We've got grasses in here for interest. This is a Schizokerium grass. This is Schizokerium blue heaven. I love how blue heaven just really is a great plant to add tall columnar height but also it's just that motion. Grass is important for adding motion into the garden how it just blows in the breeze. We'll go in and take a closer look so you can see kind of the colorations in there. There's some blues and greens and burgundies and kind of a rosy pink. It's just a really nice airy addition. The dark foliage we're seeing here is from a Stilby dragon layer. This is going to be an introduction probably still a couple years out but even though the flowers are spent and are pretty much black right now look at the cool texture and interest that has even with its gorgeous spent blooms. Korabels another great plant for its foliage interest always in color. This is the Heuchera wild rose. Korabels do tend to like to be grown in a little bit drier areas. We found that when we planted them in an area where we had irrigation they just were not very happy. In the background there is Sedum coral jade. Coral jade has kind of a greenish bluish foliage and the flowers it's kind of a little bit past its prime at this point but we'll go in and focus in on some of the beautiful blooms that are in their prime of the coral jade Sedum. Now this is a new variety coming out in a couple years and I don't have the name of it and I didn't have the name of it last video either so I'm going to hopefully be able to try to get that information somehow but a lot of the blooms at this point are spent but it just adds kind of a nice wispy airy feel. The blooms are a raspberry pink. We'll see if it'll focus on them. Also there are still some blooms in there that are in their prime with a nice raspberry pink. It's kind of a nice filler like it's a big plant that just kind of fills in the gaps in the garden and those little flowers they add a little fun and whimsy feel as well. All right let me back myself out of here a minute and see what else we've got. We're going to skip over things if they're not blooming because I'm not I don't want to talk about things that aren't really putting on a show. Here we have another astilbe. This is the astilbe dark side of the moon. Again with that deep dark black foliage looks great in the garden even though the flowers were blooming in July they still add a lot of cool interest and texture into the garden. Nepeta. This is a new nepeta coming out and I think as we walk along I'm going to find the name of it. If we don't I'll pop it up on the screen for you but this is a low growing nepeta. Blooms I believe a little bit earlier than some of the other varieties and it's about 18 inches wide and it's still blooming here late in the season so it just continues to bloom as the summer goes on. In the back there of the garden bed is the sedum lemon jade which is a tone on tone meaning it's like a lime green foliage with a lime green flower but it looks really pretty like look how that that lighter coloration just really pops in the garden bed. Got some salvia re-blooming in here which is kind of nice. Here's a fun one so this is a stand by me clematis. Obviously it's done blooming although we are seeing a couple little blooms on it but look at those fun seed heads. So that is one thing that's neat with clematis is even after the flowers are done there's a lot of interest that comes from the seed heads and a lot of times the hummingbirds will actually use that to create their nests which I thought was kind of a fun thing that I learned. More schizocerium grass this is the schizocerium brush strokes again it's got that blue green foliage with that rosy burgundy going on. Got nephothia there blooming in the background that solar flare that's been blooming a long time that's been blooming mid-summer and it's still just kicking out more and more blooms and it's not just one plant you can see there's a mass kind of a sweeping planting of them here in the bed and they are all really I would say like at a full bloom full bloom mode with the amount of flowers that they're putting on. Some more nepeta blooming looking really great. Allium all the buzz so this is a new allium this is blooming you know before these are spent blooms right now but I wanted to show you that it's it blooms a little earlier I believe again than serendipity a little bit smaller flowers but the thing with all the buzz is it's look at that nice dense habit nice dense habit lots of flowers and there's still just a little bit of purple going on they're they're still trying to put out a little bit of colorful show. This is a fun area full of a lot of whimsy and blowy in the breezy and kind of plants there's some panicum in there I'm not sure which panicum that is I'm going to try to find out on the other side if I can see a tag I don't want to try I don't want to try to tell you the wrong thing also some gara white gara they're blowing in the breeze I'm not for sure if this is an annual gara if it's a perennial I haven't heard that it's something that's going to be introduced so I'm not sure the story on the gara so I do apologize but I only know what I know there's some more gorgeous sedum in there with that dark rosy pink we're going to try to find some more sedum that I can show you better I don't know the name of this one but I know it's in another location so I'm going to try to find it that we can pop up on the screen to show you where it's not so buried by other perennials pineapple lilies looking gorgeous isn't that so pretty I mean those are still fresh blooms here's a few more some blooms that are pretty spent at this point but just a fun look in the garden all right this is where I was hoping to see the name of the plant I don't think it's totem pole because it doesn't seem quite it's not it's Niagara Falls I just found the tag so this is the panicum Niagara Falls I mentioned totem pole totem pole is a nice upright panicum grass where Niagara Falls has more of that up and over look with a beautiful wispy seed heads on it that are blowing in the breeze we've got cookies and cream hibiscus here so pretty so this is still putting on a few flowers it's been blooming for about six weeks now so that's pretty impressive and even when it's not blooming it's got that nice dark foliage which again pops in the garden new lavender this is lavender summer serenade and this has been blooming all throughout the summer as well this is just gorgeous and isn't that so pretty up against that black that's a great combination and pairing so this is where I was hoping I was going to find the name of the nepeta so we'll definitely get you that information treasure trove rebecchia looking great looking clean the fact that the flowers look great is important the fact that the foliage is clean is even more so a lot of times rebecca will get that black spot on it and just look ugly this time of year but it is looking just really good flowerful and clean in the gardens it's about three foot tall and really putting on a fun show of color in the back here we've got prairie princess veronia I have the name right this is a really a wonderful late season bloomer you can see it's about halfway through its blooms right now so I'm guessing this is going to have color well into the end of September here in West Michigan so that's really pretty and it's always nice when you can get those perennials that you know find their time to shine once everything else is done this is euphorbia this is euphorbia urge to splurge so this was blooming with gorgeous yellow flowers earlier in the season but as it's getting cooler now look at how that foliage is changing so we're going to continue to watch this one over the next month and see what shades of fall color it has but look at I just I love the texture too but we're definitely seeing some pinks and some burgundies starting to show up on that urge to splurge euphorbia there's another one there and another one there just to kind of show you what they look like gorgeous ground cover sedum this is the pop star sedum planted around some of the mangaves kind of a cool look and now I don't know what those mangaves are called so again I'm sorry I said that off the front there's not always tags or they're buried but it's a pop star sedum here that's really a nice low growing sedum showing lots of fantastic fall color more pineapple lily this one here is more of a green or the other one had more of the burgundies going on this is a princess bride done blooming but great texture all right nepeta cat's pajamas this is cat's pajamas got some more panicum grass in the background there believe this is the apache rose gorgeous so a lot of great things going on and these are going to be some of the newer varieties that are out where as we turn the corner we're going to see some of the varieties that have been around for a while which are also great but I know a lot of people are interested in what's new and what's the new things doing so as we turn the corner there's some more that dragon's lyra sylvie looking great again not going to come out for another couple years but at least you can get it you know jotted down as something to watch for in the coming years more eucalyptus this is purple rain so this is a purpler one that we've seen earlier and again just looking gorgeous just a totally different looking plant edge of night hibiscus is still putting on some color a lot of the hibiscus are done now but they do have a little bit of a delay in bloom some varieties to the other so some start maybe a week or two earlier and some bloom a week or two later so this is really pretty to see some of the hibiscus color still going on nephophia orange blaze not quite as many flowers as we saw earlier with a flare but it's just it's nice to see those pokes of color with the euphorbia in the garden we've got some more of the low growing sedum this is pure joy just little mounds about 12 inches tall and about 18 inches wide very clean and tidy if you're looking for just a nice little tight ball of color the pure joy is a great compact variety there is panicum totem pole grass nice tall upright habit and very mature specimen there blue green leaves very thick and strappy with a nice airy flower head more of the the clematis you can see how it's done blooming but how that does it adds just so much fun interest even though those flowers are spent a lot of hibiscus we're passing by right now and you can see there's just not a lot of flower going on there they're really saying okay it's fall we're tired we're ready to be done this is a really pretty one this is the penicillium lemon squeeze grass this is about three foot tall i love the plumes of the lemon squeeze or to be honest of any penicillium grass those big thick bottle brush blow in the breeze tan looking blooms isn't that gorgeous that plant is just you know i feel like people kind of maybe don't utilize grasses enough in their gardens but that is just such a great fall look here's amsonia string theory starting to turn color for fall this is going to get yellow and then shades of orange as it continues to cool off and i just i love that needly thin leaf look and again it's another one of those that just blows in the breeze urge the splurge euphorbia we talked about that one a little bit ago here's a mass planting of it and it too is just starting to put on a little bit of that rosy burgundy color getting ready for its fall transition a lot of the tall flocks are putting out some secondary rebloom they're not looking great because they weren't deadheaded but i mean from a distance to see some flower color is quite nice sedum coral jade we've seen that several times throughout the video i think today or the videos i've done in the last few few days another just a nice looking uh sedum that is one nice thing is there's so many options with sedum i mean heights and colors of the foliage colors of the flowers there's just there's a lot going on there lobelia neon lights this will be a new introduction coming out in the next year or two dark foliage with magenta blooms more of that pineapple lily more of the silver lining you can see that's just really pretty how it kind of anchors the end of these flower beds as we continue to go there's not a lot we're gonna we're gonna see a few things so we're still hanging on is the the gypsophilia festival star baby's breath still giving a few little sprigs of white blooms that was sperma it's kicking out some more flowers pretty late in the season for that this is the orchid flash french vanilla hibiscus more of those pineapple lilies i mean if you if you see these and think wow i wouldn't want those in my garden i'm not sure i definitely want some of those in my garden i love the texture they add heliopsis tuscan sun or tuscan gold not sure which one it is great long blooming lots of color some denim and lace is showing there's some russian sage a few more nephophia here's a heliopsis this heliopsis has got more orange colored flowers on it i'm not seeing the tag so i'm not sure i'll see if i can figure out what it is but that's kind of pretty being you know colored different than the yellows that we've seen we got lycanthemum marshmallow putting on a few little flowers they're holding on and making our way to the end we've got a few more of the tall phlox they are blooming and some more sedum not seeing the name of the sedum but i think if i cross the aisle which we're going to do here a minute i think we might be able to find out what that one is called so this one is absolutely blooming gorgeous in this bed here i believe this is the same sedum this is the sedum called midnight velvet and is that not just gorgeous with its deep dark black foliage and it's gorgeous magenta blooms a really cool fall look oh and look at it there next to that chartreuse on the loose nepeta that is a beautiful looking combination for fall color thank you for walking through the approval winner's garden with me today as i mentioned this is the fifth series that we've done of walking through that garden every month we did a tour so you can see what's constantly in bloom if you're looking to create a garden with color from may until september if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below and if you're new to our channel we welcome you to subscribe thanks for watching i'm heidi from garden crossings