Getting Started in Miniature Gardening with Proven Winners

How do you choose plant stock for your miniature garden? I typically am not drawn to labels and logos. But when I spy the white containers and leaf logo of Proven Winners®, consistency and high quality come to mind. This is not to say these are the only plants I purchase. But they are some of my favorites when I need miniature garden additions that cannot disappoint. And they are ideal for those just starting out with miniature gardening. Newer gardeners thrive on early successes. Having gone through trials to ensure disease resistance and performance, these become little workhorses in the garden—success stories.

In miniature gardening, starting with top-quality stock is all-important. On a large plant, some stems might shrivel while the remainder of the plant does well enough to allow it to trudge on. But in a miniature garden, having each specimen as healthy as possible makes a difference. Every inch counts.

What is top on my list of future purchases for my miniature garden? For myself, and as a gift for a friend just starting out with miniature gardening, I am drawn to Proven Winners® Double Play® Spireas. These shrubs require minimal care and are not a smorgasbord to deer and other garden munchers. With leaves as decorative as their blooms and a toughness that belies their dainty appearance, these are winning specimens.

One variety sports reddish leaves and flowers. Another offers up dainty blue foliage at maturity after its leaves have progressed through a rainbow of hues. As if leaf color were not enough of a gift to the miniature garden, this blue-leaf variety blooms bright white. Another is a classic beauty, pink-on-green. These appeal to me as a way to add mid-summer color to perennial beds, for their flowers open long after dwarf irises and other plants have done their work. They offer so much leaf interest plus flowers at the time I need them most. I can plant one of these varieties in a grouping of three, or arrange them like soldiers around my miniature garden bed. Even better, I can give a few to a friend, a new gardener, and trust they will not disappoint due to their good beginnings, as well as the easy-going nature of Spirea.

Regular watering, a comfortable "landing pad" in sun with some opportunity for a shady respite, a little space around them in the miniature garden... that is all these need. And pruning. Some plants make gardeners put the brakes on pruning and question, "Is this the kind that blooms on old wood or new?" Trimming at the wrong time may sacrifice a season’s flowers. But there is none of that with Spireas. Spireas bloom on new wood, so pruning can be done with abandon… and should be done to spent blooms to encourage a second flush of flowers. On garden time, that pruning period is mid-July.

Spirea flowers, comprised of dot-like blooms reminiscent of tiny stars, eventually dry out and hold tight to their stems. Wind and rain, and even the brush-by of a speeding chipmunk, will not shake them free. Instead, they need the human touch. With shrubs so small, I employ kitchen scissors. I take just enough care to ensure that a leaf is the terminal point on each stem. And while I shape larger Spireas to near-spheres, I intend to leave these—including the Double Plays® that have most recently piqued my interest—looser. My miniature garden has a lot of self-control as it is. My job here is simply to deadhead.

Leaf and flower color, strength, ease of care—a winning combination for me or for someone just starting out to create a miniature garden. A Proven Winner®.

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