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Proven Winners partners with Walters Gardens

October 6, 2010  By Amanda Ryder


Oct. 6, 2010 – Proven Winners® and Walters Gardens, Inc. announce an exciting new
strategic partnership. Under this partnership, Walters Gardens, Inc. joins with Proven Winners to market
superior perennial varieties under the Proven Winners brand name.

Oct. 6, 2010 – Proven Winners® and Walters Gardens, Inc. announce an exciting new
strategic partnership. Under this partnership, Walters Gardens, Inc. joins with Proven Winners to market
superior perennial varieties under the Proven Winners brand name. The goal of this new partnership is to help growers and retailers
increase sales and improve profit margins by selling larger quantities
of their best perennials.

Proven Winners looked to Walters Gardens, Inc. as the leading wholesale
perennial supplier in North America due to their extensive hybridizing
program, strong industry contacts, and long history of producing
superior quality perennial plants. Walters Gardens, Inc. recognized
Proven Winners as the leading consumer plant brand in North America
with a similar philosophy of selecting only the best performing plants
to offer today’s consumers. As a result of this partnership, Proven
Winners is solidified as the most comprehensive brand of exclusive
plants with superior genetics for retailers and consumers, offering the
best products for every planting need.

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“We are very excited to be able to join the Proven Winners family,”
said John Walters, CEO of Walters Gardens, Inc. “Our plant hybridizing
program is now in its sixth season and we have extensive breeder
contacts within the industry. We recognized the need to bring these
superior new perennial varieties to the marketplace through a venue
that is consumer driven and uses a value-added approach. Proven Winners
distinguishes itself in a competitive marketplace by helping the
retailer become a destination for consumers looking for quality and top
performing plants for their gardens.”

“Proven Winners has long been impressed with Walters Gardens' strong
perennial plant varieties, dedication to breeding, and superior
production practices”, said Mark Broxon, Executive Director of Proven
Winners. “The annual and flowering shrub markets have been the strength
of the Proven Winners brand. By bringing the leading perennial supplier
into the Proven Winners family, consumers will be able to find top
quality perennials under a single brand they know and trust, resulting
in an even stronger brand for growers and retailers.”

For Walters Gardens, Inc. and its customers, this move will result in
increased promotion of their highest quality perennials through the
most recognized consumer brand. For Proven Winners, this new
partnership expands the brand and helps to create more Store-Within-A-
Store destination garden centers with a focus on high value, profitable
Proven Winners plants. Consumers will benefit by having to look only to
the one comprehensive, trusted source of plants for all of their
gardening needs.

Walters Gardens, Inc. will bring approximately 30 of its best, most
unique varieties to the existing line of Proven Winners Perennials in
2011 and the program will expand as more new varieties are added each
year. The Proven Winners propagator network (EuroAmerican Propagators,
Four Star Greenhouse, Pleasant View Gardens in the US, and Nordic
Nurseries, Dentoom's Greenhouses and Sobkowich Greenhouses in Canada)
will also offer many, if not most, of these perennials to their
customers. In addition to offering Proven Winners Perennials, Walters
Gardens, Inc. will continue to provide their customers with a broad
range of over 1,000 varieties of perennials, ornamental grasses, vines,
and groundcovers. All plants offered by Walters Gardens, Inc. will
continue to be sold as bare root and plug liners through their existing
sales networks.

The partnership between Proven Winners and Walters Gardens, Inc.
officially begins in July 2011 for the 2011-2012 selling season. Proven
Winners Perennials varieties offered by Walters Gardens, Inc. will be
introduced at California Spring Trials (CAST) in March, 2011 as well as
in each of their 2011-2012 catalogs. The spring 2012 selling season
will be supported by extensive marketing efforts by both Proven Winners
and Walters Gardens, Inc. Wholesale growers and retailers are
encouraged to take advantage of this promotion and to have an adequate
supply of Proven Winners Perennials available to meet the demand.


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