Grand Haven, MI — The National Garden Bureau has released its winners of the 2025 Green Thumb Awards, and Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Fire Ball Seedless® Euonymus alatus has come out on top in the shrub category in the Professional’s Choice division.
The Green Thumb Award is an annual competition recognizing outstanding and innovative new plants and garden products. Winners are selected through two categories: the People’s Choice Award, voted on by the public, and the Professional Choice Award, comprised of an independent panel of horticulture experts, including NGB members, garden communicators, breeders, retailers, brokers, and growers.
Natalie Carmolli, Public Relations Specialist for Proven Winners ColorChoice, said, “The acknowledgment of Fire Ball Seedless Euonymus as best new shrub in the Professional’s Choice division is an honor we deeply value. We are pleased that these industry professionals chose to recognize importance of innovative breeding that addresses landscaping and environmental challenges.”
Known for introducing some of North America’s most groundbreaking woody ornamentals, Spring Meadow Nursery, home of Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs, has been addressing aggressive species for years with a wide variety of low seed set and seedless alternatives to problematic plants. Fire Ball Seedless® Euonymus is the newest addition to their non-invasive shrub collection.
Bred by Dr. Tom Ranney and his crew at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station in North Carolina, Fire Ball Seedless Euonymus provides the same blazing fall color as traditional burning bush but without the seeds and stigma. It is a truly innovative, game-changing plant with all the durability and color you’d expect, but with no risk of spreading into wild areas like conventional burning bush.
“When breeding new plants, we are always striving to develop plants that are functional, game-changing, and generate a WOW response,” says Dr. Ranney. “But above all, we want to create plants that nurseries and gardeners will find easy and rewarding to grow.”
Fire Ball® Seedless Euonymus is a compact, low-maintenance shrub that grows 5-7’ tall and wide, thriving in USDA zones 4-8 in full sun to part shade. It is adaptable to most soils and drought-tolerant once established.
This award follows the 2022 win for Spring Meadow Nursery’s Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Simply Scentsational® Calycanthus, the 2019 award for Illuminati Tower® Philadelphus, the 2018 Green Thumb Award for Invincibelle Wee White® Hydrangea arborescens and the 2017 Green Thumb awards for Purple Pillar® Hibiscus syriacusand Invincibelle® Ruby Hydrangea arborescens.
For more information about the awards, visit ngb.org/green-thumb-award-winners. More information about Fire Ball Seedless® Euonymus and the entire line of Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs can be found at springmeadownursery.com.
