History
Proven Winners® aims to meet New Zealand demand for outstanding new flowering ornamentals. It is the New Zealand arm of Proven Winners, an internationally renowned marketing cooperative of some of the world's best growers and propagators.
Established in 1992, Proven Winners is dedicated to developing unique and innovative hybrid varieties and only the most outstanding and versatile plants are selected to bear the Proven Winners label.
Proven Winners lines are grown from material bred by a network of top international breeders, located in South Africa, Germany, Holland, Japan, Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. Every plant chosen to become a Proven Winner has passed a series of trials lasting 2-3 years in numerous greenhouse and garden situations in different climates. Proven Winners selections are propagated under an elite stock program. Mother stock initially comes from thermally treated tissue culture to make them more vigorous and more disease-free than similar plants. Proven Winners has a worldwide network of licensees that sell over 160 million plants annually.
Proven Winners New Zealand has been set up by Edward and Mary Bunker to trial, introduce and market selected Proven Winner plants in New Zealand. They, in turn, have established a network of licensed propagators and growers throughout Australia and New Zealand so that these outstanding plants will be widely available. Proven Winners plants will be sold in distinctive modern plastic pots printed with the PW logo.
Edward, one of the small number of life members of the Nursery & Garden Industry of Australia (NGIA), says: “the Proven Winners idea has found appeal in many other parts of the world. Now New Zealand gardeners will have the chance to grow unique plants that have benefited from breeding research and development on an international scale”.