Proven Winners ColorChoice Brings Back Shrub Madness Bracket Competition
For the seventh year, Shrub Madnes returns March 2-31. The contest pits shrub against shrub in a fierce single-elimination tournament, based on the March college basketball playoffs. 64 Proven Winners ColorChoice shrubs will compete in a battle for the chance to be crowned National Champion.
Winners of each shrub matchup are chosen by popular vote at www.ShrubMadness.com, where participants can watch informative and inspirational videos, fill out their bracket predictions online, and root for their favorites.
This year, hydrangeas have been eliminated from the brackets. When asked why these heavy-hitters were removed from the lineup, Tim Wood, new product development manager, said “Everyone loves the hydrangeas, of course – maybe too much, since they’ve won almost every Shrub Madness. So we wanted to see what happened this year if they didn’t compete.”
This year, the Shrub Madness team is introducing a few additional twists, like the Feb. 10-15 Instagram Wild Card round, where participants can choose a bracket variety via Instagram Stories vote. Also included in this year’s action is “Shrub Madness-Libs”. Staff favorites will be read on Facebook Live starting Feb. 27. Go to ShrubMadness.com/Madness for more info.
Shrub Madness runs in prediction mode from Feb. 17-27, when players have the opportunity to create an account and fill out a prediction bracket. However, there’s no requirement to play in prediction mode to vote or to win prizes. During the month of March, participants who simply want to register and follow along with the fun will be awarded samples of top-scoring plants via random drawings.
Those who have filled out prediction brackets are eligible for the month-long plant drawings, plus, at the end of Shrub Madness, four bracket voters will be randomly selected to win a collection of the last four plants standing, known as the Floral Four. Also, the player with the bracket prediction closest to the final results will win a grand prize pack, the coveted Floral Four and Plant Geek Swag Bag.
This year’s tournament has some big shoes to fill. All participation records were smashed last year when almost 288,000 votes were cast by over 6,200 registered participants, culminating in a Floral Four that included the tenacious Pugster Blue butterfly bush, brash and beautiful Let’s Dance Rhythmic Blue bigleaf hydrangea, stunning Suñorita rose and 2019 reigning National Champion, the infallible Tuff Stuff Ah-Ha mountain hydrangea. Will this year’s participation surpass those numbers? It’s all up to the voting public.
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