Fire Ball Seedless® Euonymus earns Green Thumb Award

The National Garden Bureau has released its winners of the 2025 Green Thumb Awards, and Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Fire Ball Seedless® Euonymus 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, who handles public relations for Proven Winners ColorChoice, said, “The acknowledgment of Fire Ball Seedless Euonymus as the best new shrub in the Professional’s Choice division is an honor we deeply value. We are so pleased that these industry professionals chose to recognize the 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 alatus 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.

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 syriacus and 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.