Lavalette Nursery has become a certified Proven Winners garden center, with more resources to help you fulfill all your lawn and garden needs. All the friendly folks at Lavalette have completed an instructional program to learn all about the latest developments in gardening and plants, and are eager to share this knowledge with you.

Proven Winners is an apt name for this company. It provides independent garden centers with the plants, shrubs, grasses and flowers that have been proven highly successful for home gardeners. Lavalette Nursery will be featuring many of this year's new varieties offered by Proven Winners, as well as traditional favorites.

For a preview, check out the Proven Winners web site at www.provenwinners.com. You'll find information on this year's top plants as well as lots of useful tips.

The web site's "What's New" section is an excellent resource for finding the best plants. In the "Spring 2005 Collection," for example, you'll find more than 30 new varieties that home gardeners prefer, and the Best-of's and top performers in university field trials across the country. The "Award Winners" section lists the top plants for the past three years. Plants in this section are chosen because they're hardy, require little care, provide showy blooms and are disease- and pest-resistant.

In the "Gardening Basics" section, you'll find how-to advice on fertilizer, soil, water, planting zones and a list of frequently-asked questions. The "Garden Clubs" section has information about organizations you can join.

If you enjoy container gardening but aren't sure which plants to group together, the "Combinations" section will solve your problem. The easy-to-follow "recipes" make creating beautiful baskets and containers a cinch.

The Proven Winners web site also has lots of useful information for gardeners of all abilities. For example, the "Information Center" offers gardening tips as well as full articles on containers, preparing for spring, where new plants come from, watering, herb gardens, fertilizer, trends, etc.

The site's Plant Search feature recommends the best plants for you, based on whether you have sun or shade, minimum and maximum height, and flower and foliage color. You can search for annuals, perennials, shrubs, fall plants or grasses.

In addition, you can sign up for Proven Winners free email newsletter