New plants are always coming down the wire. But there have become so many that I cannot keep up with them! In the past, we have always strived to bring the best product to our customers, from years of trialing in our own gardens and at the arboretum. But now there are so many new plants it is getting harder to separate the wheat from the chaff, or the good from the bad. But are any of them really bad?
Each year growers and breeders release or bring to the table new series and new plants which they have been developing. A lot of this is coming faster thanks to tissue culture growing, which produces lots of seedlings very quickly from just a few cells. But it allows breeders and grows the freedom to produce a lot of plants cheaply. Even trees can be done with tissue culture.
As we look at all the new plants coming, just remember that we still want to trial them correctly. Some plants disappear from the stores after only a few seasons because they were not trialed adequately in multiple hardiness areas. Or maybe they were incorrectly bred or selected.
New Annual Plants
Annual plants are defined as plants which complete their life cycle in one season or less, and then die completely away. New plants in this section are mostly Proven Winners selections, because we sell a lot of them. But even we will not have all the new plants available. Yet. All of our Proven Winners annuals, perennials, and shrubs can be found at our retail stores or online store.
Figuring out which new annuals might be worth a look is thankfully, not my job. Being in charge of the nursery, means I have some control over what perennials, shrubs, and trees make it to the stores, but not annuals. Despite that, I do have a small part in selection, after using a variety of annuals for our maintenance customers. I am always looking for heat and drought tolerant annuals which ill bloom nonstop from May 1 to October 15.
New in 2024 was Bidens Campfire Marshmallow, a white flowering Bidens. I planted it along my driveway as a border plant, and it bloomed until the first frost on October 16th. And it kept blooming through 6 weeks without rain in September and October!
The following list is just a sampling of some of the exciting new annuals coming in 2025:
- Suberbells ‘Double Vintage Coral’
- Cuphea Totally Tempted Series
- Supertunia Mini Vista ‘Plum Veined’
- Supertunia Tiara Series
- Salvia ‘Unplugged White’ – I saw this at the Farwest Show in Oregon
Perennials
The trends continue to favor perennials. Thanks to Proven Winners, perennials are becoming more and more popular as they develop new plants which perform better and better. And, as more and more people are looking for native plants in their landscapes, the trend for new and cultivars of natives is increasing. And that is another topic entirely.
Proven Winners
As I said, Proven Winners is leading the charge with the continued additions of new cultivars of plants, especially perennials. They continue to correctly trial plants and bring them to market in a timely manner. And they are starting to get into the native game. It would take me hours to describe all the new plants coming from them, so I am just going to list a few that I think may be just right for adding to our gardens.
- Threadleaf Coreopsis Designer Series – 4 new varieties coming in 2024 include ‘Heart Strings’, ‘Golden Needles’, ‘Scarlet Ribbon’, and ‘Creamy Calico’. As you should be aware, the threadleaf coreopsis are the longest lasting for blooms and life span of any of the coreopsis. These are compact plants with lots of flower power.
- Daylily Rainbow Rhythm Series – Fearfully & Wonderfully Made. This series has produced some great daylilies for the garden, such as ‘Primal Scream’, ‘Lake of Fire’, ‘Ruby Spider’, and ‘Sound of My Heart’. They just keep getting better. These are large daylilies, with the flowers rising well above the foliage.
- Rudbeckia hirta ‘Mega Millions’. I suspect this will be a contender on the scene for ‘American Gold Rush’, which is not a PW variety. I love the name and the flower power potential looks awesome. I can hardly wait to try it in my own garden alongside ‘American Gold Rush’.
- Little Bluestem ‘Brush Strokes’ – more little bluestem. Yay. There are so many cultivars of little bluestem available now. But I still like to see what the breeders can come up with. ‘Brush Strokes’ looks to be a clean-lined plant with simple coloration for the landscape.
- Meadow Rue ‘Cotton Candy’ – into the native game indeed. I have meadow rue in my Meadow Garden, so I was excited to see PW picking this lovely early summer bloomer and finding a home for it in their collections.
- Spiderwort ‘Webmaster’ – how can you not love the name? Hopefully this spiderwort is tamer than Ohio Spiderwort, which roams the landscape in search of plants to overtake. But PW would not release it if it was a thug.
Other Perennials
Because PW does such a remarkable job marketing their plants, it can be difficult to find other perennials which are new to the nursery. But several growers market new plants, as well as some of the other breeders. Here are some coming (hopefully to Grimm’s) perennials for the Central Great Plains region.
- Yarrow ‘Peter Cottontail’ – I trialed this in my Potager Garden in 2024. I as super impressed to see it bloom from June through October. The delicate, double white flowers attracted my attention every time.
- Echinacea Double Scoop Series – I love these! There is something very intriguing about the double flowered coneflowers. Yes, I know they do not attract as many pollinators. But I have 200 square feet of purple coneflower to make up for that.
- Catmint ‘Chartreuse on the Loose’ – was new to the nursery in 2024 and it did not disappoint. Yes, it greened up a bit in the hot summer sun, but during the cooler months and in part shade it stayed a nice yellow-green.
- Echinacea SunSeekers Series ‘Pumpkin Pie’ – hopefully with a return to Monrovia, we will see a few new items in the store in 2025 and beyond. I saw this coneflower in Oregon and loved the warm peachy-pumpkin tones of the petals. Here it comes!
- Sea Lavender ‘Dazzle Rocks’ – it is about time they started coming with new cultivars of an old favorite. I love my sea lavender!
New Natives
Is there such a thing as new natives? Not exactly. There cannot be new natives to the world, only to the shoppers and gardeners in the area. So I am bringing some new natives to the garden center in 2024.
- Aster ‘Snow Flurry’ – this is a cultivar of our white-blooming native Heath Aster. It should be a hit in the garden for its toughness alone, preferring almost dried out soils.
- Blue Mistflower – is a great performer on the native stage, drawing in a lot of pollinators.
- Spotted Beebalm – I have seen this in many places and nature exhibits, and would like to share it with you. Bumblebees love it.
- Grass-leaved Goldenrod – is a dainty cousin of the larger and more aggressive goldenrods.
- Prairie smoke – is a small statured, short-lived perennial with excellent flower power, in its seedpods!
New Plants – Shrubs
Shrubs and trees are a little easier to keep track of, as it takes longer to trial each of them. But there are always things coming. Proven Winners again takes the stage for new shrubs.
- Sgt. Pepper Dogwood – looks just like Tricolor Beech. Let us hope that it is more sun tolerant than the beech.
- Fire Ball Seedless Burning Bush – is just what we have wanted for decades of over planted, invasive burning bushes. Now we need to rip all the old ones out.
- Fairytail White Cascade Hydrangea – is the perfect plant for containers or the edge or terraces/rock gardens. If we use it properly, I foresee a winner.
- Daphne ‘Eternal Fragrance’ – is not new, just new to us. I fell in love with the fragrance of Daphne while in Oregon in August.
- Japanese Cedar ‘Black Dragon’ – and this will be a new one for us as well.
- Flowerfull hydrangea – was new in 2024, but we are bringing it back because of the success it has gained. Besides flower power, it is a long blooming and durable plant.
- Cotoneaster ‘Autumn Inferno’ – is quite the name. But its star performance in autumn gives this stately shrub it contention for best in show.
New Plants – Trees on the Scene
I love trees. So it stands to reason that we would try to bring in a few new trees every year, or at least, every other year. However, we have our favorites already. It can be hard to improve on what we already have. I mostly try to find seedless varieties of old favorites, or other replacements for ash trees as they continue to be decimated by Emerald Ash borer.
- Sweetgum ‘Firehouse’ is supposed to be either seedless or mostly seedless. The weather likely will play a factor there. But with scarlet red fall color, it would be hard to beat.
- Crabapple ‘Courageous’ is a new variety from Bailey Nursery, which is also supposed to be seedless. Before, the only fruitless crabapple was the white cultivar ‘Spring Snow’.
- Maple ‘Red Sentinel’ is a new red maple with a tendency to be more vertical, making it perfect for downtown areas.
- Birch ‘Northern Tribute’ is new to us because I could not get any ‘Heritage’. But this cultivar is very cold and drought tolerant, and stands up well in high pH soils.
- Redbud ‘Pink Pom Poms’ has a name that suggests a lot of color in the spring. And you would be right. It is beautiful!
- Coffeetree ‘Skinny Latte’ is just as it sounds, narrow and upright. Another great tree for the downtown or at the corner of buildings. And becuase it is a coffeetree, you know it will be tough in all places.
- Linden ‘Centennial’ is a new selection of the American Linden, which is resistant to Japanese beetles. Lindens a quick growing trees which rarely break apart in storms.
Conclusion
New plants will continue to make appearances in the market year by year, and I will keep updating you on them. But I wish they would take a 2 year break so I could keep up!
Happy planting!
