You would not believe how many really gorgeous new plants came out this year.
While we were all hunkering down these last few years, the folks who propagate new plants must have been overdosing on caffeine.
There are gorgeous new offerings in every plant category — and I want to buy them all.
Alas, I can’t.
So I made a list, then pared it down to my absolute favorites. And I’m going to buy each of them.
To create my list, I talked to the people who grow and sell plants for Milwaukee-area gardeners. They know what’s special.
Here are my picks with input from the pros as to why they are unique.
Annuals
Jamesbrittenia Safari Sky and Safari Dawn African Phlox: Ron Peterson, head grower for Milaeger’s stores in Racine and Sturtevant, said he loves these plants for a number of reasons.
“It blooms nonstop instead of in and out like previous varieties. Safari Sky is a lavender color with a white eye, and Safari Dawn is a rose-colored flower with a yellowish eye,” he said, and added that the plants work well in pots as they have a mounding and trailing habit.
Melissa Butson, seasonal color specialist at Johnson’s Gardens in Cedarburg, said when she observed this series in trials, she was impressed with how beautifully it performed in hanging baskets in late summer.
“Its abundant small flowers of rose or soft lavender are produced all summer long on mounding, billowing plants. This should be an excellent floral accent for containers and hanging baskets that is noted for its exceptional heat tolerance, which will allow it to continue to shine through the heat of our Wisconsin summers,” she said. (Available at Milaeger’s and Johnson’s Gardens)
Supertunia Vista Jazzberry: This new petunia, in the Vista Series, is a vibrant fuchsia/purple, Butson said. “The series has been a favorite of ours for years, and is valued for its exceptional vigor and floral production. It’s incomparable for performance in large containers,” she said.
“You can see it from a distance,” said Jeanine Standard, media and public relations manager at Proven Winners, an online firm that represents breeders. “It’s an electric magenta/purple color, and it also has an amazing heat and humidity tolerance.”
This plant attracts butterflies and hummingbirds and grows to 24 inches high and 36 inches wide. “It’s not a petite plant. It’s a perfect plant for large baskets,” she said. (Available at area garden centers, including Johnson’s Gardens)
Augusta Lavender Heliotrope: Standard said this is her favorite new plant, and she will plant it in her Bloomington, Illinois, garden.
“ It’s a very easy grower. It doesn’t ask a lot of you. It will reach at least 2 feet tall, and it has more of an upright habit. It has soft lavender blooms with a white eye and a yellow dot in the middle of the bloom,” she said.
This plant also attracts bees and butterflies and is heat-tolerant, she said. “It has a lot of uses, including being used as a cut flower.” (Available at area garden centers)
Ladybird Yellow Lemonade and Ladybird Sunglow: Peterson recommends these two new colors of calylophus, which he has tested.
“I’m extremely excited about this plant because it’s a brand-new genus, and it’s not highly available in the trade. It grows in the meadows of Texas. That’s its natural habitat, but they (Proven Winners) have been doing breeding on it. In my yard, it bloomed nonstop from start to finish, and it’s drought-tolerant,” he said.
He said this annual has fernlike foliage and its flowers look like open-faced buttercups. Yellow Lemonade is a rich yellow color, and Ladybird Sunglow is a marmalade color. (Available at Milaeger’s)
Verbena Cake Pops Pink and Purple: These are new annuals that grow to 15 to 18 inches and produce dainty clusters of flowers all summer, Butson said.
“This new plant brings all of the qualities of an old-time favorite, Verbena Bonariensis, down to a size compatible with container growing as well as bringing in new color shades,” she said.
“It’s drought-tolerant and a pollinator magnet. We will be incorporating this little cutie into our annual combination container recipes this season and look forward to seeing it perform,” she said. (Available at Johnson’s Gardens)
Coleus Spitfire: Katie Rotella, senior public relations manager at Ball Horticulture, loves this micro coleus for its striking colors. It’s from Ball FloraPlant, a division of Ball Horticulture, which is a breeder/distributor that supplies plants to greenhouses here.
This annual has thin, brightly colored leaves and grows in shade or sun, she said.
“It only gets 10 to 12 inches high and 14 inches wide, so it’s wider than it is tall and it retains its smaller, compact round shape. It has a pink center with a little bit of chartreuse and red. It keeps that color all summer. … It looks like it’s on fire,” she said.
This plant is so compact that she has been growing it on her kitchen counter since last March. “Those who have it in their gardens could repot it and bring it inside to enjoy in winter,” she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Salvia Bodacious Hummingbird Falls: Peterson recommends this salvia because it looks great in a hanging basket.
“It’s a rich purple/blue color. It’s a blue color you don’t normally see in flowers. It’s a bushy plant you can grow in a basket, so it’s totally unlike the previous salvias,” he said “A lot of customers are enamored by plants that attract hummingbirds, and salvias in general are hummingbird magnets.” (Available at Milaeger’s)
Dianthus Jolt Purple: Rotella recommends this new color in the Jolt Series from PanAmerican Seed.
“This plant is taller, at 16 to 20 inches, and its neon purple color will turn heads. Its height also makes it a good choice for containers and for cutting,” she said.
The plant withstands hot conditions, has few disease issues, and continues to flower without setting seed, she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Perennials
Delphinium Red Lark: Megan Hirsch at Milaeger’s likes this plant’s beautiful, bright color.
“The color is a coral red. It’s also described as Coke can red, and it has double flowers, which is really unique for a delphinium. At 24 to 27 inches, “it’s going to be big and beautiful” once it gets established in a garden bed, she said. (Available at Milaeger’s)
Lies and Lipstick Daylily: Hirsch calls this unique because it has a large bloom and contrasting colors.
It’s a vigorous rebloomer with white-pink petals, a rose-red eye and a green throat with ruffled red edges trimmed in gold, she said. (Available at Milaeger’s)
Lemon Squeeze Ornamental Grass: Barb Balgoyen, technical customer care representative at Walters Gardens, recommends this fountain grass with brightly colored foliage. Walters is a wholesale perennial grower that supplies plants to garden centers here.
“It has chartreuse/gold leaves, and the flowers are a coppery color in midsummer. It’s more yellow in the garden, and it’s very vigorous,” she said.
This grass gets 3 to 3½ feet tall and 4 to 4½ feet wide and is deer-resistant, she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Buddleia Chrysalis: This butterfly bush is from Darwin Perennials, a division of Ball Horticulture.
“It comes in five colors for its debut — blue, cranberry, pink, purple and white — and it attracts pollinators,” Rotella said.
The bush is a compact buddleia that cascades instead of growing upright, so it could be grown in a basket or a large pot, then put in the ground in fall. (Available at area garden centers)
Amsonia String Theory: This is a compact version of the industry standard, Amsonia hubrichti, and has a compact habit and light periwinkle blue flowers in late spring, said Balgoyen, of Walters Gardens.
“It also has a very interesting foliage that stays a very dark green all summer, but then it takes on a brilliant golden orange color in fall. It likes full or part sun, has clusters of star shaped flowers, gets 18 to 22 inches tall and spreads to 36 inches,” she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Shrubs and vegetables
Little Lime Punch Hydrangea Paniculata: Zannah Crowe, educational horticulturist at Johnson’s Gardens, recommends this.
“It’s an improvement over the previous Little Lime hydrangea,” she said. “It starts out a lime color, goes to white and then it ages to a strawberry red. Oftentimes, you get a bicolored effect.”
This plant is smaller and brighter than previous releases, and it grows to between 4 and 5 feet, making it perfect for smaller spaces. (Available at Johnson’s Gardens)
Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry Pepper: Rotella, of Ball Horticulture, calls this “a feast for your eyes as well as your taste buds.”
It’s from PanAmerican Seeds HandPicked Vegetables collection, a division of Ball. It’s a variegated pepper that gets 18 to 24 inches high and 12 to 18 inches wide and is considered a mini bell pepper. It starts out green with a white stripe, then changes to a chocolate color, then to a cherry red color. (Available at area garden centers)
*****
More new plants suggested by the experts
I picked my favorite plants for this year, but there are a lot more great new plants to choose from.
Ron Peterson at Milaeger’s said he is seeing more unique plants.
“Some years when new plants come out it’s a new series, or different colors of the same thing, but this year there are new plants,” he said.
Katie Rotella at Ball Horticulture said her firm alone has 208 new annuals, 41 perennial and 15 vegetables, and that in these new releases there are lots of striking colors.
Annuals
Superbells Double Twilight: Jeanine Standard from Proven Winners likes this Calibrachoa hybrid, a new color in the Superbells line, because it yields so many double blooms.
“You don’t even see the foliage on this plant because it has so many blooms,” she said, and added that it has silvery lavender flowers with dark purple centers, gets 6 to 12 inches high and trails up to 30 inches. She said it does best in containers because it likes its feet dry. (Available at area garden centers)
Beacon Rose Impatiens: Katie Rotella of Ball Horticulture recommends this rich rose-colored impatiens in the Beacon line from PanAmerican Seed.
“It would look great paired with white impatiens in a basket or garden bed, and it’s resistant to downy mildew. It only gets 12 to 14 inches tall and has a solid green foliage,” she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Impatiens Solarscape: Ron Peterson at Milaeger’s recommends this sun-loving impatiens. He said it comes in five bright colors, has large blooms, is easy to grow and resistant to downy mildew. The colors are Magenta Bliss, Neon Purple, Orange Burst, White Shimmer and Salmon Glow.
“It’s a whole new series. … No one has had a chance to grow it yet because it was just released this year. Very few people will have it. I’ll have all the colors,” he said.
Growers say the plant will get 9 to 11 inches tall, but he thinks it will get taller.
“The width is 15 to 20 inches, so you can space them wider apart than regular impatiens. It covers quite a bit of ground,” he said. This plant is good for hanging baskets and flowerbeds. (Available at Milaeger’s)
Unplugged Pink Salvia: Standard likes this plant, the latest in the Unplugged line of salvias, because it has striking fuchsia/pink flowers with a black calyx. She said it get about 30 inches tall, is packed with upright dark stems, and has blooms along the entire stem.
“The fuchsia/pink flowers on that dark stem really set off the colors in the bloom,” she said.
It’s a continuous bloomer and the perfect size for containers, she said. It can also be used as a thriller in pots, or for the front to the middle of a garden bed. It’s heat and drought tolerant, and attracts bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. (Available at area garden centers)
Bold ‘N Beautiful Caladium: Standard said this new offering in the Heart to Heart line is getting attention because it grows in sun or shade. When it first sprouts in spring, leaves are a pinkish/orange with an olive green border. Later, developing leaves are mostly white with pinkish/orange to white veins. It gets 15 to 20 inches high and has a 10- to 14-inch spread.
“It’s my favorite. It’s pretty unique. The leaves have a lot of texture and curl to them. They’re so easy to grow and you can bring them inside to use as houseplants when the weather starts to cool,” she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Perennials
Artemisia SunFern: Rotella recommends this perennial from Darwin Perennials because it can be used in sun to part sun. It comes in two new varieties; Arcadia, a medium green color; and Olympia, which is dark green with red stems.
“It’s like a shrub, but it has a fernlike appearance. … It has a frothy texture so you think it needs to be in the shade, but it does really well in the sun,” she said.
The plant could be put in a large pot with other plants, then transplanted into the garden in fall, she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Sedum Back in Black: gets 20 to 24 inches tall, spreads 26 to 30 inches and thrives in full sun.
“The foliage is dark black and then it has rosy red flowers,” said Barb Balgoyen at Walters Gardens. “It’s a great plant for the middle of the border, and it’s gorgeous in full sun. … And sedum is a plant that has low watering needs once it gets established. It’s also a good pollinator.” (Available at area garden centers)
Heleopsis Bleeding Hearts: Megan Hirsch at Milaeger’s loves this perennial, which gets 36 to 40 inches high and about 36 inches wide.
She said this false sunflower has “intense orange and red flowers when it first blooms, then it later changes to golden/orange with a red center. … It has a purple/green dark stem, and it has such a long bloom season. I got it in midsummer, and it bloomed all the way to frost.”
“How many blooms there are, and how long it blooms makes it so worth it,” she said, and added that it’s the first seed strain of Heliopsis without yellow on its flowers. It also attracts butterflies. (Available at Milaeger’s)
Shasta Daisy Banana Cream II: This is an improvement over Banana Cream, which was introduced years ago, Balgoyen said.
It has flower buds that open to a lemon yellow color, then eventually brighten to a creamy white. It has a mounding habit, gets 20 to 24 inches tall and 20 to 22 inches wide.
“It is a lot more floriferous than the previous plant, and it has a really nice habit,” she said. “The interesting thing is there are flower buds all up and down the stems, so it has a long bloom time.” (Available at area garden centers)
Summerific Edge of Night Hibiscus: Balgoyen describes this plant in the Summerific Line as striking.
“It has almost black foliage and bubblegum pink flowers that are 7 to 8 inches across. The flowers bloom from late July until the first frost. It grows 3 to 3½ feet tall and 4 to 4½ feet wide,” she said. (Available at area garden centers)
Backlight Phlox: Balgoyen recommends this because there are few white phlox, it’s fragrant and disease and insect resistant. It grows 28 to 30 inches tall and around 20 to 24 inches wide.
“We love it … It has bright white flowers and really nice dark green foliage. It’s a great plant for a moonlight garden,” she said. (Available at area garden centers)
