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The best new annual flowers of 2025
The upcoming 2025 growing season will introduce a diverse array of new annual flowers, highlighted by a butterfly-attracting ageratum, a shrub-turned-annual dampiera, and a multi-bloom sunflower. This selection of new annuals was chosen by growers, garden centers, and plant experts, forming part of a four-part series on the best new plants of 2025, which also includes edibles, perennial flowers, and trees/shrubs. While some of these new varieties are currently available online or in catalogs, most will be found in local garden centers from late April to early May.
Among the top new introductions is the 'Ageratum Monarch Magic', a robust blue/purple-blooming plant that is highly attractive to pollinators. Experts from Penn State and Ohio State University's flower trials, along with Ball FloraPlant's marketing manager, have praised its season-long flowering, vigorous vining/spreading habit, heat resistance, and ability to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Another notable mention is the 'Begonia Birthday Bash ‘Chocolate Cherry’', which impressed Krystal Snyder of Penn State’s Trial Gardens. This double-flowered begonia stands out with its dark foliage providing a striking contrast to bright red flowers, performing exceptionally well in shaded areas and exhibiting strong heat tolerance. Its mounding habit reaches 12 to 18 inches tall with a nearly two-foot spread.
The 'Mandevilla Sun Parasol Original XP Bluephoria' offers a unique purple-violet color, departing from traditional red or pink mandevilla blooms. This compact variety, noted for its dense growth and early flowering, starts with pink buds that open into trumpet-shaped purple-violet flowers. It thrives in full sun and grows 12 to 24 inches tall. Similarly, 'Scarlet sage Unplugged Red' addresses the demand for a vibrant red salvia, praised by Hershey Gardens' Alyssa Hagarman for its continuous blooming without deadheading and its resilience in hot, humid summers, proving irresistible to bees and hummingbirds. This salvia grows 18 to 24 inches tall in full sun.
A significant innovation in sunflowers is the 'Sunfinity Double Yellow', a new double-flowered version of the “thousand-bloom sunflowers.” Unlike traditional sunflowers, these varieties form two- to three-foot bushes that produce numerous smaller flowers throughout the growing season, extending even past early frosts. 'Coleus ‘Skeletal’' captured attention at the Cultivate 2024 trade show, winning Greenhouse Grower magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award. Its deeply lobed leaves with vibrant maroon centers and golden edges, resembling ribs, make it distinctive. This coleus grows about a foot tall and tolerates both sun and shade.
'Dampiera Purple Oz', originating from Australia, is presented as a drought-tolerant container annual for northern climates, featuring pollinator-friendly purple flowers with yellow centers and silvery-green foliage. Although a tropical shrub, it is grown as an annual in Pennsylvania. The 'White laceflower' (Orlaya grandiflora) is a Mediterranean-European wildflower resembling Queen Anne’s lace, known for its fern-like foliage and white umbel flowers. It attracts various pollinators, including hoverflies, and is suitable as a cut flower. It thrives in full sun with good drainage and typically grows about two feet tall.
Award-winning varieties for 2025 include 'Dianthus Capitan Magnifica', an interspecific hybrid tolerant of summer heat and capable of re-blooming after shearing. Its two-inch pink blooms with light pink edging earned it an All-America Selection award. 'Zinnia Zydeco Fire', another AAS national award winner, is part of the mildew-resistant Zydeco series, showcasing fiery orange, double-petaled blooms that flower continuously until frost. Both Dianthus Capitan Magnifica and Zinnia Zydeco Fire perform best in full sun.
Three new compact nasturtiums—'Baby Gold', 'Baby Red', and 'Baby Yellow'—received Northeast Regional AAS honors. These petite, mounding varieties are heat-tolerant, grow about a foot tall, and can be direct-seeded or grown in containers. Their flowers do not fade or flop, and their leaves and flowers are edible. 'Verbena ‘Sweetheart Kisses’', a low-growing tricolored annual with pink, rose, and white blooms, is praised for its vigor, toughness, heat tolerance, deer resistance, and attractiveness to pollinators. It was also a 2024 All-America Selections award winner. Finally, 'Canna Cannova Gold Leopard' provides a tropical look with its deep gold flowers spotted with orange-red, characterized by large green leaves and a dense habit. It is heat and humidity tolerant and suitable for pots or garden beds, reaching about three feet tall. 'Petunia Easy Wave Navy Velour' introduces a dark purple, velvety bloom that creates a moody garden aesthetic, pairing well with silver-toned plants. This versatile petunia spreads over three feet and flowers best in full sun. 'Impatiens Beacon Chicago Mixture' is a disease-resistant blend of violet, white, and blue pearl impatiens, thriving in shade or part shade without flower loss. Lastly, 'Petunia Shake Raspberry' is a bicolor petunia with carmine-rose and lemon-lime hues, recognized for its intense color, heat and rain tolerance, self-cleaning flowers, and compact mounding habit.
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