Here are this year’s new perennials. They include some updated old favorites and some brash new introductions. Ranging from stellar showstoppers to shade-garden charmers, these new introductions will brighten your garden. Now is a good time to start taking notes for next year’s landscape!
Jump to:
- 1. ‘Arctic Fox’ Arabis
- 2. 'Golden Anniversary' Baptisia
- 3. ‘Banana Split’ Sedum
- 4. ‘Cordial Canary’ Bugleweed
- 5. ‘Fresco® Apricot’ Echinacea
- 6. ‘Taiga’ Clematis
- 7. Kudos™ 'Mandarin' Agastache
- 8. ‘Cookies and Cream’ Hibiscus
- 9. 'Golden Spring' Alyssum
- 10. 'Frozen Queen®' Calla
- 11. 'Red Lark' Delphinium
- 12. Hosta 'Captain Kirk'
- 13. Papaver orientalis 'Aglaya'
1. ‘Arctic Fox’ Arabis
Arabis ‘Arctic Fox’ is an easy-growing rock cress that holds up in heat and humidity. This evergreen plant forms a nice, tight mat that creeps over the ground up to 3 to 4 feet, and it brightens up the shade garden with variegated leaves and pure white margins. Every spring it’s smothered with little white flowers. Arctic Fox is a well-behaved gem for the rock garden that looks great edging the paths or in a rock garden.
2. 'Golden Anniversary' Baptisia
Here’s the first commercially available indigo plant with golden yellow foliage. This perennial grows in a tidy, ball-shaped habit of golden green on long, sturdy stems. In early summer, long spikes of indigo-blue flowers pop up above the foliage. What a lovely way to add color to your landscape!
Baptisia has long been known as a low-maintenance perennial, and ‘Golden Anniversary’ is no exception. There are many ways to use this in the landscape including meadow plantings, as a backdrop in borders, or as a specimen. Once established, Baptisia plants are very long-lived.
Available from NH Hostas & Companion Plants.
3. ‘Banana Split’ Sedum
Contrasting colors between the dark chocolate-burgundy foliage, along with starry clusters of cream-yellow flowers, make this sedum a real eye-catcher. ‘Banana Split’ has a neat, compact, upright habit, and its stems don’t flop over like those of the older varieties. Bloom in Late Summer to Early Fall, enjoys sunny locations and attracts pollinators and butterflies. Dried flowers linger for winter interest. Sedum, as a rule, are carefree plants that are easy to grow, and they look great in the rock garden and perennial landscape.
Available from Bluestone Perennials.
4. ‘Cordial Canary’ Bugleweed
The first-ever gold-leafed version of Ajuga Chocolate Chip, with all the good attributes that made Chocolate Chip a favorite of shade and sun gardeners alike. Cordial Canary Bugleweed’s golden foliage is topped with cobalt-blue flowers in spring and summer. This perennial groundcover is evergreen in most places, providing color year-round. Ajuga is an excellent that will brighten up the ground underneath your shady trees, or it will fill a pot or container with color.
Plant in shade to part shade in soil that has been amended with organic matter. Though this ajuga tolerates drought, it keeps the soil slightly moist for good growth and to retain the bright leaf color.
Available from Sugar Creek Gardens.
5. ‘Fresco® Apricot’ Echinacea
The Fresco Echinacea series bears flowers that are larger than your standard coneflowers, and each petal is a riot of color. Van Gogh ain’t got nothing on these Impressionistic blooms, striped with a blend of yellow, coral, pink, sunset orange, and white. This reliable, long-lasting bloomer brings in pollinators and butterflies with its sweet honey fragrance.
Available from Bluestone Perennials and White Flower Farm.
6. ‘Taiga’ Clematis
Bred by Koichiro Ochiai, Taiga was introduced at the 2017 Chelsea Flower Show in England and amazed the gardening world with blooms unlike any seen before on a clematis vine. These bicolor flowers open with a large six-petaled bloom with a ruff of deep purple around a white center. Then the center petals open up and add an array of white-tipped petals to the mix. No two flowers are alike, because the flower form continues to change and impress as it matures. Truly a one-of-a-kind.
Available at Donahue’s Clematis Specialists, which has an impressive array of rare and gorgeous clematis.
7. Kudos™ 'Mandarin' Agastache
Agastache x
Kudos ‘Mandarin' is a new take on an herb that has been around for millennia. This hybrid hyssop plant bears showy, bright-orange flowers blooming from early summer through fall. It’s resistant to deer and rabbits, and it has a compact, bushy form that’s much tidier than older varieties. Hummingbirds, butterflies and native bees adore the nectar-rich blossoms. Agastache is a drought resistant/drought tolerant plant that will work in xeric landscapes.
Available at Great Garden Plants.
8. ‘Cookies and Cream’ Hibiscus
A night and day combination of deep burgundy-black foliage and pure white flowers. 'Cookies and Cream' unfurls its dark foliage in late spring, showing its best color with full sun. In midsummer, bright white flowers appear with a hint of yellow at the center and open to the size of dinner plates, contrasting nicely with the dark foliage. When the spent flowers fall off, they leave green calyxes that contrast nicely with the rest of the plant.
'Cookies and Cream' is more compact and sturdy than the older herbaceous hibiscus and has just as many blooms as they do. Better still, 'Cookies and Cream' blooms earlier and has a longer bloom time.
Perennial hibiscus are slow to sprout from the ground in spring, so if May comes and they still haven’t popped out of the ground, don’t worry. When they finally emerge, they can grow up to an inch daily. These hibiscus are no slouches.
Available from Pleasant Run Nursery.
9. 'Golden Spring' Alyssum
Basket-of-Gold
I have been trying for months to remember the name of this plant. I’d say to myself, “What is the name of that golden-flowered low-growing perennial that blooms in early spring? I was just crazy about it back in the 1990s. Do you remember?” and my brain would just shrug and smile sadly.
Well, thank goodness I write these articles because my research for this article brought me to this plant: Basket of Gold. And it’s a new, improved variety!
This alyssum brightens the early spring garden with masses of large golden-yellow flowers. The heat-loving, low-growing evergreen foliage makes a great groundcover.
'Golden Spring' alyssum is available from American Meadows.
10. 'Frozen Queen®' Calla
Frozen Queen Calla lily has translucent, silvery-white leaves outlined with green brush strokes. They contrast beautifully with their large wine-red blooms —3" tall and 2" wide. Tell your garden club, “Check out this baby!” and they’ll all want to be your friend thereafter.
In zones 8-10, bulbs can be left in the ground year-round. In zones 3-7, when the freezes begin to turn the foliage black, dig up the rhizome and store it in coco coir in a cool, dry place until late spring, then plant after the last frost date.
Frozen Queen can also be grown indoors and kept as a houseplant. Grow it near a window or under a grow light. Available from Breck’s.
11. 'Red Lark' Delphinium
I first saw the Red Lark Delphinium last year when I was proofreading the Darwin Perennials catalog, and immediately wanted them! Delphinium elatum 'Red Lark' produces gorgeous spikes of flowers in a shade of coral-red I have never seen on a delphinium. Flower spikes are held just above the foliage, and the plant stays a modest 2½ feet tall. The deeply notched green leaves add another interesting element to the plant.
Delphinium is a classic garden perennial. These plants are excellent for adding height to small spaces. Their tall flower spikes are easily recognizable when they come into flower in summer. When in flower, the spikes of these plants become heavy and should be staked to avoid toppling over in rough weather, especially taller varieties. Newer hybrids live longer than some of the more traditional cultivars.
Available from Burpee Seeds (as plants; ‘Red Lark’ is not propagated via seeds).
12. Hosta 'Captain Kirk'
Plantain Lily
Here’s a hosta that will “boldly go where no hosta has gone before,” but fortunately for you, it stays in the garden and will not get into fistfights with random aliens. This improved ‘Gold Standard’ hosta bears thicker leaves and much wider dark-green margins than its parent. Leaves emerge in spring with bright gold centers that lighten as the season progresses. Pale lavender flowers appear on 30” stems in midsummer.
Captain Kirk is available at NH Hostas & Companion Plants.
13. Papaver orientalis 'Aglaya'
Oriental Poppy
Cups of frilly, salmon-pink petals with dark centers grow on sturdy mounds of bright green foliage. This poppy is a friend to hummingbirds and pollinators alike. This late spring bloomer is the recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. This poppy is named after one of the three Greek Graces, Aglaea, which means ‘festive radiance.’
Available from Breck’s.
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