Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2017

January 31st, 2017

A new shrink-sized viburnum, a pink-blooming compact vitex, and even more interesting new hydrangeas are coming soon to a nursery near you.

Read Best New Fruits and Vegetables of 2017

Read Best New Annual Flowers of 2017

Read Best New Perennial Flowers of 2017

Here’s a look at some of the best new trees and shrubs debuting in 2017:

Viburnum Lil Ditty
Credit: Proven Winners

Viburnum Lil’ Ditty

Forget the image of viburnums as big, rangy shrubs. This Proven Winners newcomer grows in a super-dwarf, deer-resistant, fragrant puffball of white and is the favorite new shrub of Brandon Kuykendall, the nursery manager at Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses in Monroe Twp.

“I like that it’s a dwarf viburnum that gets only 2 feet tall by 2 feet wide,” says Kuykendall. “It also will get berries in the fall if planted near another smooth witherod viburnum like ‘Brandywine.’”

Lil’ Ditty’s May flowers are white, and the fall fruits mature from green to pink to red to blue before finally ending up black and getting eaten by birds. (Full sun to part shade)

Dwarf vitex Pink Pinnacle

Vitex is a large flowering shrub, resembling a butterfly bush, that can grow 10 feet tall and wide in 4 to 5 years.

This new introduction from Chester County’s Star Roses and Plants shrinks the size by almost half, a yard-friendly trait that grabbed the attention of Erica Shaffer, manager at Highland Gardens in Lower Allen Twp. She’s rating Pink Pinnacle as her favorite new woody plant of 2017.

“It gets bubble-gum pink blooms instead of blue, so it’s twice unusual, both for its size (6’ x 4’) and for its flower color,” Shaffer says. “It also has a long bloom time and cool textured foliage. It’s a butterfly magnet, and deer don’t eat it.” (Full sun to light shade.)

Buttonbush Fiber Optics

Buttonbush Fiber Optics
Credit: Bailey Nurseries

Another new shrunken introduction is this 5- to 6-foot version of a June-blooming native shrub that gets its name from its round flowers with gold-tipped antennae projections.

“Fiber Optics is a distinct improvement over the coarser native buttonbush that grows twice the size of this compact selection,” says Ryan McEnaney of Minnesota-based Bailey Nurseries, which is introducing the plant in its First Editions line.

McEnaney says Fiber Optics is an excellent choice for moist conditions since buttonbush tolerates even occasional flooding and wet spring soil.

“Pollinators love the fragrant, creamy white, ball-shaped flowers, and many species of waterfowl eat the seed,” he adds. (Full sun to light shade)

Hydrangea ‘Haas Halo’

Amanda Bastiaanse, a grower with the wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, picks this selection of our native smooth hydrangea as her favorite 2017 shrub, in part because it solves the “floppiness” issue.

“It has huge flowers, but the plant stands completely upright, absolutely no flopping,” says Bastiaanse. “It makes a beautiful bright spot in the shade with so many white flowers. And the pollinators love the flowers, too.”

Retired Delaware Valley College horticulture professor Dr. Frederick Ray found ‘Haas Halo’ among seedlings given to him by a friend, Joan Haas.

The variety grows 4 to 5 feet tall and performs best in morning sun and afternoon shade.

Hydrangea ‘Miss Saori’

Hydrangea ‘Miss Saori’
Credit: Silver Falls Nursery

‘Miss Saori’ is a mophead hydrangea that was impressive enough to win Plant of the Year honors at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show when it debuted in England in 2014.

Maria Zampini, president of the Ohio-based “boutique” plant marketing company UpShoot, picks it as her favorite new shrub as it debuts here this spring.

“This one is truly a showstopper,” she says. “This will be the first year it is available in the states.”

Stauffers of Kissel Hill plant buyer Dave Krause also mentions it as one of SKH’s best new shrubs of 2017.

‘Miss Saori’ is a double-petaled, long-blooming variety that’s bright rose around the edges with white centers. The leaves are dark burgundy in spring and fall, giving a nice contrast to the vivid flowers.

Plants grow about 4 feet tall and wide and perform best in morning sun and afternoon shade. It also makes a good cut flower.

Hydrangea Everlasting Green Cloud

A third new hydrangea worth checking out is this big-leaf hydrangea with the greenish-white blooms.

“Green Cloud lives up to its name by opening with celery-green flowers, each with a white eye, then it turns ablaze with red and green tones as it matures,” says Angela Treadwell-Palmer, co-owner of Plants Nouveau, which is introducing the variety in 2017.

She says it also has strong stems and makes an excellent, long-lasting cut flower.

Green Cloud grows 3 to 4 feet tall and wide and can be grown in a pot as well as in the ground. It prefers morning sun and afternoon.

Weigela Golden Jackpot

Weigelal Golden Jackpot
Credit: Monrovia Nurseries

Fans of golden foliage will like this one – a variety of old-fashioned weigela with vibrant golden leaves and red flower buds that open to deep pink in May. You’ll either love the combo or think the leaves are badly in need of iron fertilizer.

An introduction of the large California grower Monrovia Nurseries, Golden Jackpot grows 5 to 6 feet tall and wide and holds the golden leaves reasonably well all summer, even in full sun.

It’ll also grow and bloom well in part shade.

Magnolia Mercury

The saucer magnolia is a beautiful, early-spring-flowering mid-sized tree with one big Achilles’ heel in our climate – it blooms early enough that frost in some years kills the buds as or just before they open.

Mercury is a new saucer-magnolia selection from Oregon’s J. Frank Schmidt and Sons nursery that blooms nearly a month later than the species. That means it’s much less likely to run into frosted-bud issues.

The tree blooms the same showy, fragrant lavender-pink and is slightly smaller and more pyramidal than the species, growing to a height of about 25 feet with a 15-foot spread in 20 to 25 years. Fall foliage is yellow. (Best in full sun.)

Rose of sharon Purple Pillar
Credit: Proven Winners

Rose of sharon Purple Pillar

Rose of sharons are old-fashioned shrubs that can grow big and gangly and also throw around seed so “babies” come up where you don’t want them.

Purple Pillar is a new Proven Winners introduction that addresses both of those issues. Its habit is very narrow – growing 10 feet or more tall with a width of only 3 feet – while the plant is sterile, producing no viable seed to make it invasive.

The flowers are a two-toned lavender-pink and rose, and they keep coming from mid-summer into early fall. Plants are also heat- and drought-tough, deer-resistant, and attractive to bees. (Best in full sun.)

Butterfly bush Inspired

Butterfly bush has been getting a bad rap lately because most older varieties produce seed that leads to unwanted babies – sometimes invasively so.

Stauffers’ Krause likes this new Proven Winners line because the flowers are sterile, meaning no unwanted seeding.

“This is a feature I think will appeal to many people,” he says.

Stauffers plans to carry two colors of Inspired butterfly bushes: Pink and Violet. Plants grow 4 to 5 feet tall and wide if cut back hard each spring but as big as 8 to 10 feet if lightly pruned or not at all. (Best in full sun and well drained soil.)