Gardening Trends of 2025

January 7th, 2025

   Nature-friendly gardening seems to be graduating from mere trend to a lasting and widespread mainstream movement.

Certified Wildlife Habitats like this one at Kevin Kelly’s Lower Paxton Twp. yard are trendy heading into 2025.

   That’s the prevailing development that gardening trend-watchers see as we head into 2025, with interrelated facets of that movement – including native plants, pollinator gardens, and less-perfect lawns – all growing and dominating how we view yard care.

   Garden Media Group’s 2025 Gardening Trends Report dubs it “nature’s renaissance.”

   Here’s a look at that movement along with other gardening trends shaping up in the coming year:

Nature at gardening’s forefront

   Katie Dubow, president of Chester County-based Garden Media Group, says nature’s comeback is in part a backlash to the “clean, green, tidy, mulched and weed-free” standards that come with our higher-than-ever percentage of urban and Home Owners Association-governed landscapes.

   “The good news is that there is a burgeoning movement to reintegrate natural elements into these highly regulated and often concrete-heavy environments,” Dubow says.

   Those include tree plantings, community-greening efforts, and a shift toward plants and plant care that take the local eco-system into account.

   “This renaissance is not merely about aesthetics,” Dubow says. It’s mainly about “creating better environments for both nature and humans, enhancing storm-water management, cooling, improving air quality, reducing noise, boosting mental health, reducing violence, and supporting urban wildlife.”

   The movement also means a more diverse plant lineup in home gardens, one that Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Vice President of Horticulture Andrew Bunting says leans heavily on native and pollinator-attracting varieties.

   Bunting also mentions enviro-friendly practices such as “leaving the leaves” (using fallen leaves as natural mulch to encourage overwintering insects), shrinking or replacing chemically managed lawns, and installing “bee hotels” to support local bee populations.

“Modern meadows” are slightly more planned than wild meadows but still low-care.

A move toward “almost meadows”

   Hand in hand with the nature movement, says Katie Tamony, chief marketing officer and trend-spotter for Monrovia growers, is replacing lawns with what she calls “modern meadows.”

   These are flower-heavy, low-input, and somewhat designed gardens of pollinator-friendly perennials, native grasses, and even edibles as opposed to a more hands-off wild meadow.

   “The modern take on this natural garden style has the appeal that people seek with native plants, but it’s better behaved and easier to care for,” she says. “You’ll still have the feeling of a wild meadow… just on an easier scale.”

   Alyssa Hagarman, Hershey Gardens’ horticulture manager, sees the same trend, except she calls it “meadow-inspired landscapes.”

   “The plants in meadow-inspired landscapes require less maintenance, something that home gardeners find appealing, plus it has other advantages,” she says.

   Among them: less water needs, no spraying, more interest to pollinators and wildlife than lawns, and flexibility to add annuals (including money-saving self-seeding ones) to max out the bloom all season.

Read George’s column on how to turn lawn space into meadow space

Living fences

  The move to more diversity is leading some gardeners to rethink fences and the traditional evergreen privacy hedge in favor of screen plantings made up of a mix of plant types, Dubow says.

This is an example of a “living fence” — a mix of different, layered plants that work together to create screening.

   “Imagine creating a layered hedge using native plants,” she says. “This beautifies your yard year-round and offers habitats for local wildlife… It transforms a simple border into a vibrant ecosystem.”

   A living fence is also much cheaper to install than a privacy fence, she adds.

   Bunting says this idea is spilling over into some eco-thinking businesses that are covering otherwise bare walls with plants (“green walls”), and at home, where gardeners take advantage of empty vertical space with upright tropicals and blooming vines on trellises (“vertical gardens”).

Read George’s column on eight ways to gain yard privacy with landscaping

Watching the water

Conserving water used to be an occasional concern in the mid-Atlantic region, but given the new more erratic and extreme climate, “water-wise gardening” is no longer just a western thing.

“With significant occurrences of drought becoming more regular nationwide, home gardeners are looking for ways to mitigate the lack of precipitation for extended periods of time,” says Bunting. “Gravel gardens, crevice gardens, the addition of drought-tolerant plants, and other approaches can help create a more resilient home gardening environment.”

Among plant types catching on because of their low water needs: hardy cactus, succulents, ornamental grasses, and prairie-native perennials, Bunting says. 

Read George’s column on how to build a crevice garden

Read why “normal” rain was not enough for our 2024 gardens

Out with the old, in with the compact and durable

Many old “green meatballs” landscapes are being ripped out lately in favor of more compact, low-care plants.

   Adams County landscape designer Erica Jo Shaffer says she’s been noticing a lot of people lately ripping out overgrown, dated landscapes in favor of a fresh look.

   “Old yews, boxwoods, and hollies that have been pruned into meatballs for years and years are being replaced with new dwarf plants that won’t ‘get too big,’” Shaffer says.

   She adds that most people want their “fresh looks” to be colorful and low maintenance, hence the high demand for compact, slow-growing species.

   “Plant durability is becoming one of the top traits gardeners are looking for,” adds Stephanie Vincenti, marketing manager for Ball FloraPlant and Selecta One North America. “Plants that can thrive through drought with easy care and little maintenance are top sellers among our customers.”

   Bunting adds that one other plant trait becoming hot lately is interesting foliage.

   He mentions examples such as the huge dark leaves of elephant ears, the bright multi-colored leaves of caladiums, and a wave of new coleus varieties with all sorts of bold leaf-color combinations.

AI comes to gardening

   Artificial intelligence is fast elbowing into all sorts of fields, and gardening is no exception.

   That might be good and bad, says Diane Blazek, executive director of the National Gardening Bureau.

   “A lot of people are seeing artificially generated images of really cool plants, and they think they must have them, only to be disappointed to find out they aren’t real,” Blazek says. “Or it opens the door for scammy businesses to try to sell those plants, only to have the buyer be disappointed when they get the real thing.”

   On the plus side, though, Blazek says AI can cut plant-production costs with AI-managed irrigation and temperature control, and it can increase plant information to home gardeners.

   “It’s only a matter of time before AI comes to affordable fruition as a way to help gardeners know what to add to their soil, when and how much to water, when to fertilize or harvest, etc.,” Blazek says. “But can we trust that information without a real, dirt-in-jar soil test from the local Extension office?”

   She suspects AI tools to diagnose pests and diseases and AI apps that identify plants will get better, but the issue for now is, “We have to understand how to use AI and when to question it.”

Edibles inside and in pots

   Amber Bahn, Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses plant production manager in Monroe Twp., says more gardeners are experimenting with growing edibles inside the house in addition to outside.

   She points to the popularity of PanAmerican Seed’s new Kitchen Minis Collection that focuses on super-compact tomatoes, peppers, basil, and cucumbers specifically bred for growing on sunny windowsills and under lights on kitchen counters.

   “It’s perfect for someone who has no access to an outside growing space or for any green thumb who can’t wait to get started on the growing season,” says Bahn.

   For those with limited outdoor space, growing edibles in containers is a trend that’s still growing, says Dylan Sedmak, PanAmerican Seed’s vegetables manager. He points out that renter households are at an all-time high.

   Sedmak has also noticed that fast- and early-yielding vegetable varieties are on the rise.

   “These help achieve a fruitful bounty before the effects of hot, dry summers and pests get the better of vegetables,” he says.

Plants of substance – now

   Although compact varieties that won’t get overgrown are in, that doesn’t mean gardeners want to start with little plants.

   Christopher Uhland, a Downingtown arborist/horticulturist and board member for the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association, says he’s noticed an increase in demand for larger plant sizes at purchase.

   “Customers want instant gratification with a more substantial plant that impacts their landscape,” Uhland says. “Container trees as well as two-inch-caliper trees are still in demand, but the request for four-inch-caliper specialty natives is noticeable.”

   He adds that more customers also are asking for field-grown shrubs that are already four or more feet tall as opposed to the three-gallon container sizes that are more common in garden centers.

   In all cases, he says, native species are in particular demand. 

The year’s trendy plant colors?

   On the color front, Garden Media Group’s 2025 “color of the year” is teal.

This blue fescue Cool as Ice is an example of the trendy teal color.

   “It evokes the serene blues of Caribbean waters, the expansive freedom of vast skies, and the immersive depth of virtual spaces,” says Dubow. Examples: blue fescue grass, variegated brunnera, senecio, alliums, and agaves.

   Ball Seed cut-flower business manager Joan Mazat says that muted colors will be trendy in fresh florals in 2025 while bright, bold, “cheery” colors will be the choice in cut-flower bouquets from farmer’s markets and in home gardens.

   Beyond just plants, the Pantone Color Institute has named mocha mousse as the 2025 Pantone Color of the Year.

   This mellow brown hue is a “reflection of a larger trend toward harmony and connection and nature,” says Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. She adds that the color has an “inherent richness and comforting warmth” that touches on our “desire for comfort and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others.”

   Brown isn’t a terribly widespread color at garden centers since it’s the color that most plants turn when they’re dead or dying.

   However, gardeners trying to be Pantone-color-trendy have a few choices, such as Bracken’s Brown Beauty magnolia (the leaves have tan-brown undersides), sedges such as Toffee Twist and Zora (brown blades), baptisia Cinnamon Candles (somewhat chocolate-tan flowers), and coralbells variety Caramel (a hint of brown in the otherwise soft-gold leaves).

Flowering houseplants

   Finally, the boom in houseplants continues but with a new lean toward varieties that flower, says Michael Perry (a.k.a. “Mr. Plant Geek”), the author of “Hortus Curious” (DK Publishing, $21.99 hardcover, 2022).

   “I get the feeling that we are reaching a moment of fatigue with the houseplant influence scene, as suggested varieties tend to repeat and more rare specimens are out of the reach of an everyday consumer,” he says.

   Perry suspects we’ll see more interest in species such as streptocarpus, kalanchoe, and especially orchids.