The Best New Annual Flowers of 2025

January 21st, 2025

   A butterfly-magnet new ageratum, a shrub-turned-annual-flower called dampiera, and a new sunflower with a thousand blooms headline the list of interesting new annual flowers debuting in the 2025 growing season.

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked those and more for the four-part, best-new-plants series that I compile each January – a good month for gardeners to plan what to plant in the coming season.

   The article on best new edibles of 2025 appeared last week, the best new perennial flowers of 2025 will post next Tuesday, and the best new trees and shrubs of 2025 is scheduled to post Feb. 4.

   Some of the following 20 new annual flowers are available in seeds or plants online and in some plant catalogs. Most also will show up in plant form in local garden centers beginning in late April to early May.

   The details:

Ageratum Monarch Magic

   This hefty new pollinator-attractor is the favorite new-for-2025 annual of no less than three flower-watchers: Alyssa Collins, director of Penn State’s Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Lancaster County; Pamela Bennett, the Extension educator in charge of Ohio State University’s flower trials, and Stephanie Vincenti, Ball FloraPlant’s marketing manager.

   Collins says that in Penn State’s 2024 flower trials, Monarch Magic “came right out of the gate flowering immediately and stayed in constant flower all summer, right up to Halloween.”

   She adds that it lived up to its name, too, attracting numerous butterflies and hummingbirds.

   Bennett wrote in Greenhouse Grower magazine that Monarch Magic “was incredible in many ways. It’s a vigorous grower with more of a vining/spreading habit than most ageratums. One plant can get to around 2½ feet tall and wide. It is loaded with flowers that continually bloom and does not need deadheaded to look good.”

   And Vincenti adds that the variety is a vigorous grower with excellent heat resistance.

   I also test-grew Monarch Magic last summer and was impressed with its solid growth, flower power, and pollinator-drawing ability.

   The plant performs well in full sun to light shade.

Begonia Birthday Bash ‘Chocolate Cherry’

   Penn State Extension educator Krystal Snyder evaluates hundreds of new flowers at Penn State’s Trial Gardens in Lancaster County, so it’s hard to single out just one as the best of the lot.

   In the 2024 trials, though, Snyder was most impressed with Syngenta Flowers’ new begonia called Birthday Bash ‘Chocolate Cherry.’

   Snyder says ‘Chocolate Cherry’ is an excellent double-flowered variety for the shade that’s particularly showy for its dark foliage and bright-red flowers.

   It earned a perfect five-out-of-five rating all season long and ended up as the top-performing begonia out of the 89 versions trialed last summer.

   ‘Chocolate Cherry’ is also very heat-tough, does best in shade to part shade, and has a mounding habit about 12 to 18 inches tall with a nearly two-foot spread.

Mandevilla Sun Parasol Original XP Bluephoria

   Mandevillas have been catching on as summer potted plants lately since the arrival of compact versions that keep them to two feet instead of straggling vines. They generally bloom in red or pink.

   Kerri Laudig, co-owner of Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses in Monroe Twp., saw mandevilla Sun Parasol Original XP Bluephoria at last July’s Cultivate 2024 trade show in Columbus, Ohio, and immediately knew it was head-turning different.

   “It’s a color I’ve never seen before in a mandevilla,” Laudig says.

   Although the blooms are more a purple-violet than the blue that the Bluephoria name suggests, it’s still a departure from the traditional mandevilla field.

   The variety’s producer, Suntory Flowers, says Bluephoria also is a dense grower and is early to flower. Its buds start out pink, then open to the trumpet-shaped purple-violet.

   Bluephoria grows 12 to 24 inches tall and flowers best in full sun.

   Suntory last year introduced a yellow-flowering mandevilla called Sunbeam and has another new double-flowered pink variety called Double Pink Blush that was good enough to earn Europe’s 2023-24 FleuroStar award as a top new flower introduction.

Scarlet sage Unplugged Red         
    Hershey Gardens horticulture manager Alyssa Hagarman loves salvias – especially the annual ones – but she says what’s been missing up to now is a “really good red one.”

   This year’s arrival of Proven Winners’ new scarlet sage (red salvia) Unplugged Red should fill that bill, Hagarman says.

   “The Unplugged series has proven to produce outstanding plants so far, so this red should follow suit,” she says. “The series doesn’t need to be deadheaded like others to stay in full color, and they are great for our hot and humid summers. Bees and hummingbirds can’t get enough of the blues and purple in the series, so I can only imagine how much they will love the bright red flowers on this plant.”

   Unplugged Red grows 18 to 24 inches tall and does best in full.

Sunflower Sunfinity Double Yellow

   If you haven’t seen any of the so-called “thousand-bloom sunflowers” (Sunfinity, Suncredible, SunBelievable), you’re missing out on some of the biggest, showiest annual flowers yet.

   These varieties turn sunflowers from a traditional, tall, stalk-like plant with just a few short-lived, super-sized flowers into a two- to three-foot bush that produces masses of smaller flowers all season long – even past the fall’s first light frost or two.

   New for 2025 is a double-flowered version of this type called Sunfinity Double Yellow.

   I saw these blooming in two different trial gardens last summer and believe the variety will make a winning new option.

   Being introduced by Syngenta Flowers, Double Yellow can grow nearly three feet tall and wide in a single season. It flowers best in full sun.

Coleus ‘Skeletal’

   With all of the superb and showy coleus varieties already on the market, it’s hard for any new one to stand out from the crowd.

   But ‘Skeletal’ did that at last July’s Cultivate 2024 trade show in Columbus, Ohio, coming away with Greenhouse Grower magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award as best new plant introduction of the year.

   ‘Skeletal’ also grabbed my eye as something different among the field of 29 coleus varieties being trialed last summer at Penn State’s flower trials, where ‘Skeletal’ scored a perfect five out of five to top all coleus performers.

   What’s different here is the deeply lobed leaves that sport a sort of rib-like appearance – hence the skeletal name. The leaves are also a vibrant maroon in the middle with bright golden edges.

   Plants grow about a foot tall in sun or shade and in pots as well as the ground.

Dampiera Purple Oz

   This 2025 introduction from Chester County’s Star Roses and Plants is the newest twist you’ll find on the annual-flower benches this spring – a new-to-Pennsylvania type of flowering plant called dampiera.

   “Dampiera is typically a shrub for the Southwest,” says Star Roses’ Leah Palmer, “but we trialed it in West Grove. It works great as a drought-tolerant container annual.”

   Palmer says Purple Oz produces winged, pollinator-friendly purple flowers with little tufts of yellow in the center. They bloom atop the plant’s mound of silvery-green foliage.

   Native to Australia’s warm-weather climate, dampiera performs well in summer heat without needing as much water as most shrubs.

   It can grow up to three feet tall and four feet wide in the ground over time, but it’ll stay smaller than that as a first-year container plants. Dampiera grows best in full sun. It won’t overwinter in Pennsylvania’s climate, however.

White laceflower

   Also in the “what’s different” category, Renee’s Garden Seeds has begun offering seed of a little-known Mediterranean-Europe wildflower that looks a bit like Queen Anne’s lace.

   The plant is white laceflower, or as Renee’s is calling it, white lace orlaya (it’s Orlaya grandiflora botanically).

   Seeds are best direct-seeded in the garden, giving rise to plants with fern-like green foliage and flower stems topped with crown-like umbels of white.

   Renee’s describes the flowers as resembling “a cloud of small lacecap hydrangeas floating above the ferny green foliage.”

   Laceflowers attract multiple pollinators (especially hoverflies), make good cut flowers, and although plants may reseed, the species isn’t listed as invasive. In England, the plant won a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

   Plants grow about two feet tall and flower best in full sun with good drainage.

Dianthus Capitan Magnifica

   This cross between two different species of dianthus gives us a newcomer that tolerates summer heat better than traditional annual dianthus and blooms most of the season – especially when given a cutback after the first main round of flowering.

   Dianthus Capitan Magnifica did well enough in independent national trials last year to earn a 2025 All-America Selection award from that venerable testing program.

   “One quick shearing after blooming, and it bounced back with a profusion of beautiful pink two-inch blooms that sport a consistent, light pink edging,” AAS judges said.

   Bred by Selecta One, Capitan Magnifica grows 12 to 18 inches tall, attracts pollinators, does well in containers, and makes a good cut flower. It does best in full to part sun.

Zinnia Zydeco Fire

   Another AAS national award-winner for 2025 is this bright new color in Syngenta Flowers’ Zydeco series of zinnias, a line known for its mildew-resistance and large, double-petaled flowers.

   AAS judges described Fire’s blooms as “fiery orange” and said the variety bloomed non-stop until frost on mounded plants about 20 inches tall.

   Zinnias grow best in full sun and are deer-resistant.

Dahlias Virtuoso Pinkerific and Black Forest Ruby

   These two new dahlias are worth checking out both for their large, showy blooms and extended bloom times.

   Ohio State’s Bennett says Proven Winners’ Virtuoso Pinkerific out-performed all other dahlias in OSU’s 2024 trials.

   “It started blooming in July and continued blooming all season through September,” she wrote in a Greenhouse Grower magazine report. “The others were great colors and plants, but this one started blooming earlier than all of them. That’s exciting in the world of dahlias as they take so long to bloom.”

   Figure on a size of 18 inches tall and wide.

   Black Forest Ruby is a red bloomer with dark foliage that performed well enough in nationwide trials to earn a 2025 All-America Selections award.

   AAS judges said the variety from Takii Europe B.V. “does not flop open and is disease-free all season. Its vibrant red blooms stand out beautifully against the dark backdrop.”

   Black Forest Ruby grows about two feet tall and has excellent heat- and drought-resistance.

   Both of these dahlias perform best in full sun.

Nasturtium Baby Gold, Baby Red, and Baby Yellow

   These three new colors in the Baby series of nasturtiums performed well enough in Northeast trials to earn Northeast Regional AAS honors for 2025.

   Baby nasturtiums, from Takii Europe, are known for their petite-flowered, mounding habit and superior heat tolerance.  They’re also compact, growing about a foot tall.

   Plants can be started by direct-seeding into the garden and also perform well in containers.

   AAS judges pointed out that unlike some nasturtiums, the flowers on these varieties did not fade and did not flop.

   Baby Gold is described as “intense gold,” Baby Red as “rich red,” Baby Yellow as “soft yellow.”

   A bonus is that nasturtium leaves and flowers are edible. They grow in full sun to part shade.

Verbena ‘Sweetheart Kisses’

   Chris Wallen, the head annuals grower at wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, picks this low-growing pink, rose, and white tricolored annual as his favorite new annual flower of 2025.

   Wallen says ‘Sweetheart Kisses’ is “vigorous, tough, and tolerant of difficult conditions. It’s also very tolerant of heat, will tolerate light frosts without damage, and it’s deer-resistant and attractive to pollinators.”

   The variety won a 2024 All-America Selections award and should be readily available this spring. Figure on a height of 10 to 16 inches and a site with either full or part-day sun.

Canna Cannova Gold Leopard

   For those who like the tropical-plant look, here’s a compact new canna with an unusual flower color – deep gold with orange-red speckles all over.

   Gold Leopard is the newest introduction in American Takii’s seed-grown canna Cannova line. Its bright color, big green leaves, and dense habit earned the variety Greenhouse Grower magazine’s 2024 Industry Choice Award at last July’s Cultivate 2024 trade show.

   The magazine’s senior editor, Julie Hullett, said Gold Leopard can be grown in pots or garden beds, where it’ll grow about three feet tall and bloom continuously throughout most of the summer. It’s also very tolerant of heat and humidity, she adds.

   Cannas grow best in full sun with ample soil moisture.

Petunia Easy Wave Navy Velour

   Wave petunias have long been a go-to line for their heavy season-long bloom. This new color – a very dark purple – is the favorite 2025 flower of Katie Rotella, spokesperson for Ball Horticultural Co.

   Rotella describes Easy Wave Navy Velour as “velvety, blue-purple-black blooms that really set a moody vibe in your garden.”

   She says the color pairs especially well with silver-toned, sun-loving plants such as dichondra, artemisia, or centaurea.

   “The Easy Wave series is the most versatile of the Wave family and works in all applications as a spreading, mounding plant,” Rotella adds.

   Plants grow about a foot tall and spread more than three feet. They flower best in full sun.

Impatiens Beacon Chicago Mixture

   Beacon impatiens are a line of disease-resistant impatiens that overcome the deadly downy mildew disease that decimate most traditional impatiens.

   Chicago Mixture is a new-for-2025 blend of three Beacon shades – Violet, White, and Blue Pearl – that adds up to Beacon social media manager Alyson Upshaw’s favorite new annual.

   She says the new mixture makes a bright contrast of pinks and whites and thrives all season long with no flower loss. The variety is named in honor of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

   Plants grow 14 to 18 inches tall and do best in shade or part shade.

Calibrachoa MiniFamous Uno Funtopia

   Fans of novelty bicolors will like this new petunia look-alike in Selecta One’s MiniFamous calibrachoa series.

   Uno Funtopia debuts in two tie-dye bicolor shades: Funtopia Pink (pink and white) and Funtopia Blue (lavender and white).

   Selecta One territory manager Lauren Blume says the plants have a semi-compact habit, semi-double flowers, and do especially well in hanging baskets and containers.

   Plants grow eight to 10 inches tall and flower best in full sun.

Petunia Shake Raspberry

   And one last interesting new annual worth mentioning is another eye-grabbing bicolor – a petunia in blended shades of carmine-rose and lemon-lime.

   Shake Raspberry is another 2025 AAS national winner that the judges not only cited for the intensity of its bloom color but also for its heat- and rain-tolerance, self-cleaning flowers, and super-compact, mounded habit.

   Plants grow only five to eight inches tall and perform well in full sun to part shade.

Read George’s post on best new annual flowers of 2024