Best New Perennial Flowers of 2020

January 28th, 2020

   A hibiscus with nearly black leaves, a heavy-blooming version of a native pollinator plant, and a tropical that’s cold-tough enough to survive our winters are among the most interesting new perennial flowers debuting in the 2020 growing season.

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

   The article on best new vegetables, herbs, and fruits of 2020 appeared Jan. 14, and the one on best new annual flowers of 2020 ran last Tuesday, Jan 21. The last installment on best new trees and shrubs of 2020 runs next Tuesday, Feb. 4.

   The following new perennial flowers are available online and in some plant catalogs and will show up in local garden centers beginning in April.

   The details:

Spigelia ‘Little Redhead’

   Commonly known as Indian pink, this native perennial has been popular lately with wildflower fanciers (although often somewhat hard to find).

   ‘Little Redhead’ is a new named variety of the species, selected for its uniformity and heavy bloom.

   Both Todd Kephart, buyer for Stauffers of Kissel Hill garden centers, and Bryan Benner, a perennial grower for wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, pick it as their top new perennial of 2020.

   “It has awesome tubular red flowers that are very attractive to hummingbirds and other pollinators,” says Kephart.

   “It’s a more floriferous, garden-worthy form of the species with red and yellow flowers,” adds Benner.

   ‘Little Redhead’ grows in part shade to full, about two feet tall.

Hibiscus Summerific ‘Evening Rose’

   Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouse Nursery Manager Brandon Kuykendall likes this new hardy hibiscus variety for its show-stopping combo of big, hot-pink flowers and nearly black foliage.

   “The flower color against the dark leaves make this very attractive,” he says. “I already have it planted in my garden. The dark-pink/magenta flower pops.”

   ‘Evening Rose’ is part of Proven Winners’ Summerific collection of winter-hardy hibiscus, also known as rose mallow.

   It grows a hefty four feet tall and five feet wide in full sun to light shade.

Agapanthus ‘Galaxy Blue’ and ‘Galaxy White’

   Also known as lily of the Nile, agapanthus is a sturdy, tropical-looking plant with upright, thick, strappy leaves and clusters of large tubular flowers – primarily blue.

   It’s a beauty that’s always been just out of our reach due to our cold winters… until now.

   Robert Kadas, general manager at Highland Gardens in Lower Allen Twp., says the new ‘Galaxy Blue’ and ‘Galaxy White’ varieties are reliably hardy to central Pennsylvania, giving us a new perennial choice for the landscape.

   “These have overwintered in Michigan for five or six winters,” he says. “They’re perfect in a sunny location. The ball of flowers sits three feet above the foliage and are absolutely striking. They make a fantastic cut flower, too.”

Digitalis Arctic Fox Rose and Pink Panther

   These two new foxgloves were Director Sinclair Adam’s favorite new perennials in the 2020 Penn State flower trials.

   “Both bloomed and bloomed all year,” he said. “They also bloom the first year from seed. They’re really good performers. Time will tell how long they last in the garden.”

   Foxgloves are often biennials or short-lived perennials that normally send up showy flower spikes lined with tubular flowers for several weeks in summer.

   Arctic Fox Rose is a 20- to 24-incher from Darwin Perennials with pink outer petals and orangey-salmon insides.

   Pink Panther is a 20-incher from American Takii with rosy-pink blooms.

Red hot poker ‘Gold Rush’

   Another colorful new spiky bloomer is this four-footer that’s the favorite new perennial of Erica Shaffer, retail horticulturist at Black Landscape Center in Mechanicsburg.

   “I continue to be smitten by the new red hot pokers,” she says. “’Gold Rush’ has golden yellow spikes that will add a bold and tropical look to any hot, sunny area. Plus, hummingbirds love them.”

Geranium ‘Azure Rush’

   Author, speaker, and “Perennial Diva” Stephanie Cohen thinks this newly reintroduced winter-hardy geranium is going to give the top-selling variety, Rozanne, a run for her money.

   “It’s a compact plant with 2½-inch flowers and a neat habit,” Cohen says. “The trade thinks of it as ‘Rozanne’s smaller daughter.’”

   ‘Azure Rush’ grows in rounded form to about 18 inches tall.

   “It’s also very soil-adaptable, has good heat tolerance, and has the potential to flower from early summer to frost,” says Cohen. “Since it’s slower-growing, it doesn’t become thuggish and overpower other perennials.”

   The leaves are deeply cut and dark green, and the flowers are blue with purple veining, although Cohen says ‘Azure Rush’ sometimes looks more lavender than blue, depending on light.

   Grow it either in full sun, or as Cohen suggests, “full sun in the morning and light shade in the afternoon.”

Penstemon Dakota Burgundy

   Check out this newcomer from Oregon’s Terra Nova Nurseries if you’re a fan of dark-leafed perennials.

   Dakota Burgundy is the newest in the hummingbird-friendly Dakota penstemon series and is Terra Nova President Dan Heims’ favorite new perennial.

   He says Burgundy not only is more compact than other varieties but “its foliage remains darker longer than other plants like it, which is a huge benefit given gardeners’ love for dark leaves.”

   The plant blooms in lavender to violet tubular flowers in summer and grows about one foot tall. The flower shoots poke up another foot.

   It blooms best in full sun.

Lychnis ‘Petit Henri’

   Ohio-based Aris Horticulture’s Christine Kelleher likes this new white bloomer in the Must Have Perennials line for its exceptionally long flowering time.

   ‘Petit Henri’ is a new variety of a little-known, seldom-used perennial nicknamed “ragged robin.” It’s a cousin to the somewhat better known rose campion.

   Kelleher says ‘Petit Henri’ gets masses of shaggy, three-quarters-inch, white flowers with dark maroon bases atop wiry stems from spring through fall.

   Butterflies like it, and it makes a good cut flower.

   It grows two feet tall in full sun or part shade.

Anemone Fantasy ‘Belle’

   Anemone (a.k.a. windflower) is an under-used, under-known late-summer perennial that traditionally produces white, daisy-like flowers on tall, wiry stems.

   A few years ago, breeders introduced the Fantasy series and others that are both shorter and pink-blooming.

   “People loved the Fantasy series, but they were too small for gardens,” says Angela Treadwell-Palmer, whose Plants Nouveau company introduced Fantasy. “They are the perfect gift plant and look wonderful in a six-inch or one-gallon pot, but in the garden, they did not make much of an impact. ‘Belle’ and her sister ‘Jasmine’ are one-and-a-half times the size with even more flowers and more vigor.”

   Palmer especially likes ‘Belle’ for its double, deep-pink, and wavy-edged flowers that bloom for weeks in August and September.

   Both ‘Belle’ and ‘Jasmine’ (also pink) grow 15 to 18 inches tall instead of the 10 to 12 inches of the original Fantasy anemones. The whole series grows in full sun to part shade.

Coneflower Sombrero Baja Burgundy

   Darwin Perennials’ whole 12-color Sombrero series is shaping up as one of the longest-blooming, most compact, and overall best series of coneflowers.

   Judges in the All America Selections program singled out Baja Burgundy as a national AAS award-winner for its winter-hardiness, its sturdy branching, and its heavy bloom. Baja Burgundy blooms a vibrant red from mid-summer until frost.

   Pollinators like coneflower blooms, birds like the winter seedheads, and gardeners can grow coneflowers in containers or for cut flowers in addition to massed in the ground. Deer aren’t fans, though.

   Sombrero coneflowers grow about 20 inches tall, ideally in full sun.

   Stauffers’ Kephart also likes the new Summer Solstice and Tango Tangerine varieties in the Sombrero series.

Coneflower ‘Marry Me’

   This coneflower is new from Bucks County’s W. Atlee Burpee Co. and is a long-blooming white variety.

   “It’s a tough perennial plant and will stay white the whole summer long in the garden,” says Burpee’s senior product manager, Venelin Dimitrov, who picked this as his favorite new 2020 perennial. “’Marry Me’ does everything right: blooms long, uses little water, survives heat and cold, repels deer, and returns year after year. It’s the perfect mate.”

   It grows about two feet tall, ideally in full sun.

Coneflower Evolution Colorific

   A third new coneflower worth considering is this showy, multi-colored variety in Monrovia’s five-color sturdy Evolution series.

   Colorific is Monrovia editorial director Kate Karam’s favorite new 2020 perennial for its kaleidoscope of different pink-shaded petals fanning out around a bright-green eye.

   It’s also a long-bloomer, a sun-lover, and grows about 20 inches tall.

Black-eyed susan American Gold Rush

   This super-performing black-eyed susan has been out a few years but won a 2020 All America Selections award since AAS national judges evaluate perennials three full years before passing judgment.

   If you haven’t seen it yet, American Gold Rush is a heavy bloomer with bright, golden-yellow flowers with black centers and arched petals. It blooms from July to September.

   Best of all, it’s resistant to Septoria leaf spot, which has been a troublesome disease lately for most black-eyed susans.

   Plants grow 18 to 20 inches tall, ideally in full sun. Pollinators love it.

Sterile ornamental grasses

   Stauffers of Kissel Hill buyer Dave Krause has been leaning lately toward perennials and shrubs that don’t produce seeds as a way to address the problem of potentially invasive plants.

   He likes two new sterile ornamental grasses that SKH plans to carry this season.

   One is miscanthus Scout, a maidenhair grass from the University of Georgia that has white-variegated blades and pinkish plumes atop six-foot-tall clumps.

   The other is pennisetum ‘Praline,’ a hardy fountain grass with 15-inch-tall compact clumps and creamy-pink, foxtail plumes that shoot up another 15 inches above the foliage in mid-summer.

   Both grow best in full sun.