The Best New Perennial Flowers of 2023

January 24th, 2023

   The first dark-leafed astilbe with purple flowers, a red-blooming delphinium, and a native alternative to salvia and lavender top the list of interesting new perennials debuting in the 2023 growing season.

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following 14 choices for the Best New Perennials installment of my annual four-part, best-new-plants series.

   The post on Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2023 appeared two weeks ago, and the one on Best New Annual Flowers of 2023 appeared last week. The series finishes next week with a look at the Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2023.

   The following new perennial flowers are available online and in some plant catalogs. They’ll start showing up in local garden centers in April.

   The details:

Coneflower Artisan Yellow Ombre

   This compact, disease-resistant, gold-yellow coneflower is the favorite new-for-2023 perennial of Penn State Flower Trials Director Sinclair Adam.

   Adam says Artisan Yellow Ombre blooms from June to September on plants that grew only 10 inches tall in the Penn State trials – significantly shorter than the projected 24-inch height.

   “The lovely yellow color makes a nice new addition to the Artisan series,” he says, adding that all of the Artisan Collection coneflowers have scored very well in Penn State trials.

   Yellow Ombre also was a strong enough performer in nationwide trials that it won 2023 All America Selections honors in the Southeast and Northwest regions of the U.S.

   I test-grew two Yellow Ombres last summer and also found the variety to have big and vibrant flowers on short, stocky plants that my resident deer didn’t touch.

   Being a native species, this plant is also attractive to birds and butterflies. It does best in full sun and is drought-tough once established.

Astilbe ‘Dark Side of the Moon’

   Fanciers of dark-leafed plants will love this new shade-tolerant perennial that’s the market’s first dark-leafed astilbe with purple flowers.

   The leaves of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ emerge yellow with a glossy, dark margin and then morph to a uniform, deep-chocolate/burgundy, says Nicole Hoonhurst, spokesperson for Michigan-based Walters Gardens, which is introducing the plant under the Proven Winners brand.

   Hoonhurst rates it as her favorite new perennial of 2023. The variety also earned a 2023 National Garden Bureau Green Thumb award as the year’s best new perennial.

   ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ reaches 20 to 22 inches tall, including the late-summer rosy-purple flower spikes. It’ll do well in shade or part shade and even full sun if the soil is kept damp.

Loosestrife ‘Burgundy Mist’

   ‘Burgundy Mist’ is another new dark-leafed plant that Bryan Benner, the head perennial grower at wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, rates as his favorite new perennial of 2023.

   Benner likes how the burgundy foliage contrasts with the star-shaped yellow flowers. He says ‘Burgundy Mist’ grows quickly and densely to make a colorful, weed-choking groundcover. And he points out it’s a native form of loosestrife (Lysimachia lanceolata) that’s attractive to native bees.

   ‘Burgundy Mist’ has lance-like leaves, grows about 20 to 24 inches tall, and is resistant to heat, drought, and deer. The flowers open in July and persist through summer.

Delphinium ‘Red Lark’

   Delphiniums are among the showiest of perennials with their huge flower spikes of blue or purple, but ‘Red Lark’s’ novel coral-red blooms caught the eye of Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses nursery manager Brandon Kuykendall at the plant industry’s 2022 Cultivate show in Ohio.

   Kuykendall rates ‘Red Lark’ as his favorite new perennial of 2023, not only for its break-through color but because “it doesn’t need to be staked and can get some repeat blooms if deadheaded.”

     This new Darwin Perennials introduction flowers from late spring into summer, ideally in full sun, and makes an excellent cut flower. Including the flower spikes, the plant grows nearly four feet tall.

   Kuykendall isn’t the only one noticing ‘Red Lark.’ The variety turned enough other heads at last summer’s Cultivate show that it won the show’s 2022 Retailer’s Choice award as the best new perennial with the potential to become a garden-center best-seller.

Skullcap (Scutellaria) ‘Appalachian Blues’

   Here’s a new natural-hybrid, bee-favorite perennial that will give gardeners a native alternative to salvias and lavender, according to North Creek Nurseries, the Chester County grower that’s introducing skullcap ‘Appalachian Blues.’

   “The edges of the leaves are eggplant-purple and the flowers are like blue salvias,” says Angela Treadwell-Palmer, the co-owner of the Plants Nouveau plant introduction company who rates ‘Appalachian Blues’ as her favorite new perennial of 2023. “It is truly lovely.”

   Treadwell-Palmer says the flowers are a bicolor blend of blue and white and have black bases (calyxes).

   It’s also a compact and drought-tough plant, growing to two feet tall in either sun or shade.

Salvia Blue by You

   Another drought-tough, bee-friendly new perennial is salvia Blue by You, a purple sun-lover that was the only new perennial good enough to earn a national All-America Selections award for 2023.

   AAS judges said that Blue by You stood out for its large, purple flower spikes and its early bloom time – up to two weeks sooner than most mid-May-blooming salvias.

   If you deadhead the spent flowers, you’ll get a repeat bloom or two out this variety, too.

   Blue by You grows about 22 inches tall and is a good choice where deer or rabbits lurk.

Rudbeckia Goldblitz

   Goldblitz is a new heavy-blooming black-eyed susan with an unusually long bloom time.

   Katie Rotella, spokesperson for Ball Horticultural Co., which is introducing Goldblitz under its Kieft Seed line, says the plant starts blooming earlier than most other black-eyed susans and holds its color into fall.

   She adds that Goldblitz, as a cultivar of a native prairie plant, is also “a wonderful food source for bees, migrating birds, and butterflies in the late-season or early winter.”

   Plants grow 24 to 28 inches tall and bloom best in full sun.

Agastache ‘Pink Pearl’

   Another new pollinator perennial that blooms nearly all season long is this pink-blooming version of a western-U.S. native.

   ‘Pink Pearl’ agastache produces spikes of two-tone light-pink flowers that first open in late spring and stay showy until frost, says Katie Tamony, the chief marketing officer for Monrovia Nurseries, which is introducing the variety.

   Tamony calls ‘Pink Pearl’ a “powerful pollinator” that’s attractive to bees, butterflies, and especially hummingbirds and adds that it’s her favorite new perennial of 2023.

   “It’s covered in blooms,” she says. “No photo can do it justice.”

   ‘Pink Pearl’ grows a compact 16 inches tall, flowers best in full sun, and is deer-resistant.

Lungwort (Pulmonaria) ‘Silver Scimitar’

   Showy bicolor flowers and silvery foliage combine to make this shade-tolerant perennial the favorite new 2023 perennial of Terra Nova Nurseries owner Dan Heims.

   Heims says that ‘Silver Scimitar’ “multiplies rapidly, is exceptionally large, and is very easy to grow.”

   He particularly likes the plant’s wavy-edged, strap-like leaves that are nearly pure silver and its bicolor flowers of pink and purple, which appear in April and May.

   Plants grow about eight inches tall with the flowers reaching up another nine inches. It grows best in shade or part sun and is deer-resistant.

Brunnera ‘Queen of Hearts’

   If you like silver-leafed plants, another new beauty for the shade is this Proven Winners introduction that has scored well in trials at the Penn State Trial Gardens in Lancaster County.

   ‘Queen of Hearts’ has the same eye-grabbing, silver, heart-shaped leaves and blue forget-me-not-like spring flowers as ‘Looking Glass,’ ‘Sea Heart,’ and other existing varieties, but it improves on heat- and disease-resistance.

   It’s also a deer- and rabbit-resistant plant.

   ‘Queen of Hearts’ grows 16 to 18 inches tall and prefers growing in shade to part sun.

Catmint Prelude Purple

   A new plant I test-grew last summer and liked is Darwin Perennials’ new Prelude Purple catmint, which is different for its deep-purple flowers instead of the traditional blue to blue-purple blooms of other catmints.

   Prelude Purple bloomed for me almost all summer long with the tubular purple flowers held nicely above the clumps of green foliage.

   Like all catmints, this one seems to be heat- and drought-tough, resistant to deer, and attractive to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

   Plants grow about 30 inches tall and do best in full sun.

Little bluestems Shining Star and ‘Chameleon’

   Lower Paxton Twp. horticulturist David Wilson likes these two new variegated varieties of our native little bluestem grass.

   Wilson, the marketing director for Overdevest Nurseries, says Shining Star and ‘Chameleon’ are similar in some ways… “tough, hardy, easy-to-grow variegated forms of a native grass that are normally left untouched by deer.”

   Both also take on attractive fall-foliage shades of pink and purple, are drought-tough once established, and do well in poor, lean soil, he adds.

   The differences are that Shining Star “is more vigorous and fuller growing with a creamy-yellowish variegation, while ‘Chameleon’ is more compact with bright white-and-green leaves,” Wilson adds. “Both deserve to be grown in our gardens.”

   With the seed stems, plants grow about 30 inches tall and do best in full sun.

Fountaingrass ‘Water to Wine’

   This new ornamental grass from Must Have Perennials stands out for its bottle-brush flowers that emerge black and then turn cinnamon and finally tan as the season progresses.

   ‘Water to Wine’ is a winter-hardy, drought-tough fountain grass (Pennisetum) that has bright green foliage and a dense, compact habit. In fall, the foliage takes on red and purple tones.

Including the flower/seed stems, ‘Water to Wine’ tops out around three feet tall. It does best in full sun to light shade.

Read George’s post on the Best New Perennial Flowers of 2022