The Best New Perennial Flowers of 2025

January 28th, 2025

   A new line of high-performing mixed-species peonies, a super-sized new salvia, and several new varieties of pollinator favorites highlight the list of interesting new perennials debuting in the 2025 growing season.

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following 12 choices for my annual January four-part, best-new-plants series.

   The article on best new edibles of 2025 appeared Jan. 14, while the rundown on best new annual flowers posted last week. The series ends next week with a look at the best new trees and shrubs of 2025, posting Feb. 4.

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

   The details:

Garden Candy series of Itoh peonies

   Itoh peonies are a cross between herbaceous and tree peonies that yield the best of both worlds – bushy, disease- and deer-resistant plants with big flowers in lots of colors. They’re named after Dr. Toichi Itoh, the Japanese botanist who made the first cross decades ago.

   Enter Donald Smith, a retired atmospheric research physicist who took on a retirement project of breeding new varieties of these “intersectional” Itoh peonies in new colors and double-flowered versions.

   He’s been working on it since 2010 and has come up with a line of 11 impressive plants being introduced this year under the Garden Candy name by Alabama-based Plants Nouveau. 

   “We have deemed Don the ‘Willy Wonka of peony breeding,’” says Angela Treadwell-Palmer, Plants Nouveau’s founder and co-owner.

   Treadwell-Palmer especially likes the Candy Apple variety – a double red – and the Simply Scrumptious variety – a double bloomer with lemony-peach petals and a cherry blush.

   Other Garden Candy entries include Evie Jane (a double pink), Pineapple Fizz (bright yellow), and Summer Sunset (peach).

“These also do not attract those annoying ants or fall in the mud after a hard rain,” Treadwell-Palmer adds. 

   All of the Garden Candy varieties grow nearly three feet tall and four feet wide, die back to the ground in winter, and do well in full sun to part shade.

Hibiscus ‘Watermelon Ruffles’

    Another big, bold, showy newcomer is this variety of native hibiscus with bright, seven-inch magenta-pink flowers set atop dark foliage.

   Bryan Benner, the head perennial grower at wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, picks Walters Gardens’ ‘Watermelon Ruffles’ as a top 2025 perennial.

   He likes the ruffled look of the big flowers, the bronze foliage contrast, and the plant’s habit of flowering all along the stems and not just at the tips.

   “It’s a good pollinator, too,” Benner adds.

   ‘Watermelon Ruffles’ grows about 4½ feet tall and wide and flowers best in full sun.

Salvia Living Large ‘Big Sky’  

   So much perennial breeding has focused on compact varieties lately, but here’s a “super-sized” new perennial salvia from Proven Winners.

   Nicole Hoonhurst of Michigan perennial grower Walters Gardens likes Living Large ‘Big Sky’ as her favorite newcomer of 2025 because of its large flowers and large plant size that add up to “significant input in the landscape.”

   The variety is a cross between two species of salvias, growing nearly three feet tall and wide.

   Hoonhurst says ‘Big Sky’ also flowers later than most perennial salvias, blooming in violet-blue spires from late spring into early summer.

   Salvias grow best in full sun and are both deer- and rabbit-resistant.

Coneflower Revelation ‘Coral’

   Revelation ‘Coral’ boasts the biggest flowers yet of any coneflower bred by Terra Nova Nurseries, one of the nation’s leaders in perennial innovations (especially coneflowers and coralbells).

   Dan Heims, owner of the Oregon-based company, says Revelation ‘Coral’ “stands out for its extra-long, long-lasting coral-pink blooms that beautifully crown the plant… The flowers are not only striking but also highly fragrant, making them a favorite for bumblebees and other pollinators. When planted in full sun, it provides an impressive floral display from June through October.”

   It’s also a variety with lush, dense foliage, and it’s a selection of a U.S. native.

   Figure on a height of about two feet.

Agastache Summerlong series

   The mint-family genus of Agastache is becoming a better and better bet for Pennsylvania yards since our warming winters are turning it from a “perennial maybe” into a “perennial probably.”

   The Summerlong series is a new five-variety line from Darwin Perennials that offers the many pluses of Mexican giant hyssop (Agastache mexicana) – excellent heat- and drought-toughness, long bloom, licorice-scented leaves, deer-resistance, and pollinator attractiveness (it’s a magnet for hummingbirds and bees).

   The caveats are that plants need good drainage, full sun, and winters that don’t get any colder than about 5 degrees (i.e. USDA Hardiness Zone 7a, which is most of the Harrisburg area). Though it’s a mint-family plant, agastache is not an over-aggressive grower.

   Darwin Perennials marketing manager Marion Meesenburg says the Summerlong series flowers early, keeps going all summer (hence the name), has a “soft mint fragrance,” and takes very little care.

   The series debuts in five colors: Magenta, Coral, Lemon, Peach, and Lilac.

   Plants grow 16 to 22 inches tall.

Spiderwort ‘Webmaster’
   Hershey Gardens horticulture manager Alyssa Hagarman likes this new native spiderwort from Proven Winners for its large, bicolor blooms.

   Hagarman says ‘Webmaster’ has “warm purple flowers with a soft lilac edge, which almost look like they are glowing. At two inches wide, the flowers are larger than other spiderwort varieties.”

   Spiderworts have a long blooming time, and being a U.S. native, are attractive to native bees and butterflies.

   ‘Webmaster’ grows about 18 inches tall and will grow in most any light from full sun to full shade, although it flowers best in a site with at least a half-day of sunlight.

Pennisetum ‘Water To Wine’

   A new ornamental grass with especially big and colorful seedheads is the favorite new-for-2025 perennial of Justin Wisniewski, the general manager for Must Have Perennials, a wholesale grower in Lancaster County.

   Pennisetum ‘Water to Wine’ is “particularly special due to the color of the flower heads, as well as the number of blooms,” Wisniewski says.

   He adds that it’s a strong grower that puts out lots of flower spikes in late summer to early that are nearly black in color.

   “As the temperatures cool, the foliage turns to more of a red hue, which looks great contrasted against the dark flower/seed heads,” Wisniewski says. “It has been in the garden here in Lancaster for three years and has had no issues with reseeding. It’s also a low-maintenance variety that needs an annual cutback, but nothing else.”

   ‘Water to Wine’ grows three to four feet tall and wide and does best in full sun.

   It was developed by Intrinsic Perennial Gardens breeder Brent Horvath, who introduced the outstanding ‘American Gold Rush’ rudbeckia several years ago.

Pink muhlygrass ‘Ruby’

   Another under-used ornamental grass worth trying is a west-central U.S. native called pink muhlygrass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). ‘Ruby’ is a new version of it that did very well in 2024 trials at Penn State’s Trial Gardens in Lancaster County.

   Krystal Snyder, the Extension educator in charge of the PSU trials, rates ‘Ruby’ as her top new perennial of 2025, citing the variety’s showy pink/ruby plumes from late summer to early fall.

   Snyder rated ‘Ruby’ a perfect five stars out of five.

   The variety, being introduced by Ernst Benary of America, grows about three feet tall and has a loose, open habit and narrow green blades. It’ll grow in sun to part shade.

Japanese forest grass Lime Zest

   Not many ornamental grasses prefer shade, but this arching type thrives there.

   Lime Zest is a new introduction from Washington-based Briggs Nursery that lights up the shade with bright lime-green and white variegated blades and magenta stems.

   It was attractive enough to earn a Garden Center Group Retailer’s Choice Award of Merit at last September’s Farwest trade show.

   Lime Zest grows 16 to 18 inches tall with a two-foot, non-aggressive spread.

Coralbells ‘Changeling”

   Here’s a foliage specimen that I test-grew and liked for its changing blend of leaf colors.

   The apt-named ‘Changeling’ is a semi-evergreen perennial that starts out in a peach and cherry blend, then morphs into more of a champagne-taupe combination, then finishes out the season in various shades of green, silver, gold, orange, and salmon.

   Terra Nova Nurseries, the variety’s introducer, calls it a “most curious heuchera” that changes its look weekly.

   ‘Changeling’ produces some wiry white flowers in May and June, but they’re more of a distraction from the plant’s main attribute, which is the foliage.

   Plants grow about 10 inches tall, and although labeled for full sun, do best in morning sun and afternoon shade.

Two new lamb’s ears

   Lamb’s ears are those silvery-gray, fuzzy-leafed perennials that kids (and grownups, for that matter) love to touch. They’re usually not high on the must-have list, though, because they can rot in wet soil and don’t have the most attractive flowers.

   Two new introductions merit a new look at lamb’s ears – a compact version called Furby and a gold-leafed version called Key Lime.

   I saw Furby growing in Penn State’s Trial Gardens last summer, and the plants were full, healthy, and a nice shade of fuzzy gray. The habit was compact 14-inch-tall mounds.

   Key Lime is even shorter and has bright chartreuse fuzzy foliage in early summer that fades more to green by later summer. Plants Nouveau’s Treadwell-Palmer calls it a “showstopper” that’s a “vigorous yet tame groundcover that will brighten up any sunny garden border.”

   Both varieties produce a moderate amount of purple flower spikes in summer.

   All lamb’s ears are among the most heat-tolerant of perennials, and they’re hardly ever bothered by deer or rabbits. They’ll do full sun or part shade… just no wet clay.

Helleborus Endless

Endless is an impressive enough new helleborus that it earned the 2025 Professional’s Choice Green Thumb Award from the National Garden Bureau as the year’s top perennial flower.

The variety features upward-facing white flowers that open lime-green and last for weeks from late winter through early spring.

Like all hellebores, Endless is also one of the last flowers that deer will bother.

Plants grow a compact 12 to 18 inches tall and do best in shade to part shade.

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