Quick flowering perennial varieties for 2025
A landscape full of blooms is a gardener’s dream, especially when the flowers will meet you again next year.
First-year flowering perennial varieties are thoughtful options to satisfy the needs of growers and consumers. Less time and inputs are required to produce a blossoming bush for retail, and home gardeners are choosing longer-lasting plants as they become more adept.
During travels and conversations throughout the year, there’s been a strong voice surrounding perennials, pollinators and drought-tolerant plants. With an overwhelming amount of choices, I present you with options from abelia to veronica and a rainbow of colors to choose from here.
Spring Meadow Nursery
1. Abelia ‘Poco Loco’ has an eye-catching spring foliage that emerges in yellow and orange. It changes to green with new growth colored red-pink and fragrant blooms of pink as it grows through summer. It’s a semi-evergreen with a globe-shaped habit that is finished for retail in one season.
2. Hydrangea ‘Wee Bit Innocent’ is a macrophylla-type with rounded, mophead flowers and double florets in pink or blue. It’s a great substitute for the Cityline series with its excellent landscape performance and will be ready for sales in half of a season.
3. The flow of colors from yellow to orange to red in rosa ‘Oso Easy En Fuego’ is entrancing with the high-gloss, dark green leaves in the background. It performs well in both hot and cold climates, has disease resistance and no deadheading is needed.
De Vroomen Garden Products
4. The bicolor blossoms of echinacea ‘Rainbow Marcella’ make one plant look like a combination planting. The raspberry/orange/ yellow flowers hold strong on well-branched stems and fill the garden through summer until early fall.
5. A floriferous variety, astilbe ‘Super Sprite’ shows off dense pink flower spikes against dark green foliage. It’s a great cut flower option and also grows well in sun to shade landscapes.
6. Veronica ‘Blue Bomb’ has unusually branched flower plumes that give this variety high visual appeal among consumers. It’s available in bareroot form for growers, and the compact form makes it great for gallon containers.
Terra Nova Nurseries
7. Echinacea ‘French Tips’ features large, fragrant pink flowers with distinctive, white-tipped petals. The dense and bushy habit makes it perfect for mixed beds and borders.
8. Pulmonaria ‘Nova Cobalt’ offers vibrant blue flowers and hardy green foliage, making a dramatic statement while thriving in shade gardens, beds and woodlands. The plant is sturdy, hardy and almost foolproof in any area.
9. Featuring a brilliant mound of white, daisy-like flowers, echinacea ‘Princess Bride’ grows throughout the summer and early fall months. The foliage stays lower to the ground on this variety making it an ideal pot crop.
Darwin Perennials
10. The double flowers of echinacea ‘Double Scoop Watermelon Deluxe’ will fill patios and gardens from late spring through late summer. The Deluxe series is more compact with better branching than the Sombrero series and is a reliable first-year bloomer.
11. Another first-year flowering series, echinacea ‘Sombrero Fuchsia Fandango’ gives rich, vibrant color all season long. This series provides a uniform habit that is compacted and well-branched for optimal landscape performance.
12. Coreopsis ‘UpTick Gold’ was shining in the sun during my time at Darwin Perennials Day in June. UpTick is an easy-to-finish series with bigger blooms that last on retail shelves.
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