10 New Annuals You Won’t Want to Miss This Spring

Color, color, color is what it’s all about come springtime! Here are ten new vibrant annual plants that are sure to cure the wintertime blues—all available now for pre-order here. (Are you as excited as we are about Supertunia Vista® Bubblegum’s new sister?)

#1 - Superbells® Blackcurrant Punch™ Calibrachoa

For major WOW! power, try this new all-season blooming calibrachoa that has deep plum to bold magenta pink flowers with a black eye and yellow throat. You’ll find yourself admiring these amazing blossoms each time you walk by since they bloom from spring into fall without deadheading. Mix them with other brightly colored Superbells or Superbena in your patio containers and hanging baskets. Feed regularly with Proven Winners’ water soluble plant food for best results. 6-12” tall, 12-24” spread, full sun to part shade

#2 - Superbells® Double Amber, Blue and Orange Calibrachoa

You might mistake them at first for miniature roses, but roses don’t come in blue… These double-flowered calibrachoa are absolutely breathtaking in hanging baskets and mixed containers. Joining the collection this year are three unique new colors—Amber, Blue and Orange. 6-12” tall, 12-24” spread, full sun to part shade Superbells® Double Amber bears elegant, fully double, golden flowers with amber venation. They line the cascading stems all season, beginning early in spring and continuing strong into fall without deadheading. Superbells® Double Blue is a cool shade of lilac purple that is somewhat rare in the plant world. It would look amazing paired with Superbells Lemon Slice in hanging baskets and patio pots. Superbells® Double Orange has the coloring of sweet blood oranges—deep orange with a hint of red shading on the newest flowers. We love it paired with purples and magentas.

#3 – Heart to Heart™ Caladiums

We’re loving the tropical vibe the new Heart to Heart™ caladiums have added to our collection. We are excited to use these bold foliage plants as thrillers and fillers in our container combinations this year. Since there are varieties that grow in both sun and shade, they can be used in so many different ways in the garden. 20 unique new patterned cultivars are available this year, with even more coming down the road. Which ones are your favorites? (See Heidi’s favorites in this blog.) Sizes vary by cultivar but range from 15-20” tall, sun and shade cultivars available.

#4 – Heat it Up™ Scarlet and Yellow Gaillardia

When the heat is on, these blanket flowers really crank up the flower power! You’ll love how they blanket your landscape and containers in vivid scarlet or yellow color on mounded, wide-spreading plants from planting time into autumn. Their warm flower colors naturally attract pollinating bees and butterflies to the garden, but their fuzzy foliage makes them unpalatable to deer. Unlike perennial Gaillardia, these new cultivars are true annuals, crediting a Texas native annual species to their roots. 12-24” tall, 18-36” spread, full sun

#5 - Suncredible® Yellow Helianthus

This is a sunflower unlike any you’ve grown—totally unlike the kind you may have grown from seeds. No more waiting all summer for that single flower stalk to finally produce one flower. This multiflora sunflower produces masses of flowers all summer long and well into fall. Strong resistance to powdery mildew helps it last all season. Though its flowers are smaller (about 4” across) than tall, single stalk sunflowers, there are dozens per plant—plenty for making fresh bouquets all season. It grows into a bushy, shrub-like form, so large that it won’t take many plants to fill the middle of flower border with sunshine yellow color. 24-42” tall, 20-32” spread, full sun

#6 - SunPatiens® Compact Pink Candy Impatiens

We are big fans of all the SunPatiens varieties for creating gorgeous sweeps of color in the landscape and impressive containers, too. Compact Pink Candy really stands out with its bicolor coral pink and red patterned flowers that add a touch of whimsy to the garden. If you like the look of bedding impatiens but garden in full sun, SunPatiens are the perfect swap. You’ll get the same look, but with larger, more sun and heat tolerant plants. And since they are not affected by downy mildew, you can depend on them to last all season. 16-30” tall, 20-24” spread, full sun to part shade

#7 - Supertunia® Raspberry Rush™ Petunia

Patterned petunias are back in style! Have you noticed all the fun new varieties that have popped up in the last few years like Lovie Dovie , Mini Vista™ Violet Star and Picasso in Purple®? The new Raspberry Rush joins the fun this year with its hot pink and white striped bicolor blooms. But it’s not just a pretty face—this petunia performs toe-to-toe with the rest of the pack of Supertunias, blooming like crazy all season without needing to be deadheaded. Try it in upright containers, hanging baskets and in your garden beds. Feed regularly with Proven Winners’ water soluble plant food for best results. 6-12” tall, 18-24” spread, full sun to part shade

#8 – Supertunia Vista® Snowdrift™ Petunia

This is it! Supertunia Vista® Bubblegum’s new sister is finally here! We get pretty excited anytime there’s a new addition to the Supertunia Vista family because we know our customers LOVE these plants. These super-sized petunias have incredible vigor and make it easy to fill your landscape with color. They make humongous hanging baskets and upright containers, too. One 4” potted plant will grow to fill three square feet of space—now that’s value! The new Supertunia Vista Snowdrift forms a glistening blanket of pure snow white blossoms. If you’d like to combine it with other flowers, make sure they are also really vigorous like other Supertunia Vista petunias, Blushing Princess® sweet alyssum or Angelface® Super Blue Angelonia. 12-24” tall, 24-36” spread, full sun to part shade

#9 – Rockin’ Blue Suede Shoes™ Salvia

The crisp indigo blue flowers of this unique new salvia are amazing at drawing in pollinators, and those large, hooded blossoms offer them easy access to the nectar. You’ll find bumblebees, hummingbirds and even a few butterflies partaking in a mid-day snack on this fun new annual salvia. We love that it is super easy to grow, especially in the garden where it doesn’t demand much in the way of extra water or fertilizer. It keeps right on blooming from planting time until frost, flowering heaviest in full sun locations. You won’t need more than a few of these large, bushy salvias to create an amazing show. 30-40” tall, 24-30” spread, full sun to part shade

#10 - ColorBlaze® Wicked Witch™ Coleus

Rod has seen and grown it all when it comes to annuals, so you know a plant must be special when he selects it for his Top 5 New Varieties List. (See which other plants made Rod’s list in this blog ) We couldn’t agree more—this new coleus is magical. Its deep burgundy leaves have electrifying green, serrated edges, and its full, bushy form is absolutely perfect. Like all ColorBlaze® coleus, it blooms late or not at all, which helps it last until frost. (Flowers are a bad thing with coleus since they signal that the end of the plant’s life cycle is near.) Since it grows in both sun and shade, there are endless ways to use this dynamic new foliage plant in containers and landscapes. 24-40” tall, 18-36” spread, sun or shade Have we whetted your appetite for new plants? See all the new varieties we’ll be offering this year here. Stay tuned for our Top 10 New Perennials and Shrubs lists in our upcoming newsletters.