What’s New and What’s Hot: Trends for 2023
Note: Seed produced by F1 hybrid plants may not produce offspring true to the parent.
As the year unfolds, gardeners are embracing fresh trends for 2023 and exciting plant varieties to rejuvenate their outdoor spaces. From All-America Selections (AAS) award-winning flowers like the ‘DoubleShot Orange Bicolor’ snapdragon to innovative groundcover options such as the ‘Carpet Angel’ Shasta daisy, this year offers a plethora of inspiration. Dive into the latest horticultural highlights and discover how to infuse your garden with the vibrant energy of 2023.
‘DoubleShot Orange Bicolour’ snapdragons
An AAS winner 2023. F1 hybrid, upright with open faced, ruffled, double flowers on tall upright strong stems. 18 to 20 inches all. Contrast with trailing snapdragons that do well in hanging baskets.
“Fruit Salad Mango”
It’s a bronzy orange with yellow and pink throats. These do better in the heat than the others. A short lived petnias, snapdragon is grown as an annual.
Leucanthemum Carpet Angel
A groundcover Shasta daisy that never stops blooming all season long! An AAS winner, this little beauty is only six inches tall, but it sports three-inch-wide flowers with a crazy daisy appearance and an outer rim of drooping petals. Spread is up to 20 inches to plant according and create a carpet of white. Hardy from zone 4.
White Feather Hosta
This trendy hosta has striking white or cream leaves in springtime, fading to cream, lined with green in later months. Lavender flowers emerge from the 18 to 20-inche plant in summer. Give it full shade. Zones 3 to nine.
‘Siberian Tiger’ Hosta
It is only nine inches tall, but its leaves pack a wallop of colour! They feature long vertical stripes of creamy white and pea green. In bloom, their white or lavender flowers are attractive to bees. Zones 3 to 9.
Oxalis versicolor, ‘Sorrel Candy Cane’
This bulbous charmer does not at all resemble traditional oxalis plants with their shamrock shaped leaves. Instead, the leaves on this plant are three slender slips that grow along the stem in sets and set off upright, bell-shaped flowers that unfurl like a rose in full sunlight but stay partially closed in duller light. The curving petals are edged in bright red causing the flower to resemble a candy cane. This is a tender perennial. Grow the in pots and overwinter the bulbs indoors.
Oxalis corymbosa aureo reticulata ‘Steve’s Leaves’
Unique in looks, this plant produces large traditional shamrock-shaped foliage with pretty pink flowers. However, the leaves are a patterned showcase of cream and green sur to poke the viewer in the eye. Also known as golden vein oxalis. Grow this pretty plant in a featured pot.
Hydrangea ‘Seaside Serenade Crystal Cave’
This unique 2023 hydrangea is a lacecap which has frilly pink flowers edged in burgundy or purple depending on the acidity of the soil. More acid, darker blue to purple edges. Less acid and more alkaline, they are edged with brighter pink burgundy. A macrophylla is like moist (not wet) soil. Grows from 3 to 4 feet tall. Part shade – some morning sun is best.
Kangaroo Paw ‘Celebrations Mardi Gras’
A plant for collectors who love to grow stunningly unusual plants. I first saw this in an Edmonton Garden and I was fascinated with the furry buds of yellow and orange. Now there is one that grows about 16 inches tall with purple and blue flowers that looks worth the trouble to try. No, it is not hardy, but you can grow it in the hot sun or even in a planter and take the roots indoors over winter.
Phlox ‘Crème de la Crème’
Any garden filled with phlox is a garden filled with a gorgeous, trendy 2023 late summer bloom. Rosebud-like pink and white flowers in clusters open slowly.
Sedum ‘Pinky’
Sedum is a wonderful groundcover in any garden and when the leaves have growing tips of creamy white and pink in spring, it becomes even more attractive.
Bearded Iris “Cybergrape Blue and Bluer’
Iris never disappoints and if you like blue, this will be a winner.
Incarvilllea delavayii
This is a flowering fern, often called garden gloxinia. Orchid-like flowers emerge from the ferny, 18-inch plants like a small measure of sun to bloom. A tender perennial, it can be grown in pots as an annual. Stunning flowers reach two feet. Overwinter in bright light indoors or save the tubers in peat moss in a cool dark place.
Cinquefoil, Potentilla, Scarlet Dreams
Double red, one-and-a-half-inch flowers on a 12- to 18-inch-tall plant. Potentilla is often condemned as the “service station shrub” because it is hardy enough to withstand the pollutants of heavy traffic around the local gas station while bravely continuing to bloom throughout the summer. Over the past number of years, the familiar yellow blossoms have been replaced by a variety of new colours – peach and pink and now bright red.
Potentillia is also a perennial herbaceous variety of this interesting plant, which was used medicinally in both Europe and North America to cure sore throat. Menstrual cramps and dysentery among other ailments.
Nectaroscordum siculum
Also known as Sicilian Honey garlic or Honey Lily, it’s a tender allium with umbels of drooping, creamy pink flowers brushed with burgundy. Three to four feet tall and dear resistant. Zone 5 and up. Likes to be planted in fall. If growing is a colder climate, plant close to a foundation and offer extra protection with mulch.
Petunia ‘Evening Scentsation’
Not new, but ever trendy, and an AAS winner in 2017, this lovely blue petunia is worth another look …and smell. “fragrance has notes of hyacinth, sweet honey and rose. As the name implies, the scent is stronger in the evening hours, though it can be experienced throughout the day as well.” Lovely colour, nice mounding habi, five to eight inches tall with a spread of 30 to 35 inches.
