Hot new plants for 2027

As you empty your containers and put your garden to bed for winter, take time to assess how well your plants performed. Which plant varieties bloomed consistently or provided long-lasting, vibrant colour? Is there an area of your garden or patio that would benefit next year from a splash of bold colour or texture?

Many new plants will be introduced in 2027. Gardeners can look forward to an eye-popping array of shapes, sizes and colours that will breathe new life into beds and containers.

The Fyre Wing Heuchera series from Terra Nova Nurseries is truly groundbreaking. There is nothing like it on the market in heucheras. It is the first and only heuchera, commonly known as coral bells, to have deeply cut, lace-leaf foliage. Fyre Wing debuts next year with varieties in seven different colours. Each variety is named after a gemstone — Amber, Heliodor, Hematite, Jadeite, Jet, Rhodonite and Spinel. This new series received Retailers’ Choice Awards this summer at both Cultivate and Farwest, the two most important green industry trade shows in North America.

So much buzz surrounds this new heuchera series that demand by retailers has been described as a frenzy. I reached out to Chuck Pavlich, director of new product development at Terra Nova, to inquire about Fyre Wing’s availability in Canada. He replied, “Oh yes, we indeed anticipate it to be in Canada in spring 2027. It will show up first in British Columbia, then work its way eastward.”

The marketing of the new series focuses on dragon mythology. I don’t really get that, but I do think Fyre Wing’s unique foliage will be an impressive addition to planting schemes. It’s worth noting that the Fyre Wing series is hardy to Zone 4. It has Heuchera villosa genetics with demonstrated heat and humidity tolerance.

Villosa means “covered with soft hairs.” In the ground, Fyre Wing will benefit from a protected location in our cold climate. The striking foliage will add unique style and texture to container gardens. All the varieties, except for Heliodor, can be grown in part sun to part shade.

Heuchera plants have a tendency to push themselves out of the ground in freeze-thaw cycles. Applying a layer of mulch around the plant after the first hard frost is helpful. The Northern Exposure series of heuchera from Terra Nova is the hardiest heuchera I have ever grown. It has a Zone 3 rating. One of its parents — Heuchera richardsonii — was sourced from northern Saskatchewan. But heucheras have too much personality to be viewed only through the lens of cold hardiness. Fyre Wing, whether it proves reliably hardy in our Zone 3b climate or not, will find many uses in the garden.

Nepeta catmint is a fragrant garden staple in the perennial garden, invaluable for attracting pollinators. Breeding efforts in recent years have focused on ultra compact catmint cultivars with tighter habits and stems that do not flop.

New for 2027 from Walters Gardens, Nepeta Tall Tails catmint is a different breed of cat. It stands 71 to 81 centimetres tall and 91 to 101 cm wide. It has a sturdy framework with more rigid stems than older, popular varieties such as Walker’s Low, which was first introduced in 1988. Tall Tails’ lavender blue flowers also have an earlier bloom time and continue flowering for months. Whether it’s planted as a single specimen or in multiples, Tall Tails will have an impressive garden footprint.

Shrubs play an essential role in landscape design. They are key visual points that provide a diversity of sizes and shapes but especially a permanent year-round structural presence. Physocarpus ninebark is a reliably cold hardy shrub with an amazing spectrum of colourful varieties to choose from. Pickleball ninebark from Proven Winners is a new compact variety for 2027 with a mature height of just 76 to 91 cm. It is the smallest ninebark on the market.

Pickleball ninebark, hardy to Zone 3, has tremendous flower power with blooms that cover stems in the spring. It thrives in full sun but can also be grown in part sun (four to six hours of sun each day). A standout feature is Pickleball’s chartreuse foliage colour which is maintained throughout the growing season right through to fall. It will light up drab areas of the landscape.

A seasonal display of annuals can work magic in any area of the garden. Countless varieties are introduced each spring, but some of the most versatile performers provide lasting colour in full sun and part shade garden beds, baskets, containers and landscapes. The ability to be grown almost anywhere with only minimal care required makes annuals like the new Solarscape XL Red Glow and Coleus Downtown Santa Fe ideal options for busy gardeners.

Solarscape is the first interspecific impatiens series from seed in the marketplace. Introduced a few years ago, there are now seven different bloom colours in the series. Solarscape XL Red Glow is a 2027 All America Selections (AAS) national winner bred by PanAmerican Seed. The large cherry red blooms have a violet centre. One plant has a substantial impact with a height of 30 to 36 cm and width of 45 to 56 cm. I had a chance to trial Solarscape XL Red Glow in my garden this year — it’s still blooming on my patio with impossibly large, vibrant blooms. I am confident that it will continue to bloom right up until the first frost. That’s value that is hard to beat.

But it’s notable, too, that Solarscape impatiens requires little care apart from a regular watering schedule and fertilizing with a water-soluble plant food. Frankly, I tend to be inconsistent when it comes to fertilizing. Nevertheless, few flowering annuals come close to maintaining their season-long good looks and impeccable performance like Solarscape.

Coleus is also in a league of its own. There are thousands of cultivated varieties for part to full shade, but many new varieties have been introduced in recent years that can also tolerate full sun. Coleus Down Town Santa Fe is a new and mesmerizing foliage variety from Dummen Orange for the spring 2027 growing season. A medium-size coleus, it is perfect for smaller containers or at the front of a border.

Featuring fine-textured serrated leaves, the colour will literally stop you in your tracks. It’s like a red-headed rock star with glowing magenta and gold streaks. In my garden, the bold colour is still going strong well after a growing season that has included torrential rain, whiplash winds and baking temperatures.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com