And the winner is…

Each year, Proven Winners and All America Selections release a list of plant-of-the-year winners and the non-profit U.S. National Garden Bureau annually chooses a selection of crops that represent six horticultural categories: bulbs, annuals, edibles, perennials, shrubs and houseplants.

For gardeners, such annual announcements can be an intriguing guide to new or unfamiliar plants. They can also spur our interest in exploring alternative plant varieties better suited to our individual garden spaces.

Consider, for example, that buddleia was named the 2024 Shrub of the Year by the National Garden Bureau (NGB). Granted, only non-invasive buddleia varieties were recommended. Commonly known as butterfly bush, buddleia is a butterfly magnet, but there are invasive varieties which must not be grown. Also, buddleia is hardy to Zone 5 which pretty much rules out chances of survival in our Zone-3B climate.

The NGB’s crop selections for 2025 include caladium (bulb), calendula (annual), pea (edible), asclepias (perennial), dogwood (shrub), and Monstera (houseplant).

Naming 2025 as the Year of the Caladium will help shine the spotlight on an underused plant variety. Caladium is a genus of plants in the family Araceae. There are several hundred cultivars with distinctive heart-shaped leaves in a wide range of colours and patterns. We generally only see a limited selection each spring at garden centres. But this could soon change.

Proven Winners has named Heart to Heart Blushing Bride as Caladium of the Year for 2025. A heat-tolerant strap leaf caladium, Heart to Heart Blushing Bride is suitable for growing in sun or shade. The deep-pink leaves with green border may reach up to 17 cm in length. The overall garden height is 38-51 cm. This stunning plant can also be grown as a thriller in a patio container or indoors as a houseplant.

Proven Winners’ 2025 Hosta of the Year is Shadowland Miss America. The heart-shaped leaves feature striking white centres and light-green brushstrokes. This is a substantial full- to part-shade hosta with a mature height of 48 cm (not including the tall scape with near-white flowers), and a width of 1.4 metres. Miss America makes a lovely addition to the Shadowland series.

I’m intrigued as well by Skywriter which has been named the 2025 Hosta of the Year by the American Hosta Growers’ Association. The parentage is Hosta Marilyn Monroe and Neptune crossed with Smoke Signals. Skywriter has ruffled blue leaves with silver-white undersides and deep-purple petioles. Mature height is 43 cm and the width is 1.16 metres. Blue-leaved hostas prefer full shade.

Need something more compact? Hosta Old Yeller, from Green Fuse Botanical, may be just what you’re looking for. It features true-yellow foliage that holds its colour all summer and has high vigour. It grows 38-45 cm tall and 60-76 cm wide.

The NGB has named 2025 the Year of the Asclepias (milkweed). Perhaps every year should be named the year of this essential plant. There are numerous cultivars in a range of colours to suit different tastes, but native varieties of milkweed are ideal for the monarch butterfly and native species of bees and birds.

Mature size is also a necessary consideration when choosing a milkweed variety for your garden. Asclepias incarnata Cinderella swamp milkweed, for example, has rose-pink flowers attractive to many pollinators, but it is a large plant.

Asclepias ovalifolia is a dwarf milkweed native to Manitoba. Amazingly, it grows to a mere 30-46 cm tall. “Dwarf milkweed is a beautiful, well-behaved plant in the garden and has loads of ecological value,” says Aimee McDonald, co-owner of Prairie Flora Greenhouse in Teulon. “It is one of the earlier-blooming milkweeds. Its strong fragrance attracts many different pollinators, and because it produces vast amounts of nectar, it is of special value to native bees and enjoyed by the occasional hummingbird. Birds will enjoy the insects this plant attracts and some will use its plant fibre and seedpod silk to construct their nests.”

This rare Prairie plant occurs naturally in well-drained sandy soils in open woods, woodland edges, thickets and roadsides. The fragrant white flowers bloom in June. Plant in full sun in medium to moist soil. McDonald says Prairie Flora will have plugs available for next spring.

Next year is the Year of the Pea. Peas are a staple ingredient for many gardeners. I reached out to Tanya Stefanec for the name of her favourite variety. Stefanec owns Heritage Harvest Seed, a mail-order seed company located in Fisher Branch which specializes in rare and endangered heirloom and heritage varieties of vegetables, flowers, herbs and ancient-grain seeds.

“One of my favourites is the Blue Pod Capucijners pea,” says Stefanec. “It has beautiful flowers and is very productive, and great in soup.” The tall vines grow up to 1.8 metres and both the flowers and pods are purple. Capucijner is pronounced “cap-ou-SIGH-nah.” A bush pea, it is named after the Franciscan Capuchin monks who grew it in the early 17th Century.

For patio and container gardeners, Renee Shepherd, owner of Renee’s Garden, says her current favourite pea is definitely Snack Hero, a new snap pea for hanging baskets, containers and window boxes. “You can grow them in a hanging basket and then pick the plump, crispy pods at eye level as the plants drape gracefully over the edges of a hanging pot,” says Shepherd. “The peas are large, crunchy and sweet.”

Snack Hero snap peas should be planted in containers at least 38-45 cm in diameter and no less than 17-cm deep. It is recommended to mulch the soil surface to conserve moisture.

The 2025 Houseplant of the Year is Monstera, and it’s easy to understand why. Monstera is wildly popular, long-lived and easy to grow — and it forgives occasional neglect. The handsome leaves with their iconic slits or Swiss-cheese-like holes have so much character. Indoors, it prefers moderate to bright light but no direct light. Monstera can be moved outdoors for the summer into a shady, protected area.

All America Selections (AAS) has announced five annual plant winners for 2025. Everything is coming up … nasturtiums. Of the five winners, three are nasturtium varieties: Baby Yellow, Baby Gold and Baby Red. The Baby series has dark foliage and a petite, mounding habit that makes it ideal for containers and small spaces. Nasturtium gets a bad rap because it can attract black aphids.

But nasturtium is also a fascinating plant in many ways. The leaves and flowers are edible and are a good source of vitamin C. It has a history of being used as a traditional antibiotic. Natural dyes from nasturtium have also been used to colour fabric.

The other two annual plant winners announced by AAS are Dianthus Interspecific Capitán Magnifica which has pink double flowers, longer stems and greater heat tolerance, and Zinnia Zydeco Fire which has brilliant-orange double flowers reported to be 25 per cent larger than competitors.

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