This time of the year, I always look forward to the announcement of the Pantone Color of the Year. Last year it was Peach Fuzz and the year before it was Viva Magenta. I’ve always liked to try to join in and pick out flowers, to show that we are part of the team, a Pantone Partner if you will. Drum roll please: For 2025 the Pantone Color of ...Read more

Six-months ago I wrote a column introducing you to the Art & Sol collection of mangaves, which was having a soft release with a full debut occurring in 2025. If you are not familiar with mangave, it is a cross between the agave and a plant called the manfreda, both native to the Southwest.

The taxonomic hierarchy has recently determined that ...Read more

A few years ago, I wrote a column on the keys to the winter landscape being Bones, Berries and Bark. The bones of course are evergreen plants, berries are like nature’s winter baubles, and bark is typically associated with trees that create a "look at me" moment by virtue of their wood. So, when I had the opportunity to try some Berry Box ...Read more

As we head into December, we start to glance to the future, to the award-winning flowers for 2025. This is always a terrific choice for your garden dollar, whether you are looking toward the landscape, porch, patio or deck. One such award winner is Supertunia Mini Vista Yellow, Proven Winners 2025 Annual of the Year.

The Mini Vista petunias ...Read more

The Garden Guy has been part of a lot of coleus trials over the years, but I don’t remember seeing one like ColorBlaze Mini Me Chartreuse, which will be making its debut in 2025. I gave it casual mention in a column recently, but I am certain it deserves its own column. Hopefully you will see why.

First off it is an electrifying color of ...Read more

When its mid-November and your geraniums are still electrifying on the porch or patio you know you are talking about one of the Boldly varieties. Boldly Coral made its debut in 2022 and as such I had the opportunity to trial it in 2021. Since then it has been my go-to geranium because of its dazzling color and incredible longevity.

Boldly Coral...Read more

Awards for plants come in a variety of names: Louisiana Super Plant, Mississippi Medallion, as an example, and in Georgia where I live, it is the Classic City Award given out by the University of Georgia. The UGA Trial Gardens said in a press release that the winners represent the best overall in the gardens and were ranked on a scale of one to ...Read more

Pinky Winky has gone Prime! One of my all-time favorite hydrangea paniculata varieties, Pinky Winky is now being offered as Prime. This means you can now choose Pinky Winky or Pinky Winky Prime hydrangea for your landscape or pollinator habitat, as I will explain.

Your first question is what the difference is, and that would be size. It is ...Read more

The Temple of Bloom is like the tree of life to everyone who gardens for pollinators. It is a more compact form of Seven-Sons Flower known botanically as Heptacodium micronioides. The Temple of Bloom’s native habitat is China where its wild populations are under threat of extinction.

If you live in zones 5a to 9b however, and you are looking ...Read more

ATLANTA — Atlanta has landed a new NBC drama series “Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” which begins production Nov. 6.

According to a note provided to members of the IATSE 479 union, the series will be shot at Assembly Studios in Doraville. A 12-episode pick up is scheduled to shoot through early April and is set to debut mid-season in ...Read more

The Unplugged salvia group is growing to four in 2025 and that can be your start to an epic red, white and blue garden. There is also an Unplugged Pink that has 26 awards in the trophy case. Unplugged So Blue and Unplugged Pink have won a whopping 63 awards in what seems to be just a couple of years. Plus, what I am seeing in my own garden makes...Read more

As I look back at this gardening year, one of the plants I enjoyed the most was the Upscaled Red Velvet monarda or beebalm. I am in my third year growing the fairly new variety, and it is just getting better and better. Like countless others before me have said, the third year is like magic.

It was like magic with the bees and butterflies too. ...Read more

Four years ago or so, Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo was extensively used in our area and was like the shot heard round the world. We all looked at each other with a sense of bewilderment asking how a Mini Vista could compete with the Vistas for a long, hot summer show of color. With every new variety or addition to the series, it has been the ...Read more

The Garden Guy has always been a tropical plant geek, and not a closet one either. My second book was "Paradise Found: Growing Tropicals In Your Own Backyard." The years I was the host of Mississippi State’s Southern Gardening TV, I was most always decked out in a tropical floral shirt.

So, when Proven Winners announced this year that ...Read more

You have heard or perhaps even said something like, "Wow, he caught lightning in a bottle." It may now be said, "Boy, they caught lightning in that phlox." You will see what I mean if you try the new Luminary Pink Lightning phlox coming out in 2025.

The Luminary series already has Opalescence, a light pink tall garden phlox that is indeed the ...Read more