Dampiera is actually a purple-blooming semi-tropical shrub that can be used as a summer potted flower in colder climates. Photo credit: Star® Roses and Plants

The newest 2025 twist you might find on garden-center flower benches this spring is a semi-tropical shrub called dampiera.

Star® Roses and Plants is introducing a variety of this Australian native – named Purple Oz – that produces winged, pollinator-friendly purple flowers throughout the summer. Star sees it as a drought-tough, heat-tough flowering option for containers in colder climates.

Plants have a trailing habit of two to three tall and four feet wide. Purple Oz grows and flowers best in full sun. It’ll overwinter as a perennial in Zones 8 and warmer.

Bluephoria brings a new color to mandevillas. Photo credit: Suntory Flowers

Mandevillas have been catching on as summer potted plants lately since the arrival of compact versions that keep them to two feet instead of straggling vines.

What’s new with Bluephoria is its head-turning, purple-violet, trumpet-shaped flowers – a departure from the species’ usual red, pink, or white shades.

The variety’s producer, Suntory Flowers, says Bluephoria also is a dense grower and early to flower, with its buds starting out pink before opening to purple-violet.

Bluephoria grows 12 to 24 inches tall and flowers best in full sun.

Sunfinity Double Yellow is a new sunflower with double-petaled flowers that keep producing all summer long. Photo credit: George Weigel

If you haven’t seen any of the so-called “thousand-bloom sunflowers” (Sunfinity, Suncredible, SunBelievable), you’re missing out on some of the biggest, showiest annual flowers yet.

These varieties turn sunflowers from a traditional, tall, stalk-like plant with just a few short-lived, super-sized flowers into a two- to three-foot bush that produces masses of smaller flowers all season long – even past the fall’s first light frost or two.

New for 2025 is a double-flowered version of this type from Syngenta Flowers called Sunfinity Double Yellow. It’ll grow nearly three feet tall and wide in a single season. It flowers best in full sun.

‘Skeletal’ is a new coleus with deeply lobed maroon-and-gold leaves that resemble ribs. Photo credit: George Weigel

With all of the superb and showy coleus varieties already on the market, it’s hard for any new one to stand out from the crowd.

But ‘Skeletal’ did that at last July’s Cultivate 2024 trade show in Columbus, Ohio, coming away with Greenhouse Grower magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award as best new plant introduction of the year.

‘Skeletal’ is distinct for its deeply lobed leaves that sport a sort of rib-like appearance – hence the skeletal name. Bred by Rick Grazzini of Garden Genetics, ‘Skeletal’ has leaves that are a vibrant maroon color in the middle with bright golden edges.

Plants grow about a foot tall in sun or shade and in pots as well as the ground.

Monarch Magic is a hefty ageratum that blooms blue-purple from May until frost. Photo credit: Penn State Trial Gardens

This new blue/purple-blooming pollinator-attractor from Ball FloraPlant is a hefty 2½-foot plant that blooms heavily throughout the season.

True to its name, Monarch Magic is a magnet for numerous hummingbirds and butterflies, including monarchs. No deadheading is needed, as is the case with some ageratums whose flowers brown after maturing.

Plants do well in full sun to light shade.

The dahlia Virtuoso Pinkerific, left, is a newcomer that blooms early and long, while dahlia Black Forest Ruby, right, offers a dark-foliage background to its red flowers. Photo credit: Proven Winners/All-America Selections

These two new dahlias are worth checking out both for their large, showy blooms and extended bloom times.

Virtuoso Pinkerific is a Proven Winners variety that blooms earlier than most dahlias (July) and then continues to flower into September. It’s a double-petaled pink bloomer with a yellow center that grows 18 inches tall and wide.

Black Forest Ruby is a red bloomer with dark foliage that performed well enough in nationwide trials to earn a 2025 All-America Selections award in that venerable testing program.

AAS judges said the variety "does not flop open and is disease-free all season. Its vibrant red blooms stand out beautifully against the dark backdrop."

Black Forest Ruby grows about two feet tall and has excellent heat- and drought-resistance.

Both of these dahlias perform best in full sun.

Magnifica is an award-winning hybrid dianthus that stands up to summer heat. Photo credit: All-America Selections)

This cross between two different species of dianthus also performed well enough in independent national trials last year to earn a 2025 All-America Selection award.

Capitan Magnifica produces large, two-inch pink flowers with lighter-pink edges.

It tolerates summer heat better than traditional annual dianthus, blooms most of the season, attracts pollinators, and makes a good cut flower.

Capitan Magnifica grows 12 to 18 inches tall in full to part sun.