‘Ever Red’ banana is hardy in northern winter and sports maroon-and-green stripes. Photo credit: Concept Plants®

Don’t expect clusters of yellow fruits, but this new banana tree is cold-hardy enough to survive winters even into USDA Hardiness Zone 5 regions, which can get down to minus-15 degrees.

'Ever Red' gives gardeners an option for a tropical look in an in-ground plant with its big, bold leaves. As the name suggests, the plant adds red foliage color as a tradeoff for its lack of fruiting prowess. Those big leaves sport maroon-red and green stripes.

Although 'Ever Red' is rated to Zone 5, it’ll die back to the ground in northern winters. The plant’s introducer, Concept Plants, recommends covering the roots with straw or mulch to help insulate the dormant roots in cold-winter regions.

Come spring, new shoots emerge and can rise eight feet or more in a single season. 'Ever Red' grows best in full sun.

Starway to Heaven has a narrow habit and white flowers that grow in a stairwell pattern. Photo credit: Proven Winners® ColorChoice®

A more conventional small tree turned enough heads at last September’s Farwest trade show to earn both the Best of Show Retailer’s Choice Award from The Garden Center Group and the People’s Choice voting by attendees.

Snowbell Starway to Heaven is a break-through on three fronts... 1.) it has a narrow habit of 12 to 18 feet tall but only eight feet in width; 2.) it’s a rebloomer, flowering in the traditional spring but also again in fall, and 3.) it has an unusual flower arrangement that’s described as “like a spiral staircase going up.”

The tree’s five-petaled white flowers are mildly fragrant, too.

Starway to Heaven grows in full sun to light shade and is winter-hardy in USDA Zones 5-9.

Garden Gems Amethyst is a new compact redbud tree with dark foliage. Photo credit: Star® Roses and Plants

Another small tree that won a Garden Center Group Retailer's Choice Award for 2025 is this new version of the U.S.-native redbud tree – one small enough to grow in a pot (just eight to 10 feet in height) and with eye-grabbing dark burgundy leaves.

Garden Gems Amethyst Cercis canadensis holds its burgundy color well through the heat of summer, and it produces an abundant array of pink blooms in early spring just before the foliage opens.

Redbuds grow best in part shade (or in full sun with adequate water in moderate climates). They’re hardy in Zones 5-9.

Fairytrail Green is a new version of cascading hydrangea with lime-green lacecap flowers. Photo credit: Proven Winners® ColorChoice®

Fairytrail Bride^® Cascade Hydrangea broke new ground two years ago as the first of a new kind of hybrid hydrangea with a trailing habit.

For 2025, Proven Winners is introducing two new versions of cascading hydrangeas – Fairytrail White, which is another white bloomer but with mophead-type flowers instead of lacecap-type ones, and Fairytrail Green, a trailer with lime-green lacecap flowers.

Both plants grow about four feet tall and wide and produce flowers all along the stems. They’re ideal in containers and hanging baskets as well as draping over a rock wall.

Fairytrail hydrangeas grow best in sites with morning sun and afternoon shade. (Hardy in Zones 6-9.)

Autumn Reprise is a new reblooming variety of native oakleaf hydrangea. Photo credit: Star® Roses and Plants

A third 2025 hydrangea worth considering is Autumn Reprise, a new variety of U.S.-native oakleaf hydrangea that features burgundy fall foliage, exfoliating bark, and large white blooms.

The bonus here is that as the name suggests, Autumn Reprise is a rebloomer that puts out a first set of cone-shaped white flowers in early summer and then a second round in later summer.

The plant also is earlier to bloom in summer than most oakleaf hydrangeas, and it has good disease resistance and strong branches.

Autumn Reprise grows about five to six feet tall and wide and does well in full sun or part shade. (Hardy in Zones 5-9.)

Paisley Pup is a new variety of native leucothoe that has a variegated combination of pink, green, cream, and bronze leaves that change color with the season. Photo credit: Proven Winners®

This new broadleaf evergreen shrub variety with the odd name also is unusual for its foliage, which is a changing variegated combination of pink, green, cream, and bronze, depending on the season.

Known by the common name of “doghobble,” leucothoe ‘Paisley Pup’ is a Proven Winners newcomer that earned a 2025 Retailer’s Choice Award of Merit from The Garden Center Group for its showy looks.

Doghobble is also a deer-resistant, disease-resistant native shrub that attracts pollinators with its bell-shaped white flowers that run all along the plant’s arching branches in late spring.

‘Paisley Pup’ grows about four feet tall and five feet wide, ideally in part shade (or at least out of direct afternoon sun). It’s hardy in Zones 5-8.