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The annual arrival of new plant varieties from various growers creates a wonderful sense of anticipation for gardening enthusiasts. Each season brings fresh cultivars with improved disease resistance, unique colors, or novel growth habits that weren’t available before, giving you the opportunity to refresh your landscape or indoor space with something truly distinctive.
Local nurseries, online retailers, and garden centers each curate their own selections, offering hidden gems that might become the signature piece of your garden. By incorporating these new finds into your existing plant collection, you can complement current plants while adding some exciting focal points to your space. Here are some of our favorite new plants being offered by a variety of vendors in 2026.
1. Ruffled Romance Floribunda Rose (Rosa floribunda ‘Ruffled Romance’)
As the star of the 2026 new rose collection from Jackson & Perkins, Ruffled Romance is the final rose bred by the company’s legendary hybridizer Dr. Keith Zary. This stunning, festive floribunda showcases cheerful colors, starting with shades of golden yellow and apricot and then maturing into a soft blush pink. It has a moderate fruity fragrance, strong disease resistance, and large 4-inch blooms in clusters.
As a compact rose, Ruffled Romance reaches just 3 feet tall and wide. It has sharply pointed buds and a double, cupped, and ruffled flower shape. This plant also has dense dark green foliage and nonstop blooming, delivering ornamental value. Ruffled Romance is hardy in USDA Zones 5 to 9 and thrives in full sun with soil that drains well. Regular watering, occasional feeding, and light pruning in early spring will help maintain its shape and encourage blooming.
Best For: Patio containers, small-space gardens, and the front of sunny borders. It also has medium-long stems that make it a great flower for cutting.
Where to Buy: Jackson & Perkins
2. Tokyo Skies Aspidistra (Aspidistra elatior ‘Raku No 1’ PPAF)
Tokyo Skies Aspidistra is an award-winning, eye-catching, tough ground cover with broad, dark green foliage and a unique cream and white variegation. Thriving in both partial and full shade in USDA Zones 8 to 10, this resilient plant is both water-wise and low-maintenance once established. It can reach 2 to 3 feet tall by 1 to 2 feet wide at maturity. It’s a lovely option for a visually dynamic look, given its evergreen foliage with dark green leaves and white sparkles.
Best For: Planting in containers, as a houseplant, and as borders around a yard.
Where to Buy: Southern Living Plant Collection
3. Autumn Kiss Encore Azalea (Rhododendron Hybrid ‘Roblezp’ PPAF)
Gardeners looking for a show-stopping, resilient shrub will find that this azalea has year-round appeal. It is absolutely gorgeous, given the unique ruffled, bicolor blooms with watercolor-like gradation from hot pink to white. The flowers reach nearly 3 inches across but the size of the shrub is compact; it reaches only 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. This helps it maintain a tidy shape. A robust root system provides superior resilience to pests and heat, allowing the glossy, evergreen leaves to hold their shine even in full sun. Autumn Kiss flourishes in USDA Zones 6 to 10.
Best For: Modern landscapes and container gardens.
Where to Buy: Encore Azalea
4. Centennial Ruby Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Hokocentennial’ PPAF)
A special release for Monrovia’s 100th anniversary, Centennial Ruby Hydrangea is the must-have plant of the season. The flowers of this new variety will turn heads given their rich ruby-red and maroon hues that deepen in color as they age, taking on an almost black tone. They appear as mophead blooms, or large, rounded flower clusters. The shrub also has exceptionally sturdy and compact stems and thick, deep green leaves.
This hydrangea does well in USDA Zones 4 to 9 in filtered sun, partial shade, or partial sun and moist but not soggy soil. Expect it to reach about 3 feet tall and wide. Don’t delay grabbing up this collector’s item plant, as it will only be available as a limited edition in 2026. In fact, the first 5,000 plants will include a special tag noting a limited-edition number.
Best For: Borders and containers for repeat flowering.
Where to Buy: Monrovia
5. Fiesta Limonada Rosa Lantana (Lantana camara ‘Fiesta Limonada Rosa’)
This bright and cheery plant will add a burst of festive color to any garden. It features clusters of magenta and buttery yellow blooms on a dense, compact plant with a slightly trailing growth pattern. It’s hardy and evergreen in USDA Zones 10 and 11 as a perennial, but can be grown as an annual in cooler climates. Lantanas thrive in full sun and average, well-draining soils. Fiesta Limonada Rosa reaches 18 inches tall and 30 inches wide. One of its special features is that it attracts hummingbirds and other pollinators.
Best For: Borders, containers, edging, and hanging baskets.
Where to Buy: Monrovia
6. Monstera Pinnatipartita (Monstera pinnatipartita)
The Monstera pinnatipartita from Costa Farms is an uncommon yet straightforward indoor houseplant that develops impressive foliage reaching up to 3 feet in length and eventually climbing up to 6 feet or more. It features distinctive deep slits along the edges that create visual interest in an indoor plant gallery.
Its rich, dark green leaves bring a tropical aesthetic to any interior space. This plant thrives in well-lit conditions near east- or west-facing windows, though it adapts to moderate lighting and artificial light as well. This low-maintenance plant only needs to be watered about every 1 to 2 weeks, when the upper portion of soil becomes dry.
Best For: Displaying as a statement piece in a well-lit living room, den, or bedroom about 3 feet from a window.
Where to Buy: Costa Farms
7. Maestro Coral Hummingbird Mint (Agastache hybrid)
Designed to create a big splash of color in landscapes and large containers, this long-blooming, low-maintenance, annual plant produces gorgeous, fragrant coral pink flower spikes for months at a time. It blooms early in the season and continues through fall without needing to be sheared back to stay in flower. As a pollinator magnet, the Maestro Coral hummingbird mint plant attracts bees, butterflies, and of course hummingbirds. Both heat- and drought-tolerant, this plant thrives in USDA Zones 8b, 9a, 9b, and 10a.
Best For: In the landscape, as a border plant, and in containers.
Where to Buy: Proven Winners
