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Do you long for a gorgeous, serene garden but don’t have the time or energy to dedicate to caring for it on a daily basis? Then you’re in luck because The Sunday Garden is trending.
Monrovia Nursery, the nation’s largest grower of premium shrubs, trees, and perennials, conducts extensive consumer research annually and just released their top garden design trends to watch for in 2026.
“As we mark Monrovia’s 100th anniversary, we are celebrating past innovations and looking forward to what’s next in gardening,” says Katie Tamony, chief marketing officer and trend spotter for Monrovia. “Our latest research has shown that interest in gardening overall is holding steady year over year despite economic worries and pressures. We see that…the main motivation in gardening continues to be about creating spaces that help us lower our stress.”
This means that interest in an easy-to-maintain garden is on the rise. “Bombarded with stress and anxiety about world events, a deluge of content, and never-ending lists of tasks, homeowners tell us their garden is a place to escape the noise of everyday life,” says Tamony. Indeed, you can find this reprieve in a weekend-only garden.
About The Sunday Garden
If you are time-pressed, value-oriented, and want elegance without upkeep, then The Sunday Garden may be the best garden design for you. Building on the green-drenching garden trend, in which an abundance of leafy greenery is used to create a calm, cohesive outdoor space, The Sunday Garden entails designing a soothing backdrop while also enabling a sense of pride and romance. “This design trend encourages gardens and landscapes with tidy bones,” says Tamony. “It also incorporates a dash of quiet luxury and a touch of romance.”
She compares it to the landscape aesthetic used in Nancy Meyers movies like The Parent Trap, The Holiday, Something’s Gotta Give, and The Intern. This look is characterized by elegant and lavish coastal-inspired homes and gardens with elements such as blooming hydrangeas, ivy, trellises, and a soft palette. “Evergreen structure, a disciplined color story, and plants that behave give you a high-end look you can keep in minutes a week,” says Tamony.
How to Create The Sunday Garden In Your Outdoor Space
The Sunday Garden is all about practical elegance. It consists of a core of tidy plants like boxwood, holly, and spiral topiary, along with layers of dark foliage and a single hue of blooms for instant elegance without all the fuss. Here are some of the key design elements to keep in mind when creating your Sunday Garden:
- Pair dark, structured evergreen hedges with interesting foliage.
- Form a soothing backdrop using boxwood, holly, ferns, and other greenery.
- Choose a cohesive palette of flowering plants: pink, white, cream, or pale blue. “One color creates a cohesive, luxe, and easy-to-update space,” explains Tamony. “We see a lot of interest in pinks as a single-color accent to all that lovely green.
- Incorporate climbing vines such as roses, camellias, and jasmine to add height and subtle color.
- Sprinkle in roses growing in containers throughout the space.
- Plant some long-lived flowering shrubs and perennials, such as lavender and hydrangea, to add timeless romance to the space.
- “With this trend we’re seeing that mixing in darker foliage with the evergreens is part of getting that more upscale, luxurious look,” explains Tamony. “You can achieve that through hydrangeas, sedums, or other dark foliage plants.”
- Use boxwood, ilex, pittosporum, and juniper spiral topiary for verticals and edges.
- Include some fragrance accents like jasmine near entries and seating for a gentle scent.
“Evergreen structure, a disciplined color story, and plants that behave give you a high-end look you can keep in minutes a week.”
Katie Tamony, Monrovia
How To Maintain This Look
One of the most attractive benefits of The Sunday Garden is that it stays low maintenance for busy gardeners. “An interest in easy-to-maintain plants is ever increasing as we feel more time-pressed and more anxious about world events,” notes Tamony. “We want to create relaxing, soothing spaces that are like a backdrop to our lives. Part of making it a dream is choosing plants that are really easy to take care of.” Fortunately, there are now plenty of varieties on the market with that appeal.
While this type of garden will require minimal maintenance, it still requires some work. Tamony shared the following tips for successfully maintaining your Sunday Garden:
- Use a high‑quality planting mix for beds and potting mix for containers to help the plants get off to a great start.
- Water the garden areas deeply and infrequently. Use drip irrigation or soaker lines to save time.
- Choose a slow‑release fertilizer in the spring. You may also need a light mid‑season boost for roses and hydrangeas.
- Add 2 to 3 inches of mulch to the landscape beds to keep weeds down and preserve moisture. It also provides a clean, finished look.
- Don’t skip pruning.
Plants That Can Work For The Sunday Garden Trend
In their garden trends report, Monrovia included the following suggestions for specific plants to help complete The Sunday Garden look:
- Winter Gem Boxwood: This dense evergreen shrub is among the hardiest of the small-leaved boxwoods. It has rich green foliage that appears golden bronze in cold winter zones, but is one of the first to become green again in spring. It is beautiful as background foliage or for creating formal hedges and topiaries. (USDA Growing Zones: 5-9)
- Tight Squeeze Western Red Cedar: This compact evergreen shrub is a wonderful plant to form a green wall or an enclosed space. It stays tighter and smaller than other similar varieties. It can grow 12 to 15 feet tall in about 10 years. The shrub works really well for smaller gardens and thrives in heat and humidity. (USDA Growing Zones: 5-9)
- Scallywag Holly: As a wonderful evergreen foundation shrub, this dense, rounded variety grows to about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. It has shiny, dark green soft foliage, but in the fall and winter it takes on a purple-burgundy tone. Since it is a male holly, it won’t produce any berries. (USDA Growing Zones: 5-9)
- Heavenly Ascent Pink Climbing Rose: This deciduous rose plant has large, classic pink flowers with lots of petals and a lovely fragrance. Yet, it is compact without a huge vine. It can grow to about 8 feet tall. It’s perfect for a trellis or pergola. (USDA Growing Zones: 5-9)
- Nitty Gritty Roses: Available in a variety of colors, these are very durable, own-root, fuss-free ground cover roses that produce an abundance of lovely blooms. They are also resistant to disease and easy to care for. (USDA Growing Zones: 4-9)
- Seaside Serenade Hanalei Bay: This sturdy, reblooming dark leaf hydrangea offers a lovely contrast to bright pink blooms. It has big mopheads in deep magenta and slightly frilled flowers with light green to white centers. Foliage is thick and leathery; forms a dense, round shrub; and resists wilting and scorching. It handles high temperatures well. (USDA Growing Zones: 5-9
- Star Jasmine: This attractive evergreen vine is prized for its very fragrant, star-shaped white flowers and blanket of thick, dark green foliage. Plant it near a patio, terrace, or entry where you can enjoy the fragrance. It can also grow on posts, walls, and trellises. (USDA Growing Zones: 8-11)
