Winners’ Circle: Award-winning varieties for 2025
Colorado State University Flower Trial Gardens
2023 Top Performer
Echinacea ‘SunMagic Vintage Fuchsia’
Bull Plant Genetics
The SunMagic Vintage series offers unique colors, tight branching and a compact habit. Plants grow to a mature height of 18 to 24 inches with Zone 4 hardiness. What stands out most about ‘SunMagic Vintage Fuchsia’ is the horizontal orientation of the flowers, the prolific flower canopy with large flowers and the striking brown cones against fuchsia pink petals.
Perennial Plant of the Year
The Perennial Plant Association named Pycnanthemum muticum the 2025 Perennial Plant of the Year. Known as clustered mountainmint, blunt mountainmint, or short-toothed mountainmint, it is native to meadows and open woodlands across much of the eastern U.S. west to Texas. Branched, vertical stems grow 2 to 3 feet tall and form a dense, weed-suppressing clump. It spreads through underground rhizomes and in moist conditions, can be aggressive although it is not invasive to the degree of true mints.
National Winners
Dianthus ‘Capitán Magnifica’
Selecta One
‘Capitán Magnifica’ dianthus held up well in trials through the summer heat and provided continuous bicolor blooms. This is a new interspecific variety that allows more heat tolerance than other dianthus, and Capitán has stems long enough to be used as a cut flower.
Zinnia ‘Zydeco Fire’
Syngenta Flowers
Inspired by the lively, foot-stomping music of southwest Louisiana, this zinnia bursts with sunshine-bright, fully double flowers that are noticeably larger than the comparisons. Picture a kaleidoscope of fiery orange blooms, swaying on sturdy stems all summer long, right up until the first frost. Judges across North America couldn’t resist its infectious charm — the Zydeco has not only incredible flower power, but also long-lasting blooms on disease-resistant foliage because of the marylandica heritage.
Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers 2024
Fresh Cut Flower of the Year
Snapdragon ‘Potomac Appleblossom’
PanAmerican Seed
Earning the Fresh Cut Flower of the Year Award, ‘Potomac Appleblossom’ is giving growers great productivity with multiple flushes of white and rose bicolor flower stalks through the season. Stems are strong and can reach a length of 60 inches long. Growers can produce these snapdragons all year with supplemental high-intensity lighting.
Plantpeddler Trial Gardens and Variety Day
Top 25 Winners
Begonia ‘I’Conia First Kiss Orange’
Dümmen Orange
Large orange blossoms against the dark foliage of ‘I’Conia First Kiss Orange’ make this an easy top pick by looks alone. Growers can also expect strong branching, consistent bicolor blooms and medium vigor with an upright habit for a stand-alone container choice.
Helianthus ‘Sunfinity Double Yellow’
Syngenta Flowers
Sunfinity has a new variety addition and it’s been a top performer in many trials this year. A vegetative double-bloomed sunflower, helianthus ‘Sunfinity Double Yellow’ has the same multibranching, nonstop blooming power of the original seed Sunfinity. It blooms from late spring until fall.
2024 Top Performer
Buddleia ‘Little Rockstars Red’
Dümmen Orange
A new buddleja series from Dümmen Orange, Little Rockstars are adorned with cone-shaped blooms that make it look like a floral bouquet all season. Hardy to Zones 5 to 9.
Videos
