2025 New Plant Survey Q&A
March 21, 2025
Sue Adams Thank you for voting! Your input is valuable not only to us at Mark Adams Greenhouses, but also to our suppliers who receive a copy of the results, including your comments. Along with your likes and dislikes, we gathered lots of great questions about these varieties and I wanted to take a moment to answer some of them.
Here’s a look at this year’s top 3 flowers:
Along with your likes and dislikes, we gathered lots of great questions about these varieties and I wanted to take a moment to answer some of them.
Agastche Honeysticks Ember
- Scent – The leaves have a minty, herb scent.
- The flowers should bloom from summer into fall.
- Too hybridized? Mark Adams wrote an article a while ago where he interviewed Francis Groeters of Catskill Native Nursery. Dr. Groeters is an internationally renowned expert on native plants and flowers. He said that many nativars (native cultivars) were developed, or conserved, to serve a purpose, such as disease resistance or drought tolerance. Very many of them, since they are so close in appearance and habit to the species, are attractive to pollinators.
- Zone? My supplier said zone 4 in their catalog, but elsewhere I saw zone 6. Mulch to be on the safe side.
Angelonia AngelFlare Black
- Cutting – Angelonia makes a great cut flower. I grew this last year and mixed it with other colors in a vase.
Canna Canova Gold Leopard
- Why don’t we grow Cleopatra Cannas? The Canova series is from seed, whereas Cleopatra is from a bulbs. From a production perspective, the seed varieties work well in our schedule. When ordering plugs for the season, we have to keep in mind truck and boxing minimums as well as the cost of shipping.
Eupatorium Little Pye
- Invasive? I reached out to the breeder with this question. Karl Batschke at Darwin replied: Eupatorium dubium ‘Little Joe’ is a Darwin variety and any E. dubium variety is considered a native species and non-invasive. Little Pye is E. maculatum, also considered native. When planted in the southern use (outside their normal native area), they can spread by rhizomes and seeds. They would not be invasive in your territory.
Geranium Glory Days Red Orange
- Available at Adams Fairacre Farms now, sadly geraniums are eaten by deer. I still plant flowers that the deer (and my goat) love, but I spray with a deer repellent, which really works.
- Invasive? Not around here, as zonal geraniums are an annual flower that cannot survive a hard frost.
Million Bells, General Questions
- Annual? Yes. Perennials are the plants that come back every year. Annual flowers must be planted every year, but they have a much longer blooming period, making them ideal for containers and hanging baskets. When you think about it – a cup of coffee from Starbucks lasts a few minutes, whereas an annual flower will bloom all summer long!
- Spotted Lantern Fly attacking million bells? Oh, dear! Annual flowers are not their preferred food, so I checked with entomologist Dan Gilrein, AG Program Director, Cornell Horticulture Research Center. He said that lantern flies have a rather large host range that includes herbaceous plants, though the majority reported hosts included mostly woody plants. International sources noted some herbaceous perennials like perennial salvia, angelica, horseradish, burdock, hollyhock and monarda and annuals like luffa, soybean, basil, tobacco and cannibis but didn’t specifically include any annual ornamental flowering plants. Gilrein hasn’t had any reports of lantern flies feeding on calibrachoa or petunia, but since tobacco is related, perhaps nymphs did feed on the calibrachoa.
Million Bells Evo Double Magenta
- How does this variety compare with Proven Winner’s “Double Vintage Coral? I grew Evo and found it to be denser – completely covered with flowers, and it didn’t trail as much as the PW varieties. But, naturally, I love them both.
- Will there be other colors? I wouldn’t be surprised – stay tuned!
Sunflower Sunfinity Double Yellow
- Do yellow flowers attract stink bugs? AI says yes. But I grew this sunflower in my garden and containers and saw no stink bugs.
Vinca Nirvana Blackberry
- Invasive? No. The vinca sold at Adams Fairacre Farms in Growers Choice Pots is an annual flower, meaning it will die when there’s a hard frost.