Research-based insights provide a look at modern landscape design
Dayton, Oregon – With spring around the corner, do you need inspiration for your 2025 garden? Here is a look at the top three trends in garden design and the plants that can help elevate your outdoor style.
Each year, Monrovia – one of the nation’s largest growers of premium plants, trees, and shrubs – analyzes data from its research studies to predict major trends in plants and garden design. The company conducts an online study surveying 1,400 homeowners across the United States who purchase outdoor plants. On a monthly basis, the company also creates mobile surveys asking plant shoppers about design ideas, growing needs, and plant colors and types. This data is then paired with extensive scouting of the connections between gardening and art, design, cooking, family, and other lifestyle pursuits, to help inform Monrovia’s 2025 Garden Design Trend Report.
“We’re able to spot trends forming in gardening that connect to shifts in overall consumer behavior,” says Katie Tamony, chief marketing officer and trend spotter at Monrovia.
Trend #1: The Modern Meadow
“One trend we’re watching for 2025 and beyond is a design we’re calling the Modern Meadow,” says Tamony. “28% of those we surveyed say they want their garden to have a more natural look. That number grew 6% since last year.”
Modern Meadow gardens are a full sensory experience, with color, movement, and a connection to nature. Modern Meadows add a relaxing beauty and vitality to the garden.
“More than half of the homeowners we surveyed say gardening is good for their mental health and well-being,” Tamony says. “Those that say gardening helps them feel hopeful and positive has increased 4%. Many are interested in a garden design that helps them feel good, adding beauty but also contributing to the larger life experience. The Modern Meadow design helps provide that feeling.”
By choosing the right plants for the space, Modern Meadows can be low maintenance and drought tolerant once established. The modern take on this natural garden style has the appeal that people seek with native plants, but it’s better behaved and easier to care for. “The key is choosing climate appropriate diversity for your meadow,” says Tamony. You’ll have the feeling of a wild meadow with beautiful grasses and colorful, pollinator-friendly perennials, just on an easier-to-manage scale. Modern Meadows are beautiful and free flowing, inviting birds and bees and humans to find joy in the landscape.
Plants for creating your own Modern Meadow
Smoke Signal Little Bluestem is a beautiful grass that tops out at only 4 feet, Smoke Signal brings multiple colors and graceful movement to the garden. Its strong upright blue-green foliage takes on scarlet tones in late summer, deepening to purple through the fall.
Pink Pearl Agastache features tall spikes of beautiful, dainty flowers pollinators love. It’s the perfect plant for bringing hummingbirds to the garden.
Evolution™ Colorific™ Coneflower is a pollinator magnet with beautiful multi-colored blooms.The bright, color changing flowers transition from pink, salmon, and rosy-peach hues, and offer many different looks from late spring through fall.
Eversweet Strawberry is an everbearing variety that produces large, sweet berries in the spring with repeat crops about every six weeks through fall. Its bright green foliage looks good all season long.
Trend #2: Bold Colors and Lush Layers
While serene neutrals are always going to be popular in home design, we’re seeing bolder, playful colors in paint and fabrics too. That trend toward bold color is becoming more popular in the outdoors. “Color is another way to infuse the garden with joy,” says Tamony.
“We are craving the depth and energy of strong color in the landscape,” Tamony says. “Breeders are delivering on that need with blooms and foliage in deep, color saturated hues. This trend focuses on adding layers of lush richness to the garden, then framing the color with cool whites and greens.”
Plants that Add Bold Color and Lush Layers
Panama™ Red Coneflower has striking red blooms that will make you stop to stare. This new coneflower stays compact in the garden, making it perfect addition to the perennial boarder and containers.
Eau de Parfum™ Bling Rose (pictured) adds so much to the garden. At the top of the list is its deep fuchsia blooms and layers of lush color. Each variety in this series has a high petal count for that beautiful, traditional rose look. They’re also exceptionally fragrant and disease resistant. There are four colors to choose from including Bling, Berry, Blush, and Bubbly.
Seaside Serenade® Newport is not just another beautiful hydrangea. This mophead variety features bold flowers that are a deep plum in acidic soils or a vibrant pink in more alkaline soils. Like its siblings in the Seaside Serenade® Collection, Newport features exceptionally strong stems that do not flop in windy or rainy weather. The blooms last up to 3 months.
Garden Candy™ Evie Jane Itoh Peony is covered in lush layers of double, glowing magenta blooms that feature sunny yellow centers. This compact peony holds the flowers closer to the foliage for a rounded ball of color that doesn’t require staking.
Trend #3: The Garden of Abundance
For many gardeners, the goal is to create a productive space that is teeming with life, which means choosing plants that attract butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. The process of creating a pollinator-friendly space makes many gardeners feel more in touch with nature and expands their connection to the garden.
“We are seeing the need for connection advancing how we look at the Garden of Abundance trend,” says Tamony. “In addition to pairing beauty and productivity, we’re seeing new combinations that bring a touch of nostalgia to the garden.”
Monrovia’s survey found that 36% of those polled say gardening reminds them of simpler times and makes them feel nostalgic. That number is up 4% since last year.
An Abundant Garden features edible perennials mixed with pollinator attractors and shrubs in interesting combinations. Hydrangeas are being paired with blueberries to create a beautiful and edible hedge. Strawberries and apples are being tucked in with roses not only to maximize space, but also to create a happy and nostalgic feel.
Perfect Plants for the Garden of Abundance
Fruit Snacks™ Blushing Delight™ Columnar Apple – If you thought you didn’t have room for an apple tree in your yard, think again. Fruit Snacks™ apples are compact and upright, growing only to about 2 feet wide and 10 feet tall, making them easy to plant in any yard.
Nitty Gritty™ White Groundcover Rose with its low growing habit can be a wonderful way to add sparkle to the garden. Nitty Gritty™ White features bright, double blooms that flower throughout the season. The entire Nitty Gritty collection makes it easy to grow roses, with fuss-free, own-root, low maintenance plants.
Bountiful™ Belle Blueberry has stunning foliage that makes this blueberry the belle of the garden. Bountiful Belle’s new growth brings hues of icy rose and lime green. In fall and winter, it transitions to a rosy red. In summer it is covered with delicious plump berries. Topping out at 4 feet tall and wide, this blueberry delivers in every season.
Anouk Spanish Lavender is an exclusive lavender collection that brings beautiful blooms, outstanding fragrance, and unique foliage that both pollinators and gardeners love.
Find your new favorite plants in Monrovia’s Distinctive Selections Guide.
About Monrovia
Inspired by the beauty of plants, gardens, and landscapes everywhere, Harry E. Rosedale, Sr. founded Monrovia in 1926 to be a premier grower of shrubs and trees. Monrovia collaborates with plant breeders around the world to introduce improved plant varieties to North America. Monrovia plants flourish once planted to beautify gardens and landscapes. Please visit Monrovia.com to learn more.
