2024 Gardening Trends -

2024 Gardening Trends

By Donna Hessel

- December 4, 2023

- in Blogs, Fun, Gardening Sweet Spots - The Emerald Necklace Garden Club, Home & Garden, Outdoors

Gardening Sweet Spots
By Donna Hessel

Include “Edimentals” in Your Garden
Edimentals is a term coined by writer Stephen Barstow of Norway. They are plants that serve more than one function, typically living for more than one year. Edimentals are edible plants, so if you have a vegetable garden, incorporating edimentals can add color, texture and form. Some perennial examples are dahlias, day lilies, chicory, currants and gooseberries, elderberries, asparagus and fennel. Annuals include rainbow chard, kale and nasturtiums.

Adopt Naturalistic Planting
This trend, while not new, is becoming more common. It actually originated in the Netherlands in the early 1980s as the “New Perennial Movement.” It consists of planting native plants with drifts of flowers and grasses in a soft, prairie-like effect, neither manicured nor neglected. Plants appear to be random, but have actually been carefully chosen and placed. The focus is on a diversity of plants that attract wildlife and pollinators.

Install Rain Gardens for Water Conservation
Rain Gardens slow down the flow of water into storm sewers, utilizing every drop of rain water and capturing waste water draining from roofs and driveways. As drought becomes more frequent with climate change, creating rain gardens becomes more critical. Plants for rain gardens include natives, grasses and sedges, which have long, deep root structures to hold soil and water in place.

Tolerate Bugs

There has been a shift in how bugs in gardens are perceived. Invasive bugs such as jumping worm, lantern fly and pine bark beetles, are still considered “bad.” But with the understanding that all living things are ultimately connected, tolerance for a few chewed leaves is increasing. The Royal Horticulture Society even recently de-classified slugs and snails as pests!
There are also ways to eliminate nuisance bugs without using pesticides.

Adapt with Climate Change
By admitting it’s happening and re-evaluating what we are growing in our gardens, change can be embraced instead of feared. Change comes gradually. Here are some ideas to consider: Stay informed and up-to-date on our local climate and growing conditions through agricultural and university extension offices, online forums and garden websites. Add more native plants, adjust watering practices and adjust planting dates as shifts in climate and frost dates change. Prepare for more extreme weather conditions by collecting supplies such as row covers, shade cloth and materials for wind breaks.

Create Unique Outdoor Spaces
Replacing lawns with no-mow, low growing ground covers, creating serene reading nooks, a zen garden for meditation or yoga or a side-yard garden that includes flowers and vegetables are some ways to increase outdoor living.

Consider Gravel Gardens
A gravel garden is a low-water, low-maintenance bed primarily consisting of gravel instead of soil with carefully chosen plants throughout. Gravel (pea gravel to ¼ inch) at four- to six-inches deep is spread over existing ground. The root ball base of a three- to five-inch potted plant is placed near the top of the ground and surrounded with gravel. Plant roots grow deep and down, resulting in a much hardier plant that can withstand drought. Additional benefits include no weeds because there is no soil, less fertilizer (less staking and dividing needed), less maintenance and no root rot during wet winter months.

Utilize Tree Stumps in Creative Ways
Whether the result of a tree that had to be cut down, or by incorporating a cut stump in a naturalistic manner, “stumpery gardens” show off plant collections and create wildlife sanctuaries. Shade loving plants placed in and around stumps include hostas, hellebores, ferns, and bulbs. Wildlife and insects are encouraged to make their homes in the various cracks and crannies. Lichens and mushrooms will grow on the stumps, adding to the natural beauty of the garden. The stumps of two willow trees in one of my now sunny garden beds have become raised bases for pots of elephant ears, and chipmunks have become residents.

Preserve Garden Memories
Pressed and dried flowers create long-lasting and unique works of art and can also memorialize important events such as weddings, birthdays or vacations. It’s also a great way to remember a garden from which you may be moving. Pressed and dried flowers and foliage develop muted and vibrant colors and some retain their fragrance. It’s always a surprise to see the final result. Instructions for pressing and drying flowers can be found on You Tube videos and/or a Google search.

Cultivate Garden Knowledge
Second only to working in your garden on a warm spring day is accumulating garden knowledge via webinars, You Tube videos or social media. Thanks to the pandemic and virtual technology, online education is widely available from numerous sources and can be scheduled on a day or time that works for you.

2024 Plants of the Year
Proven Winners, as well as other organizations, have announced their choices of 2024 Plants of the Year. You can expect to find these selections stocked at garden centers and nurseries next year. Following is a list of plants you may want to consider adding to your gardens in 2024.

Annual of the Year: Petunia ‘Supertunia Vista Jazzberry’

Magenta purple, self-cleaning flowers all season, great in the landscape or containers.

Caladium of the Year: Caladium ‘Heart to Heart Lemon Blush’
Brightly colored leaves with a contrasting rose red center and wide, chartreuse margin.
Performs well in shade to part-shade containers and excels as a border plant in mass plantings.
Perennial of the Year: Salvia ‘Pink Profusion’
Pristine habit, high flower count, bright, eye-catching color of dark pink held on darker calyxes. Reblooms if deadheaded.
Hosta of the Year: Hosta ‘Shadowland Hudson Bay’
Textured leaves feature bright blue margin, apple green jetting and creamy white center. Mounding, large specimen plants; slug resistant leaves.
Flowering Shrub of the Year: Weigela ‘Wine & Spirits’
Dark purple foliage and crisp, white-green flowers along the stems. Works well in borders, landscape and containers.
Rose of the Year: Rosa ‘Oso Easy Peasy’
Large clusters of small, magenta pink flowers from spring to fall; no deadheading needed. Resists black spot and powdery mildew.
Hydrangea of the Year: Hydrangea ‘Let’s Dance Sky View’
Mophead blooms emerge soft blue with a honeydew green eye, maturing to a full sky blue; reliable annual bloom on old wood.
Landscape Shrub of the Year: Itea ‘Fizzy Mizzy’
Abundant bright white flower spikes with a light fragrance; attracts pollinators. Early summer bloom; dark green foliage; shade tolerant.
Landscape Perennial of the Year: Amsonia ‘Storm Cloud’
Native cultivar; periwinkle, star-shaped flowers with olive green foliage accented by silver veins. Heat and humidity tolerant.
Coleus of the Year: Coral Candy
Lanceolate-shaped, multicolored, serrated foliage; deep pink midrib, pink slashed leaves and green margins.

The Perennial Plant Association has selected the garden phlox ‘Jeana’ as their choice of 2024 Plant of the Year.
Renowned for its impressive flower show, tall sturdy habit, and pollinator-friendliness. The fragrant lavender-pink flowers are significantly smaller than typical garden phlox — only about half an inch wide. Topped with flowers, ‘Jeana’ can reach five feet tall and four feet wide. Its bright green leaves are highly resistant to powdery mildew.

The Garden Club of America has named the Purple Passion-flower as “Plant of the Year-2024”

Passiflora incarnata L.: Purple Passion-flower is an herbaceous vine, up to 25 ft. long, that climbs with axillary tendrils or sprawls along the ground. Intricate, 3-inch, lavender flower are short-stalked from leaf axils. The petals and sepals extend under the flower in a fringe of wavy or crimped, hair-like segments. Three-lobed, deciduous leaves are dark-green above and whitish below. The fruit is a large, orange-yellow berry with edible pulp. It spreads by root suckers. In our climate zone, it’s an annual, but it can be planted in a container and overwintered indoors.

The Western Reserve Herb Society has named the 2024 Herb of the Year Yarrow (Achillea).
Yarrow is a native North American plant popular with pollinators and practically care-free; perfect for borders, ground covers, and open meadows. Showy flower heads composed of many tiny, tightly-packed flowers rise above clusters of ferny foliage. The flowers may be yellow, red, pink or any shade in between. Yarrow is pest-resistant, drought-resistant and is excellent for cutting and drying.

December is a good month to take a look around your garden and note changes you would like to make come spring. Keep in mind our changing climate. Take the opportunity now to decide how to incorporate 2024 trends to your advantage and make your gardens more sustainable.

Article Sources:
Garden Design online Newsletter, October 19, 2023 – “2024 Trends in Garden Design”
By Rebecca Sweet, Landscape Designer & Garden Writer