While many plant breeders and brands showcase their new varieties planned for the following year at California Spring Trials in March, Proven Winners invited the industry to come to Carleton, Michigan, in April for a special 2026 Plant Preview at Four Star Greenhouse.
Tim Anderson, director of grower accounts for Proven Winners, gave editors from the GIE Media Horticulture Group a personal tour of the new annuals (in alphabetical order) in the plant brand’s lineup for 2026 — and couldn’t help but share some of his favorites.
Some of his standouts aligned with the brand’s Top Picks, those plants voted on by growers and trial gardens as their best performing. Many of the series names, such as ‘Lava Flow’, ‘Campfire’ and ‘Southern Blaze’, are not only descriptive of the colors but a nod to the company’s continued focus on developing heat and drought tolerant plants. Here’s a sneak peek at some of what the company will be introducing next spring:
New Proven Winners annuals for 2026
The ‘Maestro’ series represents the first Agastache for Proven Winners, with two colors in the series for 2026: Coral and Gold. ‘Maestro’, which blooms in spring and continues through fall, also aligns with the company’s goal to provide more heat and drought tolerant plants.
Building upon its Surefire begonia series, Proven Winners introduced Surefire Cascade Red, a trailing begonia with large red flowers and glossy green leaves that’s ideal for large hanging baskets.
Sutera cordata was among the plants Proven Winners debuted upon its founding in 1992. After years of trialing, in 2026, the company will introduce ‘Safari Lava Flow’, a deep red Jamesbrittenia, which is a relative to Sutera with more tolerance to intense heat and humidity.
‘Campfire Red Ember’ bidens is low maintenance, heat tolerant and performs well in landscapes or in containers. The larger scarlet blooms and longevity in the garden make ‘Red Ember’ a candidate for spring and summer sales as well as fall as an alternative to mums.
Superlophus Sunglow Oenothera primrose blooms bright yellow in arid and sunny climates. It is among the plants earning a “Top Pick” designation for its ability to stand up to extreme weather conditions and perform well in a variety of landscape and container applications.
When talking about the latest new variety in the Supertunia Vista series, ‘Cool Jazz’, and another voted “Top Pick,” Anderson picked up the petunia and said, “I love you.”
Supertunia Vista is Proven Winners’ most popular series, and the new variety meets all of the plant brand’s high criteria when it comes to vigor, form, heat and humidity tolerance and landscape performance. It features purple iridescent flowers with a blue stamen and a mounded habit.
Smaller in size but among the standouts in trials is Supertunia Mini Vista petunia ‘Pink Cloud’, which is an early to market variety.
‘Southern Blaze’ is a new name for a decorated phlox previously known as ‘Intensia’, which won accolades at the Dallas Arboretum, University of Georgia and University of Florida trials. ‘Bright Pink’ is new in the heat and humidity-tolerant series and was one of the best of all Proven Winners annuals in Florida trials.
As part of a trademarked Proven Accents program, the company is also introducing three new plants to add texture and foliage to the landscape and complement containers.
‘Silver River’ Didelta carnosa has a coral-like shape and is velvety to the touch. Sweet Caroline Sweetheart ‘Shadowstorm’ Ipomoea has a variegated, camouflage-like appearance with heart-shaped leaves and a more compact, tidier habit (with very minimal PGRs) than what’s traditionally expected from an ipomoea.
There’s also now a Black Sweet Caroline ‘Medusa’ to add to the green in the series, which features palm-shaped leaves and mixes well in containers.
Proven Winners National Plants of the Year
Also on display was the 2026 Proven Winners National Plants of the Year Program, a collection of some of the company’s best-performing and most popular plants.
Each year, the company develops the program with plants based on several criteria, including those that have won various trials awards, earned high ratings by growers and have been top picks for consumers (based on 8,000 to 10,000 consumers in data and surveys).
Each of the 14 categories of plants will receive strong marketing and promotional campaigns targeted to consumers so they know what to look for in their local garden centers each spring.
Categories include Petunia of the Year (Supertunia Hoopla ‘Vivid Orchid'), Caladium of the Year (Heart to Heart ‘Chinook’) and Annual of the Year (Safari ‘Dusk’ Jamesbrittenia.)
There are also several categories of perennials, a tree, a houseplant and container recipes with both sun- (Moonlit Lavender and Saffron Sunrise) and shade-loving combinations (Pixie Powder), because gardeners are “decorators, not diggers,” Anderson says.
In 2024, J. Berry Nursery’s well-known Hollywood Hibiscus line became part of Proven Winners ColorChoice Flowering Shrubs. Anderson shared optimism about the integration.
“Tropicals are trending,” Anderson says. “Consumers seek out success, and these varieties have flowers open for two or three days, high-gloss foliage, heavy disease resistance and beautiful branded packaging. We’ve seen sales grow exponentially.”
PWCC has a liner program growers can use in small pot production.
Anderson also mentioned a more recent merger, sharing how excited Proven Winners was to bring Saunders Brothers’ NewGen boxwood into the PWCC fold through Spring Meadow Nursery.
New Proven Winners perennials for 2026
Christa Steenwyk, vice president of sales and marketing at Walters Gardens, shared several highlights of the 2026 new perennial program from Proven Winners.
Two new nepetas stood out as improvements on the form.
The first is ‘Catwalk Queen’, a new nepeta with flowers nearly double the size of popular cultivar Cat’s Pajamas. Thick, fuzzy leaves form a stocky mound that is nearly twice as wide as it is tall.
“We’re two to three weeks early, and it looks different,” Steenwyk says. “The main difference is the big double flower.”
For those who like chartreuse foliage on their nepetas, there is ‘Lemon Purrfection’, which boasts purple flowers and bright green foliage.
Both are pollinator magnets, hardy in Zones 3 to 8 and prefer full sun.
Mangave is a relatively new phenomenon that results from the crossing of Agave x Manfreda. These hybrids meet the needs of growers and gardeners due to heat and drought tolerance inherited from Agave and faster-growing colorful attributes of Manfreda.
They are perennial in southern climates but fast enough to be grown as annuals and houseplants in colder zones. Four cultivars were introduced last year into the Art and Sol collection. Four more will arrive in 2025: Purple People Eater, Moonglow, Aztec King and Silver Fox.
“I just love how they’re all different; they’re all unique,” Steenwyk says.
Delphinium elatum ‘Violets are Blue’ turns heads with stunning purple flower spikes that stay up thanks to sturdy stems. The midsized delphinium is propagated by tissue culture to ensure uniformity.
In trials at Walters Gardens, Steenwyk says her team did not stake this delphinium, although they did stake it in the greenhouse.
‘Prairie Princess’ Vernonia is part of Proven Winners' new “Native Roots” branding for native plant cultivars. It’s deer and rabbit resistant and provides food for pollinators in the late summer and fall. ‘Prairie Princess’ offers several improvements over the straight species, including a height of only 26 to 30 inches.
“You see it out in the wild, and it is tall,” Steenwyk says. “So, we shrunk it down and took some of the disease problems out. It doesn’t get as much mildew.”
She says it pairs well with late-bloomers like sedums and mums. It prefers full sun and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9.
Her favorite of the 2026 introductions is ‘Treasure Trove’ rudbeckia, which she expects to be a hot seller.
“I see the potential of it and love that it solves the disease problem,” Steenwyk says.
Sustainability products from Proven Winners
Plants weren’t the only goods Proven Winners had on display — the company also showcased pots developed with environmental sustainability and consumer success in mind.
In 2024, Proven Winners unveiled Eco+ Grande, a fully compostable, plastic-free container made from U.S.-grown corn.
This year, there’s now a quart size option with Eco+ Elite, which breaks down in about 90 days in a commercial setting and within six months in a consumer bin. The company also created a 100% recycled plant tag made from post-consumer materials.
Four Star Greenhouse, a Proven Winners partner, is exclusively using the Eco pots in small pot production, and the company is hoping to increase adoption among all its network growers.
Anderson says there is an increased price, but as consumers are increasingly looking for sustainable options, offering plastic alternatives is becoming more important.
Check out the rest of the plants we saw during the preview:
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