It's time to plan those container gardens! February is the perfect month to decide what you want to grow, especially if you're planning multiple container gardens or a show-stopping arrangement. Garden centers across Manitoba are already bustling with activity, offering pre-rooted seedlings for perennials and annuals, as well as seed starting for spring sales. But it wasn't always this way. Retailers used to wait until September to place their plant orders for spring, but now, due to high demand for new and unique plants, many retailers are placing orders as early as July to meet peak spring demand. This can make impulse shopping at garden centers tempting, but it's best to take a moment to reflect on what plants worked well for you last year, especially during hot and dry weather, to make the best choices for this year. Duayne Friesen, a sales representative for Ball Seed and a leading wholesale horticultural distributor in North America, offers valuable insights into the top new annual plants available at garden centers this spring. He shares some exciting new varieties that will inspire you to plan ahead.
One new pansy, the Top Wave Pansy Series from PanAmerican Seed, is set to replace the Cool Wave Pansy. With 25% larger flowers and flowers that go right down to the crown of the plant, this series offers several colors, including the Pansy Top Wave Pink Shades, which range from light to deep pink with a dark center blotch. Ideal for containers and baskets, these pansies are not suitable for landscape use but can be grown outdoors as early as April 1 once acclimatized.
Coleus Sweet Paprika, part of the Premium Sun Coleus Collection from PanAmerican Seed, is another standout. With deep red-wine leaves hinting at orange, this compact plant (about 46 cm tall) is one of the latest flowering varieties in the collection. It excelled in plant trials and has been snapped up by growers.
Dahlias continue to grow in popularity, and Dahlia Venti PinkBurst and Dahlia Venti FireBurst are early-flowering dahlias ready for spring containers. Both are double-flowered anemone-type dahlias with showy centers. PinkBurst won the Retailer's Choice award at Cultivate '25 in the U.S. and the FleuroStar award in Europe, while FireBurst has bright-red petals with a dominant yellow crest in the center. Both are easy-care, powdery mildew-resistant plants that grow to about 46 cm tall.
Angelonia, a plant that has been around for 20 years, is gaining popularity for its ability to provide non-stop flowering in hot and dry locations. The Guardian Angel range, the newest and tallest series, features huge flowers with glossy dark-green leaves on 46-cm-tall stems. Guardian Angel Pink is a standout variety, perfect as a centerpiece in a planter.
Several new petunia varieties will also be available this year, including the Easy Wave Pink Pearl from PanAmerican Seed, with very soft pink flowers with violet-rose veining, and the larger, fast-growing Headliner Crystal Pink, which has a mounded, trailing habit and loads of flowers right to the crown. Both varieties are in high demand and held up well in trials.
For something different, the new series of Mystical Salvia with intriguingly narrow flower spikes of blue or white petals on stems from 30-46 cm tall is worth considering. Salvia Mystical White, in particular, stands out with its crisp white flowers, a surprising departure from the typical dirty white color of white salvias.
Zinnias, the darling of cutting gardens, are a must-have flower. The new dwarf zinnia series, Zinnia Elegant Hot Mixture, features double flowers in a blend of warm colors (pink, orange, scarlet, and rose) and grows to a height of 41-56 cm. These zinnias are easy to grow and look great in containers or in the ground.
Lastly, Proven Winners' new calibrachoa, Superbells Magic Double Grapefruit, is a trailing plant with loads of flowers that open lemon-yellow and change to pink. It's a popular variety, with good vigor and essentially sold out for the year. Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Shadowstorm, a new ipomoea sweet potato vine with heart-shaped leaves nearly black and speckled with green, is also expected to attract a lot of interest. These new varieties will undoubtedly add beauty and variety to your container gardens this year.
