With another spring successfully in the books, we caught up with two independent garden centers to see what’s hot at their stores, what they expect this summer and their insights into next year’s busiest season.

Editor’s note: Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

All Seasons Home, Garden & Landscaping Showplace

Lafayette, Louisiana

Garden Center magazine: What were your best-selling varieties this spring?

Peter Mayeux: This past spring has seen countless best-selling varieties of plants across the board from ornamental landscaping shrubs to bedding annuals and perennials with perhaps the best-selling being the Meyer lemon tree. You can say the winter of 2021 was the catalyst for many customers to replace freeze-damaged plants, thus creating best-selling varieties for the season. Encore Azalea varieties were triggered to bloom more vibrantly by the cold snaps, making them a popular choice. Other varieties that spiked this spring were the ‘Limelight’ and ‘White Wedding’ hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata). These full-sun beauties were all the rage this season. The Supertunia, specifically Supertunia Vista Bubblegum, is a sweet pink petunia variety that was such a best-selling annual this year that we had a hard time keeping them in stock!

GC: Were the best-selling varieties this year different from years past?

PM: We have always had success selling “must-haves,” like the ‘Little John’ bottlebrush (a hummingbird magnet), Meyer lemon hibiscus, bougainvillea, citrus and other edibles, etc. However, the sales of these and more doubled and due to the freeze and added gardening interest seen with COVID-19. The interesting best-sellers from this year as opposed to last year not relating to the epic freeze conditions were the specialty roses. They were all wiped out in a matter of four months when in years past, they would have to be marked down to find a new home.

GC: Did you do any special marketing for any particular varieties?

PM: We knew freeze-damaged plants were on our neighbors’ minds. Driving around town you would see lots of brown. We advertised that we had “replacement plants” as well as featuring daily photo posts of new and familiar favorites on social media. We have a Plant Finder tool on our website. It functions as a database library of plants we have or have had in the past loaded with information and a photo. Many posts were dedicated to featuring a particular plant with the link to view and learn more from our Plant Finder.

GC: What do you think will be popular this summer in your area of Louisiana?

PM: Now that we are in summer mode for South Louisiana, customers are loving their pools, so palm trees (the more cold-hardy Mule variety) and tropical bloomers such as hibiscus, mandevilla, bougainvillea, and bird of paradise are favorites with bright “faces” all can enjoy around their pools. Also popular are plants that love our hot, humid conditions that bring a bright bloom at this time of year such as vinca, pentas and angelonia. Interior plants and succulents are also a hit at this time of the year, giving gardeners projects for their interiors when they can’t seem to beat the heat.

When the world shut down and forced people to stay home, we quickly adapted with curbside pickup or delivery. Our efforts turned many people on to gardening who were never interested or had the time pre-COVID shutdown. Parents who had their children suddenly home 24/7 needed an outdoor outlet to focus energy making our plants and materials the solution.

GC: Are you planning to change up your offerings at all next spring?

PM: We are making an effort to move toward an e-commerce platform in addition to our brick-and-mortar.

Lurvey Home and Garden

Des Plaines, Illinois

GC: What were your best-selling varieties this spring?

Scott Goczkowski: Proven Winners varieties had their big ad push this year. We’re getting a lot of requests for their items all the time. Endless Summer hydrangeas are still really strong. Summer Crush is also super strong. Bobos, Little Quick Fires, Little Limes — any of those dwarf [hydrangeas] versus the full-size seemed to be doing much better for us. We’re right outside Chicago so the customer base has smaller lots. Magnolia is still strong. Elizabeth magnolia with the yellow flower seems to be one we get requests for. We can’t get a ton of quantity of it but it’s another one that we sell. Boxwood is also obviously still much sought after, either green velvet or green mountain, depending on how big you’re looking for. Magnus echinacea is still one of our best sellers, even though there’s a lot of new ones that came out.

GC: Were the best-selling varieties this year different from years past?

SG: We’re still seeing a pretty big push in edibles, so veggies and herbs are still large for us this year as are privacy shrubs like evergreens and deciduous shrubs. People spend more time in their yards, so there is a lot of demand to create that sanctuary. ‘Patriot’ hostas sold 300 units more than last year. ‘Max Frei’ geraniums were 600 last year versus 750 this year. I would say container gardening and containers in general have become more popular. Over the last few years, it’s increased tremendously for us, some of which are the AquaPot. We had people coming in asking for AquaPot products by name.

GC: Did you do any special marketing for any particular varieties?

SG: We’ve really promoted Proven Winners as a whole. And we display those plants, group them together and mix shrubs with perennials with annuals and continue to do that this year. We tried to do some color combinations where people could get ideas.

SG: In a typical year, we start moving into a lot of perennial hibiscus, so I’m thinking that’s going to be there again. Ornamental grasses seem to be a growing category every year. I think all those panicle hydrangeas will continue to flourish. All those summer-blooming perennials typically continue for us. We’ve already had some requests for mums.

GC: Are you seeing any trends in how much people bought this spring versus two or three years ago?

SG: Retail-wise, the average ticket is up about $10, so they’re definitely spending more money. The whole gardening trend started when the pandemic hit and has continued. The second half of this year will probably go back to normal pace because everything is opening back up and people will have other things to do. But I do think people have invested in their homes and their yards, and they’re going to want to see them continue looking good.

GC: Are you planning to change up your offerings at all next spring?

SG: Every year, we evaluate our offerings and we see what’s new. We actually try a lot of the new shrubs that we bring in at one of our other locations, just to make sure they really perform well. I don’t have any specifics, but we always add or take away from the offerings. We’re at a point where we have no more land that we can acquire, so we are making sure we have the right things taking up the space.

The author is the summer intern for Garden Center magazine.

Ornamental hot peppers (Capsicum sp.) and their exciting use throughout the landscape are finally entering the lexicon of most gardeners. The contributions of colorful fruits in white, cream, yellow, orange, red, purple and black are significant, particularly later in the season as the fruits ripen up over the hot summer months. Many varieties will go through a colorful transition with multiple colors of fruiting on the same plant.

The ornamental impact of these increasingly vivid fruits can rival any bedding plant late in summer. Most ornamental hot peppers have some common traits which include shorter stature, fruits that are frequently staged and held above the foliage and, of course, the colorful fruiting show that is exceptional until the hardest of frost.

Why ornamental peppers?

It is important to note that while “ornamental hot peppers” are edible, they are not bred for culinary value and frequently lack the depth of taste that many traditional hot pepper varieties provide in terms of a flavor profile. Most ornamental hot peppers have muted taste, but a whole lot of heat.

With limited to no culinary history, most of the ornamental hot peppers haven’t been researched for Scoville heat units (SHU) that reflect the heat of these fruits. Be wary of the unknown. Keep in mind that some people have severe allergic reactions in relation to eating, handling or even being near hot peppers in the garden.

It is important to also note that some of our most common hot peppers (i.e. ‘Jalapeno’, ‘Tabasco’, ‘Scotch Bonnet’, etc.) are also beautiful when the fruits transition to more intense color as they ripen.

A feature of merit that is often overlooked in the category of ornamental hot peppers is the contribution of ornamental foliage. As with any type of plant, having multiple features of interest diversifies the ornamental contributions of the plant, adds additional or lengthier interest and in the case of ornamental foliage, may become the primary feature of interest.

With ornamental hot peppers becoming so popular in bedding schemes, container arrangements, later season displays and simply for general use, the contribution of ornamental foliage broadens the opportunity for using these plants in showy and imaginative combinations.

Here are a few of my favorite ornamental pepper varieties available today.

White/cream variegated ornamental hot peppers

I’m personally a big fan of variegation in any type of plant. While we might be selecting certain plants for interesting form, flowers, fall color, etc., having the additional contribution of variegation just adds to the extended show. That’s certainly the case with variegated ornamental hot peppers as well.

Some great selections with the white/cream contribution include Uchu (9 inches), ‘Sparkler’ (18 inches) and the classic selection ‘Fish’ (24 inches). It’s interesting to note that in some instances, the variegation extends to the fruits as well. This is the case with both ‘Sparkler’ and ‘Fish’. This variegation, while varying in prominence, is still visible throughout the color transition of the fruits. All of these selections have a fruiting transition from cream to yellow, orange and finally red with multiple colors on display depending on the maturity of separate fruits.

If you are interested in variegated sweet pepper selections, look for ‘Confetti’ or ‘Candy Cane Red’ which are both mini-bell selections with impressive variegation of foliage and fruits.

Violet/purple variegated ornamental hot peppers

For simply the sheer value of foliage contribution, these selections are excellent. I’ve grown ‘Purple Flash’ ornamental hot pepper for over 20 years and never tire of the reliable, variable, purple variegation seen throughout the foliage with no two leaves being identical.

Reaching 15 inches in height, this is truly a bedding plant known for prominent foliage as the fruits are jet-black, quite small and truly a secondary asset to the foliage.

The variety ‘Tricolor Variegata’ (18 inches) is another classic selection with similar splashes of purple and cream over the foliage. However, the thin, long fruits of this selection become more prominent as they transition from deep purple to bright red.

Dark foliage

My personal favorite ornamental hot pepper is the variety ‘Black Pearl’ which displays near-black foliage in full sun. The fruits emerge a glossy black and age to a bright red late in the season. This 2006 All-America Selections (AAS) winner reaches 24 inches in height and offers a rich, bold color with and without the fruiting contribution.

Additional AAS winners with black foliage and similar impact include ‘Black Olive’ (18 inches), ‘Black Hawk’ (12 inches) and Onyx Red (9 inches). All of these selections have the same colorful fruit transition from glossy black to bright red.

The variety ‘Count Dracula’ (16 inches) was another favorite with a black, matte-finish foliage contribution with short, elongated fruiting that also goes from black to red. Full sun is absolutely necessary to get the deepest black foliage coloration on all of these selections. Emerging foliage, while having hints of green, will all deepen and darken in full sun during the hot summer months.

The author was the director of horticulture at Rotary Botanical Gardens for 21 years. He now operates Landscape Prescriptions by MD. landscapeprescriptionsmd.com

The Philadelphia Flower Show, which was hosted by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society June 3-15, featured dazzling displays at this year’s event, which was themed “Habitat: Nature’s Masterpiece.” Held outdoors for the first time in the show’s 193-year history, it featured more than 75 installations and floral displays spanning over 15 acres of space in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park. Here are some of the show-stopping exhibitions that caught our eye.