Featured Five 2025: Favorites from Walters Gardens

Heidi Lindberg<wollaege@msu.edu> and Caitlin Splawski<splawski@msu.edu>, Michigan State University Extension - August 29, 2025

Are you seeking proven performers for the season ahead? Check out Part 7 of our series highlighting top picks from the 2025 Michigan Garden Plant Tour trial sites.

Outdoor perennial border filled with a variety of colorful flowers including red dahlias, orange crocosmia, yellow blooms, purple delphiniums, and ornamental grasses under sunny skies. — Photo 1. 2025-2026 new introductions bed at Walter’s Gardens’ trial gardens. Photo by Heidi Lindberg, MSU Extension.

Every year, Michigan State University and Michigan’s leading young plant producers host a free open house at their trial sites and display gardens for growers, landscapers and retail operators to learn about a wide range of ornamental crops. Industry professionals can see for themselves which new varieties perform the best under various conditions, including in the ground and in containers. The tour lasts for two weeks and was held this year from July 28-Aug. 8, 2025.

This year, there were seven trial gardens at different locations throughout central lower Michigan: DGI Propagators, Four Star Greenhouses, Mast Young Plants, Michigan State University (MSU) Trial Garden, Pell Greenhouses, Raker-Roberta’s Young Plants and Walter’s Gardens.

If you couldn’t make it out to every trial site, you’re in luck! Heidi Lindberg and Caitlin Splawski, Michigan State University Extension educators, traveled to each site, picking favorites and snapping photos along the way. We’ll cover our favorites from each trial site in this article series.

Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this series covered Michigan State University Extension’s favorites at DGI Propagators, Four Star Greenhouses, Mast Young Plants, MSU Trial Garden, Pell Greenhouses, Inc. and Raker-Roberta’s Young Plants. Part 7 will feature plants with excellent performance at Walters trial and display gardens.

Featured Five at Walters Gardens

Walters Gardens provides a living landscape performance trial of the perennial Proven Winners collection. The trial garden (Photo 1) expands every year to include the new introductions. These five plant varieties topped the list this year:

Delosperma Flashmob ‘Action Shot’
Delphinium ‘Violets are Blue’
Spigelia ‘Apple Slices’
Crocosmia ‘Peach Melba’
Dicentra ‘Passion Hearts’

Delosperma Flashmob ‘Action Shot’

Cluster of bright magenta ice plant flowers with thin, spiky petals and yellow centers, covering low green succulent foliage. — Photo 2. *Delosperma* Flashmob Action Shot. Photo by Heidi Lindberg, MSU Extension.

New for 2025-2026, Action Shot ice plant boasts electric pink flowers with fuchsia eyes. They were blooming prolifically in June at the Walter’s Gardens perennial day and more sporadically mid-August after the Michigan Garden Plant Tour. For a plant with such a short stature, it would be an impressive addition to any rock garden or otherwise drought-prone areas.

Delphinium ‘Violets are Blue’

Tall spikes of deep violet-blue delphinium flowers displayed indoors, surrounded by green foliage and unopened buds. — Photo 3. *Delphinium* Violets are Blue. Photo by Caitlin Splawski, MSU Extension.

Also new for 2025-2026, delphinium Violets are Blue had striking purple flowers on strong stalks. It was featured at the Walter’s Gardens Perennial Expo in June. It is a midsize delphinium that would stand out in the middle of the garden and is propagated by tissue culture to ensure uniformity.

Spigelia ‘Apple Slices’

Garden border planting with a dense mass of vibrant red and yellow star-shaped flowers in the foreground, backed by dark-leaved foliage plants and a landscaped yard with shrubs, evergreens, and a wooden gazebo. — Photo 4. *Spigelia* Apple Slices. Photo by Caitlin Splawski, MSU Extension.

Spigelia Apple Slices is not a new introduction, but it stood out as a strong colorful border plant in June 2025. This burgundy and yellow cultivar of a native wildflower grows in sun or shade and is pollinator friendly.

Crocosmia ‘Peach Melba’

Trial garden scenes with bright orange crocosmia flowers rising above green sword-like leaves, planted among red coneflowers, yellow daisies, and other summer perennials, with a close-up view highlighting the crocosmia’s orange blossoms. — Photos 5 and 6. *Crocosmia* Peach Melba. Photo by Heidi Lindberg, MSU Extension.

Crocosmia ‘Peach Melba is a new introduction and provided orange pops of color to the center of the 2025-2026 new introductions bed. Its bright orange flowers and sword-like foliage stood out compared with other perennials. It prefers fun sun, well-drained soil and is low maintenance and deer resistant.

Dicentra ‘Passion Hearts’

A diminutive plant, Dicentra Passion Hearts is a fern leaf bleeding heart with green-to-blue foliage that thrives in full sun. It looked great in June and August and the continuous bloom time is rare in perennials. It is a new introduction for 2025-2026 and adds a lovely rose color to the pallet of the garden.

For more top 2025 varieties, check out the other articles in our series:  

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).