New videos feature 2025 Top Performing Plants from Michigan Trial Gardens

Heidi Lindberg<wollaege@msu.edu>, Michigan State University Extension - March 30, 2026

Growers can view a new series of videos that features top varieties from the 2025 Michigan Garden Plant Tour.

Tons of potted flowers in an outdoor nursery. — Photo by Heidi Lindberg, MSU Extension

Every year the leading Michigan young plant producers and the trial gardens at Michigan State University showcase new plant selections, recent favorites and their garden performance during the Michigan Garden Plant Tour. The tour provides growers the chance to evaluate plant varieties in different settings at multiple locations. During the season, Michigan State University Extension picks their favorite varieties at each trial garden, which are highlighted in the “Featured Five 2025” article series.

After the season, each trial manager evaluates their own plant cultivars and makes their own favorite selections, which they share at the Michigan Greenhouse Growers Expo in December of each year. At the 2025 Expo, cooperators presented their “Best of the Best Varieties 2025” session, which was recorded for those who may have missed it.

Growers who are interested in the top selections from each trial garden can now view the videos on the playlist, “Best Performing Annuals and Perennials in Michigan 2025.”

For more information on each location’s trial gardens and their plant catalogs, please check out each young plant producer’s website. Three locations of those involved in the Michigan Garden Plant Tour provide much more information on their trial gardens on their websites. Mast Young Plants publishes their “2025 Trial Garden Results and Data,” which features the trial garden results, consumer favorites, top combinations and featured trials of the year. Raker-Roberta’s Trial Gardens summarizes their best performing plants and has a searchable trial website by trial year, genus and breeder. Michigan State University posts their trial results on their website as an Excel file, which includes plant name, breeder, vigor, uniformity, “wow factor” and resistance to stress ratings for different evaluation dates throughout the season.

Save the date for the 2026 Michigan Garden Plant Tour: July 27 to Aug. 7. We hope to see you there!

For more top 2025 varieties, check out the Featured Five 2025 article 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).