New Annuals You Won’t Find in the Proven Winners Catalog — 2026 Preview Part 2

Flower Growing Profession
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20 Video Views·Jan 2, 2026
Part 2 of this 2026 annuals preview continues the look at even more new annual plants.
This series focuses on expanding the conversation beyond the major branded programs and highlighting new, lesser-known, or under-the-radar annuals that deserve attention as we look ahead to spring 2026.
This installment includes a wide range of plants, such as:
🌸 Dahlia
🌿 Geranium
🌼 Gomphrena
🌾 Helichrysum
🌱 Jamesbrittenia
🌺 Lantana
🌸 Lobelia
🌸 Petunia
🌿 Tradescantia
🌼 Zinnia
Throughout the video, attention is given to what makes each plant interesting, how it might be used in the garden, and why it stands out.
Hey, everybody. Today I'm going to continue to showcase some of
the brand new annuals for 2026. I already did part one, this is
part two. And remember, these are all from plant companies
from around the world, but none of them are proven winners. So
these can be varieties that maybe don't get the marketing
push that we'll get from a proven winners plant. So these
might be varieties that you haven't heard of before. Now
last time we got from A to C. So now we're in D's, which means
we're starting with dahlias. Probably the most interesting
dahlias to hit the market are the new ones in the Venti
series. So they have the Pinkburst and the Fireburst.
And let me just tell you, Pinkburst, we had gotten some
sample plants last year, and I was so impressed with that
plant. It was so beautiful. The color was this great, bright
pink color did have a little bit of, I'm going to say like a
blue cast to it, but definitely still red as pink. But if you
look closer at it, you kind of felt like it was more of a
bluey pink, really beautiful. What I loved about it most was
that when it starts out, the flowers seem kind of small and
you're like, kind of wimpy, whatever. But as that flower
opens, the blossom gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And it
has two types of petals on it. I think the things in the middle
are petals. I'm not sure what you actually call them. I'm not
horticulturist. But on the outside of it, they have those
flat petals that go on the outside that get really, really
large and just a beautiful display on those. And then the
center has more tubular, I'm going to say petals, and just
kind of fill out. It ends up looking like a really elegant
echinacea. It's just, it's so gorgeous. It had so many
flowers, and it never stopped blooming. So very happy with
that did great in containers as well. Sometimes my dahlias kind
of peter out when they're in containers, reverse sometimes
to be in the ground, depending on the variety conditions. But
boy, this one's great. And then the fireburst has a very
different color. So it has a similar flower type though. So
it has that beautiful tubular center with a bright golden
yellow in the middle. And then the outside has a very red
orange color. So don't mistake it for red, it's definitely more
orangey, but kind of reads in that kind of almost like a barn
red or an orangey red type thing really, really nice one. And
when I saw it in the trial gardens, it was flowering very,
very well, I would say maybe it didn't flower quite as much as
the pink burst. But the pink burst was like an extreme
performer. It was like a flower powerhouse. So we don't want to
just compare it to that it was looking really good on its own.
Then the next series I want to tell you about is the delay a
series and that one has a couple of new varieties that have some
petals that make the blossoms just look very, very special.
And so they're kind of those palm type of dahlias and they
have their darker color on the inside and then they seem to
have white tips or they they have white tips. I'm especially
fond of the yellow lace that one has a really nice, bright yellow
color. And those white tips just it looks like it's just frosted
with a little bit icing causes that blossom to really brighten
up and give it a lot more intensity. purple lace and the
pink lace same thing just it just adds some kind of dimension
to it that makes them almost more touchable. And they were
flowering really well everywhere. So they also have
another one called cranberry. That one has a dark center and
then more of a pink on the outside as well. But it was
really those ones with those white edges that I just was
taken in by. So really, absolutely loving that whole
series and those new ones are really, really nice. Next up our
geraniums and there's a lot of like improvements on some of the
things new colors that are coming in with some of the old
series. But the one that just stood out for me and all the
trial gardens and just kept pulling me in was a special
geranium called Caliente coral salmon and I have been a fan of
the Caliente geraniums. They're a little different than most of
the other inner specifics because inner specifics have
been bred bred to have those big like super flower balls and
then they have a little bit of a trailing action of an Ivy
geranium. They don't cascade over the edge of the pot but
they definitely spread out they're a little wider. The
Calientes are a little different with their flower
because they have that looser flower ball that is more
similar maybe to an Ivy geranium. The nice thing I like
about them is that they're, I'm going to say self cleaning. So
if you have a spot where you want to put a geranium but you
can't get out there and be deadheading it all the time,
these would be good varieties because you have to be able to
deal with some sticks sticking up for a little while but quite
quickly when the blossoms are finished, the petals fall away
then there's the little bracts or whatever they are that are
sticking out. Then those kind of fall off and then you just have
a stick and then eventually that stick just disappears. So if
you have it someplace that you can't get to, you're not going
to really notice it because also it has so many new blooms
that usually they just blend right in. So as long as that
plant's getting a good amount of sun and just a decent amount of
water, it's going to do really great. The color though of that
coral salmon is like as if you plugged it in and the thing is
glowing. It is a beautiful color. I'm very impressed with
it. They also have the caliente fire, which to me the fire
looks more of a reddish color versus orange, but it probably
would be considered a red orange if you're really getting
technical with it. And the calientes are very similar to
the calderas and caldera has I think the red might be new this
year too it might have or it was new last year. I can't remember
for sure. But they're very similar varieties, one's a
little wider than the other one but but for the most part, you
probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between
them. But they do have different colors and I'm like the caldera
lavender glow is one of my favorites just saying, but that
one's been around for two years. So now I'm going to show you
some gambrinas. So the first one I'll show you is called fireball
and this one looks very, very similar to the Proven Winners
variety called Truffula Pink. It has a very similar flower, very
similar branches leaves. I mean, chances are, these could
be used pretty interchangeably from what I can tell. It's
beautiful. I absolutely love them. Sometimes though I don't
like this type of gambrina in my containers simply because it has
brittle branches. Truffula Pink has it. This one does as well. I
was actually in there kind of checking and I saw one of them
had broken off. And the problem with it in your containers is
that if a big branch breaks off, you're kind of lopsided for a
little while till it starts filling in again. In the
landscape, I don't notice it as much and these get really quite
large in the landscape. So they're they're a good landscape
one good kind of back of the border type of thing because
they are quite tall. When I talk about it in a container versus
the landscape, I have a photo that's going to show you how
much better it looks in the landscape than it does in a
container. So because at the trial garden, they had it in a
bed as well. The other variety I want to tell you about is called
Cosmic Flare. And this one very similar except it has a little
bit lighter, brighter leaf so more of that chartreuse color.
So if you wanted brighter leaves, this is going to be a
good one for you. You can see in this flower bed, what it looks
like to have the two they're kind of growing side by side
there. So you can see how much brighter the foliage is on the
one on the left versus the one on the right. So really, I mean,
they're both really good varieties. But look at the
flower coverage on the one on the right, especially that
that's, that's what we want to see in that kind of gambrina.
And that's the kind of texture and color you're going to get
off this kind. Now this next one is a little bit different. It's
a helichrysum called silver stitch and it is an itty bitty
one. So it does not get as big as some of the other helichrysums
that are out there that which you know, I'm just gonna take
over a pot. This one is very compact. So you do have to be
careful with how you use it, it could get swallowed up by other
plants or just kind of disappear underneath them. But it looks
like little bright white icicles or like ice crystals. It is a
beautiful white foliage plant. I I just fell in love with this
one. I mean, it was just it was it's like a little darling and
I have seen this type of helichrysum in Ireland and I
fell in love with it there. But I thought, Oh, I've never seen
that in the US. And now this year, I got to see it. And I
really, I think this is this one that is very unique. The color
is so beautiful. And the branches are nice and dense. So
it does get this nice, bright kind of flash of white. Again,
it is more compact than some of the other varieties. So be
careful, don't put it with a supertunia or some giant
vigorous plant that's going to hide it all, you're going to
want to have something maybe more upright or something that's
going to be more trailing that's going to go down and
around it. And let this one just kind of enjoy being in the
container and enjoy that bright white. It's going to go with,
you know, just about anything. And it's definitely a good one.
So that silver stitch, keep an eye out on that one. And this
next photo might look familiar if you watch part one because I
accidentally put it in the place of a different plant. I put it
in the with the Biden's. That was just a fluke on my part. I
said too many photos and I saw pink and put it in there. This
is a James Britannia. And when I talked about the proven winners
varieties, I talked about James Britannia not always being a
real great performing plant as far as consistency, like it
looks great when it looks great, but not always, you know, really
consistent as far as its growth and shape and its habit. This
one, I don't know, I mean, here, it looked pretty darn good. And
when you compare it with how the Safari one from proven winners
had done, I mean, this one really held up well, looked
absolutely fantastic. So I don't know, this one might be the one
that would kind of convert me over just to the James
Britannia because I've been a little little resistant of them
just because I haven't always been happy with them. I love the
flowers on those Safari varieties from proven winners.
They're just beautiful colors. But that habit just gets to me
after a little while. This one I don't know that that's really
full of flowers and growing really well. So I was thrilled
about that one. Next up is Lantana and the Vandalista
Lemonberry is absolutely beautiful. And I love the
Vandalista series. It's really vigorous, really flowerful. You
just, you know, kind of takes its shape and holds it really
well. The blooms are absolutely gorgeous on it. It's a sterile
variety, most I think except for the white. So just keeps
blooming and blooming and blooming. I love the color of
the pink lemonberry. So I couldn't recommend this one
enough. Unfortunately, we just got word that ours had canceled
and we can't get it from any other provider. So it might be a
little bit hard to get. So if you don't see it this year, look
for it next year. Because it it's definitely one that I
absolutely just think is fantastic. Another Lantana
though that I want you to keep an eye on is the gem red topaz.
Now the gem series is going to be a little bit more compact. So
you're going to just get like a nice, tidy dome of flowers on
it. But boy, this gem is probably the nicest red I've
ever seen. It's just this got this kind of ruby kind of color
to it. Like a lot of the red Lantanas really start out very
yellow and orange, and then they turn to red. This one seems to
get red really, really fast and covered in blooms. I was so
impressed with this one. And the gem series in general has
always done well in trial gardens. Anytime I see it, it is
a nice one. You just have to remind yourself like this isn't
going to be the one that just drapes over the pot takes over
this is going to be that nice, tidy one might look good with
I want to share with you some lobelia. The first is a brand
new series called firefly and it comes in two colors blue and
pink. Basically, they're just two different colors of purple.
One is just more of a magenta purple and one is more of a
bluey purple. But I love the flower on this because it has a
little darker center with that lighter outside. And it looks a
little bit like I'm going to say more of a butterfly than a
firefly. But I guess if you're telling me you know, it looks
like instant insect wings. It's just a very, very pretty one. It
was out there at the end of July looking good in full sun. So it
was handling the heat. I think it's like most lobelia as long
as it's getting water. These new varieties can handle the heat
better than the old varieties. Definitely the blue was
absolutely gorgeous. So I was thrilled to see that there is
another type of lobelia more of that cardinal flower lobelia
which normally is a perennial this one they had it with
annuals. So I didn't check the zone on that. So I probably
I'll put it up there if it's where it's hardy to because this
one might be more hardy. The other ones are definitely
annuals. This type oftentimes is hardier. This is called fan
scarlet compact. And what I like about this is that it is very
compact. A lot of times when you have a cardinal flower, it gets
really tall or it gets like that one really thick, tall flower
spike. This one, you know, just nice and tidy. And I love the
dark foliage on it. So they're green, but they have those
reddish purple tips on them. And and I mean, this, the colors
on this are absolutely gorgeous. And then that red against that
dark foliage, it really does stand out. And I just this one I
kept coming back to because it looks a lot different than a
lot of the other plants to next up, I'm going right into
petunias. And let me tell you, there were a lot of new
petunias this year, I looked at petunia after petunia after
petunia. And for the most part, all of them were fantastic. But
I did need to narrow it down. So when I kind of put all the
ones that I saw all in order, I thought there's a lot of
different ways I could introduce these because there's some
definite trends that I'm noticing in the petunias. So
first of all, there are a lot of new doubles out there. And the
doubles are performing much better than some of the old
ones. In the past, a lot of the doubles when they were done,
they just kind of hung out on the plant and they got moldy and
they'd mold on the leaves. A lot of these newer varieties are
shedding their leaves much better than those old varieties.
So that's a plus. And I think with that kind of breeding and
with that kind of plant, it is making the doubles much more
appealing to people. And boy, let me tell you, what they've
got coming out are really, really nice. I have some real
favorites. But the other way I could look at this is there's a
lot of really nice speckled ones coming out as well. Some new
colors in that speckled series, speckled petunias have been
around for quite a while. But, you know, as I'm looking at
these, I'm like, hey, this is this is a little bit different
than what we've seen before. So that's kind of nice. The other
lens I can look at this through is the bicolors and the
picketies. There's a bunch of new of those and pickety are
going to be the ones that have either a white edge or maybe a
different color around the rim. And those have been popular in
the past. And they're really coming on full force now. So
we're seeing more and more of those. But I think, for me, it
really is about the colors that are coming out and grouping them
by colors because there are some very obvious color trends. So as
usual, there's a lot of what they call purple. And
horticultural purple really is more of that fuchsia type of
color. It's really hot pink. And there's a lot of new varieties
coming in those colors. So that's pretty consistent,
though, because that is kind of a mainstay color. Think of the
original wave petunia, though, it's they call now call it
classic purple, because it is kind of the color of petunia
that basically made the new varieties of petunias famous,
huge growth and bright, intense color and that full flower
coverage. So we're, I think we're always going to be seeing
this color showing up petunia in petunias because it must be a
little easier to breed. But I didn't necessarily see anything
in that grouping that are like must sees. Same thing with all
the reds. There's a quite a few new reds as well as improvements
to the old reds. They're always kind of improving the red
because the older versions of red are a little bit flat. And
newer varieties as they're improving them seem to be a
little bit more velvety, richer color, they're really doing a
nice job with them. So I think we're going to continue continue
to see that improvement with the reds. And all the reds I saw
look great. They are there's no issue there. But you know, I'm
really looking for the ones that I want to tell you that I had to
narrow it down. So when I looked at the colors, again, you know
what's really on trend right now in petunias is definitely pale
pinks and the pale purples. There are so many in that kind
of color range out coming out right now. It was it's really
hard for me to narrow down which one's a good one because
most of these were really quite exceptional plants. And like any
other year, some of them that I didn't make the list would have
been you know, the light pink that I would have chosen, but
there were just so many that I had to kind of be really
ruthless in cutting these back. I think what I'm going to do is
I will actually do a rejects video because in this case,
there were rejects that are definitely like, worthy of your
being in your garden. So don't think that because I didn't
include it that it's not a good one. It's just the fact that
there was just so many light pinks and light purples this
year that I had to really, you know, be very discerning and
what I picked. So that's another category. And that doesn't
include the two new light pinks from proven winners. So there's
even more light pinks to choose from that are new this year.
Pretty crazy. The other color that I'm seeing a lot of
development in and a lot of new ones coming out in are the
yellows. Now I'm only showing you four and that might seem
like, well, you just showed us tons of the other color. Yellow
has been traditionally a very difficult color petunia for them
to achieve. And they have really been making huge strides in
this. And all four of these new ones are really very, very nice.
And so I had to really try to figure out how I was going to
decide which ones I was going to put in there. In the end, I
narrowed it down to 10 of these petunias that I'm going to
recommend today. So I think it is going to be important that I
do like a rejects video because I hate the fact that I'm not
going to be telling you about some of these other really great
varieties. So I'm gonna save that for a third video. So as
hard as it was for me to decide which light pinks to narrow it
down to, I did end up landing on the surfinia heavenly cashmere
pink, I'm already a big fan of the surfinia petunias, the
heavenlies are even more of my favorites. They have those
beautiful kind of ruffly flowers. And this color is
really nice is a light pink, but don't think cotton candy pink,
it's more of got a dusty rose pink. It's really beautiful. It
flowered so much. It was so covered just like I would expect
from my surfinia heavenlies. And I love this one just was very
consistent. I love the habit of this one as well. Just perfect
little dome. As long as it's getting the right amount of sun,
water and fertilizer, this thing will be very, very productive
for you. And they're easy to grow because of that. As long as
they're getting what they need. They're not fussy beyond that.
The other light pink that I chose was the headliner crystal
pink. And there were some other ones that I mean, are this close
to beating this one out. But I am a big fan of another one
called Capella pink lace. And it has a similar flower color and
similar little edging around it that I absolutely loved it in
every container I saw it in it just always looks really nice.
It has just a next level to it. But the Capella series is a
little bit more compact, which means it's going to grow a
little bit slower. So it's nice and full full flowers. But it
takes a lot longer for it to really fill out a pot right if
you have smaller containers, or you're putting it with plants
that maybe aren't as vigorous. But this headliner crystal pink
gives me that flower that beautiful flower coverage. And
it's a bigger plant. So the headliner series tends to be
kind of in line with a regular supertunia. So, you know, and I
should know this as well. All the varieties that I'm talking
about are going to perform very much like a supertunia would. So
a lot of people say like, oh, there's nothing like a
supertunia. Yes, supertunias are great. I absolutely love growing
many of the different varieties. But there are a lot of other
varieties there. They're self cleaning. They're really like
flower powerhouses. They have great habits. And you know, if
you're taking good care of them, they don't get super laggy. So I
just I'm a big fan of these. And I want to make sure that you
know that, you know, you can try some varieties outside of the
supertunia categories and see what you like, and see how they
do for you. That said, there are a lot of like seed petunias or
old fashioned petunias that might be on the market,
especially at your big box stores that maybe won't perform
as well. It's really hard to know if you haven't seen them in
action. So I'm just telling you, these here, you can trust them,
they are going to do really well for you. Next one is in a new
series at least new to me, I think it might have been around
for a little while. It's called the veranda compact double sugar
plum. This sugar plum, I absolutely love it. I mean, the
color is fantastic. It gets so many blooms, the flowers are
quite small. So they're tiny, but it gets lots of them.
textures really good. But I did fall in love with the color on
this. And the way the flower looks, it just, it does kind of
it's like candy to me. It's eye candy, I guess we could say it's
it's just a really nice one. I loved how it was growing. And in
general, the veranda series was doing quite well. I picked
another one from veranda called veranda blushing bride. And this
is one that I should not like, like, it has a lot of things
about it. Like, I guess I'd say, like, technically, it's not
perfect. But somehow, artistically, it there's
something that's working for it. So the things that technically
make it maybe one that I shouldn't like is that the flower
color is a little bit inconsistent. So it has a little
bit of like a purpley pink color that shows up. But it's
very, very random. The flowers to sometimes don't look like
they're actually opening all the way. So they're kind of halfway.
But it gets a decent amount of flowers actually gets pretty
covered. Actually, when I think about it, the foliage looks
really healthy and good. And I don't know, there was something
about how those little things that made it a misfit made it
really endearing as well. So I really, I don't know, veranda
blushing bride, you really kind of warmed my heart a little bit
and I can't resist it. Also in the speckled petunias, there's a
new one that I'm quite fond of. It's the surprise sparkle blue
vein. And I gotta say that blue veining in it is absolutely
beautiful. And it just really makes those plants look
different than some of the other ones. Because there's elements
of this that look very similar to the headliner crystal sky
because the sky series is really good. And the surprise sparkle
series. I like that one as well. But this one you can see it has
some similar color to that one. But it also has a little bit of
variation. So it's always going to have that purple in it. But
sometimes it's a lighter purple, sometimes it's a darker purple.
And the speckling was pretty consistent. Anytime you have a
speckled petunia do realize that sometimes the temperatures and
the conditions are going to make those speckles vary. So
sometimes it won't have any speckles, sometimes it has tons
of them. That's normal. So that's not anything you're
doing. But this one, I think speckles are not it's a
beautiful plant, I would probably like this with or
without speckles anyway. So that one just that was a stand
out one for me in that category. Then there was one red that
really hooked me in and that was the headliner crimson. This is a
new color. They also came out with a new headliner red
improved and there was also a headliner strawberry. But the
headliner crimson, this was a nice, dark, dark red, almost
like a burgundy center on it. This is for me is probably going
to replace the Merlot one that we had a series that was from
St. Gouna maybe. The headliner crimson top performer loads of
flowers, beautiful color on it. The flowers were just fantastic.
Like this was a top notch one for me, I couldn't get enough of
it. Okay, so now let's talk about yellows. First of all,
I'll start with the crazy tuning and banana Rama. When I see
pictures of it, I think no, I shouldn't like that one. When I
see it in person, I loved it. First of all, the name is fun.
And if you're a child of 80s and 90s, banana Rama sticks with
you. But there's something about this color combination
that works better than I expected. So it is a nice
yellow on the outside, maybe a little bit more of a creamy
yellow. And then it has that orange burgundy kind of
crimsony color on the inside, kind of reminiscent of some of
the tropical hibiscus flower colors that are out there, not
as showy as a tropical hibiscus. But this thing had tons of
flowers really good habit on it. And it was so consistent
throughout all the trial gardens as well. So I was I was very
happy to see that. Then when I look at the other three that
are in there, and then I'm going to also add in the bees knees
petunia, which is also sold as supertunia saffron finch,
because these four are basically the four best yellow petunias on
the market. They're absolutely fantastic. And I'm going to say
yellow, I'm talking solid yellow, because I want to keep
banana Rama as kind of a top pick as well. So let me kind of
run through them for you. So when we look at the bees knees
or saffron finch, that one, I love that plant, it really grows
well, the color is beautiful. Its only drawback is that the
blooms do tend to fade just a little bit as they age.
Fortunately, it's a very attractive way that it fades
because it keeps a dark veining in it, which gives it a bit of a
velvety effect. I think it's absolutely gorgeous. It's still
probably might still be my favorite one. Even after having
these other three in it. It's it's a little tricky. I guess it
depends on what you're exactly looking for. I will say that the
Pella Hello, sunshine is going to have a very similar color to
that one. They already have the Pella Hello, yellow, but the
problem with Hello, yellow is that has very much a green cast.
And that actually annoyed me I didn't, I didn't like Hello,
yellow all that much. It was a nice yellow, but that green was
always kind of getting to me. Hello, sunshine solves that. And
it gives us kind of the same thing that we would see maybe in
the bees knees or saffron finch. So those I think you could use
pretty interchangeably, you'll be happy with how they look. And
then there's the sanguna sunshine. So that one's just a
little bit more yellow. I will say this one, the flower coverage
and the growth on it were absolutely stunning. All of
these grew really well and had lots of flowers. But this one in
particular did very, very well. So I'm thrilled with that one.
But I have to say the crazy tunia yellow, that color, like
nails it is the truest, brightest yellow out there. The
flower does remind me of the yellow that we used to see in
the surprise Yellowstone one. So that really nice, intense
yellow, but the Yellowstone was very hard to come by wasn't
around a whole lot. So hopefully, this is gonna be a
little bit easier to come by and you're gonna love that yellow.
So if I had to pick one this year, it's going to be the crazy
tunia yellow just because I really want that nice, bright
yellow. Then if you took that one away, then I'd start having
a little bit harder time picking which one I was going
to get. And then I also want to highlight another black
petunia. This is the funhouse black widow. So we also got a
preview plan for this one last year. And I will say the flower
on this is very, very dark. There are some blacks that
either they start out black, and they fade a little bit purple,
or they start out purple, and then they fade more to a black.
This one was pretty consistently black. I mean, you may get a
little bit of a purple cast, especially if it's a really
blazing sun and intense sun. But this was one of the blackest
ones out there. The flower coverage on all the black ones
tends to be maybe not the way that we see like some of the
other ones that I've shown you where it's just complete, like
coverage of flowers, but they do get a lot of blooms. So they are
really nice. But this one I'm very, very happy with. The other
one that I'm going to put on the list is a color that you don't
really see in petunias. It is the inferno, the orange, and
this is the oranges, it is like pumpkin orange, it is exactly
what anyone looking for an orange is going to want. So if
you're looking for orange, definitely go for this one. I
will warn you though, that the inferno series, they do
sometimes fade. So you'll have like the bright color when it
first opens, but under certain conditions, the color fades like
right out and they actually end up looking a little bit
unattractive. So that's just a warning to you that that can
happen. But man, it's hard to say no to that orange. And they
have a couple other colors in the inferno series. And I will
also say that the inferno series, I believe that this is
one of the genetically modified ones. And it actually was a
series that are types of plants that work out probably 10 years
ago or so. So we saw orange petunias, and then they just
disappeared. And that was simply because somehow they didn't
realize that they came from this genetically modified stock and
genetically modified plants are heavily regulated and really
watched over. And so they were like, hey, you can't have this,
it has not gone through the proper procedure. So they took
it off the market. And now they're bringing it back in. So
it did go through all that. So if you're like, kind of feel
funny about genetically modified plants, then you're going to
probably have to stick with another orange. Probably the
second best orange is going to be the one from the super cows.
It's sunset orange like that. That's a really nice one. But
that one, it can get very, very orange, but it has a lot of
variation in its color. And it depends on the time of the
season, the conditions that it's in, as to just how orange it's
going to get. So there are petunias, I got through them
all. And boy, I have so many great petunias I have to tell
you about. So I have to do the reject video. This is one of
those times I'm like, you got to see what didn't make the list.
And there are some that didn't make the list because they're
not nice. But some of them really was kind of sad to have
to say goodbye to them. Another one that everybody is talking
about is a Trataskantia. So Trataskantia oftentimes, or
historically has been called Wandering Jew. And there's a
couple different colors of this, but the new one is Pink Paradise.
Oh boy, my photos, you're not going to get the actual pink
intensity that this plant actually has from my photos. It
is this looks very purple, it has this hot pink veining in it
that is really beautiful. It's going to be a great plant, it's
going to do best in a little bit shadier, full shade to part
shade environments. Although we usually get pretty lucky in
northern Michigan, we can go really part sun with a lot of
our Trataskantia and not have a problem. But I think for a lot
of you, it's going to be a definitely a shade plant. But
boy, it is just absolutely gorgeous. And now it's time for
me to get to Zs. And I'm going to include a Zinnia. And this is
actually a Zinnia mix. And I just thought this color
combination was really nice. It is the Elegant Hot Mix. And what
I liked about it is that this is a more compact variety. So
it's not one of your long like cut flowers in years, although
you could use these as a cut flower, cut flower in a smaller
vase. But the colors really were very intense and saturated. And
they they vibrated with color. So I was a huge fan of that
Zinnia. So definitely way to go on that one. So these are my
picks for 2026. And like I said, there were a lot of rejects, but
I love them so much that I'm going to tell you about some of
the rejects as well. So I'm going to pick some of my
favorites and go over those in a third video. Not going to do
that today. And thank you guys for watching. And thanks to
people who left the nice comments on the first video. You
guys have been really fantastic. I love hearing you know your
reactions to the videos and also which plants you like. Sounds
like the coleus were really getting your attention. I will
talk about some coleus in the reject video because there's
some still decent ones that you might want to know about in that
list as well. So thanks for watching. And if you guys are
big Proven Winner fans, you are welcome to watch my Proven Winner
video as well. So I've got the Proven Winner video and part one
of this series as well. So get out there, watch some videos and
thank you guys. I'm gonna see you guys on the next one. I
don't know the next one's gonna be the Misfit Reject one or if
it's gonna be maybe something else. Who knows? We'll have to
wait and see.
