From container-grown boxwoods to wildflowers, Southern gardeners are embracing trends that balance beauty and practicality while focusing more on native plants. Outdoor living and gardening isn't just about decorating – your facade and your facade's curb appeal are the first thing that welcomes people into your home, and they reflect the way you live and gather. As horticulture continues to thrive across the region, experts say there will be an even greater focus on outdoor living spaces, container plants, edible landscapes and low-maintenance plantings in 2026. According to the experts, seven trends can be expected in the garden next year.
- Adam Millhouse is co-founder of Millhouse Howell Landscape Companya Birmingham, Alabama-based landscape design firm with a mission to create spaces that complement the surrounding landscape
- Katie Tamony is Chief Marketing Officer and trendspotter for Monrovia kindergartenthe nation's largest grower of high-quality shrubs, trees and perennials.
- The Life in the South Plant collection is a curated selection of plants developed in collaboration with expert growers to thrive in southern climates and bring beauty, color and lightness to the home landscape year-round
Edible plants
In true Southern fashion, eating and gardening go hand in hand. According to Monrovia's research, growing more edible plants is a high priority for home gardeners. “In difficult times, people tend to grow their own food, but this trend goes beyond that phenomenon,” says Tamony. “The expansion we're seeing in the edibles trend shows that home gardeners are becoming more adventurous and world-conscious in their choices. Because of their interest in cooking and traveling, higher-income gardeners are looking for unique and sophisticated edibles to add to their landscape.”
This trend of mixing ornamentals with food in the garden goes beyond the typical herbs and vegetables found in raised beds – there is a growing interest in microgreens, edible flowers, and citrus and fruit trees such as figs, persimmons, apples and berries.
Courtesy of Millhouse Howell Landscape Company
Thoughtful boundaries
We're not talking about overly manicured spaces here, but rather about creating structure. “Small spaces appear larger when they are well defined,” explains Adam Millhouse. “Details like stone borders help define lawn and planting areas and keep the edges straight and clear.” There's still room for “modern meadows” where more naturalistic, wilder designs meet sophisticated boundaries and simplicity – a little distinction gives each area of your garden a more deliberate feel.
Collected varieties
Whether they come from your grandparents' garden, the local garden store or from nature, purpose-driven gardening and bringing back old plants is more popular than ever. According to a 2026 gardening trends report by Life in the South Plant Collection: “People plant not only for beauty, but also for meaning.” The report finds that homeowners are gardening more consciously, collecting rare varieties, new foliage colors and variations, with sustainability at the forefront to ensure lasting beauty.
Hector Manuel Sanchez
Improved outdoor living spaces
The love of porches and patios and using them as extensions of the living room is nothing new for Southerners, but according to a Monrovia consumer research report, there is an uptick in “patio culture.” Softening landscapes, gardeners fill containers with ferns, broadleaf evergreens, and fragrant vines such as jasmine and mandevilla, and incorporate more colorful and fragrant plants.
“Interest in gardening on patios and patios is greater than ever,” says Katie Tamony. “We're seeing the greatest increase in interest in container gardening among gardeners over the age of 65, but this is a trend that reaches all demographics, especially gardeners who want elegant outdoor spaces that require little maintenance. They're creating entire gardens of beautiful containers on their patios.”
For a landscape that best suits the changing seasons, Millhouse recommends, “Keep pallet planting simple and use garden containers with seasonal plantings to punctuate an entryway and serve as a focal point.”
Determined evergreens
While we love vibrant and colorful annuals that brighten up a facade, filling your landscape with evergreens of varying textures, shapes, colors and sizes can add equal and longer-lasting interest to your garden. “Blooming all year round is fun but equally interesting [plantings in] “Tones of green with different leaf textures,” says Millhouse. This is becoming an increasingly common practice for ease of care, particularly in in-ground plantings.
Courtesy of Millhouse Howell Landscape Company
Easy-care plantings
Gardeners are looking for plants that can easily add a bit of sophistication and structure, but are still easy to care for. This includes pot and soil plantings. “Boxwoods in containers never go out of style,” notes Millhouse. Monrovia experts point to increased interest in evergreen hedges such as holly, boxwood and ferns. climbing plants like roses, jasmine, and camellias for color; and flowering shrubs and perennials, including hydrangeas and lavender.
Micro gardens
While the South's love of container gardens is nothing new, the Life in the South According to Plant Collection, homeowners are leaning even harder into small-space gardening because “we live in an age of compression.” The report states: “Everything is being distilled into smaller, smarter and more targeted formats, from communications to content to consumer products.” We are seeing this impact green spaces as southern gardeners adopt a more curated, compact and intentional planting mindset that creates great visual impact. The SLCP proposes “a 'flight' of camellias in different flower tones” to add charm to any porch or terrace, a concept that can be implemented with any type of flower.