What will our gardens look like in 2025? The thing about opinions is that everyone has one. The same applies to predictions.
One group with a pretty good track record is Katie Dubow's Garden Media Group, a public relations firm that serves plant breeders, nurseries and others in the green industry. The annual Garden Trends Report predicts how environmental, fashion, food, retail, media and other trends will move into the gardening space.
In 2006, GMG foresaw the beginning of the native plant movement; In 2009, a rise in vertical gardening was predicted; and in 2018, the mainstreaming of forest bathing.
What awaits gardeners this year? I spoke with Dubow and other experts:
According to the US Census Bureau, 84% of newly built single-family homes sold in the US in 2022 were part of a homeowners association. As a result, Dubow expects more homeowners will seek to differentiate their HOA properties from those of their neighbors without violating the rules.
Planting living fences with diverse plant species, including native species that support wildlife, adds environmentally conscious individuality to property boundaries from a bird's eye view.
Collecting flowers is another naturalistic trend predicted for next year. This means going into your garden or the wild to collect branches, stems and flowers from shrubs and trees and using whatever you find outside to create something beautiful to bring indoors.
“People crave a connection with nature,” Dubow said, “and foraging helps them do that.”
“Most people don’t have designated raised bed cutting gardens,” said Megan McMullen, learning and development manager for Homestead Gardens, which has three locations in Maryland and Delaware. “But they have landscaped garden spaces, and we wanted to help them think about those spaces in (unconventional) ways,” she said.
So last year, the nursery offered customers a series of foraging workshops where participants learned how to select wild elements and prune shrub parts for use in homemade bouquets.
To ensure a steady supply of food materials, McMullen recommends choosing garden plants carefully for year-round elements of interest such as seed pods, cones and twigs, and not just planting for summer flowers and foliage.
“There has been a lot of interest in what is a new gardening trend,” McMullen said. “It was the right time to talk about it because people are starting to think about it.”
Citing the proliferation of unnatural scenes created by artificial intelligence coupled with a Pinterest trend toward “tyrannical cuteness,” Dubow predicts a preference among home gardeners for plants with “never-before-seen colors” and “surreal pastels” when they trying to reproduce these exaggerated, “cute” AI images at home.
One example is the genetically modified bioluminescent petunia Firefly, which glows in the dark. Introduced earlier this year by Sun Valley, Idaho-based biotechnology company Light Bio, the effect was created by inserting genes from glowing mushrooms into a petunia plant.
It follows that even bizarre plants that appear on the pages of a book by Dr. Seuss, like alliums, teasels and holly, could become more popular.
Fairy gardens could also see a resurgence, Dubow said.
A pair of dirty-looking Golden Goose sneakers valued at $600. A “worn and aged” Balenciaga concert bracelet valued at $3,800. And a report that vintage Rolexes sell better than new ones. What do these cultural trends mean?
“They show us that people want the idea of something that will last them a lifetime,” Dubow said. And a typical untouched, symmetrical landscape doesn't offer that.
Next year she predicts a move toward “inhabited gardens” with sprawling roses, bulb lawns, native plants, mature trees and densely planted, layered garden beds.
Finally, Dubow draws a parallel between the celebrity fashion trend of “cutout” dresses and fenestrated plants – plants with holes in their leaves, like the split philodendron and monstera. Although these plants have enjoyed popularity for nearly a decade, she pointed to a 600 percent increase in Google Trend searches for monstera in the first half of 2024.
But I have to ask: Are these plants imitating life or is life imitating plants?
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Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up for weekly gardening tips and advice here.
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