Top Plant Picks for Your 2025 Garden!

Your official plant guide!

With the New Year here, we’ve rounded up our top plant picks. If you’re looking for inspiration for your 2025 garden, look no further! We’ve got plenty of exciting plants in stock to transform your garden this year.

Top Tree for 2025: Sweet Olive

Originally from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, Osmanthus fragrans is a woody shrub with small but fragrant flowers that bloom twice a year. These beauties can get up to 20 feet tall but can also be trained and pruned as a hedge or manicured to your preferred shape! This is the perfect plant to train as a topiary to create an elegant display at your driveway, doorstep, or lanai! Also called Fragrant Tea Olive, the fragrant flowers can be dried and used in tea.

Sweet Olive does best in areas with full sun but some afternoon shade. They can tolerate full sun as long as they receive enough moisture and the soil has good drainage. This plant is somewhat drought-tolerant once it is established, and it can tolerate some salt.

Top Shrub for 2025: Dwarf Jamaican Heliconia

Heliconia stricta ‘Dwarf Jamaican’ is a great option if you love the look of Heliconias but don’t quite have the space for the monstrous varieties. These compact beauties typically stay under 3 feet tall and their miniature Heliconia flowers add the perfect pop of color to contrast with the lush foliage! These shrubs are great for adding layers or borders to your garden space. Heliconias are great for adding more vegetation under the canopy of other trees in your landscape, as they are understory plants in their native habitats.

Like most Heliconias, the Dwarf Jamaican Heliconia can handle part shade to full sun and requires well-draining soil and consistent moisture. Heliconias benefit from regular fertilization, especially during the spring and summer months. Compared to other Heliconias, this variety is relatively low maintenance. Deadhead as needed and clean up any dead leaves to keep them looking fresh and promote more growth. As a bonus, flowers are just big enough to cut and use in floral arrangements in your home!

Top Native Plant for 2025: Koʻoloa ʻula

Endemic to Hawaii, Abutilon menziesii is a small, flowering shrub with many uses! This sprawling plant can be grown in a container or as a specimen plant. It is a great plant to use for a hedge or to provide screening, and it is a fabulous accent plant anywhere in your landscape! The dainty red flowers and silvery green foliage create a desirable look in any garden. The flowers tend to resist wilting prematurely, making them a beautiful bloom for lei-making.

Ko’oloa ‘ula is considered an endangered species, and conservationists are encouraging landscape designers and urban planners to include this almost-lost shrub in their installations. Growing from 6-10 feet tall and wide, this plant can make a big statement if grown in proper conditions. Ko’oloa ‘ula can take the heat, and even prefers it! It is drought tolerant and can handle sunny, dry areas. Be sure not to overwater Ko’oloa ‘ula and let it fully dry out between waterings. Koʻoloa ʻula can be pruned to the desired height, but avoid cutting branches too far back. Cutting back to the wood can cause the plant not to re-branch.

Top Palm for 2025: Red Latan Palm

Latania lontaroides is a slow-growing palm with fan-shaped fronds. It gets its name from the red color of the leaves and petiole, which lasts for the first years of life and turns green once the palm is mature. Although rare on their native coast of the island Reunion, Red Latan Palm is quite common in cultivation. These palms are a great container plant when they’re young and can be planted in the ground once they outgrow their pot. The Latan palm is tolerant of salt spray and can handle full sun. Although they are slow-growing, they can reach up to forty feet tall once mature. And the fan fronds can reach up to 8 feet wide!

Latan Palms prefer moist, well-draining soil. It is best to apply a high-quality, slow-release palm fertilizer twice a year. Latan Palms do best in full sun.

Top Ornamental for 2025: Brazilian Red Cloak

These stunning flowers speak for themselves! Megaskepasma erythrochlamys is similar to Bougainvillea in that the flower blooms are actually disguised within the bright red fluffy spikes, hence the term “cloak.” Once mature, the plant blooms on and off all year. You may have years when the plant does not bloom at all but do not panic! It may just need some time off to replenish its energy. This stunning shrub can be used as a specimen plant anywhere in your landscape or grown as a hedge for dense privacy. Prune as needed and let this show-stopping plant do the rest!

Brazilian Red Cloak is massive, growing from 6-10 feet tall and wide. It prefers part sun/part shade. Some shade is good for this shrub, especially keeping the base shaded. It can still bloom in full shade and the foliage tends to stay greener with more shade. If you are looking for a shrub with that “wow” factor, this is the plant for you!

Top Houseplant for 2025: Summer Glory Philodendron

Philodendron 'Summer Glory' is a hybrid variety of Philodendron ‘McColleys Finale’ and ‘Philodendron Gloriosum.’ This relatively new variety is an upright, clumping plant with deep-veined leaves that open red and fade to a deep green once mature. The middle phase of the leaves turning green but still having that red tint creates a beautiful rosy color that is very desirable.

Popular on the mainland as house plants, Summer Glory can live in your home, but they also thrive outdoors on our island. They love warm humidity and moisture, perfect for our tropical climate! Ensure they get bright, indirect light, and avoid direct light as the leaves can burn. These beauties love moist, well-draining soil, and if you keep them in a pot, make sure the pot has a drainage hole. Soggy soil can lead to root rot. Re-pot regularly to keep the pot from being root-bound and replenish the soil to help promote growth. Prune often to encourage the plant to stay compact and create bushy leaf growth.

Top Ground Cover for 2025: Society Garlic

Tulbaghia violacea is an herbaceous plant commonly used as a ground cover in residential landscapes. Its clumping habit and tall, blooming shoots make this ground cover unique and offer your garden bed a pop of color and interest! Society Garlic makes a great border plant, but keep in mind that brushing up against the foliage can emit a garlic scent, so best to use this in a low-traffic area of your yard. The lavender, star-shaped flowers bloom in clusters from the tall, grassy shoots. The flower spikes can get up to 2 feet tall. The greens can be used similarly to chives and the bulbs can be harvested and used like garlic! The flowers are also edible. Society Garlic is relatively pest-resistant, and the crushed leaves can be rubbed on the skin to repel mosquitoes.

The plants bloom throughout the year but bloom the most in full sun. They appreciate light or sandy soil and should be watered deeply. Be sure not to overwater, as the tubers are susceptible to root-rot. You can allow the plants to dry out slightly when they are in bloom, and once established, they are drought-tolerant. Add in an organic compost and all-purpose fertilizer once a year to promote flowering.