Philadelphia Flower Show Pros Predict 2022 Gardening Trends

By Jill Brooke

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), the internationally respected organization founded in 1827, and the producer of the world-famous Philadelphia Flower Show, has released its top five gardening trends for 2022.

Andrew Bunting, Vice President of Public Gardens and Landscapes at PHS states, “adopting new trends offers gardeners the perfect way to revamp home gardens with new ideas and inspiration, while using gardening to promote year-round health and well-being. This list of garden trends for 2022 is ideal for gardeners of all interests and experience levels to incorporate into their own gardens.”

Okay – so what are they?

1.  Utilize Native and Pollinator-Friendly Plants

Bring bees and pollen-loving insects to your gardens! Adding native pollinators to your garden is a simple way to support the ecosystem right from your own backyard. Pollinators are vital to creating and maintaining ecosystems and are crucial to agriculture. Plants like Pycnanthemum, mountain mint, Echinacea, coneflowers, and Liatris, gayfeather are all great at attracting these important insects.  Good advice that you can’t do enough. It really helps and is easy to do.

2. Consider Turning Lawn Space into Garden Space

Did you know lawns aren’t great for the environment? Even removing a small piece of lawn and transforming it into garden space has the power to significantly lower fossil fuel emissions that would otherwise be applied to the lawn through regular trimming and maintenance. Your new garden space can also boost its positive environmental impact by being used as a pollinator garden, perennial garden, or even a vegetable patch.

3.  Try Gravel Gardening, Waterwise Gardening, or Xeriscaping

Not great at regularly watering your garden? Thankfully, you can build a garden with hardy plants and low water requirements! With more and more areas of the country experiencing inconsistent weather patterns and periods of drought, planting gardens that require little watering or irrigation is growing in popularity. Gravel gardening offers just one way to cut back on water requirements, irrigation requirements, and fertilizer use in your garden by eliminating the use of soil. Xeriscaping refers to landscaping and gardening in a way that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. Gravel gardens and xeriscaping can incorporate a multitude of plants including a wide array of succulents in the Sedum species, as well as Sempervivum tectorum, hens and chicks, hardy cacti such as the Opuntia species, some ornamental grasses, Amsonia hubrichtii, threadleaf bluestar, and even yucca. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s own Meadowbrook Farm has already embraced waterwise gardening practices and incorporated many of these species, alongside of many other garden spaces across the US.

In fact, a master and innovator of this concept is Philadelphia Flower Show winner Iftikhar Ahmed of Treeline Designz .

4. Grow Your Own Fruit

With just a little space, you can enjoy your favorite fruits right from your own garden! Growing fruit is no longer reserved for those with orchards. Even just a few fruit trees can produce hundreds of pieces of fruit perfect for jams, jellies, cookies, ice cream, or simply eating as-is. Dwarf fruit trees come in many varieties including figs, mulberries, apples, and pears, and are ideal for growing with limited space.

However, beloved flower lovers, please note that the trees sometimes take a few years before you get fruit. One must be patient. But time flies, and the fun of planting begins an adventure. As we say at flowerpowerdaily, one of the lasting lessons we learn from gardening is the acceptance of patience and unpredictability. As well as joy from success. That is the fun part and worth the wait.

5. Cut Flowers Are Trending

Across the United States, and elsewhere,  boutique flower businesses are incorporating more and more classic cut flowers like Zinnia, Dahlia, Papaver rhoeas, poppy, Cosmos bippinatus, cosmos, and Leucanthemum x superbum, shasta daisy. The return to these timeless varieties of flowers demonstrates a shift away from the more non-traditional, eccentric, and often minimalist style common in modern floral arrangement today. From purveyors of elaborate homegrown cut flowers to the backyard gardener, cut flowers offer a rewarding means to immerse yourself in horticulture and
experience the pride of growing your own flowers and sharing them with loved ones that will surely never go out of style.

For novice gardeners and expert horticulturists alike, embracing popular garden trends offers an opportunity for inspiration and connection with fellow gardeners. PHS also offers numerous programs and initiatives around a common love for horticulture to promote healthy, green neighborhoods. For more information about PHS programs, and for information on how you can get involved, visit:  phsonline.org<https://nyl.as/t1/256/7phbc3pr0zjj8layxnnc9h1t8/3/d18eb11b6e18fd555674499964290ff3520b08edf0b6e076c64a805142ea859d>.