7 Growing Gardening Trends to Try in 2024

Bunching groups of flowers by color was in full bloom at this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest one in the country. It’s stunning in flower beds and window boxes, like the one above featuring groupings of purple and yellow petunias.

Cottage gardens are all about a beautiful yet controlled mess—slightly unruly rose bushes, a winding vine on a trellis, and curving stone paths. A mix of flowers works great! When Laura Hooper, a horticulturist and founder of the floral studio Foxhill Garden in Mount Vernon, Virginia, created her dream cottage garden, she says, "I included specialty varieties, a lot of beautiful perennials, and wildflowers."

Imagine a garden filled with colorful flowers, thick shrubs, herbs, and a little water rock garden. It's a treat for the eyes and the senses, too. That's the sensory garden that plant specialist Hilton Carter, author of Living Wild, created at his house in Baltimore. "There’s some nice lamb's ear, rosemary, a bigger sage, and boxwoods," he says of the blend of gorgeous visuals, soft touches, and aromatic scents. He also made it ear-pleasing: "I did a little water-rock scene with water that circulates," he says. "It not only has a great flowing sound, it brings birds around."

Seriously bright colors are taking over gardens, especially cyber lime, the color of the year according to the Garden Media Group’s 2024 trend report. This color (seen on this Wedding Gown hydrangea) can look so vivid, it’s as if AI generated it! Growers have also been pairing lime with other radiant shades including orange, fuchsia, pink, purple, and yellow.

“Over the past few years, there has been more sustainable gardening and more organic types of gardening,” says Laura. Sustainable gardening means maintaining soil health with compostable organic matter and planting flowers like lavender, lilac, and honeysuckle that attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other precious pollinators. It’s also about nature-friendly pest prevention. “If I spray for pests or to fertilize the flowers, it's all organic-certified, and at times of day when it's not going to be disturbing wildlife or the pollinators,” she says.

The ancient Romans pruned plants into animal and geometric shapes and even human forms. Over the years, ornamental topiaries have become common front porch and stoop fixtures but now home gardeners are sculpting boxwoods, arborvitae, junipers, and other shrubs, says Hilton. And they’re taking a more free-form approach—think shrubs that look like clouds and other abstract shapes. It’s easy enough to do with a sketch and a pair of garden pruners.

Unique indoor plants are in demand—specifically, variegated plants. They have leaves with splotches, stripes, or edges in shades of pale yellow, green, or white (like this Monstera Deliciosa). Next time you’re plant shopping, also look for Monstera Albo, Monstera Thai Constellation, Variegated ZZ, and Syngonium Albo. Hilton notes that the variegated money tree, which has a marbleized look, is also getting popular.