Is "New" always better?

You see it every year, new plant varieties just discovered, bred, or introduced. There are loads of them each season, sure to be the next greatest thing in your garden. And they are hyped by seemingly every gardening magazine, gardening show on tv, and online gardening forum. "NEW!" it reads, "MUST HAVE!" they say, "BETTER than..." it promises.

So, is all of the hype generated on these plants justified? Or is it just marketing at its best trying to dupe you into buying more? Both, sort of.

For example, take Echinacea 'Sunset' PPAF. It was introduced and available for the 2005 growing season. It promised to be a breakthrough, an orange coneflower in a family of traditionally pink, surely THE plant to have. We saw it blooming in 2004, heard rave reviews by industry insiders, and we eventually pushed it as a unique and truly remarkable plant. However, it didn't pan out that way, at least not based on what we saw in our garden center. 'Sunset' was a nice plant, but when it was finally available to the public, it didn't seem like the plant it claimed to be. Even though it was worthy enough for us to sell, it wasn't really orange like the claims said - more of a pink with a little tangerine. Nor did it have the larger flowers like the other Coneflowers. It also wasn't as vigorous as some of the other "new" Echinacea in recent years. "New" in this case turned out to be something you actually could do without, contrary to what everyone was saying. (For those interested, the improved Echinacea 'Sundown' PPAF is a much nicer orange Coneflower, and is what 'Sunset' really should have been in our opinion.)

On the other hand, consider some of the new Heuchera introductions in the last few years. Some outstanding varieties have surfaced including 'Lime Rickey' PP16210, 'Peach Flambe' PPAF, and 'Caramel' PP16560. All of these Heuchera varieties continue to sell out for us, and also continue to perform very well in our ongoing trial gardens. You will not be disappointed with these, especially for an area with 4 hours or less of sunlight. "New" in these cases turned out be all that was claimed, outstanding plants that really were new and different, a must-have, and better than many Heuchera varieties.

So, just don't believe everything you see and hear when it comes to "new" plants. Most new plant varieties truly are worthwhile and are "the next best thing," but some are simply not.