7 Trends That Will Define Gardening in 2019
January 21, 2019 
Seeking more than the free wifi and caffeine buzz offered at your local coffee shop, consumers are flocking to garden centers for a newer, fresher experience.
Americans are gardening in record numbers but what are they most interested in this year? Monrovia, a grower of premium ornamental and landscaping plants, has released its annual report reflecting this year’s most captivating garden trends.
The 2019 Monrovia trend report predicts Americans will develop a deeper connection to the natural world, seeking out carefully curated plants and gardens that reflect their intense interest in cultivating highly personal, leafy refuges in a time of stress and chaos.
“In our 2017 and 2018 trends reports, we began tracking how a generation of millennials — one out of five new gardeners are millennials according to the National Gardening Association — rooted in technology was becoming more biophilic, and how that deep yearning for connection to nature was impacting issues from food waste to water use to soil health,” says Monrovia’s Jonathan Pedersen. “What we see in 2019 are the strands coming together to show a compelling path forward.”
Here are highlights of the seven top 2019 trends in gardening:
• The Slow Garden Movement: The same trends that millennials are driving across consumer brands — transparency, sustainability, hand-crafted, experiential, and authenticity — are showing up in gardens and garden centers nationwide.
• Architecture Rules: Garden designers will use plants with plenty of intriguing, often formal, shapes, forms, textures, and branching habits within otherwise naturalistic gardens, resulting in a delightful yin-yang effect.
• Desperately Seeking Season: With seasonal changes that are less distinct and predictable marked by longer summers and shorter winters, gardens that dramatically, graphically evolve over the seasons are becoming even more prized.
• Do it For Me!: Consumer research has identified a growing segment of “Do It for Me” homeowners who want the beauty and seasonal rhythm of a landscaped space, but may not have the time to make this happen.
• Working Overtime: With home lots getting smaller and less time for gardening, consumers are snapping up one-and-done plants that do double or even triple duty in the landscape.
• One-Stop Garden Shop: Seeking more than the free wifi and caffeine buzz offered at your local coffee shop, consumers are flocking to garden centers for a newer, fresher experience.
• Into the Woods: Cool, mossy, and damp, small space woodland gardens bring a welcome sense of organic zen and a respite from digital overload, especially in dense urban areas where they can help to mitigate the effects of pollution.
Other trends worth watching include colors turning to the brighter side, the return of televised gardening programming, all-green gardens, and urban gardens that are as prized as any estate landscape.
The entire 2019 top gardening trends report is available here.
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