Featured Five 2026: Favorites from Pell Greenhouses
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EmailAre you seeking proven performers for the season ahead? Check out Part 5 of our series highlighting top picks from the 2026 Michigan Garden Plant Tour trial sites.
Each year, Michigan State University collaborates with Michigan’s leading young plant producers to host a complimentary open house at their trial sites and display gardens. This event offers growers, landscapers, and retail professionals a valuable opportunity to explore a diverse array of ornamental crops and assess their performance in both in-ground and container settings.
The 2026 Michigan Garden Plant Tour ran from July 27 to August 7, showcasing the latest innovations and standout varieties across multiple locations. Parts 1-4 of this series covered Michigan State University Extension’s top picks from the trial garden at DGI Propagators, Proven Winners Carleton, Mast Young Plants, and MSU Trial Gardens. Part 5 will cover the highlights from Pell Greenhouses.
Featured Five at Pell Greenhouses
The Pell Greenhouse’s trial garden (Photo 1) includes a large hanging basket structure (Photo 2), fence plantings and containers placed in both sun and shade. This year the staff had some fun again and entered an employee competition of combination planters. The top varieties that caught my eye were all sun plants, two of which were Osteospermums:
- Osteospermum Gelato ‘Apricot’ - Westhoff
- Osteospermum Besties ‘Dynamic Bicolor’ - Danziger
- Compatibles: Scaevola Scampi Barbie ‘Blue’, ‘Pink’ and ‘White’ – Greenfuse botanicals, Inc.
- Gazania Sterling Silver ‘Burgundy Stripe’ – Greenfuse botanicals, Inc.
- Lobularia Stream ‘Lavendar Improved’ - Danziger
Osteospermum Gelato ‘Apricot’
My favorite color is coral so Osteospermum Gelato ‘Apricot’ drew me immediately in the sun container trials (Photos 3 and 4). The Gelato series from Westhoff was first introduced in 2021. In the past, Osteospermum were seen as a cool weather crop that would stop flowering in the heat of summer. It is native to South Africa and has good heat and drought tolerance but needs a vernalization to flower.
Breeding in the last 20 years has made this a more robust annual for home gardeners, delivering flowering all summer long and only needing an average daily temperature of 57 degrees Fahrenheit to initiate flowering. This variety had an abundance of colorful flowers and had a nice mounding habit.
Osteospermum Besties ‘Dynamic Bicolor’
Another Osteospermum that stood out at the trials comes from the Besties series from Danziger. It was not the most floriferous in the trial but the rainbow purple, orange, pink, and yellow looked straight out of an impressionist painting instead of a real plant. As a consumer, I would enjoy watching the colors of the individual flowers change as they fade.
This variety won the Horticulture Trades Association New Plant 2025 Gold Medal Award and is a fairly new color addition in the Besties series.
Compatibles: Scaevola Scampi ‘Blue’, ‘Pink’ and ‘White’
The Barbie mixture of blue, pink, and white scaevola was a stunning combination developed by Greenfuse botanicals. This combination is not new either and was in the Greenfuse catelog in 2017. Growers can download the culture report on their website.
All scaevola are heat and drought tolerant, which is of growing interest to consumers. They are marketed for landscape, container and basket use with a crop time of between 5 and 11 weeks in the greenhouse prior to ship.
Gazania Sterling Silver ‘Burgundy Stripe’
Featured in a 2024 best new perennial’s guide for sun, Gazania Sterling Silver ‘Burgundy Stripe’ has unusual silver foliage for a gazania. It is a perennial, hardy in zones 5 to 9 and prefers well drained soils.
A touted feature of this variety is that it keeps its flowers open even on cloudy days.
Lobularia Stream ‘Lavendar Improved’
The Stream series of lobularia is not new (circa 2015), but ‘Lavendar Improved’ is a 2026-2027 introduction from Danziger. This varieties was a perfect ball of lavender color and would be an excellent addition to a combination as a filler/spiller. It is highly fragrant, heat tolerant, and a great pollinator plant.
For more top 2026 varieties, check out the other articles in our series:
- Part 1: Featured Five 2026: Favorites from DGI Propagators Trial Gardens
- Part 2: Featured Five 2025: Favorites from Proven Winners Carleton
- Part 3: Featured Five 2026: Favorites from Mast Young Plants
- Part 4: Featured Five 2026: Favorites from MSU Trial Gardens
- Part 5: Featured Five 2026: Favorites from Pell Greenhouses
- Part 6: Featured Five 2026: Favorites from Raker-Roberta’s Young Plants
- Part 7: Featured Five 2026: Favorites from Walters Gardens
- Part 8: Let’s Play Nice and Shine: Twelve Stellar Compatible Combinations
