Cool New Plant Varieties at Monrovia Breeder's Showcase

September 22, 2026

While I was attending both Oregon's Farwest nursery show and the concurrent GardenComm conference a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of landing at Monrovia's headquarters, where they had a special plant breeder's showcase on display. The event was part of the Monrovia’s Centennial Celebration. Visitors included retail customers, industry partners, and media, viewed more than 400 perennial and shrub varieties in the display and were able to vote for their trial favorites.

There are also lots of other plants offered by Monrovia - especially in the edibles category - that I'll feature in a follow up post, but in this post I want to show you new varieties from multiple breeders that Monrovia works with.

Monrovia's 100th Anniversary
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

New Plant Varieties

Now, my favorite in the new varieties showcasewas Caryopteris Pavillion Blue

Caryopteris Pavillion Blue from Danziger
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Caryopteris Pavillion Blue votes
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Caryopteris Pavilion Blue

Now there were lots of other flags on this plant too, but it appears to have come in 13th place overall. But I was mesmerized by the stunning deep blue-purple blooms and the flowers were covered with pollinators. The slightly chartreuse foliage is a great companion to the intense flower color. So it's still a big winner in my book. Plus, plants in this genus are good to grow across many climates, even hot humid ones.

This new cultivar is put out by Danziger.

Caryopteris Pavilion Blue
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Scabiosa Deep Ocean Blue

My next favorite was this beautiful Scabiosa, which the photo doesn't really do justice, as the flower color is much more intense in real life. The flowers are also huge, and it would make a great cut flower. Another super tough plant for many climates, including very hot climates and difficult soils.

This new cultivar is from Green Fuse Botanicals.

Monrovia also has a two other really nice new Scabiosa introductions called Laurie pincushion flower, or Scabiosa columbaria 'Lier01', and Skyrocket Scabiosa, which has really gorgeous ruffly flowers on big tall stems. I didn't get a really good photo of it, so I'll see if I can get one from Monrovia.

Agastache 'Peach Pearl'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Agastache 'Peach Pearl'

If I'd been given a third vote, I would have picked 'Peach Pearl', which is a stunning and floriferous compact agastache, which is one of my favorite garden plants. The foliage scent is divine. In Texas Agastache doesn't fair well in the humidity and heat, as well as the heavy clay soils, so it was ok as a short term spring or fall bloomer, but would always crash completely come summer. Up here in the PNW it's quite happy, so I'm glad I can grow it more continuously now.