As we continue to contend with the impact of climate change on our environment, it’s more important than ever that the plants we choose to put in our yards and gardens are both sustainable and ecologically beneficial. This year’s GreatPlants selections (a joint program of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum (NSA) and the Nebraska Nursery and Landscape Association (NNLA), offer gardeners and landscapers perennial, grass, tree and shrub choices that are proven to be resilient in Nebraska’s challenging climate and beneficial to the environment.
Here are the 2025 GreatPlants selections:
Perennial of the Year: Salvia ‘Rose Marvel’ (Salvia nemorosa 'Rose Marvel')
This hardy, easy-to-grow salvia features rose-pink flower spikes in late spring and into the heat of summer. ‘Marvel Rose’ has the largest flowers of the meadow sage (Salvia nemorosa) group, nicely clustered around burgundy stems. It blooms over a long period of time—even reblooming without having to be cut back. The flowers attract myriad pollinating insects, and the gray-green aromatic foliage is deer- and rabbit-proof. Growing to a height and width of 14 inches, it has an attractive mounded habit after emerging in the spring, with more of an upright habit once the flower spires appear. It thrives in hot, full sun and is very drought-tolerant once established.
Tree of the Year: Yellow Buckeye (Aesculus flava)
The yellow buckeye is a tough but attractive shade tree suitable for the yard or landscape. Maturing at 50-60 feet, with a spread of 35 feet, and native to the Ohio Valley and Appalachian Mountains, this is the largest of the buckeyes. It is one of the first trees to leaf out in spring, with lush, dark green foliage, composed of five-fingered leaflets that give it a tropical look. By mid-spring, the yellow buckeye is adorned with upright, six-inch spikes of yellow-green flowers that attract bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. In autumn, the tree features colors ranging from butter yellow to pumpkin-orange, as well as smooth, leathery fruit capsules, each with between one and three shiny brown nuts inside (buckeyes). Yellow buckeye prefers fertile, well-drained soils but overall is a very adaptable, easy tree to grow. The nuts, which squirrels love, can be a bit messy in the landscape, so it’s best to mulch beneath the tree out to the canopy dripline, ensuring that the buckeye fruit falls on the mulch and not the lawn.
Shrub of the Year: 'Iceberg Alley' Sageleaf Willow (Salix candida 'Iceberg Alley')
This northern native willow was discovered by the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador Botanical Garden. Maturing at four to five feet high and wide, this relatively small, elegant shrub prefers six hours of direct sunlight daily. 'Iceberg Alley' Sageleaf Willow works particularly well in tough areas in the landscape, woven into a shrub border or as a backdrop to perennial flowers. In early spring before the leaves emerge, it produces silvery catkin flowers with reddish stamens and yellow anthers along the ends of its branches. The flowers are an excellent, early season nectar and pollen source for emerging bees. It has attractive gray-green foliage with white undersides and tinges of silver. The soft, fuzzy, pointy leaves are highly ornamental but do not develop any significant fall color, while the smooth bark and white branches remain attractive all through the winter.
Grass of the Year: ‘Prairie Blues’ Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Prairie Blues’)
Little bluestem was designated as the official state grass of Nebraska in 1969, and since then, several selections have been made to improve its productivity as an important pasture grass for the cattle industry. Today, there are many exciting new selections of little bluestem for landscape use. Because it’s easy to grow in hot, sunny locations and has outstanding drought and heat tolerance, little bluestem has become a popular choice for prairie-style landscapes in Nebraska and throughout the Great Plains. ‘Prairie Blues’ is a seed selection little bluestem from a western origin, with intense powder blue foliage and a sturdy, upright habit. Blue linear leaves form an attractive fine-textured clump by late spring. In late summer upright, purple-tinted stems emerge from the basal growth and later transform into small clusters of fluffy seed heads.
For more information about the 2025 GreatPlants and a full list of GreatPlants selections since 1998, visit our GreatPlants webpage.
