PANTONE has recently announced their colors of the year for 2021: PANTONE Ultimate Gray and PANTONE Illuminating Yellow! These two independent colors highlight how different elements come together to support one another. Pantone chose them as symbols of strength and positivity for the coming year. After the events of 2020, we think everyone is ready for a little optimism!
Illuminating Yellow symbolizes brightness, warmth, and a hopeful outlook. On the other hand, Ultimate Gray reflects solidity, reliability and dependability.
“Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope.”
For over 20 years, Pantone’s Color of the Year has influenced product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries, including horticulture. Consumers often end up making buying decisions based on the trends that Pantone identifies. Last year, Pantone selected “Classic Blue” as their color of the year, which allowed retailers to capitalize on current market trends. Blue isn’t the easiest color to find among flowers and foliage, but was showcased in many gardens last year.
This is a great opportunity to promote varieties that match trending colors that buyers will be looking for in 2021. Check out some of these illuminating Must Have Perennials varieties!
Illuminating Yellow
Rudbeckia ‘Viette’s Little Suzy’
Do your customers love Black Eyed Susans but are wary of its leggy nature? We have the perfect plant for them! Rudbeckia ‘Viette’s Little Suzy’ is a compact, dwarf, highly floriferous black-eyed Susan that blooms beautifully in summer and fall! The medium-yellow blooms add big impact in the garden and Suzy’s green foliage turns a stunning mahogany in autumn.
Achillea millefolium ‘Little Moonshine’ beckons bees and butterflies to the garden! Unlike other yarrows, ‘Little Moonshine’ offers a compact habit that’s perfect for smaller gardens, containers, or mixed borders. Plus, the petite beauty blooms May through September, adding a bright burst of color to the landscape. ‘Little Moonshine’ may be small, but it adds big impact to gardens!
Perennial mums, like our Dendrathema ‘Brilliant Igloo’, offer a great option for pretty autumn flowers that return year after year. Add them to your garden beds to let them become well-established in cooler weather so you’ll have big, pretty mounds of flowers in fall!
Best of all, the Igloo series blooms brilliantly from late summer well into fall. An added plus for consumers is that these plants require no pinching to maintain their uniform shape.