The Modern Meadow: The Garden Design Trend You Will Want To Start This Fall

Azusa, California – Fall is a time of planning and planting. Cooler weather and typically adequate rainfall make this time of year the perfect season to give the garden a boost and get a jump on spring designs. It’s also a great time to look at what’s new in garden design trends.

“One trend we’re watching for 2025 and beyond is a design we’re calling the Modern Meadow,” said Katie Tamony, chief marketing officer and trend spotter at Monrovia.

Each year the grower of premium plants, trees and shrubs conducts large scale consumer research projects with more than 1,400 homeowners. This year’s results show an increasing interest in creating an outdoor living space that can incorporate spending more time with the family and give homeowners more space to relax and breathe.

“More than half of the homeowners we surveyed say that gardening is good for their mental health and well-being,” Tamony said. “Those that say gardening helps them feel hopeful and positive has increased 4%. Many are interested in a garden design that helps them feel good, adding beauty but also contributing to the larger life experience. The Modern Meadow design covers all those needs.”

Creating the Modern Meadow

Modern Meadow gardens are a full sensory experience, with color, movement and a connection to nature.

“The modern take on this natural garden style has the appeal that people seek with native plants, but it’s better behaved and easier to care for,” Tamony said. “You’ll still have the feeling of a wild meadow with beautiful grasses and colorful, pollinator-friendly perennials, and edible perennials, just on an easier to manage scale. Modern Meadows are beautiful and free flowing, inviting birds and bees and humans to find joy in the landscape.”

Modern Meadows add a relaxing beauty to the garden. By choosing the right plants for the space, they can be low maintenance and drought tolerant once established. This design trend can also be created in any garden size, by choosing compact plants that stay tidy in the landscape, while still creating the feel of a wilder look.

Monrovia has created a YouTube series with Georgia Clay, new plants manager. Together with designer Lisa Nunamaker of the Paper Garden Workshop, the videos show the makeover process for Georgia’s personal Modern Meadow design. From planning to design to installation, the videos will take you along on an inspirational garden journey. Click here to watch the first episode.

Plants for creating your own Modern Meadow:

Smoke Signal Little Bluestem – A beautiful grass that tops out at only 4 feet, Smoke Signal brings multiple colors and graceful movement to the garden. Its strong upright blue-green foliage takes on scarlet tones in late summer, deepening to purple through the fall.

Lemon Ice California Lilac  – Beautiful variegated foliage boasts dark green leaves lined with a bright lime edge. Icy blue flowers sit atop the beautiful foliage of this Ceanothus, creating a stunning vertical element in containers or in the landscape.

Avalanche White Sun Daisy – Every meadow needs a few daisies! Avalanche White Sun Daisy was chosen because it is a non-stop bloomer. It is also hardier and more disease resistant that other varieties. Bright white flowers are backed by glossy green foliage. The flowers close at night, revealing a metallic underside that shines in the moonlight.

Pink Pearl Agastache features tall spikes of beautiful, dainty flowers pollinators love. It’s the perfect plant for bringing hummingbirds to the garden.

Evolution^™ Colorific^™ Coneflower is a pollinator magnet with beautiful multi-colored blooms. The bright, color changing flowers range from a pink, salmon and rosy-peach, and offer many different looks from late spring through fall.

Eversweet Strawberry is an everbearing variety that produces large, sweet berries in the spring with repeat crops about every six weeks through fall. Its bright green foliage looks good all season long.

Jurassic™ Velociraptor Ribbon Fern features mounds of ribbon-like leaves that form an upright flowing accent. Discovered in mountains of China by plant hunter, Dan Hinkley, this ribbon fern adds color, texture and a sense of motion to shady areas.

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Need more ideas, images or want to talk with a Monrovia expert? For more information or to schedule an interview, contact: Kathleen Hennessy, [email protected] 

About Monrovia
Inspired by the beauty of plants, gardens, and landscapes everywhere, Harry E. Rosedale, Sr. founded Monrovia in 1926 to be a premier grower of shrubs and trees. Monrovia collaborates with plant breeders around the world to introduce improved plant varieties to North America. Monrovia plants flourish once planted to beautify gardens and landscapes. Please visit Monrovia.com to learn more.