Top 5 New 2025 Zone 3 Perennials from Proven Winners

Perennials are the backbone of any garden and Proven Winners is proud to bring you new and exciting perennial flowering plants and grasses every spring season. When checking out all of their new perennials for 2025 make sure you are choosing those that will do well in Zone 3. Here are my Top 5 picks for the 2025 spring season.

My first choice is actually a new series of three Campanula carpatica cultivars for Zones 3-8.

It’s called the Mini Marvels Series and for very good reason. If you have not tried Carpathian Bellflowers before, spring 2025 is the time! When in bloom they are truly a marvel to behold and so easy to grow. All love full sun and are exceptionally compact with a mature height of 15-20 cm and mature spread of 25-30 cm.  They have a mounding habit which makes them perfect as border, filler and rock garden plants. Mini Marvels are especially eye catching in a modern landscape design when used in a checkboard pattern with small, low mounding sedums.

Best of all, they have a long blooming season, attracting bees, butterflies and other pollinators to their never ending display of flowers. Deadhead to encourage more blooms.

Deer Resistant

Grow in a fertile, well- draining soil. Water regularly until they are established.

Fertilize once in spring when new growth appears. Use a balanced water soluble perennial fertilizer or a slow release perennial pellet fertilizer around the central growing point of the plant. A one to two inch natural compost layer can also be used intead in spring and fall.

Try all three colors!

Mini Marvels ‘Midnight’ -  Dark violet blue flowers

Mini Marvels ‘Starbright’ – White flowers

Mini Marvels ‘Twilight’ – Blue and white bicolor flowers.

Hosta Shadowland ‘Lonestar’

Zone 3-9 

Part Shade to Shade

There is nothing more striking in a shade garden than a mass planting of Hosta! This new introduction from PW is especially striking, with vibrant green leaves with vivid gold margins. The gold margins are especially bright when this Hosta is grown in bright, filtered shade.

‘Lonestar’ is a large mounding Hosta, with a mature height of 66-71 cm and a mature spread of 1.3 – 1.4 m. In early summer this Hosta produces scapes (flower stalks) measuring 1.1 to 1.3 m topped with white flowers that attract hummingbirds.

Hostas grow best in a moist, neutral, fertile soil with good drainage. Top dress in spring and fall with an inch or two of compost, making sure it does not touch the central growing point of the plant. A natural soil amendment like compost is really all you need.

If your soil is rich, I would not recommend fertilizing at all the first season. In subsequent years continue using compost, or fertilize with a balanced fertilizer (ex: 10-10-10) once in early spring and once in early July. Do not fertilize after mid to late summer.  Fertilizing fall transplants will delay dormancy.

To deter overwintering insects and slugs, clean up the old/dead leaves at the end of the season. Use this Hosta as a mass planting, a single specimen in a shade container or with Ferns, Bleeding Hearts, Astilbe and Lamium.

Black-Eyed Susan ‘Mega Millions”  

Rudbeckia fulgida ‘ Mega Millions’

Zone 3-9

Part-Sun to Sun 

For exceptional long bloom time and disease resistance take a look at Mega Millions Black-eyed Susan! This is one tough, long lived, gorgeous perennial for the prairies. In fact, Rudbeckias are native to North America!

Mega Millions has golden yellow flowers with black central cones from early summer into fall. It is a large, mounding Black-Eyed Susan with a mature height of 91 cm and a mature spread of 91 cm. You can also grow it as a thriller in a very large planter with or without other flowers.

Mega Millions attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators. Birds love the seed heads in the late fall and winter. It is not self-seeding and is resistant to deer, rabbits and Septoria leaf spot.

Bonus:  Does not need to be deadheaded! 

Rudbeckia are heat and drought tolerant (once established). They manage well in poor, average, or fertile soil.

Fertilize in early spring and mid-July with a balanced slow release perennial food or top dress in spring and fall with a one inch layer of compost.

Use Mega Millions Rudbeckia as a cut flower, in a cottage garden, mass plantings, as a specimen, or focal point. 

Perennial Salvia Living Large ‘Big Sky’

Salvia hybrid

Zone 3-8     Full Sun

Mature Height:  71 – 81 cm         Mature Spread:  71 – 81 cm

Big Sky Salvia is a very large summer bloomer producing a gorgeous display of fragrant violet blue flower spikes that sit above a dense mounding form of large fragrant green leaves. Big Sky is later to bloom than other Salvia cultivars. Shear back after blooming to promote re-bloom.

It is especially striking when featured alone in a large container or with yellow and pink perennials. Variegated dogwoods also provide a lovely backdrop to a mass planting of this impressive Salvia.

Provide average moisture when first planted. Once established, Big Sky is heat, drought and salt tolerant. Divide every three to five years in early spring.

Fertilize in early spring and summer with a slow release balanced perennial fertilizer or top dress in spring and fall with a one inch layer of compost.

Attracts many pollinators, bees and butterflies. Deer and rabbit resistant.

Big Sky grows well in average to fertile soil with good drainage. Tolerates acidic, alkaline or neutral soils.

Use as a cut flower, a focal point, or as a mass planting in the landscape.

Phlox paniculata Luminary ‘Pink Lightening’

Tall Garden Phlox

Native to North America

Zone 3-8

Mature Height:  76 – 91 cm   Mature Spread:  61 – 76 cm 

Use as a Filler in large container plantings.

Pink Lightening blooms summer into fall with individual flowers that are the largest in the series. They are a bright, true deep pink with a central white starburst pattern. Pollinators love them, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. They are especially beautiful when used in a cottage garden landscape design.

As with most garden Phlox, it is best to provide a sun to part-sun location with good air flow. This Phlox is very resistant to powdery mildew but I suggest watering at ground level throughout the season.

Garden Phlox like an average, fertile soil with a neutral to slightly acidic pH. They are drought tolerant once established.

Keep soil consistently moist, and well drained.

Fertilize regularly with a water soluble flowering perennial plant fertilizer or two seasonal applications of a slow release flowering perennial food. Lightly rake the slow release fertilizer into the soil around the dripline of the plant.