Today’s plant lovers want more than the traditional flowers to enhance their home. Rather, people want to enjoy the experience of getting in touch with nature, while also looking for unique flowers and plants to add a more creative, personal touch of color and inspiration to their yards. This year, gardens will be more visually interesting, environmentally friendly and demonstrate the love and care provided by the families who tend them.

Here are a few of the latest gardening ideas you and your loved ones can enjoy, from Ball Horticultural Company.

Gardening as an experience

Detoxing from our daily dependence on digital distractions and tech gadgets is becoming not just a desire, but a necessity. What better way for you and your loved ones to take a break from screens than to spend time with plants, creating beauty, serenity and even a nutritious lifestyle? Make the process a group effort: from going to your favorite garden center and choosing your veggies, to caring for them and watching them grow, then harvesting and eating, the full experience is something to enjoy. Plant and grow veggies like the Snackabelle Red Pepper, a mini bell pepper that starts out green, then ripens red, with a rich, sweet flavor — perfect to have at home for snacking as well as cooking.

If you love natural fragrances, Lavender Blue Spear is a wonderful choice. They are easy to grow, and will achieve a height of nearly a foot. You can use the fresh lavender to make infused oil, soap, hand scrubs or bath salts.

New color choices

Look for unexpected colors to help you make a statement with your containers, window boxes or indoor potted plant garden this year. Striking new colors include the 2019 Pantone color of the year, “Living Coral,” seen in the Gerbera Revolution Salmon Shades potted flower, also known as the African Daisy. Gerbera plants are easy to care for and provide great indoor decor, which also makes them perfect choices for gift giving.

New Tattoo Vinca looks like a work of art, with gorgeous petals showing modern colors, swirled with soft strokes of black that make each petal look inked. The Tattoo Vinca is not only low-maintenance and heat-tolerant, but will attract pollinators like bees and butterflies to your garden. The Double Zahara Bright Orange Zinnia is another great choice for head-turning color. Its double flowers bloom in vivid orange, and they are suitable for landscaping and container planting. This flower is also a breeze to care for and pollinator-friendly.

Or you can choose a unique plant with warm tones, like the bright and colorful Ornamental Pepper, with such attractive multi-colored fruits that they are grown just for show. The Ornamental Pepper displays intense shades of yellows, oranges and reds in its fruit.

Other flowers catch the eye with dynamic texture, such as the lovely Double PinkTastic Calibrachoa, a fully double flower with a dark pink eye and lighter pink petals. Its burst of blooms will cover the plant and spill over their containers, window boxes or hanging baskets.

Easy options for beginning gardeners

New gardeners who want choices beyond traditional flower options have great alternatives this year. If you’re looking for plants that are durable and colorful, the Echinacea Sombrero Tres Amigos produces a deer-resistant perennial flower that is highly attractive to butterflies and songbirds. Tres Amigos shows three colors, opening as a peachy-orange color, then aging to rose and fading to burgundy.

A great way to fill large spaces quickly is the attention-getting Big Blue Salvia, with spires that continuously bloom from July into the fall, with little care needed. This flower grows from 24 to 36 inches tall, with beautiful deep blue blooms that are attractive to hummingbirds and bees.

Beginner and experienced gardeners alike can enjoy the newest gardening trends by branching out into plants and flowers to attract pollinators, taking advantage of vivid new color options and involving the whole family in the process. To explore a whole new world of gardening options, visit your favorite local garden center this spring. Share your own style for 2019 by making your garden a personal experience.