I've added quite a few new-to-me perennials this year and in addition to these have more ordered from Santa Rosa Gardens' year-end sale:

Nepeta Walkers Low
Gaillardia Golden Goblin
Gaillardia Amber Wheels
Columbine Crista Barlow
Dianthus barbatus Barbarina violet
Euphorbia Bonfire
Stachys byzantina Helen von Stein
May Night Salvia
Iris pallida variegated

From your list I'm growing these:
Spiderwort - very floppy habit but I like the flower color
Turtlehead - jury's still out as it's very new
Weigela - love this fast-growing, profuse spring bloomer
Coreopsis - great & enthusiastic bloomer
Geum Mrs. Bradshaw - true red flowers are a welcome addition to the front of my beds

New to me this year:

Foxglove -- Primrose Carousel
Obedient Plant -- Rose Pink
Salvia -- Blue Queen
Bellflower -- Deep Blue Clips
Nepeta -- Blue Carpet
Ninebark -- Diabolo

I'm sorry, but I haven't tried any of the varieties from your lists, so I'm of no help!

Newbie - I can tell you I love my ninebark. I started it the first year I was gardening and at the end of the season (hottest summer with very little moisture) and it's up against the south side of my house, it was down to a twig and I thought for sure I'd killed it.

Fast forward 4 years and it's gone from a 6" twig to a 5'x4'shrub. It grows around 18" a year for me on average now (obviously that second year was a good one). The bark has started to exfoliate and the colourings on it are great. It is my biggest accomplishment and one of the things people always compliment!!!

Great choice!!!

*So far* I haven't gone hog-wild with plant buying ;-)

Here is my list of new plants:
Epimedium grandiflorum 'Nanum'
Soldanella alpina
Tiarella 'Mystic Mist'
Heucherella 'Sweet Tea'
Aurinia saxatilis 'Dudley Neville'
Berberis 'Helmond Pillar'
I am trying out quite a bit of new-to-me annuals this year, but those probably don't count! ;-)

From your list I grow:
Campanula 'Blue Clips'- for some reason the low growing/groundcover-ish bellflowers don't do very well for me. It isn't dead, but isn't very robust either.
Spiderwort 'Bilberry Ice'- very slow plant to establish for me. Haven't gotten any seedlings from it either, which is unusual considering that is what it is most known for, lol. My 'Sweet Kate' is just starting to bulk up. Very hard lady to please when it comes to placement!! Both are very pretty though.
Silene- couple kinds
Geum 'Mrs. Bradshaw'- not sure what zone you are in, but this variety has not been very long lived in my zone, though other kinds have.
Maltese Cross
Variegated Honeysuckle (is yours L. 'Aureoreticulata'?) I've found that it needs FULL sun to keep the variegation. Not much of a bloomer, but an interesting vine anyhoo...
Sunrose (Helianthemum) Love them all!

Ps. what is the foliage like on your 'Fiesta' forsythia? A local plant sale was offering it and I was wondering about it. Is it a bright variegation or subtle?
CMK

I'm in a new home build, first summer. Everything is new.

Most of my plants I've started from seed over the winter:

Munstead lavender
Seaholly blue
Alaskan shasta daisy
Gaillardia Dwarf Goblin
Blue False Indigo
Perennial Geranium
Lupines
Jacob's Ladder
Purple Coneflower
Tom Thumb Balsam
Delphinium
Calendula
Sunflowers - (tall and short)

Still annual seeds to plant.

And I've done veggies (some mixed in with my flowers):
Onions
Chives
Orange Mint
Peppers - hot banana, cayenne, red
Tomatoes - mixed varieties
Celery
Parsley
Peas
Bush Beans
Corn
Cabbage
Carrots
Beets
Cucumber
Melons (banana and tiger heirloom)
Squash - spaghetti, acorn

More veggies to go mid-summer for fall cool season crops.

Want to continue starting perennial flowers to grow this summer and over winter outside for next year.

Gotta get back outside and get more plants in - thunderstorms called for this afternoon.

Take care of your babies,
Peggy

New to me this year are some Echinacea purpurea. Should be very hardy even in this zone.

What zone are you in? You must be warmer than my zone 3 since you are expecting Forsythia to survive. I don't have many exact cultivars that are on your list but I seeded Maltese Cross years ago and still have a few. Tough plants but I'm giving away some as the color is not the best for my garden.

I have Campanula Glomerata which is a real spreader altho I don't think Blue Clips is as bad. Easy to pull anyhow.

I have a climbing honeysuckle but it's a zone 4 plant surviving in my zone 3 so has pretty severe dieback every year.

I have different lilacs but they are very hardy and do well except when the deer 'prune' them and they don't flower.

I bought a Catherine Woodbury daylily last year but was disappointed in the pale color altho am keeping it for now. Might look better when it's larger.

This year I bought a boatload of herbs and annuals for pots and edging. I've seeded a few things, taken 24 cuttings from my Walker's Low catmint, and have many, many perennial flax and columbine that I seeded last year so I have more plants than I know what to do with. I'm giving away a lot this year.

Last year I bought quite a few perennials and shrubs and since I'm revising/editing many beds I don't need more.

Last year I bought 2 different ninebark which I love and they did very well until the deer discovered them in the fall. They 'pruned' them quite severely but they did survive winter and I hope they grow as well this year as they did last year.

Sorry - good point. I'm in Zone 5a/4b (Central Ontario). My neighbours had a gorgeous forsythia and I was gutted when they chopped it last year down to a stump......LOL Little did I know that this year it's grown into a gorgeous shrubby thing (it was a little leggy, I guess). No flowers this year, but next year should be really pretty. I chose the variegated because it'll provide interest year round....it's next to the Sambucus Thundercloud, so dramatic black foliage and the yellow.....gorgeous!!!

We do have similar taste in plants!!

My Ninebark Diablo also had a rough beginning. It was planted in a very sandy area ... mostly sand and I threw as much manure etc in there as I could. It sort of just sat there the first year, and I kept ammending the soil. It is 3 years later and the soil is still very sandy, but it has filled out nicely and is starting to look much more impressive. I was inspired to buy it after I saw one on a local garden tour. The one I saw must have been at least 5 years old, quite mature, and SO impressive when in full bloom ... a real show-stopper!!

I have Sambucus Black Lace, another dark foliage one, and I really love it. It is also in it's third summer and starting to fill out nicely. The dark elders are really striking!

I have Weigela "My Monet" which has stayed really small for me. I know it is supposed to be compact, but I thought it would get a little bigger than it has. Still, I like the variegated foliage :)

New to me this year are some more (and different) Coneflowers, some new Daylilies ... I'm trying to add more tall bearded iris and lilies to the garden this summer as well. I just got a new rose "Monsieur le Capitaine Louis Frere", a beautiful red hybrid perpetual which I'm very excited about although I doubt it will bloom this year. Also adding a couple low-growing sedums, "Angelina" and "Chocolate Drop". Looking for "Bertram Anderson" as well, if I can find it locally. I haven't been out to look at local nurseries much yet, not enough time, but hopefully soon so I can get them before everything gets bumped up to the larger pots (and larger prices)!

We have a climbing honeysuckle which is gorgeous, but you have to keep a close eye as the wasps like making their nests in there, and then the leaves fill out and you can't see it unless you bang into it (ouch). We also have a Climbing Hydrangea, which is quite vigorous and needs a lot of pruning each Spring but is quite the show-stopper in full bloom as well!

I love the couple varieties of coreopsis that I have. If I can get them to over-winter (ie they are hardy here, which many aren't), then they really are tough plants and dependable bloomers. So bright and cheerful.

I've been wanting to try Silene, I have seeds for "Starburst" which I traded for on a whim but haven't planted yet. I don't know much about Silene, never grown it before. Does it spread or seed around? Low grower or a taller plant? Anyone have a picture of Silene as a plant?

New for me this year:

3 peonies: Motherôs Choice, Sarah Bernhardt & Gay Paree
3 heucheras: Midnight Rose, Plum Royale & Daleôs Strain
3 climbing roses: Falstaff, The Wedgewood Rose & Claire Austin
ajuga reptans Dixie Chip
hydrangea petiolaris (the ordinary kind) & hydrangea p. Miranda (variegated leaves)
brunnera macrophylla Looking Glass
hakonechloa macra Aureola
imperata cylindica Red Baron
cimicifuga ramosa Brunette

... and many more

I'm expanding the garden quite a bit this year, so have lots of new babies. Still finding homes for everything. (Went with a big list, came home with a carload of plants none of which were on my list. LOL!)

New this year:

brunnera macrophylla Looking Glass -- my Jack Frost has been such a winner for me. Making babies for me and holding those gorgeous blue flowers so long. It's currently looking awesome in the the back alley bed with sedum in dry sun. Go figure. We'll see how it holds up.

ajuga chocolate chips
heuchera key lime pie
lobelia cardinalis
ligularia Othello
Ninebark Darts Gold
Sambucus Black Beauty
Viburnum Bodnantense Dawn
heuchera green spice
Rudbeckia fulgida
Sedum Autumn Joy (better not flop!)
Buddleia Royal Red (I know, I know, I shoudn't)
Platycodon Hakone White
Campanula Persicifolia
Crocosmia Lucifer (have lots and lots of the old orange Montbretia)

I'm also trying a bunch of annuals that are new to me, but I'm tired of typing. LOL!

Sheri

-cziga, I have Silene laciniata 'Jack Flash' which is very similar to your S. laciniata 'Starburst'. It has never done very much for me. Only thing I can think of is that it doesn't much care for our soil. I have gotten seeds to start fairly easily, but haven't had any come up on their own in the garden. I suspect it would reseed gently where happy. Clumps, but does not spread. Hope you have good luck with your plant!
CMK

Let's see if I can do this by memory. Here's my first timers:

Larkspur
Peach-leaf bellflower
Rose campion
Blue Flax
Sweet Williams
White foxglove
Yellow yarrow
Calif. poppy
Patty's plum poppy
David garden phlox
Geum "Mrs. Bradshaw"
Heliotrope "Marine"
Lupines(Russell variety, blue lupine and cherry morella lupine)
Princess Victoria Louise poppy
Orange butterfly weed
Penstemon

I'm sure I've missed listing some, looking for my WS list
Some have not done well past the seedling stage.

almost everything I planted was grown from seed, except an old fashioned crinum that came originally from a friend (now passed away) her garden. Everything else "new" are seed annuals or vegetables, the rest were relocations until the fall. Since it's been 94 or higher here for the last 3-4 weeks I can no longer reasonably plant any perennials. I hope to go crazy in the fall! I have so many new garden areas I'm preparing!!!

The only things I bought as plants are 4 dwarf fruit trees (2 apple an asian pear, and a sour cherry) which will be espaliered as a 3 tier cordon fence.

Everything else new I grew from seed.

Lots of herbs and vegetables:
English Thyme, Mother of Thyme, Chives, Cilantro, Parsley, Mint, Genovese Basil, Amethyst Basil, Spinach, Arugula, & a variety of Lettuce.
Radish (mixed), Carrots,(Scarlet Nantes) 3 different broccolis, Romenesco Cauliflower, Cabbage, Brussle-Sprouts, 5 different tomatoes, 4 different peppers, 4 different cucumbers, 2 different pole peans, 3 different sugar peas.

Annuals:
Sweet peas, Petunias (Flambe dolcissima, Grape & Salmon Avalanche, Hot pink Tidal Wave), Ganzia dazzler mix, Alyssum (white), Lobelia, Mahogany midget Coreopsis, Thumbelina Zinnia, Asters (Crego mix), Peony Poppies.

Perennials:
Cone Flowers (Purple, White Swan, Magnus), Lychnis, Campanula ( Canterbury bell), Columbine (Rose Barlow)

I also have 22 new and different dahlias to plant that I got through a big Dahlia swap - those go in this weekend!

Bitterroot, an Orange Majesty Iris and an Elkie Geranium. I have a small pot of Becky Shasta Daisies yet to plant. Puervian Daffodils (blooming this morning!) and some new Stargazer Lilies.