Garden Shrubs

Garden shrubs to me are the core, the mainstay or the heart of the garden. There are colourful shrubs to cover all the seasons and when planting a garden care should be taken to make sure there is interest throughout the year.

The types of shrubs I particularly like to use are those that will provide the birds with winter food, so I make sure there are a few for that purpose.

If life is busy and there is not enough time to spend in the garden, planting plenty of different shrubs whether flowering or with interesting foliage can give a change during the year without too much work.

Adding splashes of bold colours can be done in container gardening on the patio or dotted around the edges of the garden. Planting perennial corms and bulbs that come up every year will also help a busy life.

Shrubs come in all shapes and sizes and all need to be clipped and pruned to some extent.

Garden Shrubs for Different Seasons

Spring

Everyone loves to see buds turning into flowers and looking ahead to the warmer weather.

Some popular Spring shrubs are:

Camelia
Ceanothus
Forsythia
Magnolia
Peony
Pieris
Rhododendron

Summer

The ground would have warmed up a little and the flowering shrubs will be abundant at this time of year.

Some popular Summer shrubs are:

Buddleia
Fuchsia
Hebe
Lavatera
Weigela

Autumn

There are flowering shrubs that come into their own at this time of year but also shrubs from other seasons may change their leaf or stem colour at this time. This gives a totally different side to that same plant.

Some Autumn loving shrubs are:

Berberis
Hebe
Hydrangea

Winter

There are shrubs that come to life in the colder seasons and others that have flowered earlier in the year but may have spent seed heads that will give a different but interesting view in this season.

Some Winter shrubs are:

Cotoneaster
Daphne
Viburnum
Erica (Heather)

Although I have highlighted some of the shrubs that are popular in the different seasons there are hundreds more available.

The same shrub will be in the garden throughout the year but they will be at their best and in flower in the preferred season.

Some of them will be evergreen and others deciduous and it is a good idea to plant both types in the garden to give variety.

In the past I have had a wonderful display of blooms in the spring and summer, then nothing for the rest of the year so it is worth making a garden plan or a design and note down when the flowering season for a particular plant will be to make sure that there is something for you to look at in all of the seasons.

Enjoy choosing your garden shrubs.