Flowering shrubs, a great way to add color to your yard

Flowering shrubs are a great way to add color to your yard or garden. They are becoming more and more prominent in our landscape as people are continuously looking for both a little height and season long color in their yard. Flowering Shrubs are sometimes called landscape darlings because they are relatively inexpensive, easy to grow and require little maintenance. They are perhaps at their best when in bloom as with their masses of blooms they can stand alone used for a focal point, or be grouped together with other shrubs or perennials; they are great any where in your landscape.

Flowering shrubs are major contributors to the garden’s summer color palette. You can have accents of color throughout the garden from glossy Abelia, Crapemyrtle, Butterfly Bush and Rose-of-Sharon, but the predominant player is Hydrangea.

Flowering shrubs are usually deciduous (shed their leaves in winter) and are grown mostly for their flowers. They are often propagated by softwood cuttings. Late spring and early summer are the best times for success with this method. They are best planted in the early spring to give the root system time to take hold before hot summer weather sets in. Flowering shrubs are never pruned in the spring though. They are pruned according to their bloom time. Early bloomers such as Forsythia and Lilac, in fact most flowering shrubs, are best pruned immediately after flowering but before their buds set.

Forsythia is one of the earliest blooming shrubs. It produces an abundance of vibrant yellow flowers that cover its branches. Forsythias can look great when in bloom and then pretty uninspiring the rest of the year. Many of these plants have an optimum age of each cane for flower production, say, canes three or five years old. Forsythias are quite easy to grow as they do well with most types of soil, although they thrive best in rich loose soil, needing only the occasional pruning after flowering.

Lilacs shrubs prefer a fertile, well-drained soil in full sun and provide spring blossoms along with the Forsythia and February Jasmine. Lilac mulching seems to help.

Rose-of-Sharon are slow to get going in the beginning. They're kind of lazy, actually, but they are fairly easy to take care of. They prefer full sun locations but also do well in partial shade. Rose-of-Sharon are much hardier than even the hardiest Hibiscus.

Azaleas are another type of flowering bush. They are often known as the royalty of the garden. Azaleas do best with plenty of organic matter in the soil.

Azaleas and Rhododendrons are really great shrubs, but for me the premier spring-flowering shrubs are the Viburnums. They are the favorite plants of many horticulturists, but are very underused in most of our gardens.

Flowering shrubs are planted in home gardens for a variety of reasons. They are typically sought after for their decorative qualities. They make great garden borders when planted side-by-side or in between other types of plants. Flowering shrubs provide an eye catching framework in any garden design.

Flowering shrubs “by the yard”