Enjoy beautiful, low maintenance and easy-to-grow summer-blooming shrubs in your garden this summer.
Here are our picks for the best flowering shrubs for your garden.
Why You Should Plant Another Shrub This Season
Shrubs are the bones of every garden as they give structure and fill spaces, and many gardeners are moving towards more shrub plantings because of their beauty and easy care. The art of landscaping with shrubs is making sure you understand the light requirements of your garden and respecting the size that the plants will eventually grow to. Full sun shrubs will not grow in shade, additionally, you cannot force a 5 – 6 ft shrub to be only 3 ft, it is just not possible.Which Shrubs Flower All Summer?
This is the number one question we get at the garden centre and the honest answer is: none. There are some shrubs that bloom for a long time like potentilla and spireas and others that rebloom like dwarf lilacs and weigelas but nothing will bloom all summer except annuals. Try and choose shrubs that flower at different times throughout the season, there are so many shrubs to choose from, so you always have something to enjoy throughout the summer. Here are a few of my favourite choices for flowering shrubs this gardening season, in no particular order because I love them all!
The Best Flowering Shrubs for Your Garden
Hydrangea Bobo Hydrangea Paniculata
Sweet little baby hydrangea is covered in huge white flowers in mid-August. It turns pink as the cooler nights of fall approach. Great for the front border and for small gardens. Tough and reliable. Named by one of our own staff! Grows 1m x 1m in full sun or part shade.
Serviceberry Amelanchier Canadensis
This is a must-have native shrub! Covered in white flowers in spring, purple fruit that feeds the birds in summer followed by brilliant red, orange and yellow leaves in fall. It is underused in landscape design. Grows 6m x 3m in sun or part shade.
Barberry ‘Concord’ Berberis Thunbergii
Although we love all barberries this is our favourite. Well-behaved dwarf round shaped with velvety deep purple foliage. Tough, drought resistant and low maintenance. Great colour contrast in the garden. .Grows 40cm x 50cm in full sun.
Summer Sweet ‘Hummingbird’ Clethra Alnifolia
Long white candle-like scented flowers mid summer give off a beautiful scent. Great shrub for the shady garden. Unique! A must-have for collectors Grows 70cm x 70cm in part shade Zone 3.
Abelia Mosanensis
This old fashion shrub is not well known but is a true princess in the garden. White and pink blooms perfume the air with the scent of jasmine in late May or early June. Elegant growth habit, attractive seed heads, and orange fall foliage. What more could you ask for? Grows 1.5m x 1.5m in full sun.
Elderberry Sambucus Canadensis
In the olden days, it was believed that planting an elderberry bush near your home would ward away evil spirits. This large shrub should be planted in every garden if you have space. Green cut leaf foliage covered in beautiful white flat-topped blossoms followed by edible berries that you can use in jelly or wine if the birds don’t get them first. Grows in shade 4m x 4m it’s a great privacy planting as well.
Since I cannot cover all my favourites in this article, these few are different and unique choices that many gardeners may not have considered. If you are looking to fill your garden with low-maintenance beautiful things then consider planting more shrubs this season. I promise you will not be disappointed.
~ Kelly Heath
Retail Manager
Gemmell’s Garden Centre
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