While you are busy planning that new patch of garden, don't forget to add some shrubs. Unlike annuals, evergreen shrubs will give pleasure all year long. When they are not flowering, they will add a visual dimension to the garden in their leaf color and shape.
Indeed, many shrubs have leaves that are as attractive as flowers. They can be rounded heart-shaped or slender; they can be multi-colored, striped or edged in a two-tone effect. Leaf color can vary between the extremes of gold, cream, to green to burgundy. Then in the autumn, leaves can change their hues to any amount of gorgeous autumn tonings.
Another plus for growing shrubs is that many of them have attractive berries. So you will have splashes of color well into winter when many flowers have fallen. Berries can be red, golden, bluish, black brown, russet, purple and green. They will attract hungry birds into your garden, so add a birdbath or two to keep them happy. You will enjoy watching the birds for hours through the long winter months.
Berberis aggregata, also known as barberries is an attractive shrub with yellow flowers and berries of red or purple depending on the type you choose. It can grow to 10 ft tall and is easy as to soil, growing almost anywhere.
A border can be done in shrubs only to give subtly pleasing affect of leaf shape and color and also the shape of the shrub as a whole. It might be a mounding type of shrub or one that is tall and slender. If you choose leaf colors that compliment each other, you will have a border that everyone admires.
When buying your shrubs, be sure that you find out what soil they like. Some are acid lovers while others prefer an alkaline soil. You can't grow both side-by-side. The camellia hates lime, which means that it requires an acid soil. So do azaleas. Many shrubs make good specimens plants. That is, they are attractive enough year-round to grow on their own. Just be sure to visualize the size of the shrub when fully grown. Some shrubs are more like the size of small trees. You'll want to watch for overhead power lines.
Brooms or Buddleias, cotoneasters, deutzias or euonymus – there are many shrubs available that will suit your garden and climate, so enhance your garden with some shrubs.
