Perennial shrubs for the garden

Ornamental shrubs occupy a central place in decorating large and medium-sized suburban areas. And in small dachas there will definitely be at least a few rose bushes. Perennial decorative deciduous and decorative flowering shrubs are an indispensable attribute of landscape design; they not only improve the garden area, but purify the air, serve as protection from the wind, and simply create a good mood. Sometimes it is difficult to understand their diversity. We will look at some popular perennial shrubs for the garden and give photos with names. Of course, one article cannot tell about everyone, but we hope that it will now be easier for you to navigate the sea of ​​species and varieties.

Application of ornamental shrubs

Shrubs for the garden have mainly decorative functions; they are designed to please the eye and bring beauty. They are often planted:

• As part of large and small landscape groups;
• As a solitaire (single focal) plant;
• In flower beds and ridges;
• Like a curb.

But the scope of their application does not end there; they can be planted for purely practical purposes, however, without becoming any less beautiful. Bushes can serve:

• hedge;
• The walls of the gazebo;
• Wind protection for rest areas.

Classification of garden shrubs

Garden perennial shrubs are divided into:

• Decorative foliage;
• Decorative flowering;
• Decorative berries.

This division is very arbitrary - perennial garden shrubs usually bloom for one or two months, the berries do not last all year round, but they should look attractive all season. So all perennial garden shrubs have very decorative leaves.

By place of growth:

• Shade-loving;
• Shade-tolerant;
• Shrubs with short daylight hours (should be in the sun for several hours a day);
• Photophilous.

By height:

• Small – up to 0.5 m high;
• Medium – up to 0.75 m;
• Large – 1.0-1.5 m;
• Very large - up to 3-4 m.

Perennial shrubs for the garden

Let's look at some popular varieties, photographs of perennial garden shrubs, find out their names, and brief characteristics. Although the list is far from complete, some of them are sure to be suitable for your site.

Barberry

An absolutely unpretentious perennial shrub for the garden, it tolerates drought well and grows on any soil. Tall species and varieties are great for hedges; miniature shrubs are good in mixborders and on hills. There are many garden forms with varied crowns and leaf colors that will be appropriate in large and small landscape groups.

• Barberry Thunberg - has a huge number of cultivars, differing in size, shape and color of the crown;
• Barberry Common;
• Barberry Ottawa;
• Barberry Amur;
• Canadian barberry;
• Korean barberry;
• Barberry Entire-edged;
• Barberry spherical;
• Barberry Monetchaty.

Budleya

If you want to attract butterflies to your area, plant buddleia. Most often, Budleya Davida is used as a perennial garden shrub.

Weigela

Perennial shrub for the garden, flowering from the end of April for two months, white flowers, pink and red, prone to remontant (re-blooming). There are varieties with bicolor flowers and variegated white-green or bluish leaves. For the winter in the southern regions, the shrub does not require shelter, but as it moves north it freezes without protection. Depending on the species, it can reach a height of 0.7 to 3.0 m.

The most popular types:

• Weigela Early;
• Veigel Maksimovich;
• Weigel Midendorff;
• Weigela Florida - constantly renovating;
• Veigela Sadovaya;
• Weigela Korean - during the flowering process the flowers change color from white to pink;
• Weigela japonica.

Hydrangea

Hydrangea is a short-day plant. She needs sour soil, frequent watering with cold water and fertile soil.

• Hydrangea Bradschneider - the most persistent, white;
• Grotensia arborescens;
• Hydrangea paniculata;
• Hydrangea largeleaf - if you water it with a special fertilizer, the flowers will turn from pink to blue or blue;
• Hydrangea Hairy - with white flowers;
• Hydrangea oakleaf;
• Hydrangea Serrata is pink and can grow in the shade.

Deytsia

A perennial garden shrub that blooms in late April - May with white or pink flowers. Prefers well-drained, fertile soils and sunny, wind-protected locations.In winter it requires shelter - it freezes even when the temperature drops once to minus 25.

Shrubs with white flowers:

• Deytsia Graceful;
• Deytsia Shchitkovaya;
• Deutzia Siebold;
• Deytsia Shershavaya;
• Deytsia stamenaceae;
• Deytsia the Majestic.

Shrubs with pink flowers:

• Deytsia Pink;
• Deytsia Bicolor;
• Deytsia Hybrid,
• Deytsia Purple.

Honeysuckle

Many species of honeysuckle are flowering perennial garden shrubs with decorative berries and fruits. This is a rather unpretentious, moisture-loving plant that requires a place protected from wind and sun that provides good illumination of the crown, but does not fall on the roots. This is easy to achieve with dense plantings or mulching around the tree trunk.

• Sweet honeysuckle;
• Honeysuckle Tatarian;
• Honeysuckle Beautiful;
• Lonitzer's honeysuckle;
• Albert's honeysuckle;
• Alpine honeysuckle;
• Honeysuckle Golden.

Kalina

Ornamental viburnums are not at all similar to common viburnum. These decorative perennial garden shrubs grow up to 3 meters in height, have foliage of a wide variety of shapes and colors, and there are varieties with variegated leaves. The inflorescences are most often painted white. Most species are shade-loving, moisture-loving, frost-resistant plants. The most popular:

• Viburnum Fragrant;
• Viburnum Burkwood;
• Viburnum Judy;
• Viburnum Chernaya;
• Viburnum Viburnum;
• Viburnum David;
• Kalina Gordovina;
• Viburnum Toothed;
• Viburnum Canadian.

Rhododendron

Rhododendron is one of the most beautiful flowering perennial shrubs for the garden. But he is perhaps the most capricious. It winters well in the middle zone; some species grow in Siberia and the Far East. This shrub can be deciduous, semi-deciduous and evergreen.But if the soil in your region is not suitable for it, and it prefers exclusively acidic, well-structured soils, it will be difficult, but possible, to grow it.

In April they bloom:

• Rhododendron Sitka;
• Rhododendron Ledebur.

In late May - early June they bloom:

• Rhododendron Katevbinsky and its numerous hybrids;
• Japanese Rhododendron;
• Rhododendron Deciduous;
• Rhododendron sea buckthorn;
• Rhododendron Magnificent.

Roses

What article would be complete without mentioning this highly decorative perennial garden shrub? Entire volumes can be dedicated to Rose. Here we will indicate only its varieties:

• Park Roses;
• Roses Hybrid Tea;
• Roses Polyantha;
• Roses Climbing and Semi-climbing;
• Grandiflora roses;
• Floribunda roses;
• Miniature Roses;
• Ground cover roses.

Spirea

One of the most numerous and diverse groups of flowering perennial shrubs for the garden. They can be very tiny in size and used in flower beds and flower beds. And they can be quite large, they are used to make hedges. All of them are distinguished by high decorativeness of both leaves and flowers, and a tendency to remontant.

Blooming from the first half of April:

• Spirea Thunberg - with the narrowest leaves;
• Spiraea Gray;
• Spiraea Acute (Arguta);
• Spiraea St. John's leaf;
• Spiraea annual.

Blooming from the first half of May:

• Spiraea Vicha;
• Spiraea Vangutta (Bride);
• Spiraea Nipponica;
• Spiraea chinensis;
• Spiraea bristlefruit.

Blooming from late May:

• Spiraea Fontanesi - can bloom repeatedly;
• Spiraea ferruginosa;
• Spiraea Sargent.

Remontant spirea, blooming from the second half of May:

• Spiraea birch leaf;
• Spiraea Fritsch.

Japanese spirea are the most decorative and easy to care for.

Spiraea with pyramidal inflorescences, bloom from mid-May to mid-June:

• Spiraea Douglas;
• Spiraea willow.

Border spirea growing up to 30 cm:

• Spiraea Tiny;
• Spiraea minima.

Lilac

This unpretentious perennial garden shrub is known to everyone, but has so many species that it is even difficult to count them. We are mostly familiar with Common Lilac, its varieties and interspecific hybrids, but there are also:

• Hyacinth flowering lilac;
• Persian lilac;
• Lilac Chinese dissected leaves;
• Preston lilac is the most profusely flowering;
• Lilac Zvyagintseva;
• Lilac Komarova;
• Himalayan lilac;
• Lilac Drooping;
• Henry's lilac.

This shrub needs moderately fertile soil, some sunlight and protection from the wind.

Forsythia

Often in early spring, even before the leaves bloom, we see tall shrubs in cities, completely covered with yellow flowers. This perennial shrub is called forsythia.

• Forsythia Ovate – blooms in February;
• Forsythia European - blooms in February;
• Forsythia Intermedia – flowering time – February;
• Forsythia Hanging – blooms in March.

Flowering time is given for the southern regions and the middle zone.

Chubushnik

Mock orange is a perennial shrub for the garden, which we often call garden jasmine for its white double or simple flowers with a characteristic scent. Although in fact this large shrub, some species of which can reach 3-4 meters in height, has nothing to do with jasmine. It is noteworthy that, unlike other shrubs, mock orange does not require sanitary pruning.

Popular types:

• Limoine mock orange;
• Chubushnik Crowned;
• Chubushnik Thin-leaved;
• Magdalena mock orange;
• Mock orange broadleaf;
• Mock orange graying;
• Mock orange large-flowered;
• Delaway's mock orange.

Rose hips

This perennial shrub for the garden is not only very unpretentious and will perfectly decorate your garden, but will also provide healthy berries.

• Rosehip Hugo - with yellow flowers, very beautiful;
• Rosehip Prickly;
• Rosehip Wrinkled - with decorative fruits and a very strong aroma, prone to remontancy;
• Rosehip Tea;
• Rosehip Gray;
• Rosehip Musk;
• Rosehip Galsky;
• Rosehip Multiflorum.

Can be used as a focal plant, as part of tree landscape groups and as a hedge.

Watch the video, it shows some of the shrubs we described, as well as plants that were not included in our selection.

General recommendations for growing perennial garden shrubs

Most often, decorative garden shrubs do not pose any particular difficulties in caring for, but each has its own characteristics. Here are a few rules that can be applied to all perennials:

• Choose your planting site carefully;
• Buy shrubs from garden centers or nurseries;
• In plants prone to remontancy, trim off faded inflorescences in time - this stimulates re-blooming;
• Do not plant perennial shrubs in the garden randomly: landscape design is a science, it has its own fairly clear laws. Invite a specialist;
• Don’t get carried away only by flowering plants - they are, of course, beautiful, but you will soon get tired of the constant riot of colors; dilute the plantings with conifers.

The most important thing for any perennial shrub for the garden is your love.

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