Are you looking for a no-fuss border, loaded with color and hardly any work? Blooming shrubs are a great choice, and there are so many to choose from.
There are many different types of shrubs that provide wonderful texture and colorful blooms. Some favorites include azalea, lilac, hydrangea, hardy shrub rose, viburnum, spirea and dogwood.
Host Rebecca Kolls shows how to plant a colorful shrub border. She chooses a beautiful Japanese larch for one end of the border and an arborvitae for the other end. They're great anchors, and they balance the garden while giving height as well. In between she adds shrubs suitable for the sunny area.
The key to planting a beautiful border is to design layers or waves of color and texture and, of course, different heights. Next to the tall arborvitae, she plants an 'Ivory Halo' dogwood, which plays off the arborvitae. A red twig dogwood gives year-round interest and variegated leaves and will produce white flowers in the spring. This is a vigorous shrub that can grow up to eight feet high and wide, but you can trim it to keep it contained.
For the center of the shrub border, she chooses a cluster of three hydrangeas. They will eventually grow three to five feet tall and just as wide. Hydrangeas have big green leaves that offer great texture. In midsummer they produce pom-pom blooms, which vary in color depending on the variety.
To provide color all season long, she also plants shrub roses, which are great in a low-maintenance garden because you hardly do anything to them. Usually they're disease- and insect-resistant as well. The one she chooses, 'Winnipeg Parks', develops cherry-red blossoms and grows to about two feet tall. All roses need plenty of room so that air can circulate around them.
On each corner of the border, she plants a 'Little Princess' spirea, a low-growing, mounding variety that grows to about two feet tall. It produces pink flowers in the summer against mint-green foliage that turns brilliant red in the fall, which will contrast nicely with the evergreens.
All the shrubs need well-amended and well-drained soil. Rebecca tills in compost, peat moss and manure before planting. Then she digs a hole as deep as the container and twice as wide. She carefully removes the shrub from the container and checks the roots. If the plant is root-bound, she scores the edges with a knife and loosens the roots. Finally, she places the shrub in the hole, backfills with the same soil and gives each shrub a good drink of water.
The border looks sparse at first, but in time, these shrubs will be beautiful. The biggest mistake gardeners make is not waiting for the shrubs to gain some size; instead they add a bunch of plants, and then it overgrows and they have to pull something out. Just be patient. The beginning is the hardest part about planting a shrub border or perennial garden--in a couple of years, it will look fantastic.
In late spring, the hardy shrub roses will be in full bloom and so will the spirea, which will stand out nicely against the dogwood leaves. To fill in some of the empty spaces, she added annuals like cosmos and geraniums. Mulch will help retain water and keep weeds away. Using a water-soluble fertilizer every other week will also help the entire shrub border to bloom.
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