Shrubs - The Best Plants to Grow in Your Garden
Shrubs give a garden structure, privacy, seasonal color, and year-round presence, but the best choice depends on what you need the plant to do. Start with your sun, climate, soil, moisture, available space, and maintenance needs, then choose shrubs for screening, flowers, evergreen structure, wildlife value, or problem areas.
Choose Evergreen Shrubs for Year-Round Structure
Evergreen shrubs are especially useful when you want year-round screening, edging, or a permanent backdrop for seasonal plants. Compare small evergreen shrubs for compact spaces, and consider plants such as juniper or rhododendron where their light, soil, and climate requirements are a good match.
Use Boxwood for Hedges, Edging, and Formal Structure
Boxwood shrubs are classic choices for formal gardens because their dense evergreen growth responds well to pruning and shaping. Use them for low edging, clipped hedges, topiary, or repeated structural accents, but allow enough room for the mature size of the cultivar you choose.
Choose Flowering Shrubs for Color, Fragrance, and Wildlife
Flowering shrubs can provide a major seasonal display while also adding structure when they are out of bloom. Popular choices include hydrangea, lilac, viburnum, and roses. For the longest season of interest, combine shrubs with different bloom times, foliage colors, berries, or attractive bark.
Reduce Deer Damage with Better Shrub Choices
If deer are a regular problem, build your planting around shrubs they are less likely to browse. Gardenia’s guide to deer-resistant shrubs includes options such as forsythia, barberry, and lavender. No shrub is completely deer-proof, but some are browsed much less often than others.
For the strongest shrub planting, choose for function and site first, then for appearance. Give each shrub enough room to reach its mature size, combine plants with compatible growing needs, and mix evergreen structure with flowers, foliage, berries, or bark for interest through the seasons.
