Managing the
Shrubs
Just Aren’t
Bushes

Language is telling. When I hear a customer say, “I need a new bush for the front of the house,” I can tell the person isn’t deeply into horticulture. In short, bushes isn’t really a gardening or landscaping word. What I think the shopper means is shrubs, either evergreen (mostly conifers) or deciduous (the kind that have flowers, and later drop their leaves in fall.) But let’s drop the word “bushes.”

People are also confused about whether a plant is a tree or a shrub. Here’s where another helpful term comes in: woody ornamental. Trees and shrubs are both woody ornamentals. That is, their trunks or stems are woody, as opposed to plants with soft stems (called herbaceous plants, like annuals and most perennials.) The herbaceous plants die back in fall.

Once we know we’re talking about a plant that has a woody base and stays around in winter, the next question is whether you want a shrub or tree? Basically, shrubs have many stems, and a tree has a single trunk. A serviceberry (Amelanchier) can be a shrub form (many stems) or tree form. (To be accurate, once in awhile we have multi-trunk or clumping trees, like a River birch, but don’t be confused. I would also like to tell you that shrubs are usually the short ones and trees are the tall ones, but we get all messed up when there are dwarf trees.)

Basically, decide if you want an evergreen or deciduous plant, and whether you want a shrub or a tree. Then a good plant person can ask you a few more questions and help you choose the right plant for your job. For instance, What do you have already? Do you want it all green or would you like flowers? Would you like to mix annuals and perennials among your shrubs? Could we talk about your house style and color?

The ultimate size

The plant you see in a pot in the nursery doesn’t tell you much. The tag tells you the real information, or an expert landscaper or garden center person. What matters is, How tall and wide will it be when it’s mature?

That cute little Christmas-tree-shaped two-footer could be planning to grow 15 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Do you really want that one up against your front porch? It’s terrible that so many people own shrubs they have to keep whacking back every year just to keep them under the window or from crowding the door. It’s even worse that they buy shrubs they will again have to try to control in a few years.

Why not buy plants with tags that tell you the mature size will be just right? Yes, they exist—shrubs that will stay under 4 feet tall, 3 feet wide (or whatever dimensions you want.) That doesn’t mean you can order up a plant to meet any specification, and maybe your wishes are a little too specific… (No, there is no shrub that flowers all summer long in deep shade and stays exactly 3.5 feet tall…) But there are amazing choices in the industry now, hybridized and marketed to nurseries with full knowledge of what our public needs. So it’s likely there is a shrub for most locations in most home landscape situations.

Shrubs that stay short

For the foundation planting in front of your house, or along the sidewalk, or mixed into the flowerbed, there are many shrubs that will stay under four feet tall—period. Some are evergreens, including dwarfs and cultivars (hybrids) of spruces, firs, pines, junipers, arborvitae, hemlocks, and false cypress (Chamaecyparis). Don’t reject all arborvitae or any other plant group just because you had to rip out an overgrown one. There are hundreds of choices even in the same plant genus or species. One juniper will be tall and pencil-thin, perfect near the front corner, while another will grow only two feet high and five feet wide. Read the tags.

Then come the short flowering shrub possibilities, and we need to get more of these around our houses. Look at the Weigelas with varying heights and even colorful foliage (names like ‘Wine and roses’ or ‘My Monet’ suggest their wine-colored and gorgeous cream-pink-green leaves.)

Spiraeas aren’t new, but some of the cultivars are—pink and white flowers, rust-toned or lime-green leaves. Potentillas come with yellow or pink flowers. We have dwarf oakleaf hydrangeas, and other hydrangeas that stay short, flower long, and don’t even mind a little shade. The ‘Gro-low’ sumac stays under two feet tall and the leaves are red in the fall—just gorgeous.

If you can block it from the harshest winds, Japanese pieris is a little work of art unto itself. Leptodermis is little known, probably because it blooms in the summer when you’re all not shopping as much, but it stays about 18 inches tall and has long-lasting little starry purple flowers—great for the edge of a border. A slightly taller alternative, for a sunny spot, is sometimes called the “summer lilac”—Vitex, with dramatic periwinkle colored sprays. There are also carpet or landscape roses, shrub roses, and even short lilacs and forsythias, all perfect for the sunny side of your home. A few terrific, short, woody plants die back in winter the same as perennials (like your butterfly bush), but they return faithfully in spring. Among them, the St. John’s worts (Hypericum) and Caryopteris are worth another look.

Medium to tall specimens
or hedge plants

Too many folks are stuck with the same old things by the corner of the house, out in the yard, and in the hedge. Some are worth keeping, so ask questions before you rip. Even those old hedges with lilacs and forsythias are worth rejuvenating. Many homes have overgrown but wonderful rhododendrons, viburnums, and spiraeas, but nobody knows how to prune them. You can learn.

But if you decide you can do better, take some time to read the books and tags and look around. Why not try a Ninebark (Physocarpus) with the bronze-colored leaves, or Clethra alnifolia (Summersweet) with its incredible summer fragrance? Dogwoods and willows come in shrub forms, some with variegated or blue-toned leaves, and they are the answer to damp locations. Lilacs are often ignored because people think they all get 20 feet high, need lots of pruning, and get powdery mildew—but it isn’t necessarily so. Many lilacs remain five to eight feet tall, and have improved and interesting leaves. And hydrangeas could be a full time study, with so many beauties to savor.

There really is a plant for almost every spot. Even if it’s just the tough job of blocking off the neighbor’s junked car or garbage cans, a shrub is waiting to help you.

Then we have the other important role plants play out in the landscape—the ways they serve birds and other animals. It makes a difference for many bird species if you can provide native shrubs with fruits or berries, as well as evergreens for nesting and shelter.

For berries, try Myrica pennsylvanica (bayberry) and the many elderberries (Sambuccus) in cultivation. Amelanchier (Serviceberry) is just the best, for the birds, for fruit, for fall color. Aronia (chokeberry) comes in several cultivars with typically brilliant autumn leaves and great berries, and everybody should have some hollies for their great berries (not to mention their winter attractiveness and decorating possibilities.)

Viburnums have sat around in nurseries for a few years, because people rightly feared the Viburnum leaf beetle (the insect that has wiped out the viburnums commonly known as “snowball bushes” and “cranberry bushes”.) But there are few shrubs that can equal a doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum tomentosum) for sheer elegance in the landscape, and it doesn’t have serious pest problems. Also look at the other viburnums, with the leathery leaves, the fragrant flowers, absolutely deserving of prime placement.

The rest of the story

Perhaps I discriminate against a few plants that I see over-used, or just placed poorly. There are so many yews (Taxus) out there, too big for their locations and eaten by the deer. They are still popular because they do tolerate a lot of sheering and shaping into all kinds of shapes (balls, spirals, squares). Just like boxwood, yews mostly grow back from hard pruning. I also did not mention Euonymous (burning bush) or barberries, for a few reasons, although each has its fans. But aren’t we a little tired of that same look in front of every house?

Of course, there are many more shrubs to choose than I have mentioned. You’d do well to browse and read plant tags, and ask experts to tell you about the plants. With so many choices in the market, it’s foolish not to ask questions. (I’m not an expert in your field—why would you expect to know shrubs unless your life’s work is horticulture?) What you see in the pot is only a little of the story. Shrubs aren’t furniture. They grow, change, and need some basic care to become healthy, established players in your landscape scene.

If you’re getting vague answers at your garden center, ask if they have a CNLP (Certified Nursery & Landscape Professional) on staff, since those are professionals who continue in their education and should have good, current information.

If you do get good information, there is not just a decent shrub waiting for you. There’s an awesome one.

Sally Cunningham is a CNLP (Certified Nursery & Landscape Professional) and garden writer, published by Rodale Books, Yankee Books, and currently New York State’s IPM program at Cornell University. She writes a garden column on Fridays for The Buffalo News