Flowering shrubs add year-round interest to landscapes. Their benefits are numerous. They can provide delightful flowers and fruits; structural interest (especially through the cold winter months); a diversity of foliage textures and colors; and reduce your maintenance time in the garden. ColorChoice® Flowering Shrubs from Proven Winners are a collection of shrubs chosen for their supreme quality, performance, and low maintenance. In addition to fabulous flowers, many also have colorful foliage.
‘Azurri Blue Satin’ Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus)
‘Azurri Blue Satin’ is an easy-to-grow plant that adds unusual color to the summer landscape. Makes an easy to maintain. colorful hedge or can be added to perennial borders and mixed beds. The gorgeous blue flowers open in early summer and keep blooming into fall. Unlike other Rose of Sharon, ‘Azurri’ does not produce seed. Plant in full sun and it will grow between 8’ – 12’. And another treat – it’s deer resistant! Zones 5-9.
‘Double Play’ Red Spirea (Spiraea japonica)
‘Double Play’ Red is a flower color breakthrough, the first and only spirea with true red flowers. Add in showy dark burgundy spring foliage and you’ve got the perfect double play! In spring, burgundy hues show on dark green foliage. Early summer brings blooms in shades of magenta and red covering this compact shrub. And there’s more! In summer, the foliage will turn golden! Small and versatile, ‘Double Play’ Red has a mounding habit and grows to 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide. It thrives in full or part sun, giving you lots of options for adding it to the garden! Zones 4-9.
‘Limelight’ Hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata)
This unique panicle hydrangea revolutionized landscaping across North America. Huge, football-shaped flowers open in an elegant celadon green that looks fresh and clean in summer’s heat. The blooms age to an array of pink, red, and burgundy which persists through frost for months of irresistible flowers. Mature size: 8 feet in height with a spread of 8 feet. Plant in full to part sun. Zones 3-8
Lo & Behold ‘Blue Chip Jr.’ Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)
This butterfly magnet breaks the mold of traditional butterfly bushes. Lo & Behold ‘Blue Chip’ only gets 30″ tall (most butterfly bushes soar to 5’ or more) and it blooms earlier and longer since its flowers are sterile. All butterfly bushes like full sun and should be pruned back in late winter.
‘Quick Fire’ Hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata)
The first to bloom! Quick Fire blooms about a month before other Hydrangea paniculata (hardy hydrangea) varieties. Extend the hydrangea season in your garden with a planting of Quick Fire Hydrangea. Flowers open white then turn pink, and will be an extremely dark rosy-pink in the fall. The flowers on Quick Fire are not affected by soil pH. They are produced on ‘new wood’ and will bloom after even the harshest winters. Beautiful for use as a cut (fresh or dried) flower. Plant with ‘Little Lamb’ and ‘Limelight’ for months of hydrangea flowers. Plant in full to part sun. Mature size: 8 feet with an 8 foot spread. Zones 3-8.
Summersweet (Clethra)
Summersweet is becoming very popular as the battle against Bambi’s browsing drives many crazy. These fragrant flowering shrubs burst into bloom in July and delight through a good part of August. Flowers are either pink or white. ‘Crystalina’ (also known as ‘Sugartina’) is a recent, white-flowering introduction. It’s a heavy-blooming, compact cultivar that only gets 28” – 30” in size. (‘Ruby Spice’, a pink variety is pictured at the top of the article) Summersweet has brilliant golden foliage in fall, is deer resistant, grows in sun to part shade. Prune in March or early April before plants break dormancy.
‘Yuki Cherry Blossom’ Deutzia
Perfectly pretty pink flowers on a deutzia. A shower of elegant pink flowers creates a carpet of color. Great for mass plantings because of its neat, mounded habit and burgundy-purple fall color, this tough, adaptable plant makes an excellent groundcover, especially on a sunny slope. Zones 5-8.