Top 10 Flowering Shrubs

Photo: RDA GID

Azalea

Azalea, like its relative rhododendron, is a prolific spring bloomer. Though it has smaller flower clusters than the rhododendron, it has just as much style. Its conspicuous and vibrantly colorful blooms come in numerous varieties, colors and sizes - so you'll be sure to find just what you're looking for.

• Common Names: Azalea.
• Botanical Name: Rhododendron.
• Hardiness: Zones 6 to 8.
• Bloom Time: Early spring to midsummer.
• Size: 1 to 15 feet high, depending on cultivar.
• Flowers: White, yellow, orange, pink and red.
• Light Needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Add an inch-deep layer of mulch around the base of the shrub, being more generous between plantings.
• Prize Picks: Plant Palestrina for a compact, 4-feet-high shrub with white blooms. Cornell Pink is a dwarf shrub with bright pink flowers.

Photo: Parkseed

Buckeye

If you're looking to add charm to your landscape, go nuts and plant a buckeye shrub or small tree. These rugged and low-maintenance plants make gardening painless while adding color to your yard with distinctive leaves and showy flowers.

• Common Name: Buckeye.
• Botanical Name: Aesculus species.
• Hardiness: Zones 3 to 7 or 8.
• Bloom Time: Spring to midsummer.
• Size: 10 to 50 feet high, 10 to 30 feet wide.
• Flowers: Red, white, cream, pink or greenish-yellow.
• Light needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Sow buckeye nuts as soon as the seed capsule splits. Place seeds about 1 to 2 inches deep in groups of two or three. Many need a cold period to sprout successfully.
• Prize Picks: Bottlebrush (Aesculus parviflora) produces spectacular spikes of white flowers in early summer. Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra) and red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) leaf out and flower earlier than many other trees and shrubs.

Photo: RDA GID

Camellia

While most garden plants spend winter taking a well-earned rest, camellias are just getting warmed up. These popular evergreens flower in the fall, winter or early spring. They are great for landscaping and produce beautiful rose-shaped blooms.

Camellias have been cultivated for years in the Far East, their native region. Today, there are over 250 species and more than 3,000 varieties.

• Common Name: Camellia.
• Botanical Name: Camellia.
• Hardiness: Zones 6 to 11, depending on variety.
• Bloom Time: Fall, winter or early spring, depending on variety.
• Size: 3 to 20 feet high.
• Flower: Primarily red, pink, and white.
• Light needs: Partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Plant in a spot protected from hot, dry sun and cold, strong winds, but not in full shade, which will reduce flowering.
• Prize Picks: There are a few hardier camellias available that may survive as far north as Zone 6. Camellia oleifera has fragrant 2-inch blossoms with pink centers. Another, Camellia sinensis, the "tea camellia," makes a good screen planting for privacy. Its small white flowers bloom profusely from later summer until winter. Also try some favorites like Flame or Pink Perfection. Cold-hardy (to Zone 6) Polar Ice is very pretty.

Photo: Parkseed

Daphne

Here's a shrub that almost smells better than it looks - almost. Daphnes are loved for the intoxicating scent of its delicate white, pink, and purple blooms. Due to its compact habit and myriad varieties, daphne is versatile-try it as a groundcover, specimen, or foundation planting.

• Common Name: Daphne.
• Botanical Name: Daphne.
• Hardiness: Zones 5 to 9.
• Bloom Time: Spring to fall, depending on species.
• Size: 1/2 foot to 12 feet high.
• Flower: Four-lobed tubular flowers in white, pink or lilac.
• Light needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Daphnes resent transplanting, so it's best to do so from containers.
• Prize Picks: Carol Mackie offers scent-sational an abundance of rosy blooms. Bowles White is a February daphne (Daphne mezereum) whose strong, upright stance supports pure white blooms.

Photo: Parkseed

Forsythia

When this shrub blooms, you know warmer weather is on the way. Forsythia is one of the first plants to flower in spring, when its golden bell-shaped blossoms are a welcome sight.

Once the shrubs have bloomed, and if they're more than 3 years old, get out the pruning shears and cut the very oldest branches down near the ground in order to encourage new shoots for next year.

• Common Name: Forsythia.
• Botanical Name: Foryuthia x intermedia.
• Hardiness: Zones 3 to 8.
• Bloom Time: Early to mid-spring.
• Size: 1 to 10 feet high, 3 to 10 feet wide.
• Flowers: Bell-shaped blooms in various shades of yellow.
• Light needs: Full sun.
• Growing Advice: Plant in hole that's as deep as, but wider than, the rootball. Space plants 2-1/2 to 6 feet apart.
• Prize Picks: Northern gardeners should select varieties that are flower bud hardy, like Meadowlark and Northern Sun. Meadowlark grows up to 9 feet tall and has purplish fall color. Northern Sun can reach 10 feet in height. Sunrise is smaller and tolerant of urban conditions. The Bronx forsythia is low-growing and mounded, with purple fall color.

Photo: Parkseed

Hydrangea

Hydrangeas conjure up memories of Grandma's garden. These showy shrubs have long been a favorite of gardeners looking for an easy-care plant that flowers even in partial shade.

• Common Names: Hydrangea.
• Botanical Name: Hydrangea.
• Hardiness: Zones 4 to 9, varies slightly by species.
• Bloom Time: Summer.
• Size: 6 to 22 feet high, 8 feet wide.
• Flower: Shades of pink white and blue flowers, either large pompons or flattened clusters of blooms.
• Light Needs: Partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Place in a hole the same depth as the rootball, but wider. New plantings plenty of water to get established.
• Prize Picks: Bigleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) are perfect for mild climates, but usually won't flower in regions with cold winters. In these areas try cultivars of smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens), which produce huge spheres of densely packed white blooms.

Photo: Parkseed

Lilacs

As spring gets into full swing, if you detect a sweet fragrance floating on the breeze, chances are it's a lilac.

This beauty originally comes from southeastern Europe and eastern Asia. Its distinctive scent and lovely blooms helped it become one of the most popular flowering shrubs in North America.

With an array of sizes to choose from, it's easy to bring the delightful fragrance home. But it does require a little patience - lilacs take 4 to 5 years to produce their first flowers. Once established, however, careful pruning of spent blooms and stray branches right after flowering will keep the scent-sational show going for years to come.

• Common Names: Lilac.
• Botanical Name: Syringa vulgaris.
• Hardiness: Zones 3 to 8.
• Bloom Time: Late spring to midsummer.
• Size: 4 to 30 feet high, 5 to 22 feet wide.
• Flowers: Small tubular blooms arranged in clusters. Lavender is the most common color, but white, pink, magenta and blue and available, as well as bicolors.
• Light needs: Full sun.
• Growing Advice: Dig a hold the same depth as the root ball, but wider. Loosen roots of pot-bound shrubs before planting.
• Prize Picks: Ludwig Spaeth blooms a bit later, with magnificent purple flowers, a heady scent, and handsome, dark-green foliage. Syringa patula Miss Kim is slightly larger with lilac-blue blooms. Both are hardy and resistant to disease.

Photo: Parkseed

Rhododendron

Its showy blooms, available in a wide range of colors, have made this flowering shrub one of the most popular in the country. A natural fit in many settings, it looks great in informal woodland gardens or as a specimen planting in smaller urban landscapes.

• Common Names: Rhododendron.
• Botanical Name: Rhododendron.
• Hardiness: Zones 4 to 9.
• Bloom Time: Late spring.
• Size: 8 to 10 feet high and wide.
• Flower color: White, cream, yellow, apricot, pink, rose, deep red and lavender.
• Light Needs: Partial to light dappled shade.
• Growing Advice: Plant in a lightly shaded area with protection from hot sun and strong winds. Acidic soil that drains well will help your rhododendron do its best.
• Prize Picks: The Catawba rhododendron is a beautiful evergreen with purple flower clusters that survives the cold better than most varieties. The Boule de Neige rhododendron tolerates heat and sun well and is one of the best white-flowering types.

Photo: RDA GID

Rose of Sharon

It may be a late bloomer, but as many gardeners know, rose of Sharon is well worth the wait. A member of the hibiscus family, this deciduous shrub's beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers make their appearance from late summer through mid-autumn, long after many other flowering plants and shrubs have already finished blooming.

• Common Name: Rose of Sharon.
• Botanical Name: Hibiscus syriacus.
• Hardiness: Zones 5 to 8 or 9.
• Bloom Time: Late summer to mid-autumn.
• Size: 10 to 12 feet high, 6 to 8 feet wide.
• Flowers: Mainly pink, purple and white.
• Light needs: Full to partial sun.
• Growing Advice: In northern areas, plant in spring. Thrives in moist soil that drains well.
• Prize Picks: Red Heart is a single-petal white bloom with a crimson center. Minerva has larger, pretty pink-tinged lavender flowers with ruby-red centers.

Photo: RDA GID

Viburnum

Among the most popular of ornamental shrubs and small trees, the viburnum is sought after for three reasons - it's beautiful, it's versatile, and it's easy to grow. What's more, thre are three prime features that contribute to the year-long beauty of the viburnum - the flowers, the leaves, and the colorful fruits it produces. If you don't already grow this showpiece, now's the time to start - it'll triple your pleasure outdoors.

• Common Name: Virburnum.
• Botanical Name: Viburnum.
• Hardiness: Zones 3 to 9.
• Bloom Time: Late spring to early summer.
• Size: 4 to 30 feet high.
• Foliage: Varies from shiny to leathery textures of green - turning yellowish-orange or reddish purple in fall.
• Light needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Ample and consistent moisture is the only continuing requirement for a healthy viburnum.
That means about an inch of water a week during the growing season.
• Prize Picks: Doublefile (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum), considered by some to be the world's most beautiful flowering shrub, boasts horizontally tiered branches, which blooms with white flower clusters resembling lace caps. The snowball viburnum is Viburnum x carlcephalum; its big, ball-like flowers are deliciously scented. Viburnum dentatum Blue Muffin is a smaller, more compact plant (to 5 feet tall) with flattened flowerheads.