Dress Up Your Home with Flowering Shrubs

Flowering shrubs add interest to any landscape and early spring is an ideal time to plant them. Shrubs are relatively maintenance free. Once you plant them, they are a perennial source of beauty.

Keep these tips in mind as you plan how to dress up your home with shrubs.

Plan ahead. Make sure you know how tall your chosen shrub will grow. Don’t place a tall selection in front of a window where it will block your view.

Coordinate colors. Consider how well the color of your new shrub’s flowers will complement the color of any established flowers that will be blooming nearby at the same time.

Go for fragrance. Flower color is not the only thing to consider. What could be nicer than having the scent of lilacs wafting through the window of your home?

Spread out flowering times. Try to pick a variety of shrubs that bloom throughout the seasons. That way you’ll always have some color in your yard. While most bloom in spring, you can have some flowering in March, others in April and still others in May. For example, hydrangeas bloom in summer. There are even a few that bloom in autumn, such as butterfly bush.

Go native. Be sure to ask about native species at your local nursery. Native shrubs will be well adapted to your area and are more eco-friendly than introduced species.

Mulch your new plantings. An attractive mulch keeps down weeds, conserves moisture and looks good. Use either wood chips or bark. If you create your own mulch with a chipper, be sure you don’t use black walnut trees. They produce a substance that is toxic to most other plants.

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Links:

Hydrangeas

http://through-the-sapphire-sky.blogspot.com/2009/06/hydrangea-concerto.html

Butterfly bush

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/perennials/butterflybush.html

Lilacs

http://ingridcreates.com/4-top-artists-creations-about-lilacs