Use Placards for Identifying Shrubs as Well as More Exotic Garden Inhabitants
When an artist is composing a painting, they first imagine how the completed work will look. Then they roughly brush in the major components. The artist typically works from the background forward, filling in minute details at the very end. This approach is a good roadmap for garden design as well. Shrubbery can be used to create an interesting backdrop or used to fill in blank spaces as a minor detail. Identifying shrubs that will work well in your landscape design can therefore help you at all stages of the creative process.
Identifying Shrubs for the Background
Maybe you want to create an attractive privacy hedge. Perhaps you want to mask an unattractive foundation area. You might be looking for a way to paint a wall of green against which your other plants may shine. Shrubs can perform this task with ease. Evergreens such as holly or boxwood are popular because they offer delightful green leaves all year long and make an eye-pleasing showcase for your other plants. Hardy juniper grows close to the ground and is ideal for creating a pop of green in blank spaces that will last even in winter.
Identifying Shrubs With Flowers That Stand Out
Sometimes you want your shrubs to do double duty – add some bulk to the landscape AND put on a bit of display. There are flowering shrubs that can do it all. Forsythia, with its long, lovely stems that burst into yellow flower each spring is a great shrub in this way. The tall shrub will give you three seasons of lush, green height and an admirable early spring display. These shrubs work great to create private spaces or to hide unsightly areas.
Azaleas or rhododendrons are also able to give you the green as well as provide delicate blossoms. Colorful blooms of white-pink-purple will grace the bushes in late spring and summer and can boast waxy green leaves when much of the other color has drained from the landscape.
Hydrangea produces gorgeous rounded blooms of white, pink or blue-violet in summer. Lilac bushes offer slender foliage and deliciously-scented blooms. Rose shrubs also combine heft and fragrance.
Identifying Shrubs That are Appropriate to the Space
Whether you’re planting a tree or a shrub, you always want to consider the mature size and shape before placing it in the ground. Many shrubs can be trimmed and shaped to the spot, but you might be making a needless sacrifice. Forsythia, for instance, deserves a place where it can be allowed to reach graciously skyward. If you want a lower hedge, opt for handsome boxwood instead.
Some shrubs are evergreen and some shed their leaves seasonally so consider what you need your shrubbery to do in each season of the year. In fact, you might want to consider putting some of your shrubs in large decorative pots to be moved according to need. This allows you to create attractive clusters in some seasons and create focal points in others.
Shrubs offer an important element in your landscape painting. They deserve recognition right along with other more exotic garden inhabitants. We invite you to order your plant markers from us at Kincaid Plant Markers where every garden will get only the highest quality marker able to withstand season after season of artistic display.
