Shrubs - flowering shrubs and foliage shrubs

Shrubs along with trees tend to form the back-bone of your garden design.

They are defined as being large woody plants without a distinct single trunk, instead having a few or a great many strong woody stems that grow upwards from the base without any of them becoming dominant as in a tree.

They are quicker to mature than trees, but less so than herbaceous perennials. Typically a shrub will reach a reasonable size within 3-5 years of planting and will flower profusely from them on if it is a flowering variety, but them will carry on growing, reaching it's final mature size at about 10-15 years old.

This needs to be taken into consideration at planting. You want to give them enough space eventually, but don't want to have large spaces of empty soil for several years waiting for them to fill out. One way of dealing with this is to plant a little too close together to start with, or inter-plant with perennials and annuals which will fill the space in sooner, and then later on, dig up and move the shrubs or perennials to give them all some more room.

Most mature shrubs that grow many stems from a single point can be pruned in a similar manner, each year, remove a third to a quarter of the oldest stems completely, so over time there are no very old stems that will eventually stop flowering. As a rule of thumb, all pruning should be carried out immediately after flowering so you don't remove any buds and you give them the longest time possible to prepare for next year.

If you have a lilac, be aware that they only flower on wood that is at least as old as last year, so if you prune all branches every year, they'll never get a chance to flower.

Plants by Category

Annuals

Aquatic Plants

Cacti and Succulents

Herbs

Outdoor Bonsai

Perennials

Roses

Shrubs

Trees

Vegetables