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Home Website Extras Website Extra: Janet’s Guide to Shrubs

Please note that Michigan Gardener has a new schedule in 2023. We published one Print Magazine in the spring. Plus, we are publishing 10 E-Newsletters from Spring through Fall. Click to sign up for our free E-Newsletter.

Website Extra: Janet’s Guide to Shrubs

September 5, 2023   •   Leave a Comment

Shine even in shade

Although these perform best in sun or part shade, in the shade they still manage to please:

  • Chinese spicebush
  • Dwarf white pine
  • Fragrant honeysuckle
  • Laceleaf red elder
  • Leatherleaf viburnum
  • Panicle hydrangea
  • Spring witch hazel
  • Ural false spirea
  • Ward’s yew

Notable spring flowers: Showy before summer solstice

  • Chinese spicebush
  • Chokeberry
  • Fragrant honeysuckle
  • Koreanspice viburnum
  • Laceleaf red elder
  • Quince
  • Sargent viburnum
  • Slender deutzia
  • Snowmound spirea
  • Spring witch hazel

Summer pick-me-ups: Blooms in late June and later

  • Blue mist spirea
  • Bottlebrush buckeye
  • Dwarf spirea
  • Kalm St. John’s wort
  • Leatherleaf viburnum
  • Panicle hydrangea
  • Seven-son flower
  • Summersweet
  • Ural false spirea

Fragrant

  • Blue mist spirea
  • Fragrant honeysuckle
  • Koreanspice viburnum
  • Laceleaf red elder
  • Seven-son flower
  • Spring witch hazel
  • Summersweet

Great fall color

  • Chinese spicebush
  • Chokeberry
  • Sargent viburnum
  • Spring witch hazel
  • Virginia sweetspire

Bait for birds and butterflies

  • Bottlebrush buckeye
  • Chokeberry
  • Laceleaf red elder
  • Quince
  • Snowmound spirea
  • Summersweet
  • Ural false spirea

Winter interest

  • Bird’s nest spruce
  • Blue star juniper
  • Chinese spicebush
  • Chokeberry
  • Dwarf white pine
  • Goldthread falsecypress
  • Hinoki falsecypress
  • Leatherleaf viburnum
  • Panicle hydrangea
  • Seven-son flower
  • Variegated redtwig dogwood
  • Ward’s yew
  • Weeping hemlock

Effective screen or hedge

  • Barberry (larger varieties)
  • Chinese spicebush
  • Chokeberry
  • Dwarf spirea
  • Dwarf white pine
  • Leatherleaf viburnum
  • Quince
  • Snowmound spirea
  • Ward’s yew

Color from fruit

  • Beautyberry
  • Chokeberry
  • Laceleaf red elder
  • Leatherleaf viburnum
  • Sargent viburnum
  • Seven-son flower
  • Ward’s yew

Colorful foliage in summer

  • Barberry
  • Blue mist spirea
  • Blue star juniper
  • Dwarf spirea
  • Goldthread falsecypress
  • Variegated redtwig dogwood

Long-lived without pruning

  • Barberry
  • Bird’s nest spruce
  • Blue star juniper
  • Chinese spicebush
  • Chokeberry
  • Creeping cotoneaster
  • Dwarf white pine
  • Goldthread falsecypress
  • Hinoki falsecypress
  • Leatherleaf viburnum
  • Sargent viburnum
  • Seven-son flower
  • Spring witchhazel
  • Summersweet
  • Ward’s yew
  • Weeping hemlock

Hardiest

All the shrubs grow well in USDA hardiness zone 5. These can go north into zone 4:

  • Barberry
  • Bird’s nest spruce
  • Blue star juniper
  • Bottlebrush buckeye
  • Chokeberry
  • Dwarf spirea (to zone 3)
  • Dwarf white pine
  • Fragrant honeysuckle
  • Kalm St. John’s wort
  • Laceleaf red elder
  • Onondaga viburnum (to zone 3)
  • Panicle hydrangea (to zone 3)
  • Slender deutzia
  • Snowmound spirea (to zone 3)
  • Spring witch hazel
  • Summersweet
  • Ural false spirea (to zone 3)
  • Variegated redtwig dogwood
  • Ward’s yew
  • Weeping hemlock

Filed Under: Website Extras

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