Not all landscape shrubs are created equal. When you’re choosing shrubs for your foundation planting or landscape, choosing plants with seasonal interest – blossoms in the spring, and good fall color for example – creates an ever-changing palette of landscape colors that enhances the beauty of your home.
Take the snowball viburnum, for instance –
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| Photo by Jeanne Grunert |
In the spring, large white “snowball” flowers appear on the snowball viburnum bush. This particular variety does not have a scent, but the bush is covered with white flowers. It grows vigorously and aside from the leaves getting chewed by the inevitable Japanese beetle and a few other insects, it is not troubled by diseases here in Virginia. Nor was it troubled by any back in New York, on Long Island where I lived for many years. My mother planted this shrub in a southwestern corner of the garden and it thrived for over 20 years.
The leaves are normally dark green with a leathery texture. In the early autumn, they take on a rich, plum-colored hue, finally turning crimson as you see here. It’s a lovely shrub and the birds enjoy sheltering in its boughs. It does need room to grow, however, and this shrub, which I planted in 2009 or 2010, is already well over six feet tall.
A shrub such as the snowball viburnum provides three-season beauty to the garden. Even in the winter, its pleasing form and branches, when covered with snow and ice, look like a sculpture in the garden.
What are your favorite landscape shrubs that provide seasonal interest?
