Adding Color to Your Yard with Flowering Shrubs and Trees

Ahh spring time! You love the look of your neighbor’s flowering dogwood or the beautifully scented lilac hedge you remember from childhood. This is a good time to add flowering bushes and trees that will fulfill the promise of more color in your yard next year.

How do you choose the right flowering tree or bush? “Right” is often more a matter of taste than anything else. If you like a particular flowering tree or shrub and it grows well in your area, add it and enjoy it for years to come. Your local garden centers should have a variety of plant stock appropriate for your region.

Here are some tips for choosing flowering bushes and trees:

• One of the most popular flowering trees is the dogwood. Native to the United States, there is a variety that should thrive where you live. They are not large trees – about 24 feet at their maximum, and they prefer the shade and shelter of larger trees. At least plant them where they will not receive direct, mid-day sun. They burst into bloom in spring, with white or pink blossoms.


• Review horticultural books and web sites to have a good idea of what you want before you go shopping. For flowering trees, the National Arbor Day Foundation web site (www.arborday.org) is a great place to learn more – and purchase trees.


• Plan where you want to plant your flowering trees and shrubs before you bring them home.


• Be aware of how tall the species will get. If you don’t want a 12-foot tall lilac bush, find a dwarf version that will grow well in your area. A Southern favorite, the crape myrtle, now is available in cultivars that are small enough to be used as a foundation planting.


• If you are purchasing a flowering tree that also bears fruit, such as the crabapple, don’t plant it where its branches will overhang a walkway, patio or driveway. This will limit clean-up of dropped berries or fruit.


• Decide if you are purchasing flowering bushes as a landscape accent or to create a flowering hedge.


• Always purchase cultivars that have been grown in your region to help assure adaptability to your yard.


• When making a purchase, ask about any survival guarantee that may come with it. Many garden centers guarantee their trees and bushes for at least a season, often a year.