Archive for the ‘Shrubs’ Category
We have a huge variety of Spring and Summer Garden Shrubs to share with you and the best news is that it will not cost you a penny in delivery charges. Yes that’s right FREE DELIVERY on all shrubs ordered here.
Shrubs are definitely the anchor, and frequently the unsung heroes in the majority of gardens. We’ve chosen a great assortment of well known simple to keep shrubs to suit your needs. Should you be looking to construct a formalised or much less formal shrub hedge in your own garden in that case we’ve got several excellent mixed packs, for both evergreen shrubs & flowering shrubs. Each of our shrub plants are delivered as jumbo plug plants measuring around 4cm diameter across the root ball and 8-10cm in height.
Garden Shrubs are among the most versatile of garden plants. They can fill the landscape with colour, shape, and texture all year long with flowers in the spring, lovely foliage in the summer and berries and bright leaves in autumn. They even add shape and texture to the winter garden. A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height.
Many Spring shrubs respond well to renewal pruning in which hard cutting back to a ’stool’ results in long new stems known as “canes”. Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure and character. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen.
April is really a great time to be out in the garden as so many plants begin to produce masses of Spring flowers heralding the end of Winter. Flowering shrubs are among the first to bloom and with a little know how you can have a riot of colour well before the start of the summer bedding season. There are a wide variety of garden shrubs for early colour, we list some of the very best here.
Forsythia
Forsythia’s yellow flowers add a burst of colour to the late winter or early spring landscapes. Branches can be picked in midwinter and forced into bloom indoors, making it one of the earliest of cut flowers. The plants vary in size from dwarf varieties that grow only a foot tall to shrubs that reach 8-10 feet in height. The plants can quickly get out of bounds if not pruned regularly but when given enough room to grow without pruning they take on a graceful appearance. They make an excellent informal shrub border and taller varieties can be espaliered or trained into shapes against a wall. They do well in full sun or light shade.
Azaleas & Camelias
Evergreens that flower in spring usually flower after the caning shrubs. These include azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias. Use a light touch when pruning these shrubs. Prune just enough to maintain the shape of the plant. As with the caning shrubs they should be pruned right after they flower. Pruning later in the year will interrupt the developing buds. If your evergreen shrub is hopelessly misshapen or has been neglected you can cut it back to 12 to 18 inches from ground level. It will grow back and you’ll have a much more shapely plant.
Magnolias
Magnolias come in a wide variety of sizes from large trees to small shrubs. Their flowers are magnificent appearing on bare branches before the leaves. They can be semi-evergreen, evergreen or deciduous and flower colours can range from whites and yellows to pinks and purples. Although Magnolias are generally associated with March and April flowering there are species that flower in summer and even as late as September. There are eighty varieties of Magnolia but the one you may see more than any other would probably be magnolia soulangeana growing as it does in so many front gardens in Britain. Magnolias require little in the way of pruning just tidying of wayward branches is all that is needed to keep the plant in shape. However they do not really like lime preferring an acid soil to get the best from them.
Pruning
Shrubs that flower before midsummer usually bloom on growth made the previous year. They are normally pruned after flowering (early summer), so that new growth has a full season in which to ripen before blooming the following year.
Forsythia and Philadelphus are typical of this group. Most old shrubs can be rejuvenated by cutting back hard to 30cm-45cm from the ground. To be doubly safe, it would be better to cut down around 50% in year one (sending up loads of new growth) and then cut down the remainder in year two.
Spring shrubs that bloom after midsummer have flowers on the current season’s growth; these are pruned in winter or spring. They then flower later in the season on new growth.
In case you want to remove any shrubs in your garden we thought that this well known shrub removal tool called a Lexus might prove useful…