Create a natural border with flowering hedges instead of fences for an oasis filled with color and fragrance.
Circle your yard with flowering hedges instead of traditional enclosures.
Azalea
Grown for their showy spring flowers,azaleas(Rhododendronspp.)
Credit: Bill Stites
light up the landscape with their trumpet-shape blooms in a broad spectrum of colors.
Some, such as the Encore azalea (pictured here), alsobloom on new woodthroughout summer and fall.
Most azaleas are deciduous and have smaller leaves than truerhododendrons.
Credit: Cameron Sadeghpour
The flowers of this native plant develop into bright purple berries in fall.
In Zone 6, beautyberry may die back over winter, but will resprout from the base in spring.
Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist clay or sand enriched with organic matter.
Credit: Denny Schrock
The flowers are followed by capsule-like fruits among its dark green leaves that turn yellow in the fall.
These flowering hedge plants aredeer resistantand hold up well during drought conditions.
is a late-season bloomer with powder-puff blue, pink, or purple flowers on compact plants with gray-green foliage.
Credit: Denny Schrock
Selections offering variegated or chartreuse foliage are also available.
Its flowers are veryattractive to butterflies.
An arching abundance of white flower clusters in midspring gives this shrub a romantic air.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
Tiny, fragrant, bell-shape flowers cover the whole plant so that hardly a single leaf is visible.
In the fall, its leaves turn fiery red, orange, and yellow.
Its bigger cousin, large fothergilla(F. major)is similar except it grows to eight feet tall.
Credit: Julie Maris Semarco
For northern gardeners, select cold-hardy forsythia varieties like ‘Meadowlark,’ which reliably bloom even after sub-zero winters.
At the peak of bloom, this perennial can produce 20 or more flowers per day.
Its hollyhock-like blooms appear in shades of red, white, salmon, or pink.
Credit: Denny Schrock
bloom in mid- to late spring.
A few newer varieties likeBloomerangextend the season with repeat bloom from late summer into fall.
Ifpowdery mildewis a problem in your area, look for lilac varieties that are resistant to this disease.
Credit: Holly Pruett
In autumn, the panicles of blooms turn pink before finally fading to beige.
Zones: 3-8
Ninebark
A native shrub,ninebark(Physocarpusspp.)
requires little care to thrive, standing up well to heat and drought.
Credit: Dean Schoeppner
The burgundy foliage of Summer Wine ninebark, for example, contrasts beautifully with its delicate pink blooms.
This shrub also offers exfoliating bark that adds winter interest after the leaves have fallen.
This tropical beauty’s flower colors range from pink to white, red, orange, and yellow.
Credit: Doug Hetherington
All parts of this plant are toxic, so keep it away from pets and small children.
Its also considered invasive in some areas.
It is extremelytolerant of heat and drought.
Credit: David Speer
Its dark green foliage makes a great foil for the cheery flowers.
Its glossy dark green leaves turn shades of yellow to golden brown in fall.
Snowball viburnum (V. opulus’Roseum'), pictured here, grows 8-10 feet tall.
Credit: Dean Schoeppner
The variety ‘Nanum’ stays under three feet tall.
Blackhaw viburnum and nannyberry viburnum produceedible berriesenjoy them fresh off the bush or turn them into preserves.
Size: Up to 10 feet tall and 12 feet wide
Guide to Poisonous Plants.Colorado State University.
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Credit: Dean Schoeppner
Credit: Dean Schoeppner
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