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Summer
Blooming Shrubs
Diablo Ninebark
Bluemist Spirea (Bluebeard) |
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Sometimes homeowners plant a
shrub to create a little privacy in their backyard,
and sometimes homeowners plant a shrub so that their
house “looks landscaped”, but most of the time
homeowners plant shrubs in order to enjoy their
visual contribution to the landscape.
Most Wyobraska homeowners are familiar with
traditional spring blooming shrubs like lilac,
forsythia, bridalwreath spirea, and snowball bush.
These well-known shrubs have been staples of
residential landscapes for years. But as this
almost past Wyobraska spring has very ably
demonstrated, spring can be a very unpredictable
season in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming, with
windy, chilly, rainy, snowy, (or all the above at
once) weather often providing little opportunity to
enjoy the visual delights or fragrance of a spring
blooming shrub.
I certainly wouldn’t discourage a homeowner from
planting a few spring-blooming shrubs in their
Wyobraska landscape. After a long Wyobraska winter,
a spring blooming shrub is often a sight for sore
eyes, even if the blooms are capped with a layer of
wet spring snow. But if a long bloom period and
the opportunity to get out into the landscape and
enjoy it are important to you, it’s summer blooming
shrubs that are the best match for Wyobraska
landscapes. And while spring blooming shrubs come
in a very limited range of flower color and plant
size, and shape, summer flowering shrubs offer the
Wyobraska homeowner an almost unlimited selection of
flower, foliage, and plant size options, with
flowering that lasts from two to ten times longer
than their spring flowering cousins. |
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Blue and purple
blooming shrubs are a rarity, which is why butterfly
bush is such a great summer blooming shrub. It was
a surprise to me that these shrubs seem to perform
better when watered a little less frequently than
most traditional shrubs, and I now consider
butterfly bush to be a xeriscape shrub. Butterfly
bush grow quickly, so even a small containerized one
will develop into a nearly full-sized plant in the
first growing season. The stems rarely fully
survive Wyobraska winters so it’s a good idea to
prune butterfly bush back to a 12 to 18 inch height
in the spring—don’t worry, it will be five to seven
feet tall again by mid to late July and filled with
long spike-like blooms. The blooms continue until
early September, and, yes, they do attract
butterflies.
Butterfly Bush
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Previous Articles
I
It's
Finally Spring - March 13
Spring Garden Calendar-March 20
No
Garden Left Behind-March 27
Planting Trees for a Cooler Earth in a Warmer
WyoBraska-April 3
Viburnums - Shrubs for Wyobraska Springs-April 10
Want A Water Conserving Lawn? You might already have
one-
April 17
Creating Long
Term
Tree-lationships April 24
Bigger, Bolder, Brighter,
Better—and Back In The Landscape May 01 & 08
Hardy Shrub
Roses
May 15
Another Look
at Native Plants
May 22
No Child
Left Inside
May 29
June
is Tree Care Month June 05
Summer Blooming Shrubs
June 12
Roses Are
Red.....
June 19
2007 Articles
2006 Articles |
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Any discussion of summer blooming shrubs must begin
with shrub roses. Six of the planet’s continents
can claim numerous native roses—many which grow in
harsh climates and poor soils. With one of the most
beautiful flowers of any of the plant species, it’s
not too surprising that roses have a long history of
human cultivation. Most of that history of
cultivation had the goal of developing roses with
ever bigger and more beautiful flowers, with plant
hardiness and adaptability a distant second
concern. But within the past fifty or so years
there has been a concerted effort of rose breeders
around the world to combine the beautiful flowers of
cultivated roses with the plant hardness and soil
adaptability of the native roses. The result is a
growing list of shrub roses that perform beautifully
in Wyobraska landscapes and gardens. It is not
unusual to see shrub roses begin flowering in May
and continue flowering until early November—the
longest blooming period of any shrub that will grow
in Wyobraska. Shrub roses vary from low,
spreading, groundcover types to tall climbers.
Flower colors include red, pink, orange, white,
yellow, and every shade in between. It’s hard for
me to imagine a Wyobraska landscape without several
shrub roses.
Shrub Rose - Winnipeg Parks
Hardy Hibiscus may
have one of the shorter blooming periods of the
summer blooming shrubs, but what the flowers lack in
duration they more than make up in size. With bloom
diameters in the 12 inch range not unusual, this
plant is a show stopper when in bloom from late July
through August. Individual blooms only last for a
few days, but mature plants may produce several
hundred flowers over the course of its blooming
period. When I say that this plant dies back to the
ground every winter, I mean to the ground. Cut it
back to the ground in early spring, because the old
stems are not particularly attractive by that
point. Then wait until early June for the first
hints of life to emerge from below the soil near the
base of the plant. Flower colors are variations of
red, pink, and white. Plants are 3 to six feet in
height with equal spreads.
Hardy Hibiscus |
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Blue mist spirea, also known as
Bluebeard, is not a true spirea, and is more
like a woody perennial than a shrub in Wyobraska
landscapes. But its blue flower last from early
July into early September, and when properly
managed, the flowers dry on the plant to give it
excellent winter interest. With a consistent 3 foot
high by 3 foot wide size this is an excellent shrub
for yardeners. Prune it back each spring to a 12
inch height, and enjoy it all summer.
I’m not a big fan of shrubs
with colored foliage—they are too easy to overuse in
landscapes. But a relatively new ninebark with
maroon foliage also makes my list of excellent
summer blooming shrubs. Diablo Ninebark's
pinkish-white blooms in June become bright red seeds
in mid summer, all of which displays against some of
the best maroon foliage on a shrub. When not over
watered in fall, the leaves can develop an
orange-red color, and peeling bark gives the shrub a
distinctive winter appearance. One in a residential
landscape may be enough, but it will be a favorite.
For shady locations, consider
hydrangeas. Their large white blooms can last from
late June through August. Hydrangeas are enjoying a
rediscovery of sorts in recent years. They have
long been cultivated as garden plants, but for
unknown reasons fell out of favor in the last half
of the last century. Many die back to the ground
each winter, but reemerge each summer to regain
their full 2-3 foot height. Several years ago an
eastern Nebraska friend suggested that I should try
Tardiva hydrangea. It is a larger “permanent” shrub
which does not die back each year. To my pleasant
surprise it is performing very well in every
Wyobraska setting that I have seen it tried in so
far. The best recommendation I can give it is that
homeowners that have them, love them.
Tardiva Hydrangea
So if your spring blooming
shrubs disappointed this year, don’t despair. The
main season for blooming shrubs is just beginning in
Wyobraska—summer.
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