Table of contents
- Shrubs - a successful gift from nature
- Link location and functionality
- Individual rooms create diversity and variety
- Enchanting - the hydrangea in the garden
- location and care
- Take advantage of the seasons
- frequently asked Questions
- More plants and shrubs for small gardens
Flowering ornamental shrubs give the garden liveliness and are ideal as design elements. Evergreen bushes can be placed as a targeted eye-catcher or a pioneering element. Shrubs or bushes are, so to speak, the walls in the rooms of the garden. With their changing colors throughout the year, they create oases of relaxation.
Shrubs - a successful gift from nature
Shrubs are basically a synonym for the term bush or bush. These are perennial plants that are planted directly in the garden soil or in a suitable tub. In contrast to perennials, shrubs become woody over time and therefore need regular pruning. However, they do not develop a trunk, but grow with woody shoots. Shrubs are classified between trees and ground covers. This gives them basic properties that can be used wonderfully for the design of the garden. Let's see what options there are.
Link location and functionality
Before shrubs are planted in the garden, it is important to choose the location well. If necessary, a function can be ascribed to the shrub: May it unfold in height and width to protect against looks? On the other hand: With a talented gardener's hand, the Buxus can be cut into a ball shape and serves as an attractive design element in the garden with an English character or a Japanese one oasis of calm. Alternatively, the flower color becomes a deliberately used component that gives the garden area its personal touch.
Tip:
Shrubs fulfill excellent functions such as privacy or provide shade.
Individual rooms create diversity and variety
The design of the garden is much easier to do if you divide individual areas into rooms. Each room has a specific theme and is planted with the appropriate plants. Individual shrubs and bushes then serve as an invisible partition and harmoniously delimit the next area. In this way, gentle transitions are created, in which steps or paths can also be included. Lavender hedges, for example, are suitable for lots of color and beguiling scents. They greet every visitor in their delicate lilac and spread their fragrance in the wind.
If you would like to protect yourself from unwanted looks from outside, design the entrance area of the garden with sprawling shrubs that grow high and wide. For example, an evergreen cherry laurel is planted on a round arch instead of a rose. Creatively cut, the bushes can unfold in this way and prevent the view into the garden. A light, colorful plant like the African ring daisy goes well with the compact shrub, which loosens up the overall picture again.
Enchanting - the hydrangea in the garden
With their voluminous, ball-like flowers, hydrangeas are popular plants in the garden. Strictly speaking, these are subshrubs and shrubs. They grow up to a height of two meters and unfold their effect particularly on the house wall. Planted as a harmonious addition or as a contrast, the hydrangea is an eye-catcher from a distance. The hydrangea grows up to 1.5 meters wide and looks very inviting when planted on the side of a quiet area. As a visual framework, the classic garden bench becomes a favorite place for relaxing breaks. A pink climbing rose with its delicate blossoms in the background, for example, offers a magical contrast to the white hydrangea.
Tip:
Plant a small group of hydrangeas in a selection of colors or deliberately combine them with fragrant roses.
location and care
Hydrangeas love a sunny to partially shaded spot. The soil should be slightly moist, humus and rich in nutrients. It is therefore advisable to fertilize the plants with a rhododendron fertilizer in spring and early summer. Hydrangeas in tubs get better with a liquid fertilizer from March to approx. Spoiled in mid-August. If the leaves of the hydrangea turn yellow over the course of the year, they lack iron. The soil at this point lacks iron or it cannot be utilized by the plant. Watering with rainwater or an acidic fertilizer can help.
Take advantage of the seasons
In summer all the beautiful flowers, fruits and shrubs are in bloom. The garden stands in all its glory. But after the summer, the colors fade and the plants go into hibernation. In order to still enjoy the diversity of nature, shrubs are selected according to their flowering time. Garden centers offer spring flowering, summer flowering, fall flowering and winter flowering shrubs. Here are some of the winter and spring flowering shrubs.
The camellia is one of the shrubs that bloom in winter. With its flower shape and color appearance, it conjures up a wonderful atmosphere in the garden. In the bucket on the terrace, it can remain down to -5 °C in the winter months. The cold is responsible for opening the flower buds. Protected from the wind and in a partially shaded place, the camellia is an asset to any garden.
Other shrubs than winter bloomers are:
- Winter flowering honeysuckle
- winter jasmine
- Parrotia or also called ironwood
- Snow Forsythia or Sweet Snowball
- Sal willow or pussy willow
In spring, these shrubs will delight the garden owner:
- deutcia
- Corkscrew Hazel
- Juliane's barberry
- cinquefoil
- blueberry
In a naturally designed cottage garden, the blueberry is also an excellent shrub. The dwarf shrub, which is up to 60 cm high, gives delicious fruit in summer and is available to animals as a food source in winter. The caterpillars of various moths also use the blueberry as a feeding ground. This includes the willow hen, which is threatened with extinction. With the targeted planting of the blueberry as a shrub, ecological benefits are also created. In good conditions, the shrub can live up to 30 years and reproduces by root creepers.
frequently asked Questions
No, especially plants that come from Mediterranean regions should be bright and cool in winter. The shrubs are placed in the conservatory, a bright basement room or the greenhouse at the latest when the frost has fallen.
In general, July or August or February to March before the branches sprout is a good time. Shrubs like the cherry laurel or boxwood are also pruned throughout the year to keep them in the desired shape. Other shrubs do not require pruning at all.
Shrubs up to a height of 2 meters must be planted at a minimum distance of 50 cm from the neighboring border.
The fast-growing Leyland cypress (Cupressocyparis leylandii) or the columnar hornbeam are suitable for planting for permanent privacy. It should be noted that they need to be cut once or twice a year.
More plants and shrubs for small gardens
- ground cover: Ground covers are particularly suitable for use in a small garden. These are not particularly high and can be very well limited to a relatively small space. Groundcover roses, for example, can add interesting splashes of color to a small border without taking up too much space.
- climbing plants: Climbing roses or mallows are very suitable for small gardens. Provided with a few climbing aids, these plants can be used to climb up the walls of small gardens.
- Ferns: Ferns can be divided at will in any year without suffering damage.
- Bonsai: The bonsai, as a generally very small tree, fits very well in a small garden and can be a perfect focal point for garden design.
In the new breeds, there are many plants and shrubs for small gardens. Especially the small stems, which can be planted both in the ground and in a bucket, are particularly well suited for small gardens. Many seeds have interesting new breeds and even offer strawberries as stems, i.e. small trees. The many small types of fruit, which do not grow on large trees but rather on narrow tendrils, can also be used very well in small gardens. There are different types of fruit here, so you can plant apple and cherry trees even in a small garden.
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