Creating a beautiful yard and garden is all about strategic planning, especially if you’re looking for shrubs that bloom all year. These shrubs provide color every season so you can enjoy colorful blooms in your garden all year long. These shrubs will be the focal points in your yard and the foundational plants of your garden. Not only are these plants beautiful, but they also serve the purpose of providing privacy, color, and attracting pollinators to your yard.
Careful Landscape Planning
There are hundreds of varieties of flowering shrubs to choose from, but before you can get started planting, you need to do a little research and choose the right plants for the right location. Take a closer look at the available space in your yard where you intend to plant the shrubs. Does this location get a lot of sunshine, shade, partial shade? Do you know how to prune, trim, and shape shrubs? Many flowering plants will bloom on the same branches they did the previous year, while other flowers will bloom on new growth. Some varieties will bloom on both new and old wood. If you already have shrubs in your yard, but you’re not sure what species you have, make sure you wait until they’ve bloomed, then you can shape and prune them. If you prune prior to this, then you will end up removing the flower buds.
All deciduous flowers and shrubs will drop their leaves as winter draws closer. Evergreen shrubs are different. Choosing the right evergreen shrubs for your yard will provide much-needed color, even in the winter months. Below, you’ll find a list of the most popular flowering shrubs that can provide your yard with color, all year long.
Red-Tipped Photinia
This shrub is loved for its beautiful, vivid red color, which comes with the growth of new leaves. These leaves will turn to bronze, and finally green, as they mature. This plant is often used for borders but it can also be grown in a pot, successfully. It provides large, tubular flowers during each season, so you’ll enjoy its blooms all year long.
Darwin’s Barberry
This shrub can easily adapt to harsh winters and is renowned for its lush dark green leaves and large orange flowers. The newly grown leaves come in a vibrant red, complete with clusters of tubular flowers that really make this shrub stand out.
Boxwood
Boxwood is one of the most popular flowering shrubs. Not only is it beautiful, but it’s also impressively dense and hardy. It has a faster than average growth rate and a compact shape that allows for easier lawn maintenance and upkeep.
Mexican Orange
The white blossoms and golden leaves give off an almost citrus-like fragrance. The shrub itself is simply beautiful to look at, so it will make the perfect addition to a garden or yard that’s lacking some serious color.
Wintercreeper
This is a compact, low hedge that can provide some nice ground cover and a vibrant visual impact. It can climb against walls as well, adding touches of color all over your yard.
Japanese Skimmia
This is another hardy, compact shrub that provides your yard with color, every season. It’s fragrant yellow and white flowers pop up in the spring, while its red berries begin to grow in the fall and remain throughout the winter months.
Firethorn
If you’re in need of some serious privacy, then this evergreen shrub can provide it. The orange and red fruit and flowers will appear in the spring and will last throughout the fall and winter months.
Buttonbush
This shrub loves moisture, so it must be placed in a wet area. Some varieties can grow up to twenty feet, so you’ll want to be extra careful where you place this hardy plant. Another option is the dwarf variety, which produces beautiful white flowers in the spring and red fruit during the fall and winter months.
Sweetshrub
This shrub produces leaves that have a beautiful, tropical look to them, as well as unique seed capsules and flowers that give this plant multi-season interest. This plant goes by other names, including the strawberry bush and the Caroline allspice. It’s a great choice for borders in the garden.
Abelia
The beautiful purple, peach, or pink flowers will appear later in the spring, offering a sweet fragrance. In the fall, you’ll enjoy large seed pods and colorful foliage. There are also new variations of this plant that are designed to easily withstand even the harshest winters.
Caryopteris
This plant requires plenty of direct sunlight and features blue blooms that appear late in the summer months all the way to the end of fall, so you’ll enjoy blooms much longer than what other flowering shrubs offer. If you’re trying to attract more pollinators to your yard, then you’ll be happy to learn that both butterflies and bees love this shrub.
Butterfly Bush
This is a sturdy flowering shrub that can handle droughts and blooms all year long, working its magic to attract pollinators. There are also new dwarf varieties that will not overtake your yard, so they’re not quite as invasive.
Azalea
This shrub has beautiful glossy leaves and produces flowers in the shades of white, purple, coral, peach, and pink. You’ll find both deciduous and evergreen varieties available.
Camellia
These colorful flowering shrubs produce blooms in a variety of jewel tones. These flowers will usually make an appearance around early spring or the holidays and can add much-needed color to your yard during the winter months.
Quince
This is a very low-maintenance shrub that produces large, colorful flowers early in the spring, in vibrant colors. It doesn’t require much pruning, although it does have large thorns, which may make it a poor choice for your yard if you have small children. Fortunately, there are also some thornless varieties available. In warmer climates, this shrub should be planted in a spot that receives some partial shade, since this can help the flowers to last longer.
Ninebark
The large burgundy leaves really make this handsome shrub stand out in any yard. The glossy foliage will last all seasons and is topped off with cream-colored flowers that will begin to make an appearance during the first weeks of spring. This shrub is considered cold-hardy and features an elegant arching shape that makes it a perfect choice if you’re looking for a shrub to plant along a border.
Weigela
New varieties of this shrub allow blooms to appear later during the spring, with a rebloom that takes place in the fall and winter months. If you want to enjoy a flowering shrub all year long, then make sure you plant this variety in direct sunlight for best results. However, in hotter climates, it can easily tolerate partial shade.
Beautyberry
This shrub loves its sun and so does its massive white flowers that appear later on during the summer. It also produces large purple berries that will make an appearance during the fall and winter months. This shrub will make a beautiful addition to a yard that typically lacks color during the fall and winter.
Deutzia
The Deutzia is categorized as a mounded shrub, complete with arching branches that are often loaded with blush-colored or white flowers that appear later in the spring or during the early summer months. These blooms will turn a burgundy color as fall approaches. Some varieties are low-growing and can make a great choice for foundation planting or ground cover.
Forsythia
This shrub’s blooms are bright yellow and begin to appear at the first sign of spring. There are also new varieties available that produce more tiny blooms, giving the shrub a denser, compact shape that will make it a perfect choice for a border.
Upkeep
With a good gas hedge trimmer, you can keep these shrubs neatly trimmed and shaped all year long. However, many of these flowering shrubs on my list are very low-maintenance, and may only require a simple trim just once a month. If you’re looking for low-maintenance shrubs, make sure you speak with the staff at your local nursery to learn more about the plant’s upkeep requirements, before you buy.
Final Thoughts
These shrubs that bloom all year can provide bursts of color in your yard, when and where you need them. If you’re tired of a dead-looking yard during the fall and winter, then incorporating many of these beautiful, vibrant shrubs can be exactly what your yard needs, during a time when other plants are not tough enough to survive. But before you stop by your local nursery, make sure you do some careful landscape planning to ensure that each type you plan to purchase will work for your yard, based on water, shade, and sunlight needs. Testing your soil can also be a good idea since some yards have a higher clay content, which can make it difficult for these plants to thrive.