Vase Shapes Set Shrubs Apart
Billowing on top and slender on the bottom, shrubs in a vase shape showcase blooms and foliage to perfection in the landscape
When you cut flowers to bring them inside, how do you show them off? I bet at least some of the time you put them in a vase. And guess what? You can apply that concept to shrubs in your garden too. Flowers — and foliage too — look ever so sophisticated in forms that are skinny on the bottom and billowing on top.
Most are best with a bit of annual pruning and training, especially removing suckers that pop up at their feet, but the trouble is worth the return. Here are a few vase-shaped shrubs, and it happens that four are spring bloomers, so now's the perfect time to be thinking about their place in your garden design.
Most are best with a bit of annual pruning and training, especially removing suckers that pop up at their feet, but the trouble is worth the return. Here are a few vase-shaped shrubs, and it happens that four are spring bloomers, so now's the perfect time to be thinking about their place in your garden design.
Kerria (Kerria japonica, zones 4 to 9) is another vase-shaped beauty that colonizes politely, so give it room to spread. In spring, it blooms in thousands of gold daisies. This pretty shrub does best in part shade, even moderately dry shade, but average soil is fine. For all-season interest, look for variegated cultivar 'Picta'.
Japanese laurel (Aucuba japonica, zones 7 to 10) is a bulletproof evergreen with gorgeous gold-flecked foliage that can’t be beat. A workhorse for shade, where it positively glows, it’s good in tough spots near trees and asks little care. Protection from drying winds in the northern reaches of its range is best.
Another perk of vase-shaped shrubs? They're beautiful from above. This is a venerable beauty (Kolkwitzia amabilis, zones 4 to 8) in my garden, as seen from a second-floor window. It blooms in spring with pink flowers that smell like bubble gum, after which it fades politely into the background, although its peeling old trunks at ground level are eye catching even in winter. Beauty bush is an easy drought-resistant shrub. It does best in sun to part sun but will take a bit of shade.
Elderberry cultivars are lusty, sultry foliage plants grown primarily for their colorful foliage, like this one, branded as Black Lace (Sambucus nigra 'Eva', zones 4 to 8). They bloom pink or white in spring, which adds to the show. Several other species exist, including the native elderberry (Sambucus canadensis, zones 3 to 9), which produces edible fruit. All are tough and thrive in full sun to part shade and average garden soil, though in my experience they enjoy a bit of shade in the hottest part of the day.
Who could forget the humble mock orange? So easy to grow, so freely, fragrantly blooming in spring, and several natives and their cultivars are more available to the trade all the time. (This is one, Philadelphus lewisii, zones 4 to 8.) Common threads among mock oranges, besides the above: They grow in almost any old place in full sun to part shade, and their clean, crisp foliage is attractive even when they're not in bloom. Cultivars of various sizes also mean there's a mock orange for any size garden, no matter how small.
Photo by A. Barra via Wikimedia Commons
More great design plants:
Red-Leafed Mukdenia | Blue Chalk Sticks| Hens-and-Chicks | Redtwig Dogwood |Toyon
Great design trees:
Bald Cypress | Chinese Witch Hazel |Japanese Maple | Manzanita | Persian Ironwood
Smoke Tree | Texas Mountain Laurel |Tree Aloe
Great design flowers:
Catmint | Golden Creeping Jenny | Pacific Coast Iris | Plumbago | Red Kangaroo Paw
Sally Holmes Rose | Slipper Plant |Snake Flower
Great design grasses:
Black Mondo Grass | Cape Rush |Feather Reed Grass | New Zealand Wind Grass
Photo by A. Barra via Wikimedia Commons
More great design plants:
Red-Leafed Mukdenia | Blue Chalk Sticks| Hens-and-Chicks | Redtwig Dogwood |Toyon
Great design trees:
Bald Cypress | Chinese Witch Hazel |Japanese Maple | Manzanita | Persian Ironwood
Smoke Tree | Texas Mountain Laurel |Tree Aloe
Great design flowers:
Catmint | Golden Creeping Jenny | Pacific Coast Iris | Plumbago | Red Kangaroo Paw
Sally Holmes Rose | Slipper Plant |Snake Flower
Great design grasses:
Black Mondo Grass | Cape Rush |Feather Reed Grass | New Zealand Wind Grass
Photo by Cillas via Wikimedia Commons