Flowers usually come to mind when we think about adding color to a landscape. But including shrubs with foliage in attention-grabbing shades of red, gold, and purple can be just as beautiful as any bloom – especially in times when the flowers have gone quiet for a while. Here we’ve gathered a few of our favorite shrubs with the power to bring on the non-stop color all through the season.
Ninebark
Ninebark is a North American native plant that thrives in even the hottest Midwest summers. It’s a beautiful shrub that requires very little maintenance to keep it looking its best – you won’t even want to prune those cascading branches that give ninebark its natural, informal style. In the spring, dense clusters of pinkish-white blooms cover the branches. Ninebark gets its name from the way its exfoliating bark peels back to reveal multiple layers of color – nice mid-winter interest when the foliage is gone.
Ninebark’s textured foliage resembles maple leaves and comes in colors from rich burgundy to almost neon yellow, depending on the cultivar. For instance, the foliage on ‘Center Glow’ emerges a greenish-gold shade in the spring, then matures to a rich burgundy as the season progresses. In contrast, ‘Dart’s Gold’ starts out golden yellow and becomes a glowing chartreuse through the summer, and the deeply cut foliage of Summer Wine™ stays a dark wine-red through the season. If you can’t decide which color you love, go with Amber Jubilee™ – a naturally rounded variety that displays a glowing combination of orange, gold, and yellow through the summer before turning purple in the fall.
And before you take home one of these standout shrubs, be sure it fits the space where you want it to go. Most ninebarks get pretty big, but there are several dwarf cultivars – like ‘Little Devil,’ ‘Tiny Wine,’ and ‘Lemon Candy’ – to choose from too.
Weigela
Weigela is another beautiful shrub that brings bright color to the landscape through the entire growing season – but in a smaller package than most ninebarks. Weigela cultivars stay anywhere from two to five feet tall and wide so they fit nicely into small spaces and along borders. In addition to the classic green, the foliage also comes in deep shades of bronze-green, reddish-green, burgundy, and purple. And although the foliage provides a ton of color, the late-spring blooms are gorgeous too. They’re tube-shaped and vividly colored – a favorite for those brilliant hummingbirds and butterflies.
When you’re wandering through our collection, look for Wine and Roses™. The bright magenta blooms contrast well with its greenish-purple foliage. Another dark-leafed beauty, Fine Wine™, features rich, dark burgundy leaves almost hidden by loads of deep pink blooms.
Smokebush
Smokebush is a distinctive shrub unlike any other in your landscape. For one, it’s a big plant. So big, in fact, it’s sometimes grown as a small tree. The foliage is unusual too – with long petioles holding fluttering oval leaves – reminiscent of quaking aspen – that appear in shades of coral, burgundy, or chartreuse. But that’s just the start of smokebush’s unique qualities. After the tiny blooms fade in the spring, the flower stalks continue to lengthen and later become covered in colorful hairs. These wispy plumes hover above the foliage like puffs of smoke – hence the name – and give smokebush its one-of-a-kind appearance.
For a smokebush that really shines bright in the landscape, look for Golden Spirit™. It’s a brilliant variety with glowing lemon-lime colored foliage in the summer that turns multiple shades of burgundy, amber, and scarlet in the fall. But if dark and dramatic is more what you’re looking for, try ‘Royal Purple’ instead. In the late summer, clouds of mauve-pink “smoke” almost cover the rich, dark foliage displaying silver-frosted shades of maroon to deep purple.
Elderberry
If you’re looking for a shrub to add not only color but also distinctive texture to your sunny landscape, then you’ll love the showy foliage, flowers, and fruit that come with elderberry. And the birds love their berries too.
One exquisite example, Black Lace®, features deeply dissected foliage in the darkest purple tone – it’s unlike any other foliage plant for the landscape. In texture, the lacy foliage might remind you of a Japanese maple’s – but elderberry is a lot less finicky about its environment. And to top it off, large flat clusters of fuzzy pink blooms contrast dramatically with the midnight-colored leaves. On the opposite end of the color spectrum, the elderberry Instant Karma® glows with bright spring green and creamy-white variegation. Its scented, adorably dainty white blooms are also gathered into large, flat clusters.
No matter which elderberry you choose, be sure you have the space for it to really show itself off – these are rather large shrubs, reaching six to eight feet tall and wide. But with proper pruning, they can be kept a bit smaller too.
Tips for Landscaping with Colorful Shrubs
To maximize the color-power of these beautiful shrubs, we have a couple tips to consider before you plant.
- Match the right plant with the right place. These shrubs tolerate all kinds of conditions, but the happiest shrubs produce the most color. For the best display, plant them in a spot with the sun, soil, and moisture they love most.
- Don’t forget green. Plant what you love, but keep in mind that a few classic green varieties gives the eye a place to rest and provides a backdrop for your brightly colored plants to shine. Shrubs with varying shades of green – maybe lime or blue-gray – can add even more interest in the landscape too.
Bring on the Color
With colorful foliage like this, blooms aren’t the only show in the landscape anymore. To find a new favorite shrub, stop by our Nursery Yard to browse our full collection. In addition to these, we have gorgeous varieties of euonymous, spirea, daphne, deutzia, sumac, and even a sweet little ginkgo shrub too. Not sure which one to pick? Just talk with our team to find the perfect plants for your space – we’d love to help you create a landscape that pops with season-long color.
