How to Pick the Best Bushes and Shrubs for Landscaping Your Yard

Offering an enormous diversity of sizes, shapes, flowers, and foliage, using shrubs for landscaping can turn a bland backyard into a beautiful, dynamic showpiece. These sturdy plants help fill in beds and solidify foundation plantings, which makes your yard more inviting.

Flowering varieties add extra color and sweet fragrances. Depending on where you live and the conditions in your yard, different shrubs can add evergreen texture, groundcover on a slope, and even more privacy by blocking street noise. They also help protect the soil from erosion and support wildlife with food and shelter.

Here’s a look at various important characteristics to consider to pick out the best shrubs for your yard.

Types of Shrubs and Bushes

Before diving into the different types of bushes and shrubs for landscaping, you may wonder precisely what they are. In general, they’re plants with multiple woody stems that usually don’t die back to the ground in winter (which most perennial plants typically do). However, a few trees, like serviceberries, can have multiple woody stems, so some experts distinguish shrubs further by saying they stay under 10 feet tall.

There are exceptions to this rule, which has led to the term “trub,” labeling those plants that can’t seem to decide if they’re a tree or a shrub.

Shrubs can be deciduous (meaning they lose their leaves every winter) or evergreen. Some families of shrubs include both of these types, like hollies. There are also coniferous (cone-bearing evergreens) species like many junipers and yews.

Shrub Foliage Colors

The leaves of shrubs for landscaping come in almost every color, even nearly black, like ‘Black Lace’ elderberry ($21, The Home Depot). Even plain green deciduous varieties often turn bright colors in the fall. And evergreen shrubs, despite their name, offer a fantastic range of foliage colors beyond green, including soft blue, yellow, and variegated in yellow or cream with green. These hues look even more striking in a snow-covered winter landscape. When selecting bushes or shrubs for landscaping, consider their appearance throughout all seasons.

Shrub Shapes and Forms

In addition to the usual upright, rounded configuration, shrubs for landscaping can be weeping (branches drape downward), prostrate (branches grow low and outward, which works well for covering slopes), and topiary (pruned into interesting shapes). Some species are available in dwarf forms, especially conifers, which are a good choice for smaller properties.

Drought-Tolerant Options

Compared to many smaller plants, most shrubs are pretty drought-tolerant once they are established (for the first year after planting, you’ll want to make sure your shrub stays well watered so the roots have a chance to grow in). Unfortunately, you can’t always count on rain to water your plants in some parts of the country. So if you want to use less water in your garden, choose shrubs that tolerate dry conditions. Some examples are potentilla, spirea, and many viburnums.

Avoiding Deer Damage

Deer can damage shrubs by nibbling their twigs, fruit, and foliage. Gardeners across the country always look for ornamentals that deer won’t touch. Lists vary by region (and even neighborhood), but certain types of plants appear on many of them. Consider shrubs with thorns or prickers, resinous wood, aromatic foliage, and fuzzy leaves.