Add Timeless Shrubs to Your Garden
(Page 2 of 5)
December/January 2000
By Geraldine Adamich Laufer
Graceful, arching shrubs that are naturally vase-shaped may be underplanted with more traditional herbaceous favorites or with bulbs to mask bare, leggy lower branches. And finally, dwarf shrubs, those classified as knee-high or waist-high, are useful for ground covers, low edging, or definition in the garden, and largely eliminate the need for pruning.
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A third traditional use for shrubs in the landscape is as a single specimen chosen to be a focal point in the garden—an individual plant grown for its own sake. Herbal shrubs with several seasons of interest, such as doublefile viburnum, quince, and blueberry are good selections. Sometimes the shape or height of the specimen shrub is important. Tall columnar shrubs such juniper or fastigiate yew, the traditional herb of mourning, provide a vertical element that serves as an exclamation point in the herb garden.
Broad-Leaved Evergreen Shrubs
These shrubs are an indispensable part of the garden, and they play many roles.
Laurus nobilis, the revered bay laurel of antiquity, must be grown in a large tub and brought inside, as it will winter-kill at temperatures lower than about 15° F. It stays outside in my garden in Atlanta except for a day or two each winter, when I roll it into the garage. A popular seasoning herb, it thrives in part shade.
The elusive daphne has a reputation for being finicky. Sackville-West recommends a spongy soil, rich with humus and sand, with overhead shade in the summer. My friend Julie, who just moved within Atlanta had grown her winter daphne (Daphne odora) in a large pot on her terrace for seven years. Now that she has a larger garden, she hesitates to transplant it, repeating the expression, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Her pot-dwelling daphne perfumes the air during its winter bloom season.
The leathery, aromatic evergreen leaves of shrubs in the anise family are sure to delight, but not so the maroon red flowers of Florida anisebush (Illicium floridanum). Nicknamed “chicken livers,” they are so malodorous that I am glad I planted them beyond the garage. But I’m not growing this plant for scent; I love it for its beautiful star anise seed pods, with cinnamon-colored seeds as shiny as patent leather. I also appreciate the tall screening—just under 10 feet—that it provides.
Smaller broad-leaved evergreen sub-shrubs include the favorites rosemary and lavender. In my climate, rosemary blooms in wintertime with blue flowers on old wood. And Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ and L. angustifolia ‘Munstead’ often bloom twice a year, in April and again in October. I prune the long flower spikes immediately after flowering as next year’s flowers form on the tips of the branches. The ever-gray foliage is fragrant even when the plant is not in bloom.
Silvery-gray lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus) and its close relative green santolina (S. virens) act as woody perennials in the herb garden and are covered with bright yellow button flowers each summer. Finally, narrow-leaf French thyme (Thymus vulgaris ‘Narrow-Leaf French’), which grows only 12 inches tall, is my favorite to use in tussie-mussies, symbolizing courage.
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