Colorful Shrubs

Now you may say it’s too late to be planting shrubs, but I say now is the time you should be planting. Let’s take at a few that I think have great landscape potential. A shrub that I love is Sunshine ligustrum. This is a fast-growing, compact shrub with beautiful golden ornamental foliage. It’s a multi-stemmed shrub with dense upright growth. The golden color of the small glossy oval leaves is enhanced by sun exposure, so plant in the full sun for best performance. The new leaves emerge light green and transition to their bright colors for summer. Sunshine ligustrum will hold its golden color for winter, sure to spice up the dreary winter landscape. Now I don’t normally like shrubs shaped like little green balls in the landscape but I make an exception for Globosa Nana cryptomeria. This evergreen selection has a natural bowling ball shape with no shearing. The foliage is fine textured. This plant would make a fantastic landscape specimen will only grow to about 3½ feet. Winter cassia is certainly one of those show stopping plants, especially considering the prolific blooms in the winter season. Who wouldn’t want to see the mass of bright yellow flowers in their landscape? Beginning in November the flowers are displayed in spike-like clusters, each having up to 12 individual blossoms. The clusters form towards the branch tips. Planting in the full sun will reward you with the best flower production. I really think these are great landscape choices, plus all three are deer resistant. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman and I’ll see you next time on Southern Gardening.