Placement of Shrubs

Every garden boasts of at least one or two trees and a selection of shrubs. Trees always add grace to the landscape with their height and color. Small trees and shrubs, especially flowering shrubs such as crabapples, lilacs and hydrangeas form the main attraction of the garden.

They can be planted in beds or planted as borders either on their own or as mixed borders with perennial and other plants. An example of mixed borders would be one in which small flowering trees like ornamental pears, or rhododendron shrubs are planted with. This combination would look attractive in every season.

They could be planted near the boundaries of the garden as screens. A carefully positioned tree or shrub can be used to mask, maybe a corner of a building or some other obstruction that detracts from the beauty of the garden. Trees and shrubs, particularly evergreens form windbreaks.

These look beautiful against a house, as well as act as break the intensity of strong, howling, high-speed winds during the monsoons or in winter. If it is the harsh afternoon sun that you want to block, then choose trees which have denser growth of leaves. The walls of the house and other buildings in the compound may be used as a support for climbers and wall shrubs.

This would depend, of course, on the architecture of the buildings and whether their appearance would be enhanced by the shrubs planted against them, or the climbers which grow on them. In small gardens, walls add a new dimension because climbers and vines could be grown against them and trained to trail over them. This would leave the beds free to grow a wider and interesting selection of plants.

Individual, or in gardening terminology, ‘specimen’ trees and shrubs could be planted in the lawns as focal points. Those with attractively shaped or colored leaves are ideal for this purpose. Flowering trees, those which produce berries, and trees with colored bark look very handsome when grown thus. Weeping trees, with arching branches make superb lawn specimens. Shrubs, one would choose for the purpose of ornamentation, would be neat and attractive with no straggly branches. Some trees and shrubs look very attractive near a water body. Weeping willows and dogwoods come to mind here.

A rock garden can have a selection of miniature shrubs and trees. Bonsai, today, is a specialized art and bonsai plants would certainly add to the uniqueness of a rock garden. Formal hedges, with or without topiary art, and informal flowering hedges provide and attractive background for other planting schemes. Hedges which have berries, or have gold and silver variegated foliage are extremely attractive. There are a number of small shrubs that are perfectly happy growing in the shade of large trees. Beds of shrubs like the rhododendrons, hydrangeas, mahonias and skimmias under the tall trees make for an attractive picture. Some, though, like to grow in very dry, open and sunny areas. There are low-growing and spreading shrubs described as ground-cover plants that look lovely when grown between larger trees and shrubs, as they form a kind of carpet, and at the same time to a large extent suppress weeds and make soil cultivation unnecessary.