Browse Plants

This 6- to 8-foot-tall, deciduous shrub is grown for its glossy leaves and spiky, round, creamy-white flowers that appear in early to midsummer.The flowers give way to small brown fruit clusters several weeks later. Chinese buttonbush is closely related to the North American buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), but is finer-textured and more compact.

This is a suckering, deciduous shrub grown for it's white, bottlebrush-like flowers in early summer. The flowers are considerably longer than those of the species at up to 30 inches, and emerge a couple of weeks later. The shrub grows to 10 feet tall and 15 feet wide and prefers full sun to partial shade and moist, well-drained soil. Its layers of broad leaves turn gold in fall.Suitable for a medium to large garden.

This deciduous shrub to 8-10 feet tall and wide blooms from late spring through July with 3- to 4-inch-wide, white, fragrant, magnolia-like blossoms with purple centers. This shrub is somewhat deer resistant.

This celebrated hybrid is notable for its green leaves with golden-yellow margins that fade to cream. Its deep-pink buds open to pale, pink-white blossoms in early spring and give off a sweet fragrance.

This small shrub to 3-4 feet tall and wide blooms from late spring to fall with a liberal sprinkling of small, white, highly fragrant flowers over grey-green leaves that form a fine-textured mound. This shrub is semi-evergreen. It will retain some of its leaves in winter, though in colder climates it may be completely deciduous.

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This evergreen species produces rose-purple buds that open to white and are intensely and exotically fragrant. The blooms (from mid-winter to early spring) are followed by red fruit and dark-green, glossy leaves.  

Japanese fatsia has very large, hand-shaped glossy leaves that glow in the shade. New leaves fan out on stiff stems all along the ringed trunks. The flower clusters of older fatsias attract bees. -Nellie Neal, Regional Picks: Southeast, Fine Gardening issue #127

These shrubs are beautiful, compact, and easy to grow, making them obvious choices for mixed borders, foundation plantings, and naturalizing. The fragrant, bottlebrush flowers are petalless and sweetly-scented.

This versatile shrub to 3 feet tall and widestarts the show in spring before even the leaves emerge with 1- to -2-inch long, honey-scented, white, bottlebrush flowers that bloom for several weeks. These are joined soon after by wavy-margined, leathery, blue-green leaves that, in fall, may turn many shades of yellow, orange, and red.

This evergreen, California-native shrub grows to 20 feet tall and wide and produces abundant clusters of tiny white flowers in early summer, which attract beneficial insects that help control pests. This is followed by bright red berries that feed wildlife in fall and winter. The only species of its genus, Toyon is closely related to the genus Photinia.

This re-blooming mophead features inflorescences ranging 4-6 inches wide. Their color will be pink or blue depending on aluminum availability in soil. Compact habit with glossy dark green leaves.

I’m one of those people who thinks a garden without a hydrangea would seem incomplete. And because it provides interest in all seasons, oakleaf hydrangea is one of the best. Not everyone, however, has enough garden real estate to devote to such a large plant. Enter ‘Ruby Slippers’, a new compact form of oakleaf hydrangea, which is a must-have for smaller spaces. Developed by one of the premier hydrangea hybridizers, Sandra Reed of the U.S. National Arboretum, ‘Ruby Slippers’ boasts a multitude of stocky flowers that show up as white and then mature to striking deep rose. With its space-conscious habit and vibrant blooms, ‘Ruby Slippers’ will soon become a hugely popular flowering shrub.

This upright, sparsely branched, woody shrub reaches 4 to 10 feet tall. It's easy to grow but slow-growing. It displays dark green leaves that are blue-green beneath, and large, silken blossoms 6 to 12 inches across in late spring and early summer. The plants maintain a graceful branching structure throughout the winter.

Grown mainly for its velvety gray succulent leaves, this Australian native shrub can reach 3 feet high and wide.