Best Way to Color Your Garden with Trees and Shrubs

The range of shrubs and trees is wide and while they create a wealth of flowers in spring, summer and winter, others have colorful stems and bark that help to bring added interest to gardens, especially during winter. Some trees and shrubs work particularly well when planted in combination with other plants. Here are some exciting combinations.

Flowers for spring

• Amelanchier lamarckii (snowy mespilus):
• Deciduous shrub or small tree with clouds of star-shaped, pure white flowers, with the bonus of colored leaves in autumn. Plant a sea of golden daffodils around it. Height: 4-5-7-5m Spread: 3.6-6m

• Forsythia x intermedia (golden bells): Deciduous shrub with clusters of golden-yellow flowers. For a completely yellow theme, plant golden daffodils around it. Height: 1.8-2.4m Spread: 1.5-2.1m(5-7ft)
• Magnolia stetlata (star magnolia): Deciduous shrub with star-shaped, 10cm (4in) wide, white flowers. Plant small, blue-flowered bulbs around it. Height: 2.4-3m Spread: 2.4-3m
• Spiraea ‘Arguta’ (previously known as Spiraeaxarguta, and popularly as bridal wreath): Deciduous shrub that reveals massed clusters of small, white flowers. Plant a medley of the blue-flowered Scilla siberica and S. tubergeniana (but now correctly known as S. mischtschenkoana), snowdrops and the yellow-flowered winter aconite around it. Height: 1.8-2.4m (6-8ft) Spread: 1.5-2.1m (5-7ft)
• Ulex europaeus ‘Plenus’ (double-flowered gorse): Spioy, evergreen with golden-yellow, pea-shaped flowers. It is especially attractive in a country setting and when set alongside a post-and-rail fence. Height: 1.5-2.1m Spread: 1.5—2.1m

Flowers for summer

• Buddlejaalternifolia: Deciduous shrub, with cascading stems bearing lavender-blue flowers. It is best planted in a lawn, rather than a border, where it tends to dominate. Height: 3-4.5m Spread: 3-4.5m
• Cytisus x praecox (Warminster broom): Deciduous shrub with arching stems bearing creamy-white, pea-shaped flowers. When planted with the flowering currant Ribes sanguineum and a forsythia it creates an attractive group. Height: 1.5-1.8m Spread: 1.5-1.8m

• Hibiscus syriacus (shrubby mallow): Deciduous shrub with large, 7.5cm (3m) wide flowers. Varieties include ‘Blue Bird’ (violet-blue and now known as H. s. ‘Oiseau Bleu’), ‘Woodbridge’ (rose-pink) and ‘Red Heart’ (white with bright red centres). Height: 1.8-3m Spread: 1.2-1.8m
• Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ (rose of Sharon): Almost evergreen shrub, with large, saucer­like, golden-yellow flowers up to 7.5cm (3in) wide. It is ideal for covering large, bare banks. Height: 90cm-1.5m Spread: 1.5-2.1m.
• Laburnum x watereri ‘Vossii’ (golden rain tree): Deciduous tree with golden-yellow, pea-shaped flowers in pendulous clusters up to 60cm (2ft) long.