While flowering shrubs tend to dominate a garden when they're in bloom, that phase usually doesn't last for more than several weeks. You therefore want to plan around this as you landscape your yard. Set groundcovers, vines, annuals and perennials, and trees aside for a moment. Selecting a variety of flowering shrubs will ensure that your bloom period spans at least three, perhaps even four, seasons.

Planning and Design

Of course, your geographic region is as significant as the shrub species in making these choices. It may well be that the plant you want won't do well where you live. Lilac, for example, does well in more temperate or cooler climates, and crepe myrtle (to name a substitute) does well in hot, humid regions. Rhododendron is much the same in relation to French hydrangea and camellia bushes. Where English holly might suffer, lusterleaf will thrive.

Once you've matched shrubs, flowering period, and your region, you want to think color. Think subtle rather than bold. Rotating your beds and varieties of annuals are one thing, but once you situate shrubs, all you want to be doing is pruning, not replacing. Many shrubs have berries or other fruit that appear after the flowering period, and this is important when it comes to the "off" season. Cranberry viburnum, cotoneasters, and wax myrtle are all good examples. Nandina and Burford holly are indispensable in providing red throughout the winter.

All shrubs benefit from pruning, of course. Growth is more vigorous, foliage enhanced, and blooms more plentiful. The best time to prune spring flowering shrubs is right after they bloom. For summer bloomers, late winter or early spring is good. (Nonblooming evergreens that don't bloom can be pruned any time.) It's still important, however, to be mindful of potential growth. You don't want to plant, for example, Burford holly or firethorn too close to the house. They grow quickly and tall, and can easy devour, as it were, a doorway, window area, arbor, or fence line.