Photo by María Helena Carey, who still mourns her Catawba Rhododendron
Although it’s too hot now to plant shrubs, you can start planning your fall plantings with the help of Matthew Roberts, plant guru extraordinaire at Ginkgo Gardens, 911 11th Street, SE. –MHC
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In a scene from one my favorite books, The Phantom Tollbooth, the hero Milo knocks at the entrance of an exactly square house with a door in each façade. He first encounters the world’s smallest giant, while around the corner the door is answered by the tallest midget. Needless to say he rounds the corner again and meets the thinnest fat man who forwards the question on to (surprise, surprise) the fattest thin man. All this is to illustrate that what to one person might be a very small tree could be to another person a very large shrub. To illustrate the point think of a Japanese maple (which being a non-native we will ignore from now on) and of an oak leaf hydrangea (which is one of my favorites and will be discussed in detail later). The former is a lovely small tree that most people use as a shrub while the latter is quite a large shrub that can shade a bistro table and two chairs. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, to-may-to, to-mah-to.
Shrubs can be either deciduous (meaning they lose their leaves in the winter) or evergreen (in which case they do not). They can be planted in alignment to form a hedge, along the base of a wall to act as a foundation planting or in various formations to provide structure to a garden design. In the urban landscape they can play the role of a specimen tree and be the focal point of a small yard. Shrubs are remarkably easy to maintain just so long as one pays attention to light requirements, soil specifications, and the final height and breadth each bush will attain. In this age of instant gratification, the lush and perfectly proportioned greenscape installed today may be blocking your windows and impinging upon your neighbors tomorrow. Be sure to read the label at the nursery or ask your local garden guru.
For the purposes of this article we will confine our ramble to shrubbery that are native to the region, provide food (and shelter, but primarily food) and that are, not to put too fine a point on it, pretty to look at and nice to smell. There are plenty of lovey plants from China, Japan, the Middle East and Europe, but we’re sticking to locals today. Likewise there are more than a few natives out there that abound in insects and nesting sites, but tend toward the homely (scraggly, prickly, prone to sucker, and drab in leaf and blossom). Here’s a few of the best of the best:
- Oakleaf and smooth hydrangeas (H. quercifolia and H. arborescens) will fare much better if you give them a bit more sun than you are thinking of. Moving them out of deep shade into brightly dappled light or, better yet, a few hours of good morning sunshine will make for a stronger and more floriferous shrub. Oakleafs range in size from the regal ‘Alice’ and ‘Snow Queen’ reaching up to 12 feet down to the diminutive ‘PeeWee’ and ‘Syke’s Dwarf’. They all, however, have enormous elongated creamy white blossoms that appear in mid-summer, incredible deep red and burgundy fall colors, and shaggy, peeling bark exposed during the winter. Smooth hydrangeas have large blossoms that emerge apple-green, expand into pure white, and remain through the fall as wisps of tan and sandpaper brown.
- Anyone who knows anything about gardening knows that azaleas are just a selective type of rhododendron. However, these showstoppers of Washington spring tend to be bred from oriental stock, so think instead of our native species. Their looser shape and open growth pattern lend itself to natural garden schemes rather than a more formal layout. Try a coast azalea (Rhododendron atlanticum), or a flame azalea (R. calendulaceum). Look for pinxterbloom (R. periclymenoides), roseshell (R. prinophyullum) or swamp azaleas (R. viscosum). Flames have yellow and orange blossoms not normally associated with the genus as well as rather striking fall foliage while the other species listed are all odiferous beyond the usual azalea’s range of scent.
- Most viburnums are native and all of them smell great. The highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) has flowers in spring, yummy berries in the summer – if the birds don’t get them first – and dazzling fall colors. The spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is an old-fashioned shrub that can be found at the Franciscan monastery garden in Northeast, on older estates and surprisingly in some DC parks. Its tiny pale yellow flowers can be smelled before they can be seen in early, early spring. It also has really decent yellows in the fall and bright red berries in the winter: another horticultural triple threat.
And who doesn’t love pussywillows and fothergillas and buttonbushes? While looking around be sure to check out the various chokeberries, the beautyberry, and the winterberry hollies. These are only a few bushes of the many, many out there, so whatever your soil condition, light available or size requirement there is a shrub to fit your need and a native shrub at that.