12 brilliant shrubs for your garden chosen by experts

Lovely video! Thank you.

Well done !🦋🦋 I have double mock orange , don Juan climbing rose..and for a companion for the rose is white morning glory...stunning contrast

Thank you so much for this video! I’m located in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, but grew up in the Midwest, and I have lived on the East Coast and recently took up gardening in the past 10 years, and have ruined quite a few gardens being uneducated about the science of planting. I’ve learned from my previous lessons and educating myself first before I continue to waste, thousands of dollars!

I will put in a plug for two West Coast natives that also have their own UK cultivars, red flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) and California lilac (Ceanothus spp). The first has stunning fuschia flowers in very early spring and is one of the first plants to leaf out in late winter -- leaves get lovely fall color; is drought tolerant once established. The other has a stunning blue display in late spring, beloved by bumble bees, and is extremely drought tolerant once established (just needs a sunny well drained location, at the top of a slope or in a rock garden) -- may not even need summer water for you guys. Bc of its xeric habit very minimal pruning because they grow slowly, and they're evergreen.

In England you are lucky to have mild climates so that you can also grow great Australian natives such as callistemons, grevilleas and leptospermums. Maybe even banksias, coz they grow well in Brittany and Normandy.

I love my oak leaf hydrangeas! It’s very pretty all year long, has stunning big flowers, and easy to take care of too!

I had a physocarpus Diablo for 10 years, it grew beautifully and was so healthy and then in year 11, it just dropped dead over the winter 😢

We’re in Connecticut, in the US. The Euonymus featured is wildly invasive and damaging to waterway eco-cultures. They spread prolifically. Stunning fall color, but rampant and uncontrollable.

Thank you so much. I'm devouring your vids at the moment because I am planting an 'English country garden" for a client up here in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Your hardiness numbers are invaluable.

I think shrubs really round out the garden with so many more choices.
I have grown and enjoyed most of the shrubs featured here. In addition, I enjoy my forsythia, lilacs and magnolia in spring, rhodos, azaleas, lavender, hydrangea, dogwoods, Japanese willow and of course the various types of spirea especially the little Princess which I have contrasting my Japanese maple, hibiscus, sand cherry butterfly bush and my holly, boxwood, mountain laurel, variegated euonymus and cedars especially as foundation plantings to maintain a lovely green throughout the winter.
Almost forgot the potentilla!!😉

Posy is standing next to a lovely shrub which appears to be neither the ones she recommended. Can you let us know the name of the shrub she is standing next to which has those lovely yellow flowers 🙏 please. Thanks

Love all these shrubs and have some. We had a Mahonia once. I had to remove it…the most painful thing in the garden with its sharp leaves and it was spreading. I do think shrubs are so important in a garden.

Great evergreen shrub that will provide scent in early autumn is Eleagnus Limelight or Gilt Edge. Also like all Viburnums. Especially davidii for shade, tinus for structure and plicatum is just gorgeous.

At this time in human evolution I feel if we want to plant shrubs we should be planting things that produce eatables 😊

I find it annoying when someone giving advice says that they have a small garden and they really don’t! I have a very small garden, what shrubs could I have and still be able to put in pretty perennials too!

Great content and so helpful! Thank you so much again for your terrific videos!!!

I love Nialls shirt!!

My 9 bark doesn't bloom, its been there for 3 years. What should I do?

The mahonia berries are edible which I found out the hardest way possible when i found my toddler daughter stuffing her face with them. I was sick with worry and horror but was soon reassured to find they are safe, the birds love them and some people even make jams with them. Phew!!!! She's quite grown up now so all's well that ends well. My favourite is buddleija. I know people think it's a weed and a bit common but I use the flowers in bouquets and of course the bees and butterflies love them.

I subscribe to Niall and his channel is very nice. Thank you for the video! Another informative collaboration.

Winterberries, I have several and pollinators, they make great fillers and then look stunning going into winter and during winter; nothing like looking out & seeing berries, especially bright red berries against the white snow. Another favorite that looks good summer & winter and requires minimal work are globe spruces.

That was very cool getting so many gardeners talking about their favorite shrubs. Thank you! 👩‍🌾

Good morning Alexandra. the gardens you shared as well as your own are so pretty. Not too big to manage and needless to say the walled garden is everybody's favourite. Shrubs are grand for the city gardens, my favourite one is the Magnolia. Those pinkish flowers that appear first are just so graceful, yet there are multitude's to choose from. It is a lovely video, I am cutting back on comments, I think I have too much to say at times, and internet takes up much time which I can't really afford. I have taken an interest in the renovating of Chateau's in France, it is so interesting, but at the end of the day it is still renovations but with gardening I feel the results are more satisfying. We had some frost this morning, and it makes the ground level very cold. Perhaps if you are willing send me an email address, a safe one!! I am sure you do not have the time to chat to the world. Oh bad news, I am going to remove some trees, unfortunately they need to go! Kind regards

Potentilla fruticosa "Primrose Beauty" is a favorite in my garden. It has soft yellow flowers all summer, which are easily blended with other colours in the border, and pretty foliage. Also IMMO it is that rare find - a shrub which doesn't grow too big!

Good morn, I have a Fatsia Japonica in my garden. I have had it for over 20 years. While I was on holiday once in Tuscany, I noticed that the Italians prune their Fatsia Japonicas. They remove the leaves at strategic places creating a ‘cloud Pruning effect’. I have done the same with mine. It looks stunning with the leaves so green and luxuriant and fresh. Mine is in three layers and once the pruning is done the leaves tend to turn upwards giving the effect of an upturned umbrella.
The tree will again grow more leaves by the end of the year and into winter and will bear flowers when the pollinators will be having a feast. Thought I will share this titbits with you and the other viewers. I will send you a picture of my tree (not a spider one) in due course. Thank you again for pointing us in the right direction. Best wishes from Yacoob from Edgware,Middlesex.

I totally agree! I love having shrubs in my borders and would not be without the structure that they add.

Great advice and tips as usual 🙏🏽

I need to pick up some of the shrubs highlighted! A favorite in my garden is Blue Caryopteris. Love the continual blue in my garden esp next to the peach Lady of Shallot roses.

Very informative program. I have 20 lemon lime and obsession nandinas here in the US. they are very showy and extremely hardy in both sun and shade. I am interested in knowing how many years I can expect them to live. I am counting on at least 30 years of healthy living for them. Thank you.

I love love love deciduous shrubs! I think they are underused in California where we can grow broadleaf evergreens and I think people why away from all deciduous shrubs accept for roses. I have the black lace elderberry in my garden and I love it!!! Thank you for having a great video all about shrubs!

Personally I'd prefer to let the ninebark complete its cycle to fruit, for it has the most interesting and persistent seed capsules. They are shiny and even more brightly colored than the foliage. Prune it sharply but let a woody trunk develop--its bark is special.

Bravo, brilliant video, I'm a professional gardener in Beara, West Cork. Our options are limited due to salty winds. As such eleagnus ebegenii, olearia macradonta, berberis darwinii, any fuschia, any hebe, a few more, not too many, are the ones that live.

Inspirational

Hydrangea quercifolia Snowflake, Abelia Canyon Creek, Jasminum mesnyi Gold Tip, Osmanthus fragrans, Fothergilla Blue Shadow, Encore azalea Sangria
Sorry, but could not stop with one !

The best of advise on pruning Weigela. True for so many other species as well. A rejuvenating cut rather than a heading back, keeps a natural shape intact. Just a bit of this, and every year.

Wonderful, thank you. 👌💕

Thank you for another great informative video! Nandina is invasive where I live and the berries kill some birds so many are deciding not to grow them. I just cut the berries and use them in arrangements. This also keeps the seeds from spreading. Thanks again!

I didn't realise shrubs are 'unfashionable'. Turns out I'm really un-cool! Fun to see shrubs in your video that I've planted recently like Contius, Physocarpus and Fatsia. They are all babies at the moment and I can't wait for them to start dominating their spots in the garden.

I love your videos and look forward to them every week. They are full of very useful information for my zone 9 in Coastal California. Thank you

Thank you for this video about shrubs.
I am South African and have been here for 17 years. I had three eights of an acre in SA and now have a post stamp, but still enjoy the difference in gardening, except missing my shrubs.
I send my daughter in SA fotos of my colourful perennial garden and she can't believe that in a few months most of it is gone.
I am adding to my shrubs and a few of the shrubs mentioned are old friends.
In Cambridge I have a plumbago close to the house and overwintered.
In my old garden, I had a hybrid hibiscus deep red with a darker eye and the large yellow stamen and when I sold the house it was 30 years old.
I had hedges of Nandina growing out of cracks in the paving around the pool.
Here I have a Nandina in a pot also doing well and always have flowers and berries.
Going to get the Weigela mentioned, my mother always had them.
Just had a look at Brunsvelsia and you do seem to get them here, one of the best in my old garden and tough as boots even with frost.
Thank you for reminding me about shrubs.

Wonderful informative and I appreciate your show so much!

Thanks a million, Alexandra. I love shrubs, but my garden is too small to fit in all the wonderful ones suggested in your video and in all the helpful comments. I want them all…. I know I have to sit down and think , but I simply get paralysed as to which ones to chose: how much space to leave between, the colours, the heights, evergreens, deciduous, leave shapes, flowers, autumn colouring and even more head spinning where, oh where can I put them all!

One shrub that wasn't mentioned but I would most definitely recommend to anyone wanting a versatile, easy maintence shrub with lovely foliage Spring through Autumn is the Nishiki Willow! I just planted it in the front of my house and the foliage started out bright limey green with an almost acid splash varigation and the newer foliage is turning more of a blush pink colour. <3
The one I bought is hardy to USDA Zone 3 but I think depending on where you live it may be grown for a warmer Zone so good to double check the tag or garden centre worker! :)

Another great video! They are so informative. I love abelias. A new favorite for me is Abelia "Funshine". It is the most floriferous of my abelias producing masses of small light lavender blossoms.

I rather enjoyed this.👍

Another great video, Alexandra. Thank you SO much . I always learn a lot and get new ideas watching you and your guest speakers. xx

I'd love to have elderberries, blueberries, Jewel gooseberry, haskaps, more raspberries, beaked hazel, white and black currants, and gambel oak. In my tiny garden, it'll be a trick figuring out how to fit some of them in.

The dark ninebark shows pollinators that it's toxic. It gets out of control easily. It's coming out of my garden. If you have room, snowberries can look pretty. They could also get out of control easily.

This is just the best channel!