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A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN WITHOUT FLOWERS? DECORATIVE LEAF PLANTS WILL BE EXPRESSED!

It is impossible to imagine your garden without flowering shrubs. Forsythia, quince, spirea, lilac, viburnum, mock orange, hydrangeas They bloom, replacing each other, and in turn, here and there, they place beautiful accents. But without flowers, these are ordinary green bushes, which cannot be said about decorative deciduous shrubs. Flowering for them is secondary, the main thing is bright multi-colored foliage.

The choice of decorative and deciduous shrubs is simply huge. They delight us with a beautiful outfit all season long, and in winter they structure the garden and stand out against the background of snow with a silhouette and bark color. Like most shrubs, they are reliable and unpretentious, require a minimum of care, grow quickly, with the help of a haircut, you can create different shapes and geometric shapes from them. Unlike perennials, they do not require frequent division and transplantation.

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And most importantly - cheaper than flowers for the same area (if you count by the number per square meter). Easily propagated by layering and cuttings. From one bush in a couple of seasons you can grow a whole hedge. Decorative deciduous shrubs, just like flowering ones, are real “true friends” for gardeners who love not only to work, but also to relax in their garden. Vesicles are Kalinolistnye, derains, Japanese spireas, barberries have many varieties with leaves of different colors. For every taste!

But there is one nuance.

Unlike flowering shrubs, which only become accents in the garden for a certain time, and then remain just a green background, decorative leafy shrubs retain their bright color from spring to autumn. And if you choose the wrong place for them or the wrong neighbors, instead of a beautiful view, you can get a “vinaigrette” from incompatible color spots. Here, as with flowers, the same rules apply.

Less is better, but more.

You should not buy a lot of shrubs of different colors. For example, barberries are yellow, and red, and purple, and speckled, of different shades, shapes and sizes. If you create a harmonious garden, and not a collection of plants, the same specimens, matching in color and shape, repeated in different parts of the garden, will look much more interesting than various bushes planted together. That is, fewer varieties, but more in the number of copies of the same variety.

Two plus three.

In one composition - three forms + two colors or a maximum of three colors, but two forms. For example, if the shrubs are in the form of balls or pillows, you can combine plants with green, purple and white-edged leaves. Spherical bushes of any color are suitable for green vertical thuja and horizontal juniper. The main thing is that the basis of the composition is green. Bright ornamental deciduous shrubs should only be used as accents.

Echo.

This is a very interesting technique when the signs of one shrub are repeated in other plants, in decoration or in small architectural forms. For example, in my garden, the utility block and the Hobbit's house are painted light yellow. The same shades are also present in various shrubs growing throughout the garden: in the Golden Princess spireas, in the yellow-green califolia vesicle, in thujas and barberries of the same color. But that is not all. Like an echo, the hostas planted next to the bushes echo the bushes, on the green leaves of which there are yellow stripes. Derains with white-edged leaves look beautiful next to flowering tree-like hydrangeas. Echoes to them can be white elements in the garden (pergolas, benches, flower pots), hostas with white-green leaves, white-flowering ground covers and perennials. Echoes to the purple barberry will be burgundy geyher, tenacious, red-brown flowers of daylilies, other perennials with purple flowers or leaves (Roger-Sia, black cohosh, burnet, astrantia, etc.).

❀ The best deciduous ornamental shrubs for the garden

Knowing of limits.

This is the most important rule in creating compositions from decorative leafy shrubs. After all, any shrub with an unusual color will be an accent in the garden. If you plant too many of them, the composition will become heavy, hard, tense. Sharp color contrasts cause a storm of emotions, but quickly tire. Therefore, it is better to surround bright shrubs with calm green ones. Moreover, green has many shades. Light and dark green plants perfectly complement yellow-leaved and variegated shrubs. And white-green and silver soften the purple hues.

There are also decorative deciduous shrubs, the beauty of which is in young growths. These are Hakuro Nishiki willow with white-pink tips in spring, Japanese Gold Flame spirea with bright pink tops, Japanese chaenomeles with maroon growths. But the earliest and most spectacular is the rowanberry. This is an ordinary green shrub, but in spring it simply amazes with its color. Its beautiful carved leaves are at the same time pale pink, yellow, and light green. It blooms very early, with primroses, then it combines wonderfully with purple barberry, and with yellow-bordered hosta, and with multi-colored tulips. And in summer it turns green and serves as a backdrop for other plants. His flowering is also beautiful - with white panicles, which I then cut off and form a neat semicircular bush. I limit its slightly aggressive character (a lot of root shoots) with a wide border tape around the perimeter of the crown. And I regularly remove, or rather, in this way I get new plants.

I'll tell you a little more about the most favorite decorative deciduous shrubs in my garden.

1. Japanese spirea Golden Princess. Although she is a princess, she is completely unpretentious. From care - only a haircut. It blooms with pink flowers in summer, but I prefer its pleasant yellow-green foliage. Low balls stand out beautifully against the background of thujas, pines, cereals. In the flower garden, this spirea is a wonderful partner for decorative bows, hosts and sages. And for a low curb is simply irreplaceable!

2. Vesicle viburnum yellow-green. It is the same color as spirea, but up to 3 m high. It makes excellent hedges or high decorative screens to mask unsightly places.

3. Derain Elegantissima. It is not only beautiful with its white-green foliage in summer, but also with bright red shoots in winter. It cuts well and is easily propagated by cuttings.