Yew shrubs are the most popular evergreen landscaping plants for hedges, privacy screens, foundation plantings, topiaries, and shrub borders. The dense, evergreen foliage of yews and tolerance of repeated pruning make them garden favorites. In addition, yew shrubs are typically low-maintenance plants that are tolerant of drought, they grow easily in most soil types and thrive in full sun or shade.

Thorny bushes and shrubs are ideal security plants to protect your property from unwelcoming visitors. Prickly plants with thorns provide a natural defensive barrier around your property without spoiling your garden’s aesthetics. Additionally, evergreen shrubs with thorns also offer all-year round privacy thanks to their dense foliage, spines, prickles, and thorns.

Shrub fertilizers are useful for providing vital nutrients to ornamental bushes, evergreen shrubs, and flowering shrubs. Choosing the right fertilizer for shrubs produces lush foliage, beautiful flowers, and shrubs that are more resistant to disease. In addition, the best fertilizers for shrubs are not expensive. Thus, they are ideal for amending poor-quality soil and encouraging healthy growth.

Butterfly bush (botanical name Buddleja or Buddleia) is a group of small to medium-sized flowering shrubs. Butterfly bushes have beautiful clusters of colorful flowers that bloom from summer to fall. The conical flower clusters bloom in shades of purple, white, pink, and orange. The vibrantly colored flower spikes attract a multitude of butterflies—hence the common name butterfly bush.

Flowering shrubs that thrive in the shade are perfect plants if you have a shaded garden. Full-shade shrubs bloom with flowers in hues of pink, blue, lilac, red, white, and yellow. Many shade-loving flowering perennial shrubs continue to produce lush foliage and beautiful flowers despite a lack of sunlight in a garden landscape. Also, shade-tolerant evergreen shrubs can provide year-long privacy in your front or backyard.

Nandina (Nandina domestica) is an evergreen, ornamental landscape shrub with brightly colored leaves and crimson red berries. Nandina shrubs go by the common names of heavenly bamboo, Chinese sacred bamboo, or sacred bamboo. Nandina is a low-growing shrub that is popular in gardens due to its bright red or pink foliage that decorates the bush in the spring, fall, and winter.

Colorful wisteria vines and trees are stunning flowering plants that bloom in beautiful hues of purple, pink, white, and lilac. The beautiful, scented clusters of wisteria flowers cascade from woody vines, filling garden landscapes with color and fragrance. Popular types of ornamental wisteria plants are American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) and Asian wisterias—Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) and Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis).

Low-maintenance shrubs are ideal for making your garden look beautiful throughout the year with minimal care. Many easy-care landscaping shrubs need little or no pruning, grow in full sun or shade, are drought-tolerant, and thrive in various soil types. You can plant low-maintenance shrubs along borders, as foundation plantings, flowering hedge plants, privacy screens, or mixed beds.

Tropical hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) is a group of beautiful evergreen flowering shrubs that produce huge, colorful flowers. Also called Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, or shoeblack plant, the flowers on these tropical plants can be up to 10” (25 cm) in diameter. Tropical hibiscus flowers can be shades of pink, white, purple, yellow, orange, and red. Very often, the blooms on tropical hibiscus are funnel-shaped with a dark-colored center.

Hardy hibiscus is a group of several hibiscus perennial shrubs that produce large, tropical-like flowers in shades of red, pink, purple, and white. Hardy hibiscus also has some of the largest flowers of any perennial garden shrubs. For example, the “Dinner Plate” hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos) is a cold-hardy shrub with huge, flat circular blooms up to 9” (22 cm) wide.