10 Low-Maintenance Small Shrubs for the Front of Your House

Table Of Content

• Low Maintenance Shrubs for Front of House Landscaping – FAQ
• Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Shrubs For Front of House Landscaping
• Garland Flower (Daphne cneorum)
• Shrubs for Different Climates
• Evergreen Azalea aka Rhododendron Indicum
• Japanese Barberry ‘Atropurpurea Nana’ (Berberis thunbergii ‘Atropurpurea Nana’)

The bold yellow flowers of the forsythia herald the coming of springtime in many areas. Once its foliage appears to dim the yellow buds’ brilliance, this fast-growing, low-maintenance shrub blends into the landscape through fall. Deciduous forsythia can grow up to 10 feet tall and wide, although its arching branches can be pruned to shape, making it an excellent choice for hedges. It’s tolerant of poor soils, moderate drought, and partial shade, but plant it in full sun in zones 5 to 8 to see its golden glory. The inkberry is a low-growing evergreen featuring dark green foliage and long-lasting tiny white flowers that fade into dark blue berries favored by birds.

These St. Simons Island Homeowners Focused On The Front Yard For The Best Reason - Southern Living

These St. Simons Island Homeowners Focused On The Front Yard For The Best Reason.

Posted: Tue, 26 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Low Maintenance Shrubs for Front of House Landscaping – FAQ

Thanks to its tolerance to shade, the American yew can survive in nearly any corner of your yard. It’s not suitable for households with pets since leaves and roots are toxic to many animals. The ‘Sunshine’ privet shrub thrives in full sun to partial shade and tolerates salt spray, heat, and drought.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Shrubs For Front of House Landscaping

It can grow up to 10 feet tall and wide, although its arching branches can be pruned to shape, making it an excellent choice for hedges. The best part about deciding what shrubs to include in your landscaping is that you can mix and match however many plants you have room for. Plant a small evergreen bush like the dwarf Japanese cedar for an adorable addition to your outside space. This cutie maintains a round manicured shape naturally, and grows slowly, so you don't have to do much pruning. It looks great in rock gardens or mulch landscapes and likes full or partial sun.

Garland Flower (Daphne cneorum)

The graceful shrub has low horizontal branching, adding to its ornamental appeal. The abundant yellow flowers in spring brighten foundation lines, hedges, or mixed borders. Littleleaf boxwood ‘Compacta’ is a versatile shrub with several uses when landscaping a front yard. You can plant it as a low hedge, pathway edging, foundation planting, or a natural barrier.

Shrubs for Different Climates

There are hundreds of species of rhododendrons that can be used as nice and sturdy backdrops for many types of flowers and foliage plants. Several plants can thrive without direct sunlight and are suitable for the front of the house. The easy-grow, ground-spreading shrub works well as edging in front of a foundation planting, erosion control on slopes, or cascading over a wall. Lavender, shrub roses, forsythia and hydrangeas are all shrubs that look good in front of the house.

Evergreen Azalea aka Rhododendron Indicum

Native to Eastern North America, the plant produces clumps of berries in late summer that are attractive to birds. The best low-maintenance small shrubs for the front of your house depends on your landscaping goals. You'll need to decide whether you’re looking for compact shrubs for a tidy hedge for privacy or perhaps you want to create a more open, natural look in your front yard. Would you like to focus on planting native shrubs or would you rather keep your options more open? This list of small low-maintenance shrubs will give you a good place to start. Boxwood is a classic evergreen shrub of formal gardens, and if your front yard needs a suitable plant, this is it!

12 Exuberant Shrubs for Front of House - Garden - Treehugger

12 Exuberant Shrubs for Front of House - Garden.

Posted: Thu, 07 Apr 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

These bushes cannot tolerate full sun conditions or harsh winds. Shrubs are the foundation plants that enhance a home’s curb appeal and personality. Carefully select the best shrubs to add privacy, block street noise, and transform a house into an inviting home with natural beauty.

Dwarf Mock Orange (Philadelphus ‘Snow Dwarf’)

If you are looking for shrubs for the front of the house that will help you to incorporate wildlife garden ideas into your plot, then buddleja is a must. If deciding to grow azalea shrubs for the front of the house, it is also important that you know how to prune azaleas to enjoy the best from them. 'Though it can only grow about one foot in height, its 2 inch wide blossoms are loved by butterflies and bees,' says gardening expert Lindsey Hyland of Urban Organic Yield.

Japanese Barberry ‘Atropurpurea Nana’ (Berberis thunbergii ‘Atropurpurea Nana’)

Dwarf chaste tree is a compact shade-tolerant shrub that produces beautiful, rounded clusters of lavender flowers. This hardy perennial blooms throughout the summer, attracting butterflies and bees to front yards. Its compact nature and low growth habit make it ideal for planting along a property line.

In late winter to early spring, spicy-scented white flowers open from dense, 4-inch snowball-shaped clusters of pink buds. Use the shrub as an informal screen or grouped in a mixed shrub border with evergreens. Dwarf cape Jasmine ‘Radicans’ is a stunning low-growing evergreen shrub for a front garden landscape. The shrub’s eye-catching feature is its fragrant white flowers that bloom in late spring and early summer. It’s heat and drought-tolerant and thrives in small gardens without much care.

Front yard landscaping is all about planting different types of shrubs, flowers, and trees to provide year-round freshness and seasonal pops of color. The above evergreen shrubs for the front of the house will give you enviable, lush greenery that will take your home’s curb appeal to the next level. The tropical hibiscus is perfect for your flowering hedge — what with the green leaves and big red flowers having red stigmas and yellow anthers. The evergreen plant is quite versatile and can be planted as a flower bed, border, or foundation bushes for the front of the house. While it’s a relatively low-maintenance shrub, it does get a little sensitive to changing temperatures. It has upright, bright green leaves that tint bronze in the winter.

For showy, long-lasting blooms in white, pink, blue, or purple (depending on your soil’s pH) from summer through fall, the hydrangea can’t be beat. Their natural form lends an informal look, but varieties that grow taller at about 3 to 5 feet high and wide can be pruned to shape. This easy- and fast-growing shrub prefers partial shade, dappled light, or morning sun in zones 5 to 9. The inkberry’ Shamrock’ is a compact evergreen shrub with spineless, glossy green leaves, small greenish-white flowers, and blue-black berries. Growing 3 to 4 ft. (0.9 – 1.2 m) tall, this dwarf shrub doesn’t take up much room.

The shrub adds visual interest to winter landscaping thanks to its year-long green foliage and long-lasting berries. The dwarf Japanese Pieris cultivar ‘Cavatine’ is a compact evergreen flowering shrub to beautify a front yard’s landscape for instant curb appeal. The striking shrub has clusters of small, bell-shaped white flowers dangling on arching stems. The lance-shaped leaves emerge bronze in spring, mature to dark green in summer, and turn reddish-bronze in fall. Japanese skimmia is a versatile evergreen shrub, ideal for front-of-house landscaping in shaded areas.

This hardy shrub has large clusters of star-shaped white flowers, glossy dark green lanceolate leaves, and masses of bright red berries. The evergreen foliage, white flowers, and red berries add a pop of color throughout the year to landscapes. Minuet mountain laurel is a compact evergreen shrub that produces beautiful clusters of pink and white flowers in late spring to early summer. This variety of mountain laurel is known for its smaller size, growing up to 3 to 4 feet (0.9 – 1.2 m) tall and wide. The Korean barberry is a low-growing, deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub that blooms in spring with clusters of small golden-yellow flowers.

‘Ferox Argentea’ English holly is a slow growing shrub, but it can become quite big; however it is tolerant to pruning, and you can keep it fairly small too. It will suit informal designs with a temperate theme, both urban and naturalistic. Some are also slow growing as well, many are low maintenance and we have already seen some blooming varieties. Now it’s time to look at those that are mainly prized for their foliage. A good front garden is green all year round, and this is why you will need some evergreen shrubs.