15 Best Flowering Shrubs For Every Season
Want to have shrubs blooming all year long in your garden? Here are some of the best flowering shrubs for every season!
How wonderful would it be to have flowers blooming in your garden no matter the season? This is definitely a goal I have for our house! Nothing makes the curb appeal of a home look as lovely as flowers when they are in full bloom.
The gorgeous mixture of different colors, textures, and fragrances can be quite striking and captivating.
If you want to have flowers blooming in your garden all year long as well, choosing the right shrubs will make all the difference. So I gathered up fifteen of the best flowering shrubs for every season to help get you started this year.
Spring Shrubs
Camellia
- Mature Size: up to 12 feet
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 to 9
- Soil Type: well-drained, acidic
- Color of the Flower: yellow, lavender, white, or pink
- Common Varieties: Camellia Japonica and Camellia Sasanqua
Camellias are long-blooming flowers with the ability to stretch to the winter season. They have beautiful buds and the broad, glossy leaves make this a wonderful landscaping flower. You can plant these flowers in fall or spring to let the roots become established before the winter season kicks in.
Azalea
- Mature Size: up to 6 feet
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 5 to 9
- Soil Type: well-drained, slightly acidic
- Colors of the Flower: yellow, pink, red, white, etc
- Subgenera: Tsutsusi and Pentanthera
- Common Varieties: Florida flame and Pink shell
Azaleas come in many beautiful hues that make it hard to settle for one variety. They are also easy to take care of and their color variations make them excellent shrub flowers to grow in the spring. Azalea flowers like cool, shaded, but well-oxygenated areas. Note that full sun can burn their leaves.
The shrubs can also be planted in containers and pots indoors. Ensure that the soil is well-drained when planting azaleas.
California Lilac
- Mature Size: up to 9 feet
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 8 to 10
- Soil Type: well-drained, rich soil
- Color of the Flower: typically deep-blue and sometimes purple or white
- Common Varieties: Ceanothus concha, ceanothus thyrsiflorus, and Gloire de
- Versailles
This flower is native to North America. It is a vibrant shrub that produces beautiful and robust blooms in the late spring. In places such as Oregon and some parts of California, the lilacs grow like wildflowers. The plants love the full sun and they will stretch onto the summer season after planting in late spring.
Forsythias are easy to take care of and they are among the first flowers to start blooming in the spring. They belong to the olive family and this can be seen in their characteristics. They have small, bright yellow petals on elongated twigs.
The shrub can grow as tall as 10 feet and with branches extending in all directions, it can be almost 10 feet wide. The shrubs love the sun and grow bubbly when exposed to full sunshine without a shade.
Summer Shrubs
Smoke Bush
- Mature Size: up to 15 feet
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 4 to 11
- Soil Type: well-drained loamy soil (both acidic and alkaline)
- Color of the Flower: purple-pink
- Common Varieties: Nordine, Velvet Cloak, Daydream, and Royal Purple
Smoke bush is a deciduous, hardy plant that blooms in the summer. It loves the full sun but can also be planted in sparsely shaded places. Once it has established itself, the flower can withstand drought and dry conditions. Deep watering during the root-formation stage is critical for the growth of these flowers.
Hydrangeas are easy to grow and can survive in almost any type of soil. These beautiful blooms complement any garden and they are great cut flowers as well. They love fertile, well-drained soils and exposure to the full sun. These flowers bloom in the summer.
The ideal planting time is in the spring as this will give them time to get established before the summer season comes along. The climbing hydrangea can be a great shrub for wall decoration.
Fuchsias are delicate flowers used extensively for patio decorations. They are multi-colored. They love sparsely shaded areas and do not thrive in the full sun because they cannot tolerate the heat. When blooming them in the summer, ensure that they are located in a slightly shaded area away from direct sunlight. You need to water these flowers occasionally as they love humidity.
The blossoms that hang from these flowers are excellent pollinator attractors. Fuchsias can also grow indoors but they will require bright light and a regulated watering process to thrive.
The Virginia Sweetspire is a fragrant shrub native to North America. It is easy to grow and requires little maintenance once it has established itself. It has bottlebrush spikes with white buds covering the branches.
This shrub is rarely bothered by pests and diseases and its perennial nature makes it a good landscaping and companion shrub.
Autumn Shrubs
This shrub has it all: Beautiful colored flowers in late spring, a spicy-sweet fragrance and colorful fall foliage and the coolest seed pods. New types are more cold-hardy. Plant it in a border or where you can often enjoy its scented flowers.
Abelia is the perfect choice for anyone who wants an easy-care, somewhat shade-tolerant plant that provides a sweet late-season fragrance. The trumpet-shaped blooms are a magnet for butterflies and hummingbirds.
Also known as blue mist, this flower has beautiful bluish-purple blooms that will liven your garden. It is a deciduous and perennial shrub that will continue growing for several years with little maintenance.
The foliage comes in different colors and each color helps to create a more stunning landscape. The golden foliage is the most common one but I’m a big fan of the striking Longwood blue.
Russian Sage with its tall wispy wands of lavender or blue flowers and grey-green silvery foliage is a hardy perennial. And it makes a great addition to a garden as it can act as a specimen plant or provide great contrast to other plants with its  texture and color.
If you don’t care much for landscape maintenance, rest assured that this lovely bush won’t be much of a hassle for you!
This sweet landscape rose offers loads of perpetual blooms. Large sprays of single, candy apple red flowers will add color to the garden from summer until frost.
Plus this cold hardy and disease resistant shrub requires no pruning, and reblooms without deadheading. And with a name like that – who wouldn’t want this beauty in their garden!
Winter Shrubs
The yellow blooms of the Witch hazel are very fragrant and the flower buds are used to manufacture scents, creams, and herbal ointments. You will often find this shrub in wooded areas.
Witch hazel is grown for its sweet aroma. It is an excellent companion shrub that can be used to create beautiful hedges and fences. They also require very little care once the roots become well established.
Daphne
- Mature Size: up to 6 feet
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 4 to 9
- Soil Type: well-drained
- Color of the Flower: pink, white
- Common Varieties: Odora, Transatlantica, burkwoodii, and mezereum
The Daphne genus is broad. There are over 70 different shrubs of this species. They flower small red berries. Daphnes take their time to grow. Some varieties can take up to 10 years before they hit full maturity.
But once established, they are easy to maintain and they can handle the cold climate comfortably.
Mahonias are hardy flowers known to withstand frost. They are easy to maintain and are not very choosy about the type of soil they grow in. They have spiky, glossy bright green leaves with purple or blackberries when in full bloom.
There are over 70 varieties of the Mahonia genus shrubs and all make good companion shrubs for landscaping purposes.
EVEN MORE FLOWER AND GARDEN IDEAS
If you are a flower and garden lover, be sure to check out these posts as well:
- Front Porch Flower Planter Ideas You’ll Love
- How To Make Modern Flower Arrangements
- Sun and Shade Container Garden Ideas You’ll Love
- DIY Summer Outdoor Tabletop Herb Garden
- How To Build A Raised Garden with Pavers
- DIY Flower Garden Ideas You’ll Want To Create
If you plant a few of these flowering shrubs now and then add a few more next year, your garden will be blooming year-a-round in no time!