Shrubs

Evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous

The distinction is not a quality judgement — a garden of nothing but evergreens is as monotonous as one with no winter presence at all. It is a planning fact, and the useful ratio is roughly a third evergreen.

Shrubs for shade, and for dry shade

The north-facing border is the commonest difficult position in a British garden and the one most planting advice quietly assumes away.

13 of these tolerate dappled shade. 5 of those also cope with dry soil, which is the harder question: dry shade under an established tree or against an overhung north wall defeats most plants that answer either constraint alone.

Shrubs that make good permanent pot plants

Judged at the strict setting — these are the ones worth potting for years, not the ones that will merely survive a season in one.

17 of the 26 qualify. Camellia, pieris, rhododendron and skimmia appear partly because they want acid soil, and a pot of ericaceous compost is far easier than trying to acidify a chalky garden — a case where the container is the better answer rather than the compromise. Shrubs not listed here are not necessarily bad in pots; some have simply never been assessed for it, and that gap is shown rather than filled in.

Compact shrubs — under 1.5 m

Small enough to see over and to prune from the ground, on stated ultimate height rather than on the word 'dwarf'.

The threshold is a choice and is stated so you can disagree with it. What it is not is the height on the label, which is the size of the plant in the pot you are buying.

Shrubs with recorded wildlife value

A short list on purpose. A shrub earns a place here by supplying a named resource in named months with a citation about the plant — not by having flowers.

Each of these also carries the tradeoff, because the ordinary management of the plant usually destroys the thing being claimed: a cotoneaster clipped annually carries no berries at all, and a hedge cut in June may hold a nest.

• Cotoneaster
• Firethorn
• Mahonia

Underneath them

Groundcover is not a habit of its own here — six plants is a section rather than a hub — but it is the layer that finishes a shrub border and suppresses the weeding.

Ready-made lists from this group

Pre-computed from the same data as this page, and published only where the filter genuinely selects.

• Shrubs for a shady border (13)
• Shrubs for dry shade (7)
• Garden plants for heavy clay (6)
• Evergreen shrubs for winter structure (16)
• Shrubs for pots and containers (17)
• Evergreen shrubs for a pot (10)
• Evergreen shrubs for shade (10)

Every shrub, compared

Something failing rather than something missing? Diagnose a problem works from what you can see.