Shrubs for the White Garden

Along with trees, shrubs add definition and height to the flower garden to enhance the setting for your flowers. You may use shrubs at the perimeter of your white garden or moon garden, or integrate them throughout the white garden, or use them sparingly as special accents. Shrubs are a steady presence in the garden and provide a sense of continuity from season to season, especially when surrounded by the relatively ephemeral flowers, so they have an important role to play in your garden design. There are many white flowered shrubs you could consider, so research them and be selective. Plant the ones that you like best and are right for your growing conditions and your design.

Wide Selection

So many of the most popular flowering shrubs have white flowered varieties or cultivars that make welcome additions to the white garden or moon garden. Consider using white flowered forms of spirea (look for modern smaller hybrids if space is a premium), weigela, mock orange, lilac, crepe myrtle, buddleia, hydrangea, viburnum, rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), Aronia, Itea, summersweet (Clethra), andromeda (Pieris japonica) and of course, camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons. And if you think of roses as shrubs, absolutely include a white flowered rose!

In your search, remember that in a botanical name, the word “alba” means white; many variety names will give you a hint that a plant has white flowers.

Small Tree … Or Large Shrub?

If your space is limited, as discussed in Trees for the White Garden, and you want to use a large shrub rather than a tree, look into some of the larger flowering shrubs with white blooms such as rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), PeeGee hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata), lilac, crepe myrtle, the viburnums and large camellias. Many of these can be trained easily into an attractive tree form and actually grow to what most of us would consider the size of a small tree – in the range of twelve feet or so. (You might even consider a white flowered wisteria trained as a tree or a rose trained on a pillar or a white flowered vine trained on a tuteur — freestanding, tall and skinny, pyramidal shaped trellis.)

Look for Gray or Blue Foliage

Silvery or blue foliage can also bring a special accent to the white garden or moon garden and shrubs offer some terrific options. Consider shrubs such as “Dwarf Blue Arctic” willow, Vitex agnus-castus “Silverspire” and buddleias for their silvery look, as well as subshrubs such as Salvia officinalis “Albiflora” and the “Abbotswood” potentilla.

Look for Silvery Variegation

You will discover many shrubs and small trees with silvery variegation such as Acer palmatum “Butterfly” or the twiggy dogwood shrub Cornus alba “Elegantissima” or perhaps Aralia elata “Variegata” or Euonymus fortunei “Emerald Gaiety.”

Careful Selection

In selecting a flowering shrub, take into account its overall mature size and mature shape, its preferred growing conditions, its appearance when not blooming, and its season of bloom. Like many perennials, most flowering shrubs bloom for only a short time each year so they need to look good both in and out of bloom. If you have only a small space, select your shrubs carefully so they offer multi-season appeal. With careful selection, a white flowered shrub or two or more can make a valuable contribution to any white garden or moon garden design.

Read All of the White Garden Series:

The White Garden

Flowers for the White Garden

Foliage for the White Garden

Vines for the White Garden

Roses for the White Garden

More Roses for the White Garden

Trees for the White Garden

Shrubs for the White Garden

The White Garden in Shade

Designing the White Garden

All Flower Gardens Articles So Far

Copyright 2006 Barbara Martin