14 New Shrubs With Fringe Benefits
What’s popular with shrubs? Consumers want varieties that will give them more return on their investment, in terms of long-lasting blooms and multi-season appeal that lasts from spring until fall and at times stretches into the winter months. Gardeners are tired of cookie-cutter varieties. They want shrub varieties that offer a full package of benefits — low maintenance, disease resistance, versatile landscape performance — along with additional perks that make them stand out, such as in-your-face blooms, foliage that explodes with color, and dwarf varieties suitable for containers. With that in mind, here are 14 new varieties of shrubs and sub-shrubs to consider for your product mix in 2018.
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Azalea ‘Encore Autumn Bonfire’ (Encore Azalea)
The new Autumn Bonfire is a fast-growing dwarf azalea with numerous, true red, semi-double and single blooms in spring, summer, and fall. Autumn Bonfire holds its bright-green foliage year-round. Its mature size is 3 feet tall by 3½ feet wide.
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Blackberry ‘Bushel and Berry Baby Cakes’ (Star Roses & Plants)
Baby Cakes is a dwarf and thornless blackberry plant. Its compact habit makes it suitable for patio pots. In summer, large berries present in firework-like displays of fruit. In most regions, this blackberry will produce twice in one season.
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Camellia sasanqua ‘October Magic White Shi-Shi’ (Plants Nouveau)
White Shi-Shi is selected for bushy, spreading habit that is similar to the well-known ‘Shi-Shi Gashira.’ This low-growing evergreen offers the same versatile performance when used in the landscape, and is durable enough for public spaces. Porcelain-white, double formal flowers provide a graceful display at a time of the year when fewer trees and shrubs are blooming, and it lasts well into winter.
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Cotinus coggygria ‘Lilla’ (Cultivaris)
A wonderful dwarf smokebush with deep purple-maroon foliage and a neat, dwarf habit. Bred by the late Miklós Jòsza of Hungary, this excellent variety is great for patios, containers, balconies, and small gardens.
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Hydrangea 'First Editions Berry White' (Bailey Nurseries)
Berry White is Bailey's newest hydrangea introduction in its First Editions line. It is a paniculata type with thick upright stems and large panicles that holds up in wind and rain. The red pigment in the sepals on this variety exhibits much earlier in the growing season than its popular cousin, ‘Strawberry Sundae.’ Check with Bailey Nurseries about timing for availability at retail.
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Hydrangea ‘Everlasting Green Cloud’ (Plants Nouveau)
Green Cloud lives up to its name by opening with celery-green flowers, each with a white eye-zone, and it turns ablaze with red and green tones as it matures. Strong stems, hard flowers, and classic, antique colors are all signature attributes of the Everlasting Series. Plant Green Cloud in a special container to show off its amazing green flowers, or place it in the garden with some of the other Everlasting varieties, but don’t forget to harvest the stems — they’ll add flair to any arrangement with their incredible colors and will last in a vase for more than a month.
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Hydrangea ‘White Wedding’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
Sturdy, upright branches easily support oversized clusters of white, pillow-like blooms. This beauty dazzles as a cut flower or in the garden — from accent to mass planting. Its mature size is 4 to 6 feet tall by 3 to 5 feet wide.
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Hypericum × inodorum ‘FloralBerry Sangria’ (Monrovia)
‘FloralBerry Sangria’ has clusters of golden, cup-shaped flowers on well-branched, rust-resistant plants with handsome dark-green foliage accented by deep-red undersides. It works great for borders, low hedges, and containers. Stems of beautiful red berries are a wonderful accent in cut flower arrangements. ‘FloralBerry Sangria’ is deciduous and grows well in partial to full sun with a height and spread of up to 3 feet. It is hardy in Zones 5 to 9.
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Lagerstroemia ‘Barista Cool Beans’ (Walters Gardens)
‘Barista Cool Beans’ is a cold hardy crapemyrtle (to Zone 6) that brings a Southern look to the North. For most of the year, dark olive-green leaves form a relatively short, round habit. In late summer, cool salmon-pink flowers appear on dark rosy red stems.
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Mahonia ‘Marvel’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
Statuesque and upright, ‘Marvel’s’ large, frond-like leaves develop in whorls along coarsely branched stems. Gorgeous sprays of fragrant, yellow flowers appear in late fall or early winter. Flowers develop into grape-like clusters of wax-coated black berries by late summer and autumn.
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Potentilla fruticosa ‘CheeseHead’ (Monrovia)
‘CheeseHead’ has finely textured, dark-green foliage with an abundance of big yellow flowers from spring until late summer on a low-maintenance, deer and rabbit resistant shrub with a dense habit. It is a deciduous shrub that grows well in partial to full sun and has a height and spread of up to 2 feet. It is hardy in Zones 3 to 8.
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Rosa ‘Grace N' Grit’ (Monrovia)
One of a series of new roses bred for increased disease resistance, this own root, fully-double red variety performed well across all regions and in heat and humidity conditions. ‘Grace N’ Grit’ has floribunda-type flowers in heavy clusters and glossy, dark-green foliage, with a red tinge in the new growth. It grows well in full sun, reaching up to 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9.
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Rosa ‘White Knock Out’ (Star Roses & Plants)
‘White Knock Out’ is an excellent shrub rose, which stands out in the landscape with the contrast between pure-white blooms and very dark-green foliage. It blooms from spring through fall and maintains a compact habit.
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Viburnum ‘Coppertop’ (Southern Living Plant Collection)
This low maintenance, upright evergreen features brilliant, dark maroon to copper new growth that reappears after each pruning — giving this plant season-long appeal. Its mature size is 6 to 8 feet tall by 6 feet wide.
View all
Azalea ‘Encore Autumn Bonfire’ (Encore Azalea)
Blackberry ‘Bushel and Berry Baby Cakes’ (Star Roses & Plants)
Camellia sasanqua ‘October Magic White Shi-Shi’ (Plants Nouveau)
Cotinus coggygria ‘Lilla’ (Cultivaris)
Hydrangea 'First Editions Berry White' (Bailey Nurseries)
Hydrangea ‘Everlasting Green Cloud’ (Plants Nouveau)
Hydrangea ‘White Wedding’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
Hypericum × inodorum ‘FloralBerry Sangria’ (Monrovia)
Lagerstroemia ‘Barista Cool Beans’ (Walters Gardens)
Mahonia ‘Marvel’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
Potentilla fruticosa ‘CheeseHead’ (Monrovia)
Rosa ‘Grace N' Grit’ (Monrovia)
Rosa ‘White Knock Out’ (Star Roses & Plants)
Viburnum ‘Coppertop’ (Southern Living Plant Collection)
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Janeen Wright is former Editor for Greenhouse Grower. . See all author stories here.