Gold Coast Gardener

October 15, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

Color in the landscape is relatively easily achieved with the use of flowering shrubs. Even the smallest sized lots or landscape areas are suitable for putting in plants that have a lot of color and those flowers in many cases may provide nectar sources to help attract butterflies or other wildlife as well.

Since we have hundreds of types of shrubs available here it often becomes strictly a personal choice what shade of flowers you like in the way of colors and also what size of the individual blooms you prefer whether it’s a large spectacular bloom like a hibiscus flower or something very tiny and small such as firespike or firebush.

Remember that flowering shrubs for the most part often only bloom on new growth so if it’s a fast growing plant put in the wrong location and you have to end up doing a lot of frequent pruning you won’t see a lot of flowers because you will be potentially removing the blooms on those cuttings that you’re taking off on a regular basis.

Some types of flowering shrubs have fragrances too, and is an added bonus for people that enjoy sitting or walking through the garden and enjoying all the sights and smells. Many types of jasmine are available that do well as well as traditional flowering fragrant plants like roses. Remember that some bedding plants also have nice fragrances, too, and there are many types of herbs that have delightful smells to the foliage.

Shrubs in the landscape for best results should be in bright light and they should be fertilized lightly but frequently to help produce increased blooms. Often times in the landscape flowering shrubs are not given enough fertilizer and people complain that the plants look good but they just don’t see many flowers. Flower production in plants generally only occurs when the plant has a surplus of energy or stored food and if it’s not in top condition it won’t have enough extra carbohydrates to produce the extra energy for increased bloom production.
Remember too that some plants are seasonal so if you’re a seasonal resident and it’s a type plant that’s not going to bloom at the time you are here you may not want to have it in your landscape. Nurserymen can give you advice when you look at plants as to whether that plant has a long bloom season or blooms only for a short time. A good example would be gardenias. This very common fragrant shrub is a great late spring and summer bloomer, but produces few blooms the rest of the year.

Things that bloom non-stop throughout the year are also greatly appreciated. Good examples of those type shrubs would be hibiscus, ixora, oleander and many native flowering plants such as firebush.

Remember that plants put in for flowers may get attacked by insects and diseases which can slow down bloom production, but rarely do these problems kill the plant. You can also grow many types of flowering shrubs as container plants and if you doubt that just look at any nursery. Everything they have generally is in containers and many of the flowering plants look great.

For information about flowering shrubs and plant selection here in our area, you can get some valuable free advice from the Palm Beach County Extension office. Dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.