Which beautiful ornamental shrubs do you have or can you recommend?

And one more addition/ question: what do you think about planting evergreen plants sporadically in a flowering hedge (about 20 m long)? The rest would be deciduous, but in two or three spots I would like to (slightly) break the sightline to the couch. And which plants would be good there - they should not be pruned into shape...

We have an approximately 10m long loose privacy hedge, where almost everything blooms at some point and which was put together for me at the nursery so that something is always blooming from spring to autumn:

- Harlequin willow
- Butterfly bush in various colors
- Weigela
- Forsythia
- colorful privet
- jasmine
- red smoke bush
- dogwood, it's white-variegated, I think
- ranunculus

The shrubs were planted in autumn 2017 and survived the winter well, and this season all have grown well except for the forsythias. And indeed, something was always blooming from spring to autumn... at the moment, the butterfly bush is still blooming and even a little the ranunculus. You can’t really call it a privacy hedge yet. The plants are now all about 1-1.3m high. In hindsight, I would have preferred to buy them bigger right away.

Then we also have an equally long lilac hedge, which is about 5-6m high, but unfortunately bare at the bottom. Lilac apparently grows quickly but also spreads fast. But well, the hedge was already there, maybe I’ll plant something medium height underneath. Other hedges (yes, the property is very long^^) consist of the good old privet (about 20m), as well as red dogwood and 1-2 shrubs that I can’t identify. Some roses can also be trained as hedges, as can beeches. We also have an serviceberry and a hazel... but as solitary shrubs.

My tip: Go to a local nursery. They will put it together for you free of charge (after all, the location is decisive; so where the plants get how much sun and water (large trees nearby, etc.) and the wind resistance of the plants should also be factored in in some locations, as well as the maintenance effort, growth rate, etc.), the plants are of good quality, you can also get soil there relatively cheaply and many also deliver and good tips are free of charge as well.

I'm just wondering which bushes still bloom in autumn, but I can't think of any. Except the garden hydrangea.. or lacecap hydrangea? But also the white snowball, is that what it's called?

Hello Winniefred
thanks for your list. So you have more than 10 shrubs for 10 meters more length, right?

I have already been to the nursery, unfortunately with too little time and the question got lost during the first overview. For example, I am also not yet finally decided whether the garden should/can be completely poison-free. Then, for example, [Schneeball] would be out. :-S

For the final purchase, I plan for more and will explicitly inquire again about autumn bloomers. :-)

So my hydrangeas actually don’t bloom anymore, but the flowers are still fully there, changing from white to pink and that will stay that way for a while. So they are still quite pretty to look at in autumn. Currently, as I said, my butterfly bushes and ranunculus are still blooming a bit, also my shrub roses (especially my 3 Rosy Boom). Alternatively, you can also plan shrubs that bear fruit (rose hips, for example) or berries in autumn, fitting for the season. Instead of flowers, so to speak, as color accents then. The first trees and shrubs are already starting to gradually shed their leaves anyway, so it’s enough if you still have some blooming or fruit-decorated plants here and there until mid-October; after that, it will soon all be bare.

We have a total of 12 shrubs in this hedge, 11 of them along about 10m (could also be more meters... I don’t remember exactly) and they all stand about 1-1.3m apart; the 12th one is around the corner. They will eventually grow loosely into each other – forming a loose hedge. I want to let the hedge grow to just under 2m in height.

Toxicity is of course also an issue if you have small children. The gardener will certainly advise on this as well. It was also important to me that we don’t have anything extremely toxic, especially since we have pets as well as children.