The success of a planted landscape comes from grouping shrubs in a way that creates visual harmony, structure, and depth. Combining shrubs effectively transforms a collection of plants into a unified garden composition. This process involves a holistic approach, considering how different species will interact over time and across seasons. A well-planned shrub grouping provides consistent visual interest while defining the space and creating a sense of natural flow.
Essential Design Principles: Form, Texture, and Color
The most immediate qualities determining if shrubs look good together are their static aesthetic components: form, texture, and color. These elements establish a visual relationship between the plants that persists year-round, regardless of bloom time. Combining contrasting shapes, or forms, is the most effective way to create visual tension and interest in a planting bed. For instance, pairing the rigid, upright lines of a columnar arborvitae with the soft, rounded, mounding habit of a dwarf spirea provides an engaging juxtaposition.
Texture refers to the perceived coarseness or fineness of a plant’s foliage, influencing how light is reflected and how the plant is viewed from a distance. Fine-textured shrubs, such as certain junipers with small, needle-like leaves, appear airy and soft, making a space feel larger. These should be contrasted with coarse-textured shrubs, such as hydrangeas or hostas, which have large, bold leaves that act as visual anchors.
Foliage color offers a more permanent backdrop than fleeting flower color and should be combined using established color theory principles. Analogous color schemes, such as pairing a chartreuse-leaved shrub like a ‘Gold Mound’ spirea with a deep green boxwood, create a harmonious, relaxed look. Conversely, using complementary colors, such as gold foliage next to a deep burgundy ninebark, produces a dramatic, eye-catching contrast.
Creating Year-Round Interest with Sequential Blooms and Foliage
A successful shrub grouping must ensure the display remains appealing through all four seasons, which is achieved through sequential interest. Selecting a variety of shrubs with staggered bloom times guarantees that the grouping always has a focal point of color rather than a single, short-lived burst in spring. For example, a grouping might include an early-blooming forsythia, followed by a mid-season weigela, and then a late-summer reblooming hydrangea.
This seasonal appeal is maintained by incorporating plants with good fall color or interesting winter structure once the flowers fade. Deciduous shrubs like certain maple cultivars or ninebark provide brilliant fall foliage in shades of orange, red, or deep purple. Winter structure is provided by plants with persistent berries, exfoliating bark, or an evergreen presence that holds color and shape against a snowy backdrop. Evergreens like rhododendron or hollies offer a consistent, deep green foundation that keeps the grouping looking structured throughout the colder months.
Grouping Shrubs by Mature Size and Landscape Function
For long-term success, shrub groupings must be planned based on their ultimate, mature size to prevent overcrowding and to ensure appropriate layering. Planting young shrubs too close together will result in a chaotic, tangled mass that requires excessive pruning later on. A foundational rule is to know the final height and spread of each species and to space them so they will touch, but not overlap significantly, at maturity.
Layering involves placing the tallest shrubs at the back of a planting bed, mid-sized shrubs in the middle, and the lowest-growing varieties toward the front. This tiered arrangement allows every plant to be fully seen and ensures adequate light exposure for all members of the grouping. Grouping shrubs based on their landscape function also creates a cohesive look, whether intended for screening, as a low hedge, or as a foundation planting. Foundation plantings, for instance, should be set several feet away from a building to allow for air circulation and growth.
Recommended Combinations for Specific Garden Settings
Applying these principles results in successful combinations tailored to specific growing conditions. For a full-sun border seeking high contrast, one effective grouping pairs a deep burgundy-leaved Japanese ninebark, with its coarse texture and peeling winter bark, next to a fine-textured, chartreuse-colored ‘Anna’s Magic Ball’ arborvitae. This combination provides a striking color contrast and an engaging interplay of textures. A grouping designed for partial shade and multi-season interest might combine a broad-leaved, evergreen mountain laurel with its spring blooms, alongside a reblooming hydrangea. The glossy, dark green foliage of the mountain laurel provides structure, contrasted by the hydrangea’s large, textured leaves and sequential white flower clusters.
For a combination featuring strong winter color, a ‘Soft Touch’ Japanese holly offers a low-growing, fine-textured evergreen anchor. This is paired with a red-twig dogwood in the back, whose vibrant red stems provide a burst of color when the dogwood’s leaves drop in the fall. These examples demonstrate how contrasting elements of form, texture, and color, alongside sequential flowering, create a visually rich design.