Five Flowering Shrubs That Will Add A Rosy Glow To Your Garden
Five Flowering Shrubs That Will Add A Rosy Glow To Your Garden
By Natalie Carmolli, Proven Winners® ColorChoice®
Photographs courtesy of Proven Winners® ColorChoice®
If you love pink flowers in your garden, you’re not alone. The soft, romantic feel of pink is the heart of many summer garden color palettes. From nearly white blooms with pink tones, to pastel pinks, to bright saturated pinks, you can add a pop of pink to existing gardens, or mix deep pink flowers with mid-to-pale pinks to make a gorgeous monochromatic garden statement.
To create an all-pink garden, or to add more pink to your existing outdoor spaces, shrubs are a great place to start. The backbone of any garden, they can be used as hedges, in groupings or as a stunning focal point. Here are five shrubs with multiple uses that bloom at different times in the season, so you’ll have something pretty in pink to enjoy in your garden, all season long.
Deutzia is not an often-used garden shrub, but it should be! It gives you plenty of early-season color with gently arching branches that are covered by flowers in late April to early May. Yuki Cherry Blossom® is a dwarf 'Nikko'-type deutzia, but this cultivar is the first with delicate, pink flowers, rather than white. Its neat, mounded habit and good deer-resistance makes this a very useful plant for the front of the border, in containers, or cascading over a low wall in groupings or drifts. This shrub blooms in spring, but its rich purple fall foliage gives it multi-season appeal. Hardy in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5-8 and reaches heights/widths of just 1-2’.
Sonic Bloom® Pink Weigela* will flower in spring, and then continues blooming throughout the summer! The hot pink buds open to saturated pink flowers that add intense season-long color to landscapes. This deer-resistant shrub reaches heights/widths of 4-5’ and makes a stunning low hedge. Can also be used in mixed borders and as foundation plantings. To maintain the shape, you can prune it immediately after the first spring flowering, but pruning is not strictly necessary for reblooming. Hardy in zones 4-8.
The bubblegum pink flowers of Oso Easy® Double Pink rose add a bright punch of color to any garden. You’ll see buds in early summer that continue until frost. Bred to have at least ten buds per branch, Oso Easy® Double Pink rose delivers this and much more. Although deadheading is not necessary, a quick sweep with the pruners after a flush of flowers will bring a stronger rebloom in just a few weeks. If you want to enjoy months of flowers with minimal effort, this rose deserves a spot in your landscape. Wider than it is tall, the 1.5’ x 2’ habit is perfect for groundcover uses, or in containers. Hardy in zones 5-9.
A pink-flowered, mophead selection of our native H. arborescens, Invincibelle® Spirit II has sturdy stems and flowers that bloom in mid-summer. The large, mophead flowers start out a deep, soft pink and age to an attractive green. Once established, this adaptable plant will tolerate some dry conditions, as well as black walnut. Pruning is recommended in early spring. When the buds begin to swell noticeably, cut the whole plant back by one third. The 3-4’ Invincibelle® Spirit II smooth hydrangea is perfect for use as a hedge and is hardy in zones 3-9. Best of all, whenever an Invincibelle® Spirit II hydrangea is sold, $1 is donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Through sales of this plant and pink day events at garden centers across North America, over $1 million has been raised to help fund the important work of finding a cure for breast cancer. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you’d like to support someone you know who is experiencing this disease, ask your local garden center for this pretty pink hydrangea. It’s an extra-special way to show your love and support, year after year.
Finally, there are few woody ornamentals that can rival the flower show of rose of Sharon. The late season blooms are a welcome sight as many other garden plants start to feel the stress of days and days of summer heat. Pink Chiffon® rose of Sharon has large, clear pink flowers with a pretty lacy center tuft. The soft pink bloom with delicate red rays is an unusual flower color for rose of Sharon, and they cover its 8-12’ tall (6-10’ wide) habit from top to bottom. This durable, adaptable plant will tolerate most conditions, including clay soils and black walnut and is the perfect choice for a specimen plant. With a wide hardiness range, it can be planted in zones 5-9.
And there you have it! You’ll be in the pink all season long with these five ornamental shrubs. For more ideas, check out the Proven Winners® ColorChoice® You Tube channel where you’ll find videos that highlight pink plants, plant care and more.
*Sonic Bloom® is a registered trademark of the Syngenta Company.
All articles are copyrighted and remain the property of the author.
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