slideshow: colorful-leaved shrubs’ big impact

WHEN I LOOK AT PHOTOS OF MY GARDEN, there is one group of plants that seems to do the most work to tie things together: the shrubs with colorful leaves. Whether in shades like gold or white-variegated or silver (all of which seem to advance, or pop forward visually, to varying degrees, catching the eye and saying “look over here at me”), or dark wine tones that hunker down and ground things, creating a sense of depth, I have a lot of them. A story, podcast and slideshow about some favorites, and simple tips on how to use them.

Compared to the plain-vanilla form of a shrub—the one with green foliage—a gold- or wine-leaved or variegated selection means more than a single season of interest from the same square footage. When the early spring flowers are done on Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon,’ for instance, it looks a whole lot better than plain S. thunbergii (which I probably wouldn’t allot space to; too much of a one-trick pony for me).

I find such plants especially useful in breaking up the green monotony of large shrub borders or plantings of multiple shrubs used as hedging or screen, avoiding the “big black hole of green” effect that it might otherwise read as from a distance.

COLORFUL SHRUBS (or trees, for that matter) can create an axis or focal point—particularly the lighter-colored ones. Help the eye get to there by hinting at a couple of smaller stops along the way with a similarly colored shrub or a mass of perennials here and there before the big-impact moment at the endpoint. Heading up my front walk, for instance, where I have a potted gold-leaf shrub shouting up by the door (above), punctuation points of golden forest grass (Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’) and golden moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’, not in photo)—a mass or two of each staggered partway up the path—help me find my way home.

These showy shrubs won’t look at home without such companionship, a supporting cast of similarly colored perennials and even trees to help anchor them, any more than you’d expect a strong statement like a purple sofa to pull together a room without adding some purple elsewhere. In one border, for instance, just beyond a variegated shrub dogwood, a mass of variegated ribbon grass seems to reinforce the point.

Selecting different species of shrubs with a common foliage color but a contrasting scale and texture can also make for a more compelling addition to an otherwise all-green planting. Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’ and the purple smokebush, Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple,’ all live in one border here, repeating the idea but also being same-but-different rather than monotonous. Dark-leaved Sambucus ‘Black Beauty,’ an ornamental elderberry, would fit into the scheme nicely as well.

That said, don’t buy only these showier forms, or put too many in a planting, or it can get pretty busy–just like my photo collage up top. A crazy quilt is not the desired landscape effect, especially when using variegation: you can have too much of it.

There are links to profiles of many of the ones I grow, just beneath the slideshow thumbnails

slideshow of colorful shrubs

(Click on the each thumbnail to move the slides along, or use the arrows that appear on the sides of the big image when you hover your cursor there.)

: Would that all foliage could be as colorful for months on end as an oakleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia, is in fall, when it changes from green to multi-tones of orange, purple, gold and everything between. But most shrubs are simply green…unless you make an effort to mix it up with varieties like some of those that follow:

: From the minute its leaves start to unfurl in early spring, Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Dart’s Gold’ is gleaming chartreuse-to-golden.

: The dark-leaved cousin to ‘Dart’s Gold’ is Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diablo,’ a fast-growing big shrub with wine foliage.

: Somewhat smaller than the previous two is ‘Coppertina,’ a Physocarpus selection with (as the name implies) coppery-toned leaves all season long.

: Another variation on leaf color in the garden is provided by variegated shrubs, such as easy, durable Cornus sericea ‘Silver and Gold.’

: A much finer-textured variegated shrub I grow in shade: Kerria japonica ‘Picta,’ with golden early spring flowers.

: Kerria japonica ‘Picta’ seen from a distance, an airy presence in the shady garden.

: I don’t have many silver-leaved shrubs here in the garden, but Salix elaeagnos (the rosemary leaf willow) is one I love.

: A detail of the rosemary leaf willow’s cool-gray linear foliage.

: Salix elaeagnos transforms itself into a yellow mass in fall, going from silvery to gold before dropping its leaves.

: Another cooling color in the border is provided blue-leaved plants such as my favorite rose, Rosa glauca.

: A detail of Rosa glauca.

: Somehow, more than anything else, I seem to have collected things that are golden, like this red-twig dogwood, Cornus sericea ‘Sunshine.’

: Corylopsis spicata ‘Aurea,’ the gold form of spike winterhazel, joined me in the garden last year. Stunning.

: The golden cutleaf staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eyes,’ is eye-catching not only for its color, but for its texture, too.

: The ‘Tiger Eyes’ sumac tucked beside a grouping of lilacs out by the vegetable garden pulls the eye that way as attention-grabbing gold is inclined to do.

: Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon’ unfurls its yellow foliage very early in the season after a flush of tiny white blooms, then its color intensifies as the cold weather comes, staying vivid until December here (as seen).

: For year-round gold, there are some great choices in conifers. This one, though, is green in winter and early spring until the new growth flushes. I love the golden prostrate yew, Taxus baccata ‘Repandens Aurea,’ anyhow.