Take Five: Forgiving Shrubs for Sun

 A friend of mine recently used the phrase "moving target" to describe the boundaries of what thrives in our gardens. Another used the phrase "climate change laboratories" to describe what our gardens have become. As I am still steadfastly stubborn as hell and refuse to give up my gardening goals, I am in search of what hits the target. Plants that, thus far, have provided beauty, habitat, health and vigor to the garden throughout the past eight years (and beyond). 

While at one time I may have been more willing to go to great lengths to care for a plant, those efforts are often thwarted by climate extremes. For example, I sincerely believe that some of the long-term effects of record high 116 degrees in 2021 are only now beginning to manifest. Issues are arising. My willingness to care for plants is still there, but it's spread thin as my energies are required elsewhere in the form of clean-up, fixing, re-doing parts of the garden that have seen the worst of it. No time to baby every plant. But, not all is grim. There are still options. While this may change in the future, from what I observe today, these are some serious winners in my little plant world.

Here then is a short list of five of the most resilient shrubs for sun in my garden today. I will also write posts about shrubs for shade and of perennials to round out a quick and dirty "take five" series for 2023. We all love plants and we all want successes. These are mine. And while you may live in a different region and/or these may or may not do well for you, I think it's important to get the conversation going and share information. We're all in this climate-change laboratory together.

ARCTOSTAPHYLOS

The arctos! The arctos! Arctostaphylos are, for certain, the best of the best. Now I know not everyone across the US and beyond can successfully grow these, but if you can, you should. Evergreen shrubs, small trees and in the case of a few small ones, groundcovers, if grown well are incredibly rewarding. What I mean by "grown well" is that they want great drainage, unamended soil, air circulation and water at the appropriate time. Like any plant they need water to get established, just don't do it in the heat of the day. Hot plus wet soil = disaster. Let them dry out between waterings if in a container. Water them in the cool of the morning, on an overcast day or in the cool of the evening if they indeed do require it. An established plant does fine with what falls from the sky, so no summer irrigation required. That is an excellent point. I use gravel or rocks for a mulch for it helps keep the leaves clean by preventing splash on soils that might have pathogens. It has worked well in my garden. 

Pictured is Arctostaphylos pumila, one of my favorites. It is a shrub form at about 5' tall and wide, one of the first to bloom in late winter. I don't think these are particularly suited to the "limbing up" to expose branches, rather they look smart as a rounded shrub.

The lower growing form is Arctostaphylos 'Pacific Mist', a great low spreading plant with rather blue-ish foliage. It tolerates some shade. Above it is a more green-leaved Arctostaphylos 'Harmony', more upright, although my specimen tends to lean southward.

Another reason to love this West Coast native plant is its exfoliating bark. It also provides an important early source of sustenance for our native bees in its very early flowers. 

On the left is Arctostaphylos 'Sentinel' and on the right is Arctostaphylos manzanita 'Saint Helena'. 

Also in my garden but not pictured here are:

A x . 'Austin Griffiths'

A. bakeri 'Louis Edmunds'

A. x densiflora 'Howard McMinn'

A. uva-ursi

Arctostaphylos silvicola 'Ghostly'

Arctostaphylos x densiflora 'John Dourley'

Arctostaphylos auriculata. 'Knobcone Point'

A. glauca

A few great sources for plants are Cistus Nursery, Xera Plants, Dancing Oaks Nursery, Las Pilitas Nursery, One Green World, among many others. Feel free to chime in on the comments section if you know of others.

BACCHARIS

This sad looking specimen is Baccharis pilularis, coyote bush, one of many species in this genus. This one, another evergreen shrub for sun, is so forgiving that when many branches broke off in a late season ice storm a couple of years ago, it got pruned to what you see here. Ouch.

Fast forward a mere two or three months later to this, the same plant indeed. It wins the award for most forgiving and quickest to recover a hard prune. Not bad for an evergreen shrub that receives zero supplemental water. 

Its odd little flowers are a treat for pollinators. In addition to B. pilularis, I have a few other smaller species waiting to go into the ground this autumn when the rains arrive. So, besides the massive pruning this plant received after bad winter damage, I have done nothing to it and it generally looks good, makes up a part of a screening hedge at the edge of our property, so is excellent for hedgerows and sunny, difficult sites. It may not be glamorous enough as a specimen plant, it has its place in my garden.

I know of two sources for this shrub - Cistus Nursery and Bosky Dell Natives, although there are certainly others out there.

JUNIPERUS

Junipers are kind of a sleeper plant. They aren't very exciting when small but once settled in and mature they look great and are such tough survivors. I never water them and they keep on looking great with no issues of winter damage nor summer burn. This is Juiperus conferta 'Blue Pacific', a low, spreading form that winds its way around other plants without smothering them. I also have Juniperus communis 'Hoodview' from Xera Plants and it is very similar in both appearance and toughness.

An upright version, Juniperus communis 'Compressa' gets a little larger and a lot better every year. I have not featured either of these on the blog much, but that's not for lack of beauty and ease of care, just not that exciting to most eyes. I finally decided these, after many years of neglect and drought but with consistently great looks, are worthy of featuring. Fairly easy to find, too.

LEPTOSPERMUM

Tea trees or leptospermum are evergreen shrubs and small trees native to Australia, New Zealand and parts of Southeast Asia. There are some 90 species of this plant, many of which are well-suited to the West Coast garden palette. The honey that comes from visiting bees is known as Manuka honey.

Pictured is Leptospermum namadgiensis in a rather dry part of the garden pictured last autumn. I have seen it listed as growing to 6 - 8' tall, however my specimen is only about 4' tall and that's just perfect for me. Never receiving summer water (occasionally from surrounding plants but never directly), it has proven to be very drought adapted (once established). 

Detail of its rather lovely foliage and flowers. I have propagated a few to add more to other parts of the garden, it's so good.

Leptospermum grandiflorum is another drought-adapted species for me - it is much larger than the former, however. It is great as part of a mixed hedge/hedgerow in a sunny site.

A rather unusual species, Leptospermum humifusum (prostrate form) from Desert Northwest Nursery. It is still relatively small and was planted here several years ago to eventually drape down the retaining wall. While it hasn't reached that goal it is certainly charming and has withstood all manner of plant hardships, including being planted next to a concrete wall that doesn't drain.

A few other leptospermum in the garden but not pictured are Leptospermum lanigerum 'Silver Form', Leptospermum scoparium 'Red Ensign' (new this year) and I plan on adding Leptospermum sericeum and Leptospermum scoparium 'Washington Park' this autumn.

A few sources for leptos are Xera Plants, Cistus Nurser and Far Reaches Farm among others.

SPIRAEA

Oh, the ever-boring, readily available spiraea. Not boring to me, however. I do love them so! Why? They are some of the last to lose their foliage in autumn (or winter) and among the first to burst forth with activity in late winter. They never ask for water in even the driest of summers, although they seem delicate. Their flowers can be bright gaudy pink or subtle white shades and the variety in this genus is excellent. Many have outstanding autumn coloration of their leaves. They don't seem to outgrow their spaces and can be pruned pretty hard if they do get a little leggy. They don't seem to have any special soil requirements and survive whatever winter breakage their stems might suffer (though, breakage has been rare for me). Pictured is Spiraea thunbergii 'Ogon' in a warm greenish yellow tone. It shows up so well against other foliage colors, I should have this everywhere.

The same shrub pictured in late winter with both flowers and new foliage emerging simultaneously. This is only completely bare in mid-winter for a couple of weeks, the rest of the year foliage and/or flowers are present.

Spiraea douglasii, our native "hardhack" shrub with cheerful terminal clusters of pink flowers. This is a large one at about 6' tall, really pretty at the back of the border, but it can spread and overpower other plants so plant accordingly. It grows wild along waterways in our region and is an excellent choice for a rain garden. I have several of these in a wild area that I allow to grow as large and as wide as is possible. I forget about them, actually, so they never receive summer water and are adapted beautifully even though I see them in wet areas in the wild as mentioned. A fantastic no-fuss hedgerow or wild garden plant, it asks nothing of me and gives a lot, especially to pollinators when in bloom.

Are you all tired of me harping on about Spiraea betulifolia var. lucida yet? This is another native spiraea but much smaller at about 2 - 3' tall and wide with white umbelliferous flowers. Its water requirements are low once established, however it takes and appreciates water.

It also has fantastic autumn coloring so is a three-season plant. 

So pretty! This, like other spiraeas can also take some shade but I think the best coloration is when they are sited in more sun. Because of its relatively small size it is easy to tuck into even the smallest garden. I purchased mine from Echo Valley Natives years ago.

Spiraeas also do well in some shade. This is Spiraea japonica 'Dart's Red' in quite a bit of shade and it still has some nice foliage coloration pictured here towards the end of autumn.

While there are many more shrubs for sun that are fantastic and resilient, these five genera have had really no issues, no weird dieback, no diseases I can detect, are low maintenance (if any) and don't require pruning. I mean cotinus or smokebushes for example are nearly on this list (and for sure a favorite with very low water requirements, great autumn coloration), however a couple have had some possible verticillium wilt die back on random branches. While the shrub recovered and looks great, I am mindful to watch for this disease again so there's a little extra maintenance to consider for my own garden.

A few others that are good in some sun to partial shade that deserve mention are Lonicera nitida and its cultivars. I have Lonicera nitida 'Red Tips', 'Lemon Beauty', 'Twiggy', 'Baggesen's Gold', 'Silver Beauty' and 'Briloni'. They are evergreen, easily clipped into whatever shape you wish, tolerate shade too, require no special soil nor amendments, require no supplemental water in my garden. Abelia 'Francis Mason' is also evergreen, easily pruned if needed, no extra summer water, no special requirements and always looks great. Osmanthus should flat out be on this list but I've reached the limit of five. I also understand some folks find they are not entirely hardy, however in my 7b (I err on the side of caution with my USDA zones) they have been entirely hardy, evergreen, so pretty year-round, very forgiving of any number of soil types and water requirements. Plus their flowers are often very fragrant. I have the following species/cultivars in my garden: Osmanthus delavayi, Osmanthus fragrans aurantiacus 'Beni Kin Mokusei', Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Purpurea', Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Rotundifolia', Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Sasaba', Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Goshiki' and Osmanthus x fortunei 'San Jose'.

That's a good solid group of shrubs for sun for me here at Chickadee Gardens. Moving target - these have all proven to hit the mark every time. Alright, next time we'll look at some shade options that are extremely low maintenance with great looks and resiliency. 

That's a wrap for this week! Thank you so much for reading and commenting, we do love hearing from you and what has done well in your garden. What are your "take five" shrubs for sun? Do share in the comments! We'd love to keep the conversation going.