New varieties of shrubs
to accent your yard

Fall is the best time of year to plant shrubs. The cooler temperatures and abundant rainfall ensure the plants get off to a good start in their new home in your landscape. Lavalette Nursery and Garden Center offers a variety of beautiful bushes in various sizes to suit any space. Whether you’re wanting an exotic specimen plant or a shrub hedge, you’ll find exactly what you need at Lavalette. Here are some of Mark Springer’s particular favorites:

Endless Summer hydrangea -- This new popular shrub blooms on old and new wood all summer and is well worth growing. It gets only 3 to 4 feet tall and grows in full sun to part shade. Flowers are pink or blue depending on your soil. Martha Stewart loves hydrangeas and is responsible for their renewed popularity. Before she showed them around her house on her TV show, Lavalette Nursery sold only a few each season. Now it’s hard to keep them in stock.

Nandina -- This versatile upright shrub is often called “heavenly bamboo” because its lacy leaves resemble bamboo foliage. It thrives in sun or shade and a range of soil types but prefers well-drained soil. It grows 6 to 8 feet tall and only 3 feet wide, so it’s perfect for narrow spaces. Dwarf versions are also available. White flowers in spring turn into attractive red berries in fall. New leaves are bronze or rose in color, turning to green in summer. In the fall, leaves will be a range of red, orange, bronze and pink. It’s drought tolerant when established.

Leatherleaf mahonia -- This multistem evergreen for partial shade is sometimes called Oregon grape holly. It prefers moist, well-drained acidic soil but tolerates heavy clay. Grows 6 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide. Has yellow flowers in winter and bright blue fruit in summer. The leathery holly-shaped leaves are dark green to blue-green. Established plants are drought tolerant.

Sky pencil holly -- This unusual form of Japanese holly has a very narrow upright habit with lustrous dark green leaves. Grows in sun or shade. It provides a good vertical accent in the landscape and is good for narrow areas between the house and sidewalk. Grows to 10 feet tall and only 2 or 3 feet wide and is very winter hardy. Prefers moist but well-drained slightly acid soil. It needs no pruning to maintain its shape.

Aucuba japonica -- This dense evergreen variegated shrub for partial shade is often called the “gold dust” plant, a description of its beautiful leaves. Females have red berries in winter. It’s slow growing up to 8 or 10 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide. Needs protection from winter sun and winds. Thrives even in full shade. Marginally hardy in the Tri-State; specimens may die back to the ground during an extremely cold winter but will usually regrow from the roots.

Korean boxwood -- This deer-resistant rounded shrub gets 3 to 4 feet tall and wide, with evergreen leaves that turn yellow-brown to purplish in winter. Plant in full sun to partial shade in moist, well-drained soil and mulch to keep the root system cool. Needs protection from winter winds. It is esteemed for hedges because it can be sheared into precise shapes.

Oakleaf holly -- This new variety of holly grows in a pyramidal shape up to 14 feet tall and 8 feet wide at the base. It does not get berries but has attractive oakleaf-shaped emerald-green leaves. New growth has a maroon or bronze color. Grows in full sun to partial shade. This cold-hardy plant will add an architectural shape to your landscape.