Flowering shrubs are often chosen for aesthetic considerations, such as to
introduce new colors or textures into a landscape. Flowering shrubs are the backbone of any
garden, offering privacy along a border, attracting pollinators, and providing color and interest
for years. With a wide variety of plants, there’s a beautiful blooming bush for every taste!
Shrubs are an instrumental part of every garden’s ecosystem. They provide shade, improve soil
stability, enhance air quality and create habitats for all types of wildlife. Of course, shrubs and
small trees are also beautiful to look at, especially when you choose varieties that add seasonal
interest to your landscape.
Here are 18 different flowering shrub species that provide great options for height, shade tolerance,
color and seasonal interest.
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Bladdernut
Height: 10-15 feet
Bloom: Late Spring/ Early Summer
Sun: Part Shade, Shade
Zones: 3-8
Soil: Loam
Moisture: Medium, Moist
Color: Blue
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Description: Bladdernut, Staphylea trifolia, is a fast-growing,
suckering, native large shrub or small tree that commonly occurs in bottomlands, woodland
thickets and moist soils along streams. Establishes dense colonies in the wild where it is most
often seen in a shrubby form. Typically grows 10-15 feet tall.
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Buttonbush
Height: 5-12 feet
Bloom: Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade
Zones: 4-9
Soil: Loam
Moisture: Moist, Wet
Color: White
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Description: Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis, is
a somewhat coarse, deciduous shrub with an open-rounded habit that typically grows 6-12’
(infrequently to 20’) tall. It is common throughout Missouri, most frequently occurring in wet
open areas, low woods, thickets, swamps, upland sink-hole ponds, river bottomland and
stream/pond margins.
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Common Elderberry
Height: 3-8 feet
Bloom: Late Spring,Early Summer
Sun: Full Sun,Part Sun
Zones: 3-9
Soil: Loam, Clay, Sand
Moisture: Medium, Moist
Color: White
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Description: Common Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is
a deciduous, somewhat sprawling, suckering shrub that typically grows to 5-12 feet tall. It typically
occurs on stream banks, moist woodlands, thickets, fence rows and roadsides. Tiny lemon-scented
white flowers appear in large flat-topped clusters in June. After blooming the flowers are replaced
by drupe-like fruits. Fruits are sometimes used to make jams, jellies, pie filings and elderberry wine.
Fruits are attractive to wildlife.
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Common Ninebark
Height: 5-10 feet
Bloom: Late Spring, Early Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun
Zones: 2-8
Soil: Loam, Clay
Moisture: Dry, Medium, Moist
Color: White, Pink
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Description: Common Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)
is an upright, spreading, somewhat coarse, deciduous shrub. It typically occurs along streams,
rocky banks, gravel bars and in moist thickets. Grows 5-9 feet tall. Noted for its exfoliating bark
(on mature branches) which peels in strips to reveal several layers of reddish to light brown
inner bark (hence the common name of ninebark).
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Downy Serviceberry
Height: 15-25 feet
Bloom: Late Spring/Early Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade
Zones: 4-9
Soil: Loam
Moisture: Medium
Color: White
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Description: Downy Serviceberry, Amelanchier arborea,
also called Downy Juneberry, is a deciduous, early-flowering, large shrub or small tree which
typically grows 15-25 feet tall in cultivation but can reach 40 feet in the wild. Occurs most often
in open rocky woods, wooded slopes, and bluffs.
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Eastern Wahoo
Height: 12-20 feet
Bloom: Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade
Zones: 3-7
Soil: Loam
Moisture: Medium
Color: Purple
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Description: Eastern Wahoo, Euonymus atropurpureus,
also called Burning Bush, is a deciduous shrub or small tree which is most often grown for
its attractive red berries and fall color. Occurs in the wild in open woods and thickets, near
streams and on wooded slopes. Typically appears as an upright, spreading, deciduous
shrub with an irregular crown growing to 10-15 feet tall.
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False Indigo
Height: 4-12 feet
Bloom: Spring
Sun: Full Sun
Zones: 4-9
Soil: Loam,Clay
Moisture: Medium,Moist,Wet
Color: Orange,Purple
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Description: False Indigo (Baptisia australis) is a shrub
that typically grows to 4-12 feet tall with a spread often in excess of its height. It is native to moist
open woodland areas, floodplains, stream banks and swamp margins. It features compound,
odd-pinnate leaves, each to 12 inches long. It blooms in May-June in dense, spike-shaped clusters.
Each flower has a single-petaled purple corolla and 10 protruding stamens with showy orange-yellow
anthers. Flowers are followed by fruits.
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Kalm St. John's Wort
Height: 2-3 feet
Bloom: Late Summer/Early Fall
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade
Zones: 4-7
Soil: Loam, Sand
Moisture: Medium, Moist
Color: Pink, Purple
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Description: Kalm St. John's Wort, Hypericum kalmianum,
is a small, dense, evergreen shrub or subshrub with upright branching that typically grows in
a dense mound to 2-3 feet tall. It typically occurs in rocky to sandy soils, ranging from relatively
dry open woods to moist lakeshore areas.
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New Jersey Tea
Height: 2-3 feet
Bloom: Late Spring/Early Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun
Zones: 3-8
Soil: Loam, Sand
Moisture: Dry Medium
Color: White
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Description: New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus) is
a compact, dense, rounded shrub which typically grows 2-3 feet tall. It occurs in prairies, glades,
dry open woods and thickets. Cylindrical clusters (1-2 inches long) of tiny, fragrant, white
flowers (1/8 inch) appear on long stalks at the stem ends or upper leaf axils in late spring.
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Northern Bush Honeysuckle
Height: 1 to 3 feet
Bloom: Summer
Sun: Full Sun
Zones: 3-7
Soil: Loam, Sand
Moisture: Medium, Dry
Color: Orange, Yellow, Gold
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Description: Northern Bush Honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera)
is a suckering, densely branched, deciduous shrub that typically grows to 3 feet tall and to 4 feet
wide. It is native to dry rocky open woodland areas and thickets. It is noted for its small shrubby
form, yellow trumpet-shaped flowers, dark green leaves and fall color.
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Pagoda Dogwood
Height: 15-25 feet
Bloom: Late Spring/Early Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade, Shade
Zones: 5-7
Soil: Loam
Moisture: Medium, Moist, Wet
Color: White, Yellow
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Description: Pagoda Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) is
a small deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub that typically grows 15-25 feet tall with
distinctive tiered/layered horizontal branching which is upward-turned at the tips. It is native
to both moist and dry forests, forest margins, stream banks and fields.
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Red Elderberry
Height: 1 to 2 feet
Bloom: Late Spring/Early Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun
Zones: 3-7
Soil: Loam, Acidic
Moisture: Medium, Moist, Wet
Color: White
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Description: Red Elderberry, Sambucus racemosa, is a
deciduous suckering shrub which typically grows to 8-12 feet tall with a somewhat sprawling
habit. It features (1) opposite, pinnate-compound, green leaves which have 5-7 leaflets, and (2)
dome-shaped clusters of numerous, late spring to early summer, tiny, fragrant, white flowers.
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Round-Leaved Dogwood
Height: 3-10 feet
Bloom: Summer
Sun: Part Shade, Shade
Zones: 4-7
Soil: Loam, Clay, Sand
Moisture: Medium, Moist
Color: White
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Description: Round-Leaved Dogwood, Cornus rugosa,
is an understory species of upland forest, both hardwood and conifer. Semi-shade tolerant,
it prefers thinner canopies or openings and wood margins.
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Shrubby Cinquefoil
Height: 2-4 feet
Bloom: Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade
Zones: 3-7
Soil: Loam
Moisture: Medium, Moist
Color: Yellow
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Description: Shrubby Cinquefoil, Potentilla fruticosa, is
a vigorous, floriferous, many-branched, compact, deciduous shrub. It typically grows in a
mound to 2-4 feet tall on branches clad with compound-pinnate, medium to blue-green leaves.
Saucer-shaped, 5-petaled, yellow flowers appear over a long summer bloom period.
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Winterberry
Height: 3-12 feet
Bloom: Summer
Sun: Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade
Zones: 3-9
Soil: Loam, Acidic
Moisture: Medium, Moist
Color: Green
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Description: Winterberry, Ilex verticillata, is a deciduous
holly where it typically occurs in swamps, damp thickets, low woods and along ponds and
streams. This is a slow-growing, deciduous shrub with an upright-rounded habit that typically
grows 3-12’ tall. In the wild, it often suckers to form large thickets or colonies.
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