How native shrubs create living landscapes

Shrubs are the middle child of the plant world: not as big and mature as trees and not as fun and agile as perennials. But we’d be nowhere without them. So today it’s time to sing their praises and prove they can solve problems, provide ecological value, and look great doing it.

Right now I’m working on a very shrubby project that I’ll be installing in the spring. I’m removing a bunch of maple and sumac suckers on a southeast facing slope and replacing them with more than 90 native shrubs and then a whole slew of perennials. It’s going to be fantastic.

Layers within layers

I like to plant in layers, and shrubs form part of the structural layer. But shrubs can also be layered within themselves. For example, this design will have Bush Honeysuckle as the matrix layer weaving through the planting. This is a super-versatile plant with attractive yellow flowers that grows about three feet tall. Its fibrous roots, like most of the shrubs I’m using, will help stabilize the slope.

I’ll place one Serviceberry specimen, spiking tall next to the top layer. I’ll be planting it off-centre so as not to hide views, but it will provide a tree-like element to the design because I’ll be ordering a plant in tree form rather than a multi-stemmed shrub.

The rich and delicious middle layer will include Grey Dogwood, which will form screening thickets, Ninebark for some chunky structure, Highbush Cranberry for its distinctive leaves, along with Bayberry and Smooth Rose. The varied, layered picture this creates is striking.

Seasons of colour

Most Ontario native shrubs and trees flower in spring. Serviceberry and Highbush Cranberry will be there with their white flowers, followed by white and pink of Ninebark and then more white from the Dogwood. That’s not forgetting the pink of the roses as summer begins.

Then in fall, the leaves of the Serviceberry are orange and red, the Cranberry and Dogwood also show red and maybe some purple, and the many colours of the Black Chokeberry, which is also part of the design. That’s not to mention the berries many of these shrubs offer.

Ecosystem engineers

We’re leaving as many perennials as we can, and we will supplement with plants, such as sedges and Wild Strawberry, that help stabilize the slope.

Then there’ll be a succession of perennial blooms, from violets in the spring to Lanceleaf Coreopsis for summer, then asters and goldenrods in fall.

As Michael Guidi and Kevin Philip Williams write in their beautiful book, Shrouded in Light, one of the wonderful things about shrubs is that they function as ecosystem engineers, modifying environmental conditions and creating beneficial microclimates for other plants.

This site won’t be static. The perennials will be more prominent while the shrubs establish, then over time the shrubs will fill in, forcing some of our perennials out but providing the right conditions for other plants to find a home and grow.

I often view the kind of work I do as managing ecological succession. Sometimes I allow it to take place but at other times I hold it back. Shrubs are the quintessential early succession plant, holding space while trees go from seedling to sapling. Sometimes they give way as they get shaded out, or perhaps allow less sun-loving shrubs to take their place under the canopy. And all the time they’re vital food and habitat for birds, insects, and mammals.

Natural gardening is dancing with nature, and shrubs make great partners.