THERE’S AN AREA OF our garden that has a bit of a blooming lull after the flush of spring bulbs is past.

Despite that, it’s never a dull, drab spot of “only” green, because we have it planted with a number of shrubs. Some of these are flowering shrubs, spireas and hydrangeas that will add a burst of colour a little later in the summer.

Others, however, are chosen for their great foliage colour or texture, for an interesting plant shape and for great fall colour or winter interest.

The point is, there are terrific shrubs for every garden and for every season of our garden. Not just the potentillas, snowball bushes, weigelas and spireas that everyone has a couple of — these are wonderful shrubs for any garden, but there are so many more species and varieties to choose from, and you can always find the right-sized plant, whether you have a large, sprawling country lot or a tiny duplex yard.

It’s always a challenge for me to declare favourite plants. As with children, most every garden plant has an appeal and is good at what it does.

But my favourite shrub, hands down, is the ornamental barberry. Yes, they are thorny and can be very tricky to prune. My choice is not to prune them, except when I want to pilfer a branch or two of berries for a winter container decoration.

Japanese barberries (Berberis thunbergii) aren’t to be confused with the common barberry B. vulgaris, a host plant for a fungal disease of wheat. The ornamental Japanese barberries do not act as host plants and are safe to plant in our gardens.

What really excites me about barberries is how great they look all year long.

In winter, their branch structure is attractive, and their scarlet fruit holds on throughout the winter months. In spring and summer, the branches are covered with small leaves in shades of green, gold, purple, and red, depending on the cultivar.

Autumn sees the barberries put on a fall foliage display to rival burning bushes for dramatic, eye-catching colour. And you can find barberries in a host of sizes from the gold dwarf Nana Aurea to the mounded purple shape of Concorde to the sprawling, fireworks-explosion form of Rose Glow.

What are a few thorns when a shrub has this many attributes?

Out of curiosity, I talked to a handful of nursery operators around the province and asked them for a particularly appealing favourite. The answers were as varied as I had hoped and should inspire every gardener to try at least one new shrub.

Paul Grimm is the general manager and plants man of Springvale Nurseries.

Like most plant aficionados, he finds it difficult to pick a single shrub as a real favourite, so I forgave him (and agreed with him wholeheartedly) when he chose the false cypress or Chamaecyparis as a must-have family of evergreens.

“There’s such a choice with false cypress,” he says as we walk around his production nursery outside Berwick, and we can see that in the variety of shapes, sizes, and even needle colour.

Mr. Grimm did finally decide that Well’s Special Hinoki false cypress is definitely choice. It’s also probably top choice for ungainly botanical names: Chamaecyparis obtusa (Well’s Special), but since it’s a uniquely sculptured, bonsai-like specimen that deserves star billing, we’ll allow it to have a cumbersome name.

“Everyone enjoys the colours hydrangeas offer, especially at this time of year,” says Beverly Fraser at Pleasant Valley Nurseries in Antigonish.

She’s right-on about that, although she agrees that gardeners need to choose the right hydrangea for their zone.

The paniculata hydrangeas, commonly called Pee Gee after one so-named cultivar, are tough and dependable throughout most of the province; the mopheads and lacecaps have to be selected with care, but local nursery operators know that and carry the cultivars that will grow in their particular area.

Beverly is fond of the Forever Pink mophead, as well as the Bluebird lacecap, which when you’ve seen it in flower becomes a must-have shrub.

Gerry Frail didn’t hesitate when asked for a favourite summer shrub.

“Beauty bush,” he said promptly from his operation, Gerry’s Nursery in Centreville.

“Anyone who has it loves it.”

If you’ve grown beauty bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis), you probably agree wholeheartedly. The shrub grows larger than some and often is a nesting site for songbirds. Despite its beautiful shape and vast numbers of soft pink flowers, the beautybush’s only drawback is the decidedly un-beautiful scent of those blossoms.

Ivan Higgins operates Cosby’s Garden Centre in Liverpool, home of marvellous concrete sculptures as well as some very choice plant material. He likes the Japanese holly, Ilex crenata, which is a broadleaf evergreen similar to boxwood.

“It comes in a nice variety of forms, will grow in sun or shade and is ideal for creating a hedge,” he says.

It bears black, rather than red, fruit but remember: As with other hollies, you need to have both male and female plants in order to have berries form.

Lee Dickie from Berwick’s Briar Patch Farm is very fond of a viburnum that goes by the somewhat ungainly name of Viburnum plicatum Mariesii, the doublefile viburnum.

“It’s a lovely and distinctive-shaped shrub, as its branches grow out horizontally from its trunk,” she says.

In late spring or early summer, it erupts into lovely masses of white flowers that look somewhat similar to a lacecap hydrangea. If there’s another doublefile nearby to cross pollinate it, the flowers will later form into red, fleshy fruits that ripen to black.

As a bonus, the foliage turns red-purple in autumn, and if you plant this as a specimen shrub by itself, you can admire its unique structure through the winter months as well.

If you’re not growing a Diabolo ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius Diabolo) in your garden, you’re missing out on one of the great shrubs. Jackie Bezanson at Blomidon Nurseries in Greenwich describes the plant’s stellar features.

“It’s fast-growing and hardy, has dark purple foliage, delightfully exfoliating bark like a paper birch, and has clusters of white or pale pink flowers that later turn into deep red seed heads.”

This shrub doesn’t have to be in flower to look fabulous, which proves there’s far more to gardening than flowers.

( jdelong@herald.ca)

Jodi DeLong is a gardener, freelance writer and speaker living in Scots Bay. She believes you should just say no to goutweed.