by T.C. Sert

Created on: March 24, 2010   Last Updated: March 25, 2010

Flowering shrubs and evergreen bushes are a wonderful way to add year- round beauty to your garden, and are great for natural privacy fences. The best thing about certain varieties of flowering shrubs and evergreen bushes is the minimal maintenance required for the upkeep of your plant. Here is an overview of some flowering shrubs and evergreen bushes that are great choices as hedges, beautiful year round landscape accents, and privacy fences.

Flowering shrubs are a lovely way to add color to any landscape, and when chosen properly can even add more beauty to your home. When choosing a flowering shrub there are a few things to consider before making your choice such as the quality of your soil, the pH of your soil, growing space, sunlight, and moisture. Every plant has specific needs to be fulfilled, and if they are not met then the plant will suffer or die. After researching and testing your soil, then you can better decide which shrubs and evergreens will prosper on your land.

Sweet Olive Shrub
Sweet Olive Shrub are also known as Osmanthus, is a flowering shrubs and an evergreen. The leaves of the Sweet Olive plant are a dark glossy green marquis shape with slightly noticeable veins. The sweet olive shrub produces very small white blossom clusters which produce a subtle sweet scent that tends to permeate the air around them. This beautiful shrub is slow growing and will reach a height of upwards to 30 feet, but on average is trimmed to a height of 10 feet. Sweet Olive shrubs grow best in full sun in the 8-10 climate zone, but there are other species that do fine in zones 6 and 7 as well. Though this shrub is not one that is able to be trimmed to form, the rewards are reaped when the leaves and blossoms are steeped to create a fragrant Sweet Olive tea.

Indian Hawthorne
Indian Hawthorne is another lovely flowering shrub and evergreen, and it even offers several species. Depending on the hybrid the blossoms can be white as with the Clara Hawthorne, or pink as with the Bay Breeze variety. Both produce beautiful blossoms during the spring months, and a lovely colorful green foliage throughout the remainder of the year, which turns a slightly red hue as winter approaches. The best zones for the Indian Hawthorne are from 7 to 11 and prefers full sun to partial shade. Indian Hawthorne is a low maintenance shrub that grows on average to a height of 4 to 6 feet and a width of 4 to 6 feet if unkept.

Azaleas
A favorite of many gardeners are Azaleas because of

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