Short Flowering Shrubs For Small Yard

Grow these dwarf flowering shrubs for adding interest and focal point into the small garden space.

When you have a spot in your yard for a garden, grow these low-maintenance flowering shrubs that will make your garden look stand out. Pair them with these fast-growing annual flowers and easy growing perennial flowers for colorful and continuous blooming all summer long.

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These small flowering shrub will grow in a colder area as low to zone 3. So it is possible to grow beautiful shrubs in a short growing season and add interest all year long.

Most of the time, a shrub is growing in the front yard and add curb appeal interest as a foundation planting or focal point for the landscape. The dwarf varieties or the uniform looks growing habit is perfect low growing shrubs for front of the house.

Best Shrubs For Small Garden

All kind of flowering shrub and evergreen shrubs are beautiful with proper care. But some varieties are not suitable for small gardens.

For example, if you want to grow shrub in front of the porch, you might want a specific plant that won’t cover the whole view. The dwarf shrubs are more suitable for this area.

Spring Flowering Shrub

Some flowery shrubs are blooming and very showy in the early spring. They are adding more excitement and fresh view after the long white winter.

Double flowering plum
This showy double pink blossoms shrub is hardy to zones 3-8 that also attracts early pollinators. It will start as full spectacular blossoms all over the shrub for about 1-2 weeks in the middle of spring (mine is blooming around mid-May), then follow with foliages.

This shrub has dark green foliage that turns orange color in the fall. You will love this low care shrub because it starts the season with a bright showy pink cluster of blossoms and ends the season with fantastic fall color foliage. It is not all shrubs has a characteristic like this one.

Forsythia
This shrub is one of the earliest shrubs to bloom in the spring that also hardy to zones 3-8. It has showy yellow blossoms before leafing out.

The foliage is a dark green color that occasionally turns into a mix of yellow or red-purple color in the fall.

Lilac
This fragrant shrub is hardy to zones 3-7 with beautiful clusters of blossoms that bloom in the mid to late spring. Some lilac varieties can grow up to 15 feet.

The Villosa lilac is one of the earliest blooming lilac varieties. It has blue color blossoms that will last up to 2 weeks before the other lilac varieties start to bloom.

The dwarf reblooming Bloomerang lilac variety is suitable to grow in small space gardens. This lilac will bloom profusely in the late spring and then continue with new growth before new blooms appear in the summer through fall.

Nanking Cherry
Just like any other cherry variety, this plant will bloom in mid-spring. The single pink-white blossom attracts early pollinators follow by small edible cherries.

Nanking cherry is a fast-growing shrub for full sun that hardy to zones 3-6. The fruit has tart-tasting cherry with a little sweet and sour taste.

Although Nanking cherry can grow up to 10 feet/3 meters, you can trim it to keep the shrub in a smaller size.

Summer Flowering Shrub

There are so many choices for summer flowering shrubs. It depends on the size of your garden, hardiness zone, and the purpose of the shrub itself in the garden.

Maybe you want to grow shrub as a hedge, foundation planting, perennial garden, ground cover, mass planting, or focal point for the garden bed. Summer blooming shrub also comes in colorful foliage, which adds interest to the garden once the blooms finished.

Potentilla
Hardy to zones 3-7 for full sun and partial shade, potentilla is one of the low-care shrubs that will bloom all summer long. Potentilla comes with a great variety of colors, from orange, yellow, white, red, pink, peach.

Potentilla is easy to trim to keep it tidy. It is an excellent shrub for foundation or mass planting.

Spirea
The shrub comes in a variety of foliage colors from dark green to bright yellow gold color. It is hardy shrub as low as zone 2.

The Gold Mound Spirea and Magic Carpet Spirea has a showy foliage color from spring to fall. The yellow and chartreuse foliage adds interest to the garden and perfects to pair it with blue flowers.

The Bridal Wreath Spirea has showy white blooms along the branch. It adds a focal point to the spring garden and one of the small flowering shrubs for partial shade.

Elderberry
Hardy to zones 3-8 for full sun and partial shade, elderberry has a variety of foliage from green, chartreuse, and purple-black. You can trim and train the shrub into a dwarf shrub or a small tree.

Here is the picture of the chartreuse foliage elderberry as a companion plant for Walker’s Low catmint flowers.

Ninebark
The shrub comes with green, yellow, chartreuse, or burgundy-red and hardy to zones 2-7 for full sun and partial shade. Ninebark is a low maintenance shrub and an excellent plant for hedge or border.

Here is the dark burgundy-red Diabolo Ninebark shrub flower. The shrub grows as a hedge along the fence. This site has full sun throughout the day.

Hydrangea
You can grow a variety of hydrangea shrubs from the tender one to the more hardy ones depend on your hardiness zone. Hydrangea is hardy for zones 3-9, and some type can grow in the tropical region by providing more shade throughout the days.

I grow the QuickFire Hydrangea, an early blooming and low care hydrangea that hardy for zone 3.

Dogwood
This shrub is hardy to zones 3-8. The Red Osier Dogwood has white flowers, and it adds interest during winter with its red bark.

Dogwood grows in full sun and partial shade with moist and well-drained soil. It is an excellent shrub for mass planting, foundation planting, and a focal point.

Mock Orange
Hardy for zones 2-8, Mock Orange has white single and double citrus-scented flowers that bloom in late spring to summer. Mock Orange grows in full sun or partial shade with well-drained soil.

Mock Orange can easily trim and trained into a hedge or small shrub.

Weigela
This shrub is hardy to zones 3-8 and comes with a variety of blooming colors, pink, white, orange, and red. Most varieties are blooming in the late spring.

There is also a Reblooming Sonic Bloom Pink variety that will start flowering in May or late spring and continue until fall without trimming the spent flowers.

Weigela shrubs have chartreuse, green and variegated foliage, make it an excellent shrub for a focal point to the perennial garden. The tubular shape of flowers attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

Barberry
This compact shrub is hardy to zones 3-8. Some varieties have thorns, but it also one of the popular shrubs for foundation planting due to low maintenance.

The shrub has small clusters of yellow and orange flowers. It comes with a chartreuse, red, purple-red foliage colors that turn to bright orange and reddish in the fall.

Globe Caragana
The dwarf round-shape shrub that is hardy to zone 3 has yellow pea-flower like blooms on the branches. This one of the best dwarf flowering shrubs is very adaptable and maintains its shape.

Globe caragana has green foliage that turns buttery yellow in the fall. You can grow globe caragana as boxwoods substitute if you live in the colder zone.

These small flowering shrubs will grow in the colder area as low to zone 3 and perfect for small space garden. Click To Tweet

The Best Time To Plant Shrubs

The bare root shrubs that came from nurseries or garden centers are better to plant in the early spring once the weather is warming up, and the ground is workable. This way will give enough time to establish the root system before the heat of summer.

Plant the fully grown shrub in the fall. While most of zone 3 gardens would get frost as early as the beginning of September, it would be ideal for planting the shrub in the late summer when the weather starts cooling off. This way will give enough time to establish the root system before the ground freeze.

Most garden centers always have the end of the season sale, which is a perfect time to score the deals on perennial and shrub you have on the list. These perennial or shrub might not be in excellent condition, but the plants will grow just fine in the following year with proper care.

I always use this Myke root fertilizer for transplanting trees and shrub. Just rub the root with the fertilizer before you put the plant in the planting hole.