EDDIE SEAGLE: Summer-flowering shrubs influence curb appeal

“Some people dream of success… while others wake up and make it happen!” Author Unknown. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

May is almost gone, and summer is getting closer with each passing day. The daytime temps are reaching the high 80s and low 90s as the humidity continues to increase. The flowers are beginning to fill the late spring-early summer landscape.

Summer-flowering shrubs certainly have an influence on color and curb appeal in our landscapes. Selecting the right plant and placing it in the right place are very critical in the survival and success process. Make your selections based upon the cultural and micro-environmental requirements of the plants, as well as personal choices. The following summer flowering shrubs offer curb appeal and desirable color in our landscapes.

Bluebeard Shrub (Caryopteris spp.) exhibits clusters of attractive blue blooms in late summer and is heat and drought tolerant. Often called blue mist spirea, bluebeard is not a true spirea. This low maintenance shrub attracts birds, butterflies, and bees. Reaching a height of 4 feet, it prefers full sun and well-drained soils. Longwood Blue is a cultivar whose leaves smell of mint.

Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) is a summer to fall flowering shrub offering fragrant blooms of purple, lavender, blue, pink, and white colors. Reaching a height of 10 feet, it prefers full sun and well-drained soils. Common cultivars greater than 6 feet tall are Attraction, Bicolor, Black Knight, Dartmoor, Guinevere, Honeycomb and Lochinch. Cultivars shorter than 6 feet include Ellen’s Blue, Nanho Blue, Summer Beauty and White Ball.

Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus floridus) brings attractive deep red flowers with a spicy fragrance to the landscape garden in the summer. Reaching a height of 8 feet, this low maintenance plant prefers full sun to partial shade and well-drained soils.

Reblooming Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) is a hydrangea that produces flowers on current season’s growth throughout the summer. Endless Summer is an awesome cultivar. Reaching a height of 5 feet, it prefers part shade and moist, well-drained soils.

Rock Rose (Cistus spp.) produces attractive rose-like flowers (pink, purple, lavender, and white) throughout the summer months. The rock rose is drought tolerant and easy to grow. Reaching a height of 5 feet, it prefers full sun and well-drained soils.

Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) was one of my mom’s most favorite plants. It provides color throughout the summer and into the fall with its tropical-looking blooms in pink, lavender-blue, and white. “Minerva” is a sterile variety and does not produce the excessive seedlings (which can become weedy) so characteristic of the regular varieties. Reaching a height of 10-feet, it prefers full sun and well-drained soils.

Shrub Rose (Rosa spp.) exhibits attractive blooms (yellow, pink, red and white) all summer and into the fall on vegetative stock that is disease tolerant. Shrub roses take the best qualities of the hardiest rose species, and combine those traits with modern repeat blooming and diverse flower forms, colors and fragrances. Some shrub roses may grow tall while others stay compact. Recent rose breeding has focused on developing hardier shrub roses for landscaping that need little to no maintenance. These plants have thorns so plant them away from traffic flow situations for people safety reasons. Reaching a height of 6 feet, the shrub rose prefers full sun and well-drained soils, and attracts birds. Cultivars such as Ballerina, Blanc Double de Coubert, Bonica, Carefree Beauty, Carefree Wonder, DayDream, Hansa, Home Run, John Cabot, Knock Out, Little Mischief, Pinktopia, Snowdrift, Sunrise, Super Hero and William Rafin are great choices.

Spirea (Spiraea japonica) is a low-maintenance shrub that is grown in so many different settings with minimal effort. From home landscapes and commercial properties to public plantings and streetsides, the spirea grows quite well and offers clusters of raspberry-rose flowers for our personal enjoyment. Goldmound is a cultivar exhibiting golden or lime-green foliage. Reaching a height of 4 feet, it prefers full sun and well-drained soils.

Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) offers fragrant flowers (pink and white) throughout the summer and golden leaf color in the fall. Ruby Spice is a cultivar offering a longer blooming season. Reaching a height of 5 feet, it prefers part to full shade and moist, well-drained soils. There are several cultivars of summersweet clethra that are available at garden centers and through mail order catalogs. These cultivars are different from the wild form (white and tall) by either being more compact and floriferous (making more flowers) or by having pink buds and flowers. Cultivars include Ruby Spice and Pink Spires as regular-sized, and Hummingbird and Sixteen Candles in dwarf form.

Think in terms of native and sustainable plants in the landscape. May this bit of awareness ignite your desire to learn and ask questions, encourage you to further apply your gained knowledge, and bring you to further realize that environmental stewardship and sustainability are at the foundation of all your home landscape activities.

Remember to feed and water the songbirds. Give your pets the care they need. Do not leave them unattended in a hot car or tied to a tree all day long. Do not leave them out in inclement weather. Also, be on lookout for children playing and bicyclists riding along the streets and roadways throughout our communities. Don’t drive distracted or impaired, and don’t text while driving. Help the homeless every chance you get. Let’s keep everyone safe!

Many thanks to all who read this column, which is an effort to provide each reader with timely and useful information which is a small contribution on my part in paying it forward to my readers. We are planning a mission trip to the Andes Mountains in Peru this summer and accepting donations to assist in its funding. If you would like to donate to this cause, please make a check payable to Heritage Church and mail to Eddie Seagle, Peru Mission Team, 108 Tallokas Circle, Moultrie, GA 31788. We thank you and would appreciate your prayers for a safe journey for our team.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Eddie Seagle is a sustainability associate, Golf Environment Organization (Scotland); agronomist and horticulturalist, CSI: Seagle (Consulting Services International); professor emeritus and honorary alumnus, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and associate editor of The Golf Course, International Journal of Golf Science. Direct inquiries to [email protected].