10 Shrubs That Blooms in Early Spring
Landscapers value most shrubs for their ability to fill in spaces with lush, attractive leaves, guiding the eye around the yard. The species on this list offer a bonus: each one blooms brilliantly with flowers in the early spring, perking up your home and inviting the mind to break free of the winter blues.
Japanese pieris (Pieris japonica) is an evergreen shrub that produces chains of small flowers. But be careful, it can cause seizures and temporary blindness if consumed by animals or people. Even so, is sometimes grown in the foundation portion of gardens along with other shrubs.
Both the foliage and the flowers of Winter heath (Erica carnea) add welcome color to a winter garden. It is suited to borders, containers, rock gardens, and banks and will bloom profusely throughout the winter. Extremely hardy, it will even bloom beneath the snow and become visible only when the snow melts.
Fragrant pink buds that turn to white blooms are the hallmark of the Koreanspice viburnum, a member of the elderberry family. Also known as the Viburnum carlesii, this deciduous shrub is hardy in grow zones four through seven. Essentially rabbit proof, the Koreanspice viburnum is attractive to butterflies and caterpillars and produces beautiful fall foliage. Only female bushes will produce berries.
Japanese rose (Kerria japonica) is a plant species native to China, Japan and Korea. The Japanese rose is known as yamabuki in Japan. Both the Golden Guinea and Bachelors Buttons cultivars have received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
Flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) is a deciduous shrub that’s native to China. Its edible fruit appears in autumn and is often used in jams and jellies. The plant can also be used as a privacy hedge that will attract hummingbirds in droves.
This deciduous shrub, known as Border forsythia (Forsythia intermedia), makes an excellent hedge or border, as its name suggests. In early spring, before its leaves appear, Border forsythia bushes are covered in prolific amounts of bright yellow flowers. These bushes are easy to grow and respond well to pruning.
Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is a small understory tree native to North America. In spring or early summer clusters of purple-pink flowers appear on bare branches and sometimes on the trunk. The characteristic seed pod reveals that Eastern redbud belongs to the legume family, which makes it a cousin to peas, and locust trees.
Witch hazel was used quite commonly in the 20th century for locating water sources. The practice, called dowsing or water witching, is still occasionally used. In dowsing, a forked stick of Witch hazel is held perpendicular to the ground and moved slowly over it. The belief is that when a water source is directly under the stick, it will dip or jump.
The Daphne mezereum is a deciduous shrub that can grow up to 1.5 m tall. Its leaves are soft, spirally arranged on the stems. The February daphne produces a bright red berry as the fruit which is extremely poisonous for humans.
Rhododendron indicum is a small semi-evergreen flowering shrub native to East Asia, colloquially known as Evergreen azalea. It produces a great number of lovely pink flowers during the blooming time, which is why Evergreen azalea is often used for ornamental purposes. There are many cultivars of this gorgeous plant and some are used for bonsai.