Flowering shrubs for hedges

Cover your yard with flowering hedges instead of fences to add color, texture and fragrance to your backyard space. Check out these top picks for flowering shrubs that you can use to create fast-growing privacy hedges.

1. Azalea

Grown for their showy spring flowers, azaleas (Rhododendron spp.) light up the landscape with their trumpet-shaped blooms in a wide range of colors. Some, like the encore azalea (pictured here), bloom on new wood throughout summer and fall. Most azaleas are deciduous and have smaller leaves than true rhododendrons.

2. Beautyberry

Although American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) bears small pinkish-white flowers along its stem in late summer, the fruit that follows is what makes this shrub so spectacular. This native plant's flowers develop into bright purple berries in the fall. In zone 6, beautyberry may die back in winter, but will sprout from the base in spring.

3. Beautybush

True to its name, beauty bush (Colquitcia amabilis) produces arching branches laden with delicate pink bell-shaped flowers in late spring. The flowers turn yellow in autumn, followed by capsule-like fruits amid its dark green leaves. This flowering hedge is deer resistant and drought tolerant.

4. Bluebeard

Also known as blue-mist spirea, bluebeard (Caryopteris spp.) is a late-blooming, powder-buff blue, pink, or purple flower on small plants with gray-green leaves. Choices that offer variegated or chartreuse foliage are also available. Its flowers are very attractive to butterflies.

5. Bridalwreath Spirea

If you're looking for an elegant hedge that's widely adaptable, deer-resistant, drought-tolerant and easy to grow, try Bride's spirea (Spiraea brunifolia). Profuse clusters of white flowers in mid-spring give this shrub a romantic air.

6. Chaste Tree

Grown as a multi-stemmed shrub or small, single-stemmed tree, chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) has deep, compound leaves and fragrant pink, blue or white flowers that draw butterflies. Gardeners in zone 6 can treat chaste tree as a perennial because it dies back to the ground each winter but grows from the roots in spring.

7. Deutzia

When in full bloom, Teutsia steals the show in early spring with profusion of white or pink flowers on its stems. Small, fragrant, bell-shaped flowers cover the entire plant so that not a single leaf is visible. If you want a smaller variety, choose slender Teutsia (D. gracilis) or choose a tall variety - showy Teutsia (T. x magnifica).

8. Dwarf Grape Myrtle

Although many crape myrtles (Lagerstromia spp.) grow into small- to medium-sized trees, some varieties, such as the Philly series and Dazzle series, remain shrubs that produce full-sized, crepe-papery flowers. Over two feet tall. Crape myrtles have a long bloom period, eye-catching peeling bark, and bright fall color.

9. Dwarf Fothergilla

A slow-growing shrub with long-lasting interest, Dwarf Fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii) has fragrant white bottlebrush flowers in early spring. In autumn, its leaves turn fiery red, orange and yellow. Except that its larger relative, the greater Fothergilla (F. major) grows up to eight feet tall.

10. Forsythia

Forsythia's bright golden blooms are practically synonymous with spring in much of the country. This deciduous shrub is known for its early yellow flowers, which appear before the plant's leaves, and maintain its evergreen color until fall. Northern gardeners should choose one of the cold-hardy selections, such as 'Meadowlark', which provides reliable blooms even after sub-zero winters.

11. Hardy Hibiscus

The size of dinner plates, hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos) make a wonderful hedge in your landscape to create showstopping flowers. At peak bloom, this perennial can produce 20 or more flowers per day. Its hollyhock-like flowers appear in shades of red, white, salmon or pink.