If you remember last Fall hubby and I gutted our landscape design and started over with end of the season clearance plants and the only thing I couldn’t find was a weeping cherry tree. So this Spring as soon as the stores started putting out their trees and shrubs I was on the lookout for a weeping cherry in white. I had a hard time finding one with a nice straight trunk and symmetrical weeping branches but Lowe’s finally came through, they had the perfect tree and half the cost of other places so into the Jeep it went.
It’s been a perfect time around here to plant we’ve been getting rain almost every other day so I haven’t had to water the new additions at all. I’m not fond of the constant rain but it’s been good on the new tree and shrubs. I had no plans of purchasing anything else but the Flamingo Willow bushes caught my eye. That pink foliage is stunning and against our dark house I thought it would look fantastic. After reading the tag it said the leaves turn pink in spring, lime green in summer, and red orange in fall, and in winter the leaves fall off and the stems are a vibrant red….SOLD. All those color possibilities had me hooked I purchased 2 and planted them behind my lamp turned birdhouse.
I’m still on the lookout for a snowball bush, they haven’t hit the stores here yet but when they do I will add that to the plan and everything will be complete. I didn’t add any perennials into the design this time around I was making things easier on myself as far as work is concerned. The shrubs will only need to be pruned once a year and add fresh mulch now and then. I’m happy with our choices and I like the idea of less work. I just wasn’t up to deadheading, weeding, and dividing flowers anymore for me bushes are the way to go. I still want things to look nice without all the maintenance that goes along with it. I now feel I’m not a slave to the landscape upkeep. I do so swoon over all the pretty flowers when I walk by but I tell myself…..THOSE ARE TOO MUCH WORK……and pass them by longing over their beauty!
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We have mostly flowering bushes and they have been soooo low maintenance and yet give us as much, or more color than flowers do. We have azalea bushes… quite a few, butterfly bushes in the summertime, rhododendron bushes blooming right now, forsythia for early springtime color, vibernum blooming right now. Had bridal wreath spiraea at our last house and LOVED the dainty white blossoms on it, so many choices. I think I need to do a blog post about it. xo
Diane I agree bushes give more color throughout the year and I’m just not up for all that’s required to take care of perennials. Yes you should do a post 🙂
Very beautiful Dawn….hope you find your Snowball bush soon…I just planted mine!…well my hubby did!
Shirley Im having a hard time finding the Viburnum one all I can find is the Hydrangea one and they don’t do well in my soil.
This looks great…clean and neat. I’m with you, the less work the better these days!
Ann Im all about less work, with age it’s no longer fun, lol.
Your front yard looks very nice and neat. Easy peasy is the way to go. I understand about yardwork. This weekend we need to prune the tree and weed.
Happy Mother’s Day Dawn!
Kathleen in Az
Kathleen thank you for the Mother’s Day wishes 🙂 We mow about 7 acres between the two homes and when I have to keep up pretty flowers it’s just too much so I think the shrubs are the way to go for me. I pruned all my fruit trees early last month so that’s done all I need to do is mulch the peonies still. Have a wonderful weekend and don’t work to hard in the yard!
I’M with you Dawn. I’m at a cross roads myself with my flower beds and the flowers need to be divided now before blooming time rolls around and I am considering just digging out the plants and putting in blooming shrubs of some kind. How do you mulch peonies ?
Cheryl that’s what we did last year. Pulled everything and planted flowering shrubs or shrubs that have some interest, like produce berries or something. I wanted to lessen the workload around here. For the peonies I just add a heavy layer of wood mulch around the base of the plant. I have mine in raised beds so I mulch the whole bed heavily to keep the weeds out.