Low maintenance low cost perennial shrubs for front of home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd do azaleas. You can alternate colors.

A single color is best, otherwise it looks like the Easter Bunny vomited.

Yes, I'd pick a hue. We have some that are two shades of pink. It looks fine, but would look better if they matched because then it looks like like one big bush instead of several small ones.

[Anonymous]

My laurels have been eaten alive every year by bugs and I've never been able to get rid of the bugs. I've tried lots of different insecticides. HUGE bites out of every leaf year round.

[Anonymous]

Pieris shurbs. Deer hate them, unlike azaleas.

Love our azaleas, but have to protect with deer netting. Deer don't like our neighbors hydrangeas, but will eat ours, so we protect those with deer netting as well.

[Anonymous]

Nanking Cherry

[Anonymous]

Second viburnum. Easy and lovely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate azaleas. Hydrangeas are just as easy and the blooms last longer then a week.

I love both. But, hydrangeas are bare for months of the year.

I have both --and that is what I recommend.

And, to the person that said not to mix the azalea colors because it looks like Easter Bunny vomit--the azaleas bloom for only a week or so. If you plant different colors, you will have blooms for a while. White azaleas mix well with all the others. Some of them are finished blooming before the others. So, plant the ones you like. Azaleas are hardy, easy to plant, and inexpensive.

As for the laurels--it depends on the sun exposure. They are pretty all year--if they are happy.

[Anonymous]

Australian dogwood

[Anonymous]

St. John's Wort

[Anonymous]

Cinquefoil

[Anonymous]

To the recommender of Photinia: what do you like about them?

[Anonymous]

I love viburnum, too. "Summer snowflake" has a long blooming period.

[Anonymous]

Hydrangeas!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd do azaleas. You can alternate colors.

A single color is best, otherwise it looks like the Easter Bunny vomited.

+1, I used to work in neighbor development and we always used singles colors. Less distracting to the eye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Laurels work for me. Pretty bottle-brush white flowers in spring with the azaleas -- the bees love them. Nice red berries in the fall, if the birds don't eat them all first. Glossy evergreen leaves, can be shaped wide and flat, tall and skinny, however you want them.

Another vote for laurels. About as low maintenance as can be - I just have to shape them when I want.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate azaleas. Hydrangeas are just as easy and the blooms last longer then a week.

I love both. But, hydrangeas are bare for months of the year.

I have both --and that is what I recommend.

And, to the person that said not to mix the azalea colors because it looks like Easter Bunny vomit--the azaleas bloom for only a week or so. If you plant different colors, you will have blooms for a while. White azaleas mix well with all the others. Some of them are finished blooming before the others. So, plant the ones you like. Azaleas are hardy, easy to plant, and inexpensive.

As for the laurels--it depends on the sun exposure. They are pretty all year--if they are happy.

I have laurels with hydrangeas in front, with a row of liriope around. The hydrangeas sort of hide between the liriope and the laurels when they're bare.