Promoting the Use of Native Plant Species in the Home Landscape

Shrubs

A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant. Unlike herbs, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height, and are usually under 6′ tall.

Bearberry

Flowers are tiny and pink or white with pink tinges. They are oval in shape constricted at the mouth then flaring into 5 spreading lobes. Flowers form in clusters of 5-10 at the end of branches. The flowers form small red berries.

Speckled Adler

Male flowers in dangling catkins, yellow-red, in early spring before leaves appear. Female flowers small, pink, egg-shaped. Fruit are cone-like structures.

Pussy Willow

Spike like clusters (Catkins) at tips of short branchlets. The fuzzy bud is what gives this plant its name.

Leadplant

Tiny, purple flowers grouped together in colorful, terminal spikes.

Prairie Willow

Spike-like clusters(catkins)

Black Chokeberry

Flat-topped clusters of white, five-petaled flowers with pink anthers are followed by persistent, blackish-purple berries.

American Elderberry

Flat to dome shaped clusters of 5 rounded white petals. Forms into clusters of black berries for wildlife.

New Jersey Tea

Small white flowers occur in 2 in., branch-tip clusters. A low shrub with tiny white flowers in clusters rising from the leaf axils on the new shoots.

Red Elderberry

Egg shaped to pyramidal white branching clusters. Forms into clusters of red berries beneficial to wildlife.

Buttonbush

Flowers small, borne in distinctive, dense, spherical clusters (heads) with fringe of pistils protruded beyond the white corollas. Long-lasting, unusual blooms are white or pale-pink, one-inch globes.

Buffaloberry or Soapberry

Bowl to urn shaped green to yellowish calyx with 4 triangular petal like lobes

Sweet-Fern

Flowers are brown catkins that appear before the leaves unfold. A small nut is enclosed in a bur-like husk.

Willowleaf Spirea

Branching clusters of small white-pink flowers

Steeplebush

Pink densely packed clusters at top of plant

Silky Dogwood, Red Willow

Creamy-white, flat-topped flowers are upright and terminal.

Snowberry

Short tight clusters of cup to bell shaped pink flowers

Leatherwood, Eastern Leatherwood

Narrow, yellow, bell-shaped flowers hang in pendulous clusters and last a long time.

Lowland Blueberry

Short stalked bell - like white flowers

Maple Leaf Viburnum

Tiny creamy - white on long stalked flat - tipped cymes

Wild Raisin or Witherod Viburnum

Dense cluster of white flowers

Shrubby St. Johns Wort

Large yellow flowers occur singly or in few-flowered clusters. A dry, dehiscent, three valved capsule persists all winter.

Gray Dogwood

Shrubby plant that is a member of the dogwood genus Cornus. White flowers.

Blackhaw Viburnum

White flower clusters followed by yellow berries turning blue-black

Juniper

Coniferous plant, between 50-67 species of juniper are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Bloom color is yellow.

White Cedar or Arborvitae

Evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family. Widely cultivated as an ornamental plant.

Red-twig Dogwood, Red Osier Dogwood

Flowers are white 1.5 - 2.5" diameter, flat clusters dull white small bloom.

Common Cinquefoil

Five-petaled, yellow flowers.

Michigan Holly

White flowers. Bright scarlet fruit grows in clusters and persists throughout winter. Only female produces fruit, and must have a male nearby for pollination.

American Cranberry Bush

Flowers are white. Fruits bright red or orange and persists throughout winter.

Arrowwood Viburnum

Spring white flowers. Fruit is dark purple to black.

Bush Honeysuckle

Small, bell-shaped flowers are yellow-green at first, becoming orange or purplish-red.

Mountain Maple

Flowers are small and range from yellow-green-brown.

Nannyberry Viburnum

Also known as sheepberry, or sweet viburnum. Small, white, fragrant flowers.

Spicebush

Yellow flowers, usually observed in the mid spring, with fruit and seed production starting in the summer and continuing until fall.

Ninebark

Deciduous shrub with ornamental white flowers May to June. Plant several of these as a privacy screen along your property line. Great for erosion control or for areas where conditions aren't conducive to less hardy plantings.

Shrubby Cinquefoil

Dense, bushy shrub with upright, slender branches. Produces bright yellow flowers for most of the growing season.

Kalm St. Johns wort

Flowers are yellow and numerous, about 1" wide. They have 5 petals with block dots on each petal and many long, protruding stamens.

Pagoda Dogwood

Small white flowers in 2" wide, flat-topped clusters. Clusters of bluish-black berries (drupes) and red peduncles (flower stalks); ripen in July.

American Bittersweet

Branching clusters of small flowers with 5 whitish green petals

Fragrant Sumac, Aromatic Sumac, Lemon Sumac

Yellowish catkin-like flowers precede dark-red berries which persist into March.

Staghorn Sumac

On female plants, yellow-green flowers are followed by fuzzy, bright red berries in erect, pyramidal clusters which persist throughout winter.

Woodbine, Virginia Creeper

Branching clusters of 10-75 greenish-yellow flowers

Smooth Rose, Early Wild Rose

Five-petaled flowers are pale pink to white.

Pasture Rose, Carolina Rose

From thorny stems are borne fragrant, 2" wide, 5-petaled, pink flowers. Flowers occur singly or in small clusters. The fruit, a hip, turns from dark green to bright red as it ripens.

Swamp Rose

Showy, but short-lived, dark rose-pink flowers.

Eastern Red Cedar

Fragrant, scale-like foliage can be coarse or fine-cut, and varies in color from gray-green to blue-green to light or dark-green. All colors tend to brown in winter.