New Shrubs Will Fit Any-Sized Yard
Learn about compact shrubs that are sized just right for smaller gardens.
If you are like most Americans, 
your yard is a lot smaller than your
parents or grandparents.
Even if your lot has not shrunk, it probably has a lot more stuff in it. Decks, patios, garages, sheds, pools and (hopefully) gardens, flower beds and other landscaping.
All this means you might have less room to work with in your landscaping or garden.
No worries. There are many compact-sized shrubs on the market, which will fit gardens large and small. These shrubs can be planted near a window or deck, and not create an overgrown hassle after a few years. Best of all, they will let you pack more diversity and color into a smaller space.
Here are two compact shrubs to check out:
Lo & Behold® ‘Blue Chip’ Buddleia – The run-of-the-mill buddleia grows about 6 foot tall by mid-summer, a problem for smaller gardens. The traditional varieties of buddleia are also proving to be aggressive and even invasive in some areas, to the point of facing outright bans through legislation in some states, such as Oregon.
Not with Lo & Behold® ‘Blue Chip,’ a new miniaturized butterfly bush. At slightly larger than 2 feet in height, it’s compact enough to plant in a pot on your patio while keeping its appeal to butterflies. Additionally, Lo & Behold® ‘Blue Chip’ is non-invasive. This cultivar will not overwhelm the landscape, and never develops the weedy, unkempt habit so typical of butterfly bush. Even gardeners with limited space can attract butterflies and hummingbirds to their garden with colorful buddleia.
Little Lime™ Hydrangea – Gardeners across the nation have fallen in love with ‘Limelight’ Hydrangea, and it's no wonder. It blooms reliably every year with spectacular color, while requiring very little care. If there was one negative about the plant, it would be it grows quite large (6 to 8 feet in height) without regular pruning.
The new Little Lime™ Hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata) boasts the same colors and benefits of ‘Limelight,’ though only reaching 3 to 5 feet fully grown. At one-third the size of other hardy hydrangeas, it fits well into any landscape.
Little Lime™ produces bright cone-shaped lime green flowers, later turning into pink, from mid-summer to frost. Like its larger cousin, it is also very drought tolerant. With its smaller size and tolerance to urban pollution, Little Lime™ will thrive even in inner city landscapes.
Using naturally compact shrubs has a few additional benefits. Since these shrubs stay small, they eliminate the need for regular pruning, which means less work! Compact shrubs can also be included in mass plantings to reduce lawn size and mowing. This will help you save money with the recent increase in gas prices .It also means less work!
As you can see, small is the big trend in flowering shrubs. In addition to Little Lime™ and ‘Blue Chip,’ Proven Winners sells a number of other compact varieties, from Abelias to Weigelas.
Plant Info: Little Lime™ Hydrangea paniculata 'Jane' PPAF Can. Can.: 3914; Lo & Behold® 'Blue Chip' Buddleia hybrid PP: 19991 Can. PBRAF
