Last updated on March 7th, 2022
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If you want to fill any empty areas in your garden with delightful shrubs that bring with them aromatic flowers, leaves, and in some cases fruit, you, of course, have to be considerate of the space you have available. Some people designed their gardens specifically to contain various levels for geometrically aesthetic purposes.
Others have landscape designs that require everything to remain at a certain height. To that end, if you need something low-growing, consider one of these 10 low-growing shrubs. Each of these offers the same features, flexibility and low maintenance, but they won’t take over your garden, block the sun, grow out of hand, or at the very least, they can be easily controlled.
1. Azalea japonica
This is a small, beautiful shrub that brings with it a moderate height of 1.5 metres when it is fully established, however, this can take upwards of ten years or more. The foliage is evergreen but then come April and May flowers spring up in a variety of shades including white, pink, purple and red, and when they are in full flower they look simply amazing.
This is a low-growing shrub that prefers partial shade and acidic soil. If you have tested your soil and found that it is highly acidic consider planting this low-growing shrub. Make sure that you find a place that offers partial shade as well because if it is overexposed to sunlight the plant itself won’t die, but it won’t flower as well. If you have a particularly hot summer or autumn you may need to water it regularly for the first few years until the plant is established, after which it is quite drought tolerant with the exception of severe heat waves, which is something we don’t see very often in the UK. Tangentially there is very little maintenance and no pruning required unless you want to change the shape or otherwise reduce the size but it’s often not needed.
2. Dwarf Buddleia – Butterfly Bush
Commonly called the Butterfly Bush, this dwarf Buddleia offers green foliage with bright panicles of flowers of varying colours, depending on the variety. Once you plant it make sure it is getting access to full sun to make the most out of this spectacular shrub.
Buddleias will suffer from root rot if you don’t have properly drained soil so this is something you need to check beforehand. Other than this, you won’t need to alter the soil much because it will fare well in almost any pH level. It tolerates cold quite effectively so if you have colder winters rest assured you won’t need to do much to protect it.
The blooms have a honey fragrance and bring with them bees and butterflies, so it’s a great plant to have on patios, or nearby a seating area in your garden because it won’t grow too large that it blocks your view, but it will provide you with access to fragrance and wildlife. You can prune it at the beginning of spring and then deadhead the flowers regularly to encourage prolonged flower production. They are especially good for growing in pots.
3. Caryopteris ‘Heavenly Blue’ – Bluebeard
Known as Bluebeard, this deciduous shrub reaches about 1 metre in height and spread, which makes it perfect for a low-growing plant. It thrives in well-drained soil and prefers full sunlight and if you have loamy soil, this is the perfect plant. If you have a very cold winter in your area the stems might die back, however, the roots will survive just fine and bring about new stems come spring. Do not assume that your plant is dead if you have a cold winter and you see this for the first time.
It gets its nickname because of the aromatic foliage and the beautiful flower spikes that it produces at the end of summer that resembles blue clouds or smoke. These flowers bring forth beneficial insects, butterflies and bees to your garden so there is more than just a delightful fragrance to be enjoyed. It’s very effective when planted in large groups, used as a low hedge, shrub or perennial border plant and it requires next to no maintenance after it is established, with no serious disease or insect problem its a fairly easy to grow shrub and does also respond well to pruning if needed.
4. Sarcococca humilis – Dwarf Sweet Box
Nicknamed Sweet Box, this plant grows very well in acidic soil as long as it is well-drained. If you have very acidic soil with partial sun or full shade this is a wonderful shrub to consider. You can grow it in full sunlight but if you do the leaves will lose a bit of their luster. When it grows the evergreen leaves lead to tiny, tubular white flowers that are incredibly fragrant in the spring.
These flowers will certainly draw the eye and eventually produce black fruits if you have female flowers. This is a low-growing evergreen plant that’s perfect for shrub borders, low hedges, sandy slopes, shady parts of a cottage garden or anywhere else in your garden where you want fragrance and quality foliage.
5. Ceanothus thyrsiflorus var. repens – California Lilac
This prostrate low-growing shrub is common among Coastal communities with its attractive sky blue clusters of flowers that take on a powdered, cotton ball shape and design. This makes for excellent groundcover because it will tolerate full sun or full shade, especially in coastal regions and it grows very happily in sandy or clay soils.
It does best in compact clay soils or when grown underneath existing trees. If you live within a few kilometres of the sea this is a great plant to consider because it is tolerant of coastal conditions but is also tolerant of drought.
6. Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ – Golden-edged Winter Daphne
This is a wonderfully fragrant evergreen plant that is perfect for planting in areas where you want to add sweetness to the air. The leaves themselves are long and narrow, deep green and edged with creamy gold. It will reach upwards of 1.2 metres and spread 1.8 metres once fully established.
It needs only occasional watering and is incredibly tolerant of light, open or dappled shade. If your garden is regularly visited by deer, this is a great consideration because it’s resistant to deer, but it still brings bees and butterflies to the garden. Come spring small flowers appear with sweet purple and lilac buds. A stunning shrub and a great addition to any garden.
7. Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ – St John’s Wort
St John’s Wort is an evergreen shrub that you can prune regularly in order to maintain the size and shape that you prefer. It is a small, low-growing plant that will reach about 1.5 metres in both height and spread, but as previously mentioned, this can be contained if you so choose. As long as the soil is well-drained it will thrive in partial shade or even dappled shade, making it perfect for areas in your garden where other plants might not grow as effectively.
Like many evergreens, it is incredibly tolerant of all types of soil so if you have sandy soil, loam soil, clay soil or anything in between, you don’t need to go out of your way to make modifications in order to properly cultivate St John’s Wort. Moreover, it’s tolerant of different pH levels so highly acidic or alkaline soils won’t inhibit growth. Once planted you can enjoy the green foliage all year round and the bright yellow flowers during the summer that attract bees.
8. Genista lydia – Lydian Broom
This is an incredibly compact dwarf shrub that produces a sea of tiny, pea-sized flowers that are bright yellow and so floriferous they block the sight of any greenery underneath on established plants. Aside from aphids, this shrub is virtually disease-free and you can prune it after flowering if you want to maintain a certain size or shape.
It is incredibly tolerant of drought, heat and deer. It’s very slow-growing and it creates a sprawling cluster of trailing branches as it grows. It won’t get more than 30cm tall and upwards of 60cm wide, making it perfect for covering the ground. Tolerant of acidic and alkaline conditions, it thrives best as a groundcover, in pots and planters, on banks or slopes, and is the perfect addition to almost any type of garden.
9. Hebe pinguifolia ‘Pagei’
In summer and autumn, you can enjoy the production of simple leaves and spikes from this evergreen shrub that paves the way for delightful flowers. This is a dwarf evergreen shrub so it’s very effective as a groundcover in your garden, filling in spaces between other shrubs and trees and because it is slow growing it won’t compete with them for height, adding a lot of structure and geometric differences to your garden.
Once fully established, it will only reach a height of around 30cm and will spread three times that to create a dense mat of leaves. These leaves are a blue, silver and grey tone, they remain that way all year round so they bring a slightly unique spectrum of colours to even the darkest of areas.
And then come spring and summer it provides white flowers. It needs full sun or partial shade, the latter doesn’t impede growth but it does hinder colour production. Beyond that, it needs well-drained soil but little else. In fact, it will tolerate any soil type including sandy or loamy soils. It’s also quite tolerant of various pH levels so no modifications will need to be done on a regular basis which makes the maintenance simplistic.
10. Convolvulus cneorum – Silver Bush
Known as the Silver Bush because of the rich silvery colours the leaves assume, this plant is a Mediterranean native that creates dense mounds of grass that don’t get more than one metre tall and wide at the most. In addition to the silver-green leaves, it also produces white flowers that take on a funnel shape, inside of which is a yellow throat. The flowers start out as pink and then open to the white flower revealing the yellow centre near the end of summer.
Image credits – Shutterstock.com
