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Shrubs under 4 feet for small gardens

Shrubs that stay under 4 ft (120 cm), for small gardens, the middle of a mixed border and under windows.

A small garden still needs shrubs: they are its structure. What it cannot take is a shrub that wants to be ten feet wide and has to be hacked back every year. Every shrub here stays under 4 ft (120 cm) when grown.

In a mixed border they do the job of the big shrubs in a big one: one here and one there, off-centre, as anchors that the perennials are arranged around.

155 plants: 155 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Rosemary

    Rosemary

    4 ft · early March to early May

    The kitchen herb: a dense, aromatic, evergreen shrub with needle-like leaves and small, pale blue flowers from late winter into spring.

  • Spreading yew 'Densiformis'

    Spreading yew 'Densiformis'

    4 ft · grown for its leaves

    A wide, dark green evergreen that grows in anything from full sun to deep shade.

  • Butterfly bush 'Blue Chip'

    Butterfly bush 'Blue Chip'

    2½ ft · early July to early October

    A knee-high butterfly bush that sets almost no seed.

  • Littleleaf boxwood 'Winter Gem'

    Littleleaf boxwood 'Winter Gem'

    4 ft · grown for its leaves

    A dense, rounded boxwood with small, glossy leaves.

A bed planned only from these plants

The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and full sun, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.

A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed at eye level in late May: Winter heath, Lingonberry, Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II', Boxwood 'Green Gem', Deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom', Heather.
A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) English border in zone 6, full sun, seen from the path in late May.
3. Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II'33. Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II'32. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry21. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath12. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry21. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath14. Boxwood 'Green Gem'44. Boxwood 'Green Gem'44. Boxwood 'Green Gem'44. Boxwood 'Green Gem'44. Boxwood 'Green Gem'46. Heather66. Heather66. Heather65. Deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom'55. Deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom'55. Deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom'56. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather61. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath12. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry22. Lingonberry2
From above, to scale. Each circle is one plant, as wide as the room it needs.

The plants

  1. 1 Winter heath × 12, pink
  2. 2 Lingonberry × 11, pink
  3. 3 Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II' × 2, pink
  4. 4 Boxwood 'Green Gem' × 5, dark green leaves
  5. 5 Deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom' × 3, pink
  6. 6 Heather × 8, purple

Planned as an English border: 7 of the 9 groups (78%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. The back corners are held by smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II', the tallest plant on the plan. The bed is balanced: the left half carries 54% of the visual weight and the right half 46%.

The planner's own design check: 10 Excellent, 6 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.

Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.

All 155 plants

Show all 155, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 31

Middle of a bed 62

Back of a bed 62

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