20 Best Shrubs For Afternoon Sun (2023 Updated)

Autumn Embers Encore Azalea offers vibrant year-round color to any garden. Autumn Embers is one of the most popular Encore Azalea varieties with deep orange-red blooms that make a colorful statement in any landscape.

Unlike many traditional azaleas, Encore azaleas bloom best in full sun, so choose an area of your yard where they can receive at least 4-6 hours of sunlight. Autumn Embers works well in foundation plantings or as a low growing hedge.

Be sure to plant your Encore Azaleas in acidic to slightly acidic soil to maximize your bloom yield. Fertilize in the spring with a balanced fertilizer after the threat of the last frost has dissipated and feed once more in the summer to help you Encore bloom through fall.

Encore Azalea is the world’s best-selling multi-season blooming azalea. In many areas of the country, Encore Azalea bloom during 3 seasons of the year-spring, summer, and fall. And, for areas of the country where azaleas don’t traditionally thrive, such as those in USDA hardiness Zone 6 and 7, you will see a spring or summer bloom, but not a fall bloom before your temperatures drop.

This eye-catching plant is the Sunshine Ligustrum from the Southern Living Plant Collection. This shrub offers brilliant golden-yellow colored foliage that will bring great year-round color to your landscape.

New growth is lime green that will continuously intensify to yellow hues as spring turns into summer, arriving at a vibrant golden yellow. The more sunlight they get, the better. More sun produces more yellow leaves, while less sun results in more yellow-green foliage.

This is a sterile, non-invasive cultivar of Ligustrum that will not re-seed and spread. This plant looks great planted in containers, as a hedge or accent in the landscape and will also respond well to shaping into simple topiary forms.

Another advantage to the Sunshine Ligustrum is that it doesn’t bloom, which is great for allergy sufferers. When planting this shrub select a location that will receive full sun, use a well-drained garden soil mixed with your native soil to backfill the hole and use a slow-release fertilizer annually in spring to keep your Sunshine Ligustrum healthy and brilliantly shining.

Growing Zones: 7-10 Cold hardy down to 10 degrees Dwarf silhouette with huge fragrance Despite its dwarf silhouette, our Radicans Gardenia makes a big statement. For starters, it boasts huge, amazingly-scented double blooms that stand out.

And though it grows to a space-saving height of just 2 feet, it makes an artful impact with its strong fragrance and ability to grow well in border or group plantings Plus, it thrives effortlessly. The Dwarf Radicans Gardenia is adaptable to many soil types and is even drought tolerant.

That means you get rich citrus fragrance and vivid flowers hassle-free. Even better is its ability to grow in full sun or partial shade. Basically, you don’t need a green thumb to ensure your Dwarf Radicans lasts year over year.

As one of the first online nurseries in the world, Brighter Blooms offers a large, proven collection of high-quality plants.

This low maintenance, lush purple shrub has become quite the staple in Southern yards! The Ruby Loropetalum makes for a delightfully bright addition to any landscape. Its beautiful pink blossoms and ruby red foliage deliver lasting color in a compact bush.

The ruby’s mass of fringe-like blossoms is softly fragrant, showy and will bloom continuously over several months.

Autumn Twist Encore Azalea offers vibrant year-round color to any garden. Autumn Twist features white blooms with purple stripes and an occasional bloom that is completely purple. Combined with its beautiful dark green foliage, Autumn Twist’s unique color pattern makes it a festive addition to any garden.

Unlike many traditional azaleas, Encore azaleas bloom best in full sun, so choose an area of your yard where they can receive at least 4-6 hours of sunlight. Autumn Twist works well in foundation plantings or as a low growing hedge.

Be sure to plant your Encore Azaleas in acidic to slightly acidic soil to maximize your bloom yield. Fertilize in the spring with a balanced fertilizer after the threat of the last frost has dissipated and feed once more in the summer to help you Encore bloom through fall.

Encore Azalea is the world’s best-selling multi-season blooming azalea. In many areas of the country, Encore Azalea bloom during 3 seasons of the year-spring, summer, and fall. And, for areas of the country where azaleas don’t traditionally thrive, such as those in USDA hardiness Zone 6 and 7, you will see a spring or summer bloom, but not a fall bloom before your temperatures drop.

The Burning Bush is the most colorful shrub you can find! These plants are green from spring until mid-summer. In late summer and early fall, you’ll see the leaves turn bright red. Plant the shrubs in rows for an amazing display of bright red color.

Burning Bushes can be used as privacy hedges, and grow to 6 feet tall. Easy to grow, these plants are hardy and adaptable to a number of growing conditions. Incredibly drought-tolerant, these bushes don’t need to be constantly watered!.

The Ultimate Easy-Care Evergreen Hedge That Even Grows in the Shade When you’re deciding on the perfect plant that you can use to grow a hedge, you want to find something that’s fast-growing with lustrous evergreen foliage.

But you also want a tough plant that can handle harsh environmental conditions and still look beautiful without requiring a lot of maintenance from you. Skip Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus ‘Schipkaensis’) is that plant.

It’s a trouble-free plant that stands up to poor soil, heat, cold, and drought while remaining one of the prettiest evergreens you’ve ever seen! Luxuriant and Glossy Foliage The outstanding feature of any hedge is the appearance of its foliage.

Skip Laurel is a type of cherry laurel, which isn’t a true laurel at all. This common name hints at the resemblance of its foliage to laurel leaves, which are beautifully oblong and glossy green. Think of bay leaves that you use for cooking; they’re from the “true” laurel tree ‘– the bay laurel.

Skip Laurel leaves are similar, but they are more elongated and shiny. This is no dull evergreen plant; its leaves are so shiny that they’ll look as if you polished them! But they’re not delicate ‘– they’re as durable as the plants themselves.

And if you’re wondering why it’s called “Skip” Laurel, this cultivar was discovered growing in Bulgaria’s Shipka Mountain Pass. Over the years, “Shipka” was simply shortened to a more-easily remembered nickname ‘– “Skip!” Top-Performing Hedge for Sun or Part Shade Shady landscape spots can’t always support the healthy growth of many landscape plants that are used to form hedges.

A heads-up: Although Skip Laurel is shade-tolerant, it grows best when it receives some sun. Its growth in a shadier location will be more open than in a sunnier location. Grows Quickly and Fills in Thickly Given ideal growing conditions (sun, moist soil, and a site with good drainage), Skip Laurel can sprint up to 3 feet of growth per year! Even in a less-than-ideal environment, its height can increase by 2 feet each year.

Its fast growth rate has endeared it to gardeners who don’t want to wait many years before their slow-growing plants grow large enough to give them the privacy they want from a hedge. So if you want the added bonus of fast growth from a lush and lovely evergreen hedge, don’t overlook this gem of a plant! A Hedge for Privacy The upper growth on Skip Laurels is thick and full, and the lower growth is a bit more open.

If you want your privacy hedge to form a solid wall of greenery that hugs the ground, you can plant some shorter evergreens in front of the “bare ankles” on Skip Laurels to ensure complete privacy. Space the smaller plants far enough in front of your Skip Laurels so that the mature size of both types of plants doesn’t overlap so much that the smaller evergreens get lost in Skip’s foliage.

An Excellent Green Screen You may need a smaller green screen instead of a long, continuous hedge. Living screens block undesirable views, shade sitting areas, and protect smaller plants in front of it from strong winds.

You can plant a single Skip Laurel as an individual screen, or odd-numbered groupings, such as three or five plants, to form a triangular screen or a linear screen. A Batch of Aromatic White Blooms in Spring! If you want to add a hedge to your landscape design, you’re primarily focused on the foliage of the plant you choose, which is its most important feature.

But when you plant Skip Laurels, you’ll enjoy a little bonus ‘– clusters of fragrant white flowers in springtime! Although individual blossoms are not large, they are showy because they’re produced in masses.

These Fruits are for the Birds When the flowers fade, small fruits aren’t far behind. The “cherry” in “cherry laurel” is a true description because Skip Laurel is in the same genus as edible cherry trees.

In fact, Skip Laurel does produce cherry fruits, but they’re not what you may imagine. Instead of the bright-red fruits that you enjoy eating, Skip Laurel bears purplish-black cherries. Many bird species relish these cherries, such as robins, cedar waxwings, and bluebirds.

Pruning: If you prune your plants each year, you’ll remove the flowers and/or cherries. So if you want to feed the birds, let your Skip Laurels grow naturally without pruning them! A Home for the Birds There’s another wildlife benefit of Skip Laurels ‘– birds love to nest in them! The branch structure and thick foliage that you’ll enjoy from this plant are the same features that appeal to birds as they seek a plant in which to build their nests.

If you want to incorporate more plants that help sustain the birds, which also add other benefits to your landscape, Skip Laurel is an outstanding choice! Pruning: Birds make their nests in.

Autumn Empress Encore Azalea offers vibrant year-round color to any garden. Autumn Empress has dark green foliage that contrasts nicely with its medium pink blooms. It is a great choice as either a specimen plant or planted around the foundation of a building or home.

Unlike many traditional azaleas, Encore azaleas bloom best in full sun, so choose an area of your yard where they can receive at least 4-hours to 6-hours of sunlight. Autumn Empress works well in foundation plantings or as a low growing hedge.

Be sure to plant your Encore Azaleas in acidic to slightly acidic soil to maximize your bloom yield. Fertilize in the spring with a balanced fertilizer after the threat of the last frost has dissipated and feed once more in the summer to help you Encore bloom through fall.

Encore Azalea is the world’s best-selling multi-season blooming azalea. In many areas of the country, Encore Azalea bloom during 3 seasons of the year-spring, summer and fall. And, for areas of the country where azaleas don’t traditionally thrive, such as those in USDA hardiness Zone 6 and 7, you will see a spring or summer bloom, but not a fall bloom before your temperatures drop.

Electrifying Year-Round Vibrant Yellow Foliage Yellow Leaves as Bright as the Sun The Sunshine Ligustrum brightens up any setting with amazing YELLOW foliage 12 months a year! Never resting, this amazing plant provides vibrant hues that seem to actually glow when the sun is shining down on it.

Planted in full sun, the compact dwarf shrub comes alive in the summer with an astounding lemon-color radiance. As the seasons transition to fall and winter, the Sunshine Ligustrum doesn’t resign to cold temperatures like many varieties of shrubs and trees.

It shifts to a golden color, filling landscapes with lively cheerfulness against drab, grey surroundings. Often, you’ll see a hint of orange on the golden leaves with colder weather. Then, as all of nature starts to awaken in the spring, the Sunshine Ligustrum adds more vitality and sparkle than anything around it.

Its new growth starts out light green before changing to luminous yellow as the temperatures heat up. Non-Invasive Shrub Won’t Spread or Overcrowd Your Garden The Sunshine is extremely courteous for such a show-off.

Unlike most privets, it is non-invasive. It’s a sterile hybrid that won’t reseed into other areas of your landscape ‘– or your neighbor’s! It is quickly replacing like-colored bushes such as the Yellow Barberry for this very reason.

Best Choice for Allergy Sufferers When trees, grass, and weeds start to flourish in the spring, they release granules into the air that are carried by the breeze. These seed-like particles (pollen) can spread for miles fertilizing other plants along its path.

This can wreak havoc on those who are allergic to culprits like ragweed, oak, and juniper, causing an allergic reaction as the body’s immune system attempts to fight back. Because this shrub doesn’t flower and is sterile, it is an ideal plant for anyone who experiences seasonal allergies.

So Many Options for This Endless Beam of Sunshine The Sunshine Ligustrum pairs well with other plants. It will add contrast and depth among a mixed bed or garden. If you’re interested in livening up an existing hedge or border, it’s an alluring addition to monotonous rows of shrubs.

Speaking of rows, line these up side-by-side to create a straight or winding path of color along a walkway. This technique lends a cheerful welcome to your guests when defining a path from the driveway to your front door.

Pot several of them in various containers to spread cheer around the exterior where you can enjoy them via window views. Just make sure they get plenty of sun. The more sun they soak up, the brighter they’ll get.

Prune it, Shape it, or Don’t Do a Thing Your Sunshine will reach 3 to 4 feet high, and just as wide when left untouched. It grows upright and has a wispy appearance when its branches reach full height.

There is no need to break out the shears if that seems like a chore, but if you enjoy trimming and shaping, there are no limits here. Some growers will remove the lower branches for a low standard showpiece.

You can shape it into a ball shape and even a cubed shape. If you’re mass planting, you may prefer to cut them down to 1 foot and use as a clean, defined border. Low Maintenance and Long Living Your Sunshine Ligustrum will be with you up to 30 years.

That’s pretty impressive for a plant that doesn’t require more than sunshine. It is drought tolerant, deer tolerant and requires no particular soil type or pH. It is pollution resistant, so it does exceptionally well in urban areas.

If you live in the city and have limited space, this is one plant you’ll want to include as part of your patio d? cor. It is sunny every day when you add a little Sunshine! | 3 Gallon – Sunshine Ligustrum Privet Hedge – Electrifying Year-Round Vibrant Yellow Foliage, Outdoor Plant See how our 30 Day Happy & Healthy Gaurantee compares to Garden Goods Direct, Lowe’s.

Home Depot, The Tree Center, Nature Hills Nursery, Great Garden Plants, More.

A fast-growing dwarf azalea, the new Autumn Bonfire glows with numerous, true red, semi-double and single blooms in spring, summer and fall. Autumn Bonfire holds its bright green foliage year-round, and grows to an average of 3 ft.

high by 3. 5 ft. wide. Now, you can enjoy 31 varieties of Encore Azaleas that boast profuse, repeat blooms; bold color and year-round interest. Encore Azaleas bloom best when given four to six hours of direct sunlight daily.

When planting this Azalea dig the hole twice as wide as the pot and mix slightly acidic garden soil in with your native soil, then leave the top of the root ball half an inch above the ground level when filling the hole with soil.

Autumn Angel Encore Azalea offers vibrant year-round color to any garden. Autumn Angel has pure white flowers that appear iridescent in the morning light. The combination of the stark white blooms and the glossy deep green foliage makes Autumn Angel a wonderful addition to any garden.

Unlike many traditional azaleas, Encore azaleas bloom best in full sun, so choose an area of your yard where they can receive at least 4-6 hours of sunlight. Autumn Angel works well in foundation plantings or as a low growing hedge.

Be sure to plant your Encore Azaleas in acidic to slightly acidic soil to maximize your bloom yield. Fertilize in the spring with a balanced fertilizer after the threat of the last frost has dissipated and feed once more in the summer to help you Encore bloom through fall.

Encore Azalea is the world’s best-selling multi-season blooming azalea. In many areas of the country, Encore Azalea bloom during 3 seasons of the year-spring, summer, and fall. And, for areas of the country where azaleas don’t traditionally thrive, such as those in USDA hardiness Zone 7, you will see a spring or summer bloom, but not a fall bloom before your temperatures drop.

Sporting deep wine hued leaves, the Purple Daydream Dwarf Loropetalum is a fantastic new addition to the Southern Living Plant Collection. This gorgeous shrubs light and fluffy-seeming foliage stays a luscious purple all year long that never leaves your landscape looking bare.

The Purple Daydream is a dwarf loropetalum that maxes out at a compact 2-3 feet high and 3-4 feet wide, leaving maintenance as the least of your worries. Spring sees the Daydream in full bloom with string clusters of ruby red stranded blossoms that cover the dense plum foliage.

Plant the Purple Daydream Dwarf Loropetalum in well-drained acidic soil and fertilize in late spring to keep this bush happy and healthy.

The Encore Azalea Autumn Chiffon is a re-blooming dwarf evergreen azalea that can bloom up to 3 times per year; Spring, Summer, and Fall. Autumn Chiffon has bi-color flowers with light pink to white coloring and a splash of magenta pink speckles.

This evergreen shrub matures to 2. 5 feet high X 3 feet wide and produces 2. 75-inch single-form blooms. You can use the Autumn Chiffon in planting hedges, borders, foundations, container gardens, or in mass plantings in the landscape.

Encore Azaleas grow best in slightly acidic soils (pH 5. 5-6. 5) and when planted in a location that will receive 4-6 hours of sunlight per day. When planting, dig the hole 2X the width of the size pot of the plant you are planting with a depth that will allow the root ball to be 1/4 to 1/2 inches above the soil level.

Then use well-draining garden soil mixed with your native soil to backfill the hole around your new azalea bush. Use a balanced, slow-release fertilizer each year in the spring to keep your Encore Azalea well fed and to maximize bloom production.

This item includes two 1-gallon Encore Azalea Chiffon shrubs (live plants) in plastic pots with soil. You should take the plant out of the box, remove the bag, and then water your plants as soon as they arrive.

Pink Splash Variegated Weigela has cascades of gracefully arched branches loaded with clusters of pink, funnel-shaped blooms from late spring to fall. The blooms, which are about 1 in. across, attract hummingbirds.

As pretty as the blossoms are, they are not the only attraction of this showy plant. The foliage is lovely in its own right, with toothed, oval, green leaves edged in creamy white. Its compact size makes this shrub ideal for small spaces and urban landscapes.

Danica Hardy Hibiscus bears elegant, double white flowers with raspberry pink centers and outer petals. The eye-catching flowers attract butterflies and pollinators all summer long. The flowers also are showy additions to cut floral arrangements.

Danica has an upright vase-shaped growth habit and is ideal for planting as a colorful hedge, privacy screen, mass planting or specimen plant in a sunny location. Winner of the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain Award of Garden Merit.

You’ll Fall in Love with this Beauty Aphrodite Rose of Sharon Althea (Hibiscus syriacus ‘Aphrodite’) will charm your socks off with its striking flowers. The horticulturists at the U. S. National Arboretum introduced this superb plant in 1988, and it has certainly stood the test of time.

No matter which of its common names is most familiar to you ‘– Hibiscus, or Rose-of-Sharon or Althea ‘– what’s more universally known is the beauty this endearing plant brings to each garden it graces.

The “Eyes” Have It Aphrodite Rose of Sharon flowers have three outstanding qualities: 1. Two-tone color. A dazzling combination of deep-pink petals with a dark-red eye makes Aphrodite Althea a standout among garden perennials.

Each flower resembles a hollyhock blossom, only larger, with individual petals sporting a ruffled margin that makes the blooms flutter in the breeze! Long bloom season. Unlike other hibiscus cultivars that have a short window of bloom, Aphrodite’s flowers keep coming over a long season, typically from June to September.

Sometimes, the flowers persist ’til the first frost of autumn! 3. Hummingbird- and butterfly-friendly. You’ll wish you’d ordered more than one Aphrodite shrub when you see how many hummingbirds and butterflies it attracts! Be sure to plant it in a prominent spot where you can the antics of these tiny garden acrobats up close.

Bump up the Bloom Potential Happy plants are performing plants, so if you meet the few growing needs of Aphrodite Rose of Sharon Althea, you’ll prime it for optimal flower production. Lots of sun is just what the plant doctor ordered.

Although these deciduous shrubs can tolerate partial shade, they’ll flower more heavily in full sun. Aphrodite is tolerant of most well-draining soil types, but it performs best in sandy loam with a pH of 5.

5 to 7. 0. After establishment, plants are fairly drought-tolerant, but they’ll respond favorably to regular watering. Before leaf buds open in spring, apply a slow-release fertilizer, and get ready for the floral display that’s just around the corner! | 1-2 ft.

– Aphrodite Rose of Sharon Althea Shrub/Bush – You’ll Fall in Love with this Beauty, Outdoor Plant See how our 30 Day Happy & Healthy Gaurantee compares to Garden Goods Direct, Lowe’s. Home Depot, The Tree Center, Nature Hills Nursery, Great Garden Plants, More.

Buzz Ivory Butterfly Bush is a prolific bloomer, loaded with fragrant ivory spikes and generous foliage. Compact in size, Buzz Ivory grows to only 3 – 4 feet and is perfect for containers, small-space gardens and patio plantings.

It’s also a great choice for disguising your foundation or creating a secondary layer of color between taller background shrubs and perennial plantings. Placed in full sun, this butterfly bush will bloom from spring through fall.

(Buddleia davidii).

In the second half of summer, when the sunshine can feel stifling and the garden beds tired, Moonrock Hydrangea will bring out one of the freshest color combinations, pale green and creamy white, to renew your landscape.

Or bring it close to the sitting area in a large container—these neutral hues work so well with many color schemes and the flowerheads are so large it won’t fade into the background. It’ll set the scene in a woodland garden as it draws in the butterflies.

And as it can grow up to 4-5′ tall, it’ll make a good flowering hedge around the perimeter.

Dwarf Burning Bush really is a plant that belongs in every garden. It is the ideal background plant for a smaller space, since it stays around 6 feet tall, or a little taller, growing dense and neat without any care at all.

It is very hardy, down to minus 30 degrees, Burning bush grows anywhere in the country, and it is also drought resistant. This plant is not even eaten by deer, or bothered by pests, so as an easy to grow but very attractive shrub it is unbeatable.

Plant a row for a screen or hedge, or a group to fill an awkward corner of the garden. In fall it turns into a spectacular ball or glowing scarlet-red that lights up the garden like nothing else can.

You will love this plant for its easy-care ways and its brilliant fall finale. – Brilliant scarlet-red leaves in fall – Compact growing to about 8 feet tall – Cold and drought resistant – Ideal for a low-care hedge or screen – Attractive smooth green leaves in spring and summer Plant the Dwarf Burning Bush in any kind of well-drained soil, even sand.

After a little help with water to become established it will ask for nothing else, but thrive and grow in the coldest and hottest places. It develops the best fall colors in full sun, but grows well in shade too.

Even in shade it turns beautiful shades of soft pink, lightening up a dark corner of the garden.

The Encore Azalea Autumn Fire is the world’s best-selling, re-blooming Azalea. It blooms in spring, summer and fall so you can enjoy these beauties almost year round. The Encore Azalea plant produces true-red, semi-double velvety blooms so the bright, vibrant color is sure to spice up your landscaping.

It will truly stand out in any yard or patio with its blazing display and full blooms. The autumn fire plant blooms best when given four to six hours of direct sunlight on a daily basis. When planting this flower you need to dig the hole twice as wide as the pot and mix slightly acidic garden soil in with your native soil.

Once this is complete then leave the top of the root ball half an inch above the ground level when filling the hole with soil. This will produce the best results so you can fully enjoy the lively Encore Azalea Autumn Fire.