Piedmont azalea

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5 to 12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh - they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

A large, vigorous, fountain-shaped deciduous shrub that earns its common name in late spring, when its arching stems are smothered in masses of pale-pink, yellow-throated, bell-shaped flowers. Native to China, it is one of the great old-fashioned spring shrubs - spectacular in full bloom, much loved by bees, and offering peeling brown bark for quiet winter interest. It is also genuinely big: expect 6 to 10 feet tall and wide at maturity, so give it room rather than fighting its size with the shears. The form to seek out is the Award-winning "Pink Cloud", which carries a clearer, richer pink than the variable seed-grown species.

Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) is a big, suckering, mound-forming deciduous shrub from the rich woodlands of the Deep South, native to Alabama and southwestern Georgia. It is grown for three things: bold, palmately compound leaves that cast deep summer shade; tall, erect white flower panicles, 8 to 12 inches long, that stand up like bottle brushes above the foliage in mid summer when little else blooms in shade; and a clean golden-yellow fall colour. The flowers, white petals set off by pink-red anthers, draw bees and butterflies and are visited by hummingbirds. Its greatest asset and its main catch are the same trait: it suckers steadily from the roots into a broad, dense colony 8 to 15 feet across, so this is a shrub for space, not for a tight foundation bed. It wants part to full shade and moist, rich, well-drained soil, and it resents drought, especially when young. Note that the smooth brown seeds (buckeyes) and the other parts are poisonous if eaten.

Flowering currant is a deciduous shrub native to the Pacific coast of western North America, from British Columbia south through Washington and Oregon to coastal California (as far south as Santa Barbara County), with a marginal inland presence in Idaho and a southern outpost on Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Its bold dangling racemes of deep-pink to crimson flowers open in early spring, often before the leaves, making it one of the most conspicuous late-winter shrubs in mild gardens. The honest catch is threefold: it is a confirmed alternate host of white pine blister rust (a serious pathogen of five-needled pines), its blue-black berries are edible but notably insipid, and it has become an established invasive weed in New Zealand (where it forms dense stands excluding native species) and is a more minor, localized weed in Tasmania.

The familiar hybrid garden rose - a deciduous, thorny shrub grown for its showy, often fragrant blooms that repeat from late spring to frost. Modern hybrids (hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, and shrub roses) descend from centuries of crossing across the genus and span roughly 1 to 8 feet tall depending on the class. Rewarding but high-maintenance: full sun, good air circulation, and a regular disease-management routine are the price of the long bloom season.

A large deciduous European-native shrub grown for a three-season show: maple-like lobed leaves that color well in autumn, flat white lacecap flower clusters in late spring, and heavy drooping bunches of translucent red berries that hang on into winter. Each flower head is a showy ring of large sterile outer florets surrounding a fertile center, giving the lacecap its distinctive look. It is one of the best all-round wildlife shrubs you can plant - the open flowers feed hoverflies and bees, and the red fruit feeds birds through the cold months - and it tolerates wet soil, making it a natural choice for hedgerows, damp corners, and wild gardens. Two honest cautions go with it: the raw berries are mildly toxic to people, and this is the European guelder rose, not the North American cranberrybush.