How to create a beautiful bush bed?

Designing your flower bed

1) Determine the Location

Creating a bush bed is something that is wiser to consider before taking action. Indeed, while it is sometimes possible or necessary, for one reason or another, to change your mind or have to move a bush, this operation is more delicate (and physical!) than when it comes to perennials. The root system of certain bushes is powerful, penetrating deeply into the soil or spreading widely, making the operation tricky. This stress can, in some cases, be fatal to the plant, not to mention that when placed side by side, the root systems of different subjects may have ended up mingling underground, risking damage to neighbouring plants. Furthermore, some plants are not recommended near buildings or ducts, which can be damaged by their roots. It is therefore important to choose the right location from the start.

The choice of the placement of a group of bushes can be motivated by several reasons: to hide an unsightly element (an unattractive structure, a post…), to shield oneself from an intrusive view, to mark the corner of a plot, to create a focal point in a part of the garden, to attenuate prevailing winds. In all cases, the approach is different from that adopted for creating a hedge, where plants are planted in a line or staggered.

Moreover, small trees and bushes can be deciduous, which means they lose their leaves in autumn. These can be left at the base, serving as mulch that protects and nourishes the soil, but the wind may decide otherwise and blow them elsewhere, forcing the gardener to collect them, a task that is even more necessary and regular if a pool is nearby.

2) Choose the Style and Function

The very wide range of bushes available today allows for the creation of decor with very different appearances depending on the chosen plants. You will not select the same species if you wish to create a Japanese, Mediterranean, romantic, modern, or exotic garden, for example.

Beyond style, you may want to assign a particular function to your bed: filter the wind, shelter wildlife, attract insects, produce edible fruits… All these factors influence the choice of bushes to plant, but a bush bed must also be beautiful and decorative. You can thus include shrubs with striking foliage, with coloured bark, with decorative fruits, or even with stunning autumn colours, the ideal being, of course, to mix all these qualities so that your bed is attractive throughout the year.

The choice of species will be guided, among other things, by the function of your bed: windbreak, flowering periods, melliferous… enjoy yourself, the choice is infinite!

Which bushes to choose for creating a flower bed?

1) Choosing Suitable Plants

It is rare for a garden to accommodate any shrub. Each has specific requirements regarding soil texture (clay, sand, loam…), pH (neutral soil, more or less acidic or calcareous), drainage (well-draining or moisture-retaining soil), and exposure (full sun, partial shade, or light shade, dense shade). The climate also plays a crucial role, as not all shrubs withstand cold in the same way (this is referred to as plant hardiness) or wind.

2) A Shrub Bed That Looks Good All Year Round

Once all these parameters are known, you must now think about making your composition beautiful for as long as possible, ideally all year round, and this is within the reach of any gardener! Many gardens are stunning between March and June but lose some of their charm afterwards, if not becoming downright dreary in winter.

a) Flowering

Yes, spring-flowering shrubs and summer-flowering shrubs are plentiful, but others also bloom in autumn or in winter, brightening these two seasons with corollas that delight the gardener. Try to find the right balance so that there are always some flowers (some shrubs are also both beautiful and highly fragrant), regardless of the season.

From spring to winter: a wise choice of species will bring appeal to your shrub beds in all seasons

b) Foliage

Flowers are not the only things that beautify a garden. Shrubs with striking foliage also play a key role, as their ornamental effect lasts much longer, whether through leaf size, shapes (entire or more or less dissected) or colours (shades of green, yellow, orange, purple, black, red, variegated…).

c) Decorative Berries and Wood

Some shrubs, once their foliage has fallen, reveal vividly coloured wood and bark, which endure throughout winter and withstand the dreariest days. Decorative berries and fruits, which are generally at their peak in autumn and persist for some throughout the “bad” season, also contribute to this symphony of colours.

d) Autumn Colours

Also essential are shrubs that don warm colours in late season, which link late flowering, berries, and coloured wood.

e) Deciduous and Evergreen

Finally, also focus on evergreen shrubs. These provide a strong, permanent structure to your bed. They can also serve as a backdrop for their neighbours, allowing flowers, fruits, and branches to stand out better. Far from being monotonous, evergreen shrubs can change colour with the seasons and temperatures, a phenomenon often observed in many conifers, including dwarfs, suitable for small gardens.

3) Playing with Dimensions and Habits

Generally, shrubs are considered to be woody plants with one or more trunks of small diameter or stems branching from the base, bushy in appearance, and not exceeding 6 to 7 m in height. This category also includes undershrubs and smaller plants, or certain species classified as small trees. While the name itself may not be of major importance, the dimensions and overall shape that the mature plant adopts are crucial.

Playing with sizes and silhouettes allows you to rhythm your shrub beds (© Virginie Douce)

a) Dimensions

When designing your landscape bed, always consider the dimensions of the plant once mature. Some, slow-growing, may take time to reach their full maturity. Place the taller ones at the back if your bed is against something (a wall, large trees…) or in the middle of your bed if it is an isolated island, visible from all sides.

Then create different layers of vegetation, selecting shorter shrubs for the middle, followed by low-growing or groundcover plants in the foreground. However, avoid something too systematic, as it may appear unnatural. The key is that each shrub can showcase its ornamental potential, without being completely hidden behind another plant.

b) Different Habits

Dimensions take into account height, but also the width of a shrub, thus influencing its overall habit. Create punctuation with upright, columnar, or fastigiate shrubs, which can emerge from neighbours with rounder or bushier lines. In the foreground, for example, install prostrate or creeping shrubs, which act as groundcover and “anchor” your composition, unless your intention is deliberately different. Vary the shapes and inject dynamism with subjects of varied silhouettes: weeping habit (they bring grace and romance), pyramidal habit (they convey a sense of solidity), twisted (particularly beautiful when their branches are revealed in winter), tabular (appreciated for their Japanese look), irregular (loved for their wild and unpretentious side), parasol (they provide beneficial shade, useful for the gardener or surrounding plants) or regular ball shapes (they create beautiful undulations)… For everything you need to know, read Olivier’s article on the different habits of trees and shrubs.

c) Planting Distances

When planting your shrubs, their dimensions at that moment are generally never those they will reach as adults. Depending on the conditioning, some may even seem ridiculously small. However, be cautious and anticipate their growth. To do this, research the mature dimensions (we specify these on the site for all our plants) and space them accordingly.

Beds should be planted with consideration for the future growth of the shrubs

The simplest method is to add the widths of the different shrubs and then divide the result by 2. For example, if shrub A is expected to reach 1 metre in spread and shrub B will reach 2 metres, that gives a total of 3 metres, and thus a planting distance of 1.5 m between the two shrubs. Positioned this way, they have room to develop their natural silhouette freely and meet without hindrance. For subsequent shrubs, plant them also in relation to the dimensions of the previous two, and so on. You can, of course, choose to plant them closer together, but this will likely require you to use pruning shears in the future to prevent them from interfering with each other. Note also that maintenance is easier if you have left enough space between each subject.

Also consider height, as a tall shrub, with a clear base and a higher crown, can accommodate a shorter neighbour, such as a prostrate or spreading plant, which will dress its base without hindering its foliage. In this case, you can afford to plant the two subjects closer together if you do not wish to leave a gap.

Order your bushes

Once your planting plan is finalised and your bushes selected, all that’s left is to order them. Depending on the genera and species, we offer various packaging options, from 9 cm pots to containers over 50 litres. Some bushes are also available as bare roots (between late autumn and winter).

• The advantage of smaller plants is that they are easier to handle and plant, more economical, and they establish quickly. Some even catch up rapidly with larger plants that were planted earlier.
• Larger packaging options allow for a more mature appearance more quickly, but they are heavier, require larger planting holes, and their cost is obviously different. More stressed by planting than smaller plants, they may need a bit more attention initially to help them settle in.
• Bare root bushes are also economical and establish very well!

We offer bushes in various packaging options, it’s up to you to make your choice![/caption>

For more information, feel free to check out Marion’s article on the different packaging options for bushes.

Depending on your requirements, we offer great flexibility in the delivery date of your orders, and you can choose when to receive your plants, giving you all the time you need to prepare the soil.

Soil preparation and planting

1) When to Plant a Shrub Bed?

• The ideal time for planting shrubs is in autumn, when the soil is warm and the weather generally becomes more rainy. The roots then have time to develop well before facing winter and, importantly, to reach deeper water supplies by the following spring.
• In regions with cold, damp winters, especially in heavy soil, it is advisable to wait until spring, particularly for certain plants that are less resilient in these conditions.
• In general, prefer to plant between October and March, always avoiding frost periods, although planting is possible year-round, requiring more careful attention.

2) Soil Preparation Before Planting

Properly preparing the soil is one of the keys to the success of your project. Start by removing weeds and/or roots. You can adopt several techniques:

• Weeding by occultation: this operation involves covering the soil for several months with a tarpaulin or cardboard (without harmful ink), which allows water to pass through but deprives plants of sunlight, eventually causing them to die naturally. For aesthetic reasons, you can cover everything with mulch (if using cardboard or a biodegradable material, this duo also enriches your soil). This method is longer but much less tiring and more respectful of soil life. You will then just need to refine by removing any remaining roots and loosening the soil with a spade or a bio-fork.
• Surface stripping: using a spade, you remove the top few centimetres of grass to expose the soil. The resulting waste can go on the compost heap where it will decompose gradually. This is a physical job but allows for quick planting. You should still take care to work the soil a bit and loosen it while removing any remaining roots and small weeds.
• Digging: the soil is turned over with a spade, burying the grass in the soil. Again, this operation is very physical and there are risks of harmful decomposition for the plants, not to mention the risk of rapid regrowth of adventive plants.
• Tilling: a tiller allows you to turn the soil without too much effort. The soil is crumbled and mixed with more or less chopped grass. Often discouraged, as it disrupts soil life, this technique also requires monitoring the regrowth of unwanted plants.

Once the bed is cleaned, use a rake or claw to roughly break up the surface, and incorporate an amendment if necessary to nourish the soil and encourage microbial life, such as compost. In heavy soil, adding sand also helps improve drainage.

3) Planting the Shrubs

Once the location of each shrub is defined (you can mark them with stakes or supports), it is time to dig the planting holes. During this operation, soak the waiting plants in a large volume of water to saturate the substrate.

1. Dig a planting hole at least twice as wide and deep as the size of the container and loosen the extracted soil well.
2. Incorporate into the extracted soil materials that may be useful depending on the needs of the plant and the nature of your soil. This may include sand or gravel to improve drainage and/or humus-bearing organic matter such as compost or well-decomposed manure for more demanding plants. It is therefore important to research the characteristics of each plant in advance.
3. Pour a large volume of water into the bottom of the hole and let the water soak in.
4. Remove your shrub from its pot and place it in the centre of the hole, ensuring that the top of the root ball is level with the surface. If your shrub has bare roots, check that you do not bury the collar (the junction between the branches and the roots).
5. Fill with your mixture, lightly compact and water generously!
6. Mulch around the base with materials of your choice (straw, grass clippings, fallen leaves, organic mulches or mineral mulches from the store…)

In the weeks and months that follow, water generously but infrequently, taking rainfall into account.

The finishing touch!

• Define the borders of your flowerbed using a spade, for example, to achieve a clear separation between the flowerbed and the lawn. In this article, discover also how to materialise your borders using decorative elements.

Define the borders and add organic mulch to provide the finishing touch to your flowerbeds

• Mulch the entire flowerbed with a good thickness (5 to 10 cm) as an excellent way to maintain good moisture and limit the growth of adventive plants. You can also plant perennial groundcovers, which will create a setting for your shrubs. Some thrive very well under trees, as Michael explains in this article.