The Best Plants to Landscape

Small Trees

• Small trees can add textural quality to a flower garden or serve to provide some shade to an outdoor entertainment area. Trees that rise to taller than 30 feet that you can incorporate into your landscape scheme include strawberry trees, eastern redbud, flowering crab apple, Japanese snowbell and sourwood.

Flowering Shrubs

• Shrubs that produce brilliantly colored flowers can be worked into a landscape design as part of your garden or as a border feature or a hedge up against the wall of your house. Shrubs that will serve double duty as producers of color in the yard include garland flower, shrub cinquefoil, flowering quince, sweet mock orange and Japanese andromeda.

Ground Covers

• Ground cover plants present a highly decorative alternative to the plain quality of lawn grass. Ground cover is an effective choice for someone looking for a low-maintenance landscape. Juniper and bugleweed are easy plants to grow. Sweet fern and honeysuckle are effective at stabilizing a sloping area of your landscape. Ginger and English ivy can thrive in deep shade, while angel's hair and lavender cotton tolerate the full sun.

Perennial Border

• Perennials are useful for creating a border effect. A mixture of different plants provides variety that takes away from the singular effect of using plants for border purposes. A varied perennial garden could include tickseed, Russian sage, hollyhock, larkspur and lamb's ears.

Container Plants

• A container garden is a landscaping method for introducing plants to a small area. Individual containers can also be used for variation within a traditional garden bed. Many different plants are capable of thriving inside containers of different sizes. Choices include zinnias, pansies, armeria, dwarf columbine and chrysanthemum.

Shady Areas

• When the landscaping purpose of your plants is to bring a shady area of the yard into the party, you need to look for plants that can do well in such conditions. Fortunately, shade-loving plants range across the spectrum, from bulbs to ground covers. Those looking to make a dark part of the landscape come to life should look to narcissus, coralberry, violets, periwinkle and azalea.

Asian Influence

• A common theme for serious landscaping is to reproduce an Asian effect. The central concern in incorporating Asian influences into your landscaping design is finding plants that instill a sense of calm. Appropriate plants for an Asian landscape area include bamboo, papyrus, flowering kale, horsetail, Chinese juniper and any variety of bonsai.