Bushes With Yellow Flowers for Zone 5

Varieities

• Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium), Kalm's St. John's wort (Hypericum kalmianum) and its cultivar "Ames" and Rhododendron "Mary Fleming" are broadleaf evergreen bushes featuring yellow flowers suitable for growing in zone 5. Deciduous shrubs for yellow flowers with an ability to survive in this zone include Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) "Talago," winter hazel (Corylopsis glabrescens), bush honeysuckle (Diervilla sessilifolia), several cultivar and hybrid forms of forsythia, common witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and various shrub and miniature roses.

Size

• Kalm's St. John's wort remains a small bush, growing to between 2 and 3 feet. Oregon grape is manageable at from 3 to 6 feet, while the Mary Fleming rhododendron is less than 3 feet tall. Talago is among the shortest of the barberry shrubs with yellow flowers, growing to 12 inches. The forsythias of zone 5 may be as tiny as the 12-inch high "Courtasol" or as big as the 10-foot tall "Arnold Giant." Witchhazel as a shrub grows as large as 15 feet. Miniature roses like "Savagood" grow just 6 inches high, but some large-flowered climbing rose bushes, such as "Lawrence Johnston" make it to heights of 25 feet with proper support.

Sun or Shade

• The shrub roses and barberries prefer full sun sites, with at least six hours of direct rays each day. The forsythias and the many kinds of witchhazel, including cultivars such as "Canary Yellow," withstand partial shade. Kalm's St. John's wort handles some shade, while in USDA zone 5, the Oregon grape will grow with no problem in a full shade location. Use Mary Fleming in full shade if necessary, but remember that it does best in "sun dappled shade" caused by light filtering down through larger plants in the vicinity, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Bloom Time

• If you choose the right species of bushes, you can have a yellow-flowering shrub in bloom from March through November across your zone 5 landscape. The early bloomers include the winter hazels and some of the forsythias, flowering in March and April. The shrub roses start blooming in many instances as early as May; bush honeysuckle flowers in June and July. The roses keep generating yellow flowers until frost in fall. Witchhazel is the last of these bushes to produce its yellow flowers, doing so even into November, after its foliage tumbles to the ground.