Shrubs for Summer

Get the most structure and looks out of summer with these shrubs.

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs

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Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time.

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Scotts Cordless Grass-Shear/Shrub-Trimmer Combo

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With a built-in 7.2-volt lithium-ion battery, this little guy weighs less than 2 lb. and can zip through all your minor pruning tasks quickly and easily.
- 13.5 x 3 x 5 inches
- Uses a 7.2-Volt 2Ah high-capacity built-in lithium-ion battery; Includes a fast charger

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RAINPOINT Sprinkler Timer with Brass Swivel

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- Pure brass water inlet and metal thread can withstand up to 116psi.
- Built-in metal filter gaskets can prevent sediment and other larger particles
- Through the Sprinkler Timer program, you can set the start time, watering duration, and watering frequency

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  Plant Guide

  Summersweet

  In summer, ‘Sixteen Candles’ is topped with aromatic, erect, butterfly-enticing white blooms for 4 to 6 weeks. In fall, the leaves turn an attractive yellow.
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  Plant Guide

  Chaste Tree

  Bright blue flower panicles begin to form in early summer and continue through the heat of the season and into fall.
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  Design

  Summer Wine™ Ninebark

  This selection has outstanding burgundy leaves all summer long and produces striking, soft pink blossoms in early summer. The combination is quite stunning.
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  Plant Guide

  Butterfly bush

  This sun-lover comes in hues from pure white to deepest purple. From midsummer until frost, butterfly bush earns its name as hordes of winged beauties flit from flower to flower in search of nectar. The lanceolate leaves are 10 to 12 inches long and white or grayish underneath. The honey-scented flowers are deep purple and grow in spikes, from July to October.
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  Design

  False Spirea

  If you like plants that stay in tidy, little assigned corners, this is not the plant for you. But if you have a large space to fill and love plants with attitude, this is your baby.
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  Design

  Indigofera

  Indigofera loves the heat, loves the sun, and shuns most garden pests. This rather obscure member of the pea family sports erect pink spikes of flowers starting in May and continues to bloom sporadically through much of the summer.
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  Genus

  Spirea

  Spirea are grown primarily for their small but profuse white, yellow, pink, or purple flowers in spring or summer. Use spirea in a mixed or shrub border, as a groundocver, in a rock garden, or as hedging, depending on growth habit.
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  Plant Guide

  ‘Nikko Blue’ bigleaf hydrangea

  This is a well-loved and vigorous cultivar with large, rounded flower heads of a rich, gorgeous blue.