Why I Changed My Mind About Shrubs

I would always just look at shrubs, laugh and think ‘what’s the point?’

Boring. Meaningless. For people that had given up on life.

A garden full of shrubs was just like a box of Celebrations where some wrongun has just left all the Bounties.

Shrubs were either one long, monotonous, squared-off box… or carved into a laughable, blobular shape.

I’ve come to realise that that’s slander and I take it back.

Shrubs are gravy. You forget to put due care and attention into it, end up leaning on some emergency, back-of-the-cupboard Bisto and the whole dinner’s ruined.

Shrubs are Rodri and Fabian Ruiz quietly dismantling France in the World Cup semi-final.

Is this a shrub?

The truth is, the majority of shrubs just don’t care about you, or your opinion. They aren’t trying to impress you. They just crack on with it with zero drama.

They just need better PR.

I bet, if you gave 100 people £100 to spend on plants in a garden centre, the lack of traffic down the shrub strip would be embarrassing.

A general lack of appreciation is probably based on a bunch of things - not least that shrubs, from a functional point of view, can be viewed chiefly as utilitarian objects. Mr Muscling it and doing the jobs you hate.

Need to stop next door looking into your garden? Call in the laurel. Want to hide your bins and block out the suspicious smell? Bang down some sweet box. Need a solid boundary around the front garden? Berberis will keep the riff-raff out.

Good for hiding in

The fact that they’re often slow-growing, short-flowering, static, evergreen means they get overlooked. We’ve evolved to notice (and value) the exact opposite - colour, movement, bursts of activity.

But clearly, there’s more to shrubs than this.

A major difficulty is letting go of the notion that everything needs to be exciting. Not every corner, border or vista needs pure fireworks. More confident compositions come with purposeful restraint.

Decent design often hides itself and I feel like half the time you literally have to train yourself to see shrubs. Maturity in design isn’t about Jackson Pollocking layer after layer of exciting shape or colour and is more about subtly supporting those moments of impact.

Perversely, leaning back into this conception of utilitarianism can also be a useful tool. Those characteristics that are rooted in consistency can elevate the humble shrub.

That’s not a yew hedge. That’s a living wall. Is it clipped topiary, or an ever-changing piece of sculpture? Shrubs are background plants but, more importantly, they’re building materials.

Anyhoo, all the above probably says more about me than anything else. I’m now wondering which shrubs can properly frame an area or fill negative space… on top of how to get the best out of a certain soil type, or what the drainage is saying.

So, yeah, consider this a formal apology to shrubs.