Shrubs for a Container Garden

City gardeners with limited space for gardening on a patio balcony or small terrace can enjoy miniature versions of the larger shrubs found in spacious landscaping plans. Just remember to watch them more carefully and keep the water level the way they like it. Use containers with wheels. It makes it so much easier to move when you change the garden design. You don't have to worry about the hardiness zones either. Just bring them inside for the winter, but not before the deciduous ones loose their leaves. The shrubs will need more care than they would outdoors. They need to be trimmed regularly and suckers need to be removed. Look for dwarf shrubs, under 3 feet tall like these:

Northern bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera P. Mill) is deciduous, grows up to 3 feet tall. The outer bark peels
away to reveal the orange inner bark. Dark-green leaves turn to yellow and then red in the fall and small, bell-shaped flowers start our as a yellowish-green and turn orange or purple red in June, July and August. Th eshurb likes full or partial shade and a dry soil. Cut off any suckers the plant sends out. The one downside to this one is it has a short life span.

Siberian Cypress (Microbiota decussata) grows up to 1 foot tall and 6 feet wide. Keep the plant in full sun or partial shade. The plant is very adaptable to different types of soil, but prefers moist, well-drained soils. The shrub is an evergreen with short needles that start out as bright, green, turns dark green in the summer and finally dark brown in the fall. The needles remain on the shrub through the winter. This choice is very cold hardy and can stay out for the winter.

European cranberrybush (Viburnum opulus 'Nanum') grows from 1-1/2 to 2 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide with dark-green leaves up to 4 inches long. Give the plant full sun or partial shade and a moist, well-drained soil. Wet soils will cause possibly fatal problems.

Japanese garden juniper (Juniperus procumbens) grows from 8 to 24 inches tall and 15 inches wide. Blue-green needles grows in clusters of 3. The shrub will produce very small cones in the fall.

Lace shrub (Stephanandra incisa 'Crispa') is a member of the rose family. The plant grows from 1 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 4 feet wide with tiny, star-shaped yellow-white flowers that bloom in clusters in May and June. Plant in moist, acidic well-drained soil and full sun or partial shade. The most outstanding feature is the bright-green 3 inch long leaves that resemble those of the maple tree.