Bring energy to your landscape by planting red shrubs and flowers.
Anyone who has ever bought a lipstick knows that red comes in many shades. The same is true in the plant world, but, whether burgundy or scarlet, a touch of red lights a spark in any garden. Shrubs, perennials and annual flowers help you keep a red thread in your landscape for the long Mediterranean-climate growing season. Add a little red to bring a lot of life to your plantings.
Several different strategies let you create both excitement and continuity by maintaining a particular color in your garden. One strategy resembles that of decorating a room: select a main color for your scheme, along with one or more accent colors. Choosing red as a main color might mean massing tulips in early spring, with summer-blooming shrub fuchsia and plumleaf azalea, and a front-walk border of annual red salvia. To accent with white, plant white shrub roses under the fuchsia and edge the salvia border with dusty miller. Alternatively, red zinnias and dahlias accent an all-white or white-pink garden scheme. Another strategy is to create color corners in your garden: a series of red-yellow-orange hues around the patio; a blue shade garden; and a grass garden in tones of green, beige, brown and dark red. Within the area, plants change with the seasons, but the color spectrum remains constant. However you decide to use red in your garden, you have lots of plant choices. Red annuals and roses are readily available, but shrubs and perennials offer many less-familiar selections. Expect wildlife attention when you add red to your garden: hummingbirds, butterflies and beneficial pollinators love red, too.
A mid-sized, rounded shrub with a lingering spicy fragrance, Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus), also known as sweetshrub or strawberry bush, produces an abundance of scented dark red flowers, usually in May/June. Expect a mature height of 6 to 9 feet, in well-drained organically-rich soil with full to partial sun. Shrub fuchsia (Fuchsia magellinica) is a reliable summer-long bloomer in similar conditions but can grow 10 feet high and wide. Bicolor fuchsia flowers combine red, pink, purple and white, depending on variety. Flowering from summer through fall, plumleaf azalea (Rhododendron prunifolium) is a heat-tolerant large shrub with bright red flowers. Plumleaf azalea grows in full or partial sun. Allow for a mature height of 15 to 30 feet.
Red-flowered shrubs for dry, hot sites originate in Australia and the American Southwest. Favoring pH neutral to slightly-alkaline conditions, Southwest-native Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) is a 15- to 30-foot, multi-stemmed shrub whose cylindrical red flowers appear after rain and attract hummingbirds. A good choice for xeric landscaping, this desert plant blooms intermittently in spring, summer and fall. Pincushion hakea (Hakea laurina) is a member of the ancient Protea plant family and favors low-moisture, low-phosphorus soil. Like some other Australian shrubs, hakea roots draw moisture well from a thick layer of mulch. Abundant red blooms appear from early fall through winter, an unusual but welcome source of cut flowers.
Another way to bring red into the landscape is through shrub foliage and bark. Folthergilla x intermedia "Mt. Airy" is a mid-sized shrub with red-orange fall foliage. Red-twig dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) displays bark ranging from crimson to burgundy, fall to spring; "Midwinter Fire" is a bright-hued variety. Weigelias (Weigelia spp.), ninebarks (Physocarpus spp.) and barberry (Berberis) are among shrubs well known for burgundy-to-purple leaves, and Chinese fringe-flower (Loropetalum chinensis) "Crimson Fire" and "EverRed" pair dark burgundy foliage with starburst-shaped red flowers.
As a small-yard focal point or large-planter specimen, a shrub with red flowers makes an arresting statement. A summer favorite, Hibiscus (H. spp.) is hardy to U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 and 10 in both tender and hardy perennial forms. Tropical, tender hibiscus grows several feet tall; red, pink, salmon or yellow flowers appear all summer. Container-grown, tropical hibiscus can be brought in when temperatures go into the 40s and below. Hardy hibiscus reaches heights of 3 to 6 feet; the name of one species, Hibiscus coccineus, is based on its red flowers. Dwarf crepe myrtle "Cherry Dazzle" (Lagearstroemia Gamed I) and dwarf oleander "Little Red" (Nerium oleander) are popular small versions of traditional warm-summer favorite shrubs.
Perennial choices for flowerbeds include several American native plants. Bee balm (Monarda didyma), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) and blanket flower (Gaillardia spp.) bring intense deep and bright reds in USDA plant hardiness zones 4 to 9. Blanket flower grows in summer-blooming clumps reaching 1 to 2 feet high, while mid-to-late-summer blooming bee balm and cardinal flower spread in clusters 3 to 4 feet tall. All three are excellent components of a hummingbird or butterfly garden and do best in humus soil, although blanket flower tolerates dry soil. Dryer gardens benefit from the durability of scarlet or Texas sage (Salvia coccinea), which sends forth 10-inch flower spikes, and red-hot-poker plant (Knipfolia spp.), sometimes called "torch lily," which favors sandy soil and sends forth distinctive flower spears in a red/orange/yellow/white spectrum. Add red accents to a dry grass garden with native scarlet flax (Linum rubrum), a hardy, re-seeding annual that grows 1 to 2 feet tall and tolerates both heat and drought.
Beal, Janet. "Types of Red Bushes & Red Plants and Flowers." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/types-red-bushes-red-plants-flowers-38746.html. Accessed 25 April 2019.