One of the time honored rituals of the

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is decorating the lawn and garden with lights and ornaments to display to the rest of the neighborhood. Of course this means finding places to hang lights and lawn ornaments. One of the best places to display Christmas lights are on shrubs and bushes that are scattered throughout the landscape.

Shrubs and bushes also make excellent decorations themselves, as there are many shrubs and bushes that will produce red berries during the Christmas holiday season. For the most part, though, the lush greenery of shrubs and bushes will likely be the only color available in your Christmas landscape. As well, many of these Christmas shrubs and bushes can be sniped with pruning shears and used as indoor holiday decorations. However you plan to use Christmas shrubs and bushes, they can add beauty to any holiday display.

Of course the most popular choice for Christmas shrubs and bushes are evergreens. Although many novice gardeners believe that the broad category of evergreen is the actual name of the shrub or bush, it is simply a category of shrubs. These are needle-bearing shrubs that can easily be trimmed into beautiful shapes, depending on where they are planted in the landscape. One of the best parts about Christmas shrub evergreens is that many produce a wonderful scent that will add to the beauty of the season.

Evergreen Shrub Choices

There are endless numbers of evergreen shrubs and bushes available that will make any Christmas landscape beautiful. A popular christmas shrub is the holly bush. There are several different species of the holly shrub, although one of their most popular features is that they produce beautiful red berries in the fall and in the winter. These berries are a wonderful way to attract wildlife during the Christmas holiday, as well as a great way to add to the natural color of your Christmas lawn and garden display. Holly can also be cut and brought indoors to add to your interior Christmas display.

Yew bushes are another excellent Christmas shrub choice. There are two main species of the Yew bush, the Japanese Yew and the English Yew, as well as hybrids of both available. Although you might not recognize the name Yew, you would most likely recognize the plant if you saw it, as it is one of the most popular landscape evergreen shrubs. This is because the Yew bush is especially easy to trim and fit into any landscape design. Although the Yew does not produce any flowers or berries, its dark evergreen colored foliage makes a great addition to any Christmas landscape and the sturdiness and compactness of the shrub makes it great for decorating with lights.

The Alpine Currant is an excellent and hardy Christmas time shrub. It is a compact bush that would be wonderful for decorating and also produces flowers in the late spring and early summer months, as well as red berries during the fall and winter months.

Other Excellent Choices

Another excellent choice for Christmas shrubs and bushes is anything in the Dogwood shrub family. While the name Dogwood is synonymous with the tree Dogwood, there aremany beautiful Dogwood shrubs as well. Look for Dogwoods with names like Artic Fire, Coral Red or even the Redosier Dogwood. These Dogwoods will actually produce red branches and stems during the winter months. This is a wonderful way to add color to the exterior Christmas lawn and garden display. Instead of red berries, many of the Dogwoods will produce white berries, which add a beautiful contrast to the red stems.

Keep in mind that there are endless shrubs and trees that can be added to the landscape to help create beauty during Christmas time. If you are looking for a specific type or style of plant, ask a lawn and garden specialist who can help find something that blends well with the landscape you already have established.

Choosing the right shrubs for your yard can be a rather frustrating experience. There are so many plants to choose from at your local garden center; how do you know that you are picking the right one for your situation?

The key is to find out as much information about the site where you plan to plant your shrubs as you can before you go shopping. That means you need to observe the spot and record how much sun the area gets and at what time of day, how dry the soil is, what other plants are around and perhaps even the pH or nutrient levels in the soil (these can be determined with the help of an inexpensive test kit available at any garden supply store).

You should also take time to evaluate your needs and desires in the shrubs you plant. Are you looking for something that will provide you with greenery all year long? Do you want a shrub that produces flowers or berries, that changes color in the fall, or that keeps a compact shape? All of these issues can be taken into consideration when choosing the right shrubs for your yard.

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When you have thought about all of these factors you might come up with a list that describes your perfect plant: it thrives in full sun, has flowers, can tolerate dry conditions and looks natural in the landscape. Or, it needs to live in shade under an large tree and be evergreen.

Armed with your list of requirements, head to the Internet or your nearest garden center. Searching for your listed terms in a search engine will give you some ideas. For example, typing in full sun, drought tolerant flowering shrub you'll find choices like abelia, acacia, bougainvillea, butterfly bush, lavender, oleander and many more.

A search for a shade evergreen shrub will get you results such as the holly fern, dwarf bamboo, boxwood, holly and others.

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The trouble with going to the Internet for your information about planting is that you will mostly find only general information like that provided on this site. General information is fine as long as you are fully aware of both the USDA plant hardiness zone in your area and that of the shrubs you are thinking about planting.

If you don't know this information (which is also pretty easily found on the Internet), a visit to the local garden store can be a big help. Garden centers only stock plants that grow where they are. It makes no sense to sell people plants that won't survive the local conditions. Take your list of requirements to your favorite local garden shop and find the section of plants most like what you need in terms of sun or shade.

Then you can narrow down your selection based on which plants flower, are evergreen, like drought or whatever else you needed. If you don't see what you need, ask. The folks at garden supply shops and nurseries mostly love what they do and enjoy sharing their expertise with others. They don't want to see you pick out the wrong plant any more than you do.

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