Select special summer-flowering trees and shrubs

Looking for some new ideas for adding summer flowers and fragarance to your garden? Take a look at these four suggestions:

1. Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria) - A multi-stemmed, 10-15-ft tall shrub. Feathery, plume-like flowers and seedheads appear as smoky-pink puffs from late June-August, depending on the cultivar. Medium green to blue-green foliage turns yellow-red-orange in fall. Purple-leafed favorites include ‘Nordine’ and ‘Royal Purple.’ Pictured above.

2. Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) - Native to swamps and wet woodlands of the eastern United States. This 6-8-ft, upright, colony-forming shrub bears abundant, pink to white, spicy-fragrant flowers in July and August. Deep green leaves turn yellow in fall, followed by persistent seed capsules in winter. Many cultivars available. At left.

3. Bluebeard (Caryopteris xclandonensis) - Fragrant, gray-green foliage contrasts nicely with the small clusters of lovely deep blue to violet-blue, late-summer flowers. Matures at 3-4-ft tall, and should be cut back to the ground each year. Favorite cultivars include, ’Arthur Simmonds,’ ‘Blue Mist,’ ‘Blue Knoll’ and ‘Longwood Blue.’ At left.

4. Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus) - An unusual, aromatic, 8-10-ft tall shrub with gray-green, palmately compound leaves. Long, 3-6-inch, violet-colored flowers bloom profusely from late July through September. Plants die back to the ground each year. At left.

Check our web site for a more complete listing of summer flowering trees and shrubs.

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