Best Flowering Shrubs for Hedges

Why fence with rust-prone metal, rot-ready wood, or plastic pickets when you can have lovely floral fretwork to enclose your yard and guide the way through your garden?

Dwarf Crape Myrtle

Although many crape myrtles grow to be small- to medium-size trees, some varieties, such as the Filli series and Dazzle series, remain shrubby, producing full-size blooms on plants less than 5 feet tall.

Name: Lagerstroemia selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil

Size: 1-5 feet tall; 1-4 feet wide

Zones: 5-9

Test Garden Tip: In Zones 5 and 6, where crape myrtles die back most winters, treat the shrubs as perennials and cut them to the ground before growth begins in the spring.