Perennial Climbers to Start Growing Now
By Ava Green
Great garden design plays with height, and vines are among nature’s most elegant solutions. They transform a bare wall, a plain fence or an open pergola into something that feels alive and intentional. And because these are perennial climbers, they come back every year, a little fuller and more beautiful than the season before.
Start growing one of these beauties now, and you’ll be enjoying them for years to come!
Clematis
Clematis has earned its place as one of the most loved climbers in the garden, and once you discover the extraordinary range of flower shapes, sizes and colours available, you will understand why.
For a look that feels straight out of an English cottage garden, pair a Clematis with a climbing rose. The two intertwine beautifully, flowering together in a spectacular combination.
Honeysuckle
The sweet, heady scent of Honeysuckle wafting through the air on a warm summer evening is a good reason to include this climber in your garden. But its tubular or trumpet-shaped blossoms are also irresistible to hummingbirds, bees and butterflies, making it valuable to your local ecosystem too. Few vines reward you quite so generously for so little effort.
Climbing Hydrangea
It may be slow to start, but once it’s established, Climbing Hydrangea grows with remarkable vigour, covering walls, fences and structures in lush, deep green foliage. No trellis is needed; it produces its own aerial rootlets that allow it to cling independently to almost any hard surface. In summer, the entire plant is blanketed in elegant white lacecap flowers! It tolerates shade better than most climbers, making it an exceptional choice for a north-facing wall or a shady spot in the garden.
Porcelain Vine
This fast-growing climber is a treasure for its extraordinary ornamental berries. Clusters of small, jewel-like fruits that ripen through a stunning progression of colours, from pale pink and lilac to a rich purple and a remarkable, almost iridescent turquoise blue, all appearing at the same time in fall. Train it up a fence, trellis or structure to let it climb, or allow it to trail gracefully down a slope or over a retaining wall for beautiful low-maintenance ground coverage. Please note: the berries are strictly ornamental, and not for eating.
Graceful, Useful and Very Worthwhile
Vines provide something that few other plants can; they add height, softness, privacy, and beauty all at once. They can disguise an unsightly fence, cool a sun-baked wall with natural shade, frame a garden entrance, or simply bring a sense of lushness to a space that feels too bare or flat.
Find Your Perfect Vine at Eising Garden Centre
Not sure which vine is right for your space? Bring us your questions and, if you have them, a photo of your wall, fence, or structure. Our team will help you find the perfect climber for your light conditions, your soil, and your vision. We’d love to help you get growing your perfect vine!
Expert Picks You Can Plant Right Now
By Ava Green
Looking for a flowering shrub that delivers season after season? We asked our experts at Eising Garden Centre to share their top picks, the ones that customers and staff love most, and they delivered. Whether you’re looking for spring blooms, fall colour, wildlife and pollinator value, or a shrub to suit your space, there’s something on this list for every garden.
Fuji Cherry ‘Little Twist’, Prunus incisa ‘CarltonLT’
As an accent in a small garden, or planted in a grouping in a larger garden, this multi-stemmed shrub is a gem!
In early spring, crimson buds emerge before the leaves appear. Little Twist then produces clusters of lightly scented white, bell-shaped flowers with soft pink centres that grow along its stems, a stunning early-season display. It is a deciduous shrub, and leaves begin as green before shifting to coppery-bronze, then deepen to a rich burgundy in fall. Smooth, dark red bark adds interest in the winter once the leaves are gone.
This slow-growing, multi-stemmed shrub makes a striking feature in your garden.
Best for: Small gardens, accent planting, four-season interest. | Sun: Full sun | Mature size: 6 ft. tall × 6 ft. wide
Downy Serviceberry, Amelanchier canadensis
One of the most rewarding native shrubs you can plant, Downy Serviceberry earns its place in the garden from spring right through to fall. Showy clusters of fragrant white flowers in early spring, followed by small, sweet, edible purple-blue berries in early summer that are wonderful for making jam and an absolute favourite for birds. Come fall, the foliage puts on a spectacular show in shades of yellow, red, and orange.
As a bonus, choosing a native plant like Serviceberry supports local pollinators and wildlife, making it as ecologically valuable as it is beautiful. It works well as a specimen plant on it’s own, in a grouping or hedge, or naturalized in a larger landscape.
Best for: Wildlife gardens, naturalized areas, multi-season interest | Sun: Full sun to part shade | Mature size: 20 ft. tall × 10 ft. wide
Amur Privet, Ligustrum Amurense
Amur Privet
When fast growth and privacy matter, Amur Privet is one of the best choices available. This dense, dark green shrub produces white flower panicles in late spring and small black berries in fall. It responds exceptionally well to pruning after it blooms, making it an ideal candidate for a formal or informal hedge. If you need to fill a space quickly and create structure in your garden, this is a reliable, low-maintenance option.
Best for: Hedging, screening, fast coverage | Sun: Full sun to part shade | Mature size: 12–15 ft. tall × 8–15 ft. wide
Viburnum ‘Fragrant Snowball’, Viburnum Opulus ‘Roseum’
Few shrubs stop people in their tracks quite like Fragrant Snowball Viburnum in full bloom. Large, rounded clusters of sweetly scented white flowers cover the plant in spring, creating a display that’s hard to match. While it doesn’t produce fruit, it earns its place again in the fall when the foliage transitions to rich shades of purple.
Pruning after it blooms will help to keep it a manageable size and encourage healthy new growth. It’s also available as a standard, or tree form, which matures to a more compact 6 to 8 feet tall.
Sun or part shade are best for this deciduous shrub, a beautiful, solitary accent plant for the garden growing 12 feet high and 10 feet wide. As a standard, it is smaller, maturing at 6 to 8 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide.
Best for: Specimen planting, cottage gardens, fragrance | Sun: Full sun to part shade | Mature size: 12 ft. tall × 10 ft. wide (shrub); 6–8 ft. tall (standard)
Snowbelle Mockorange, Philadelphus ‘Snowbelle’
Don’t let its compact size fool you; when Snowbelle Mockorange blooms in early summer, it puts on a big show. This dense, mounded shrub is blanketed in sweetly fragrant double white blooms that are absolutely irresistible to bees and butterflies. Once the flowers fade, its rich, dark-green deciduous foliage makes it a lovely backdrop for other blooming plants in the border.
Growing just four feet tall and wide, it’s one of the best choices for smaller beds, borders and foundation plantings. It prefers full sun but handles part shade as well.
Best for: Small borders, foundation planting, fragrance | Sun: Full sun to part shade | Mature size: 4 ft. tall × 4 ft. wide
More Flowering Shrubs Worth Exploring
This is just the beginning! At Eising Garden Centre, we also carry a wonderful selection of Azalea, Eastern Redbud, Kwanzan Flowering Cherry, Hydrangea, Dogwood, Butterfly Bush, Beauty Bush, Lilac, Rose of Sharon, Forsythia, and Potentilla, to name a few.
The best way to find the right flowering shrub for your garden is to come in and see them in person, and right now is the perfect time to plant. Stop by and chat with Zach or Donna, who are always happy to help you find exactly what you’re looking for, based on your space, soil, and vision. We’re here to help you make the most of every corner of your garden!
By Ava Green
Is there anything sweeter than the scent of Lilacs in the spring? These beloved shrubs are remarkably easy to grow and will reward you with weeks of fragrant blooms for little or no effort. But a bit of attention can make a big difference, especially if you’ve noticed your blooms getting smaller or fewer with each passing year.
To help your lilac put on its best show, keep these steps in mind:
- Plant in full sun, at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day, in well-draining soil
- Water newer plants during prolonged periods of drought until established (the first 3 years)
- Feed your lilacs annually with a balanced fertilizer (10-10-10, for example)
- Follow spacing instructions and prune yearly. Pruning is a very important step, and it’s well worth it.
Knowing When to Prune is Key
Timing is everything when it comes to pruning your lilacs. After the blooms fade, you have a two-week window to prune before the shrub sets its buds for next year's flowers. Yes, they set buds this year that will bloom next year! Pruning lilacs in the fall or the early spring risks cutting off all of the flower buds for the following year. Mark your calendar and prune promptly after flowering.
It also helps to understand how lilacs grow: Younger, thinner lilac stems produce more flowers. Older, thicker stems are more prone to disease and pests. Keeping this in mind will help with pruning decisions.
How To Prune Young Lilacs
If your lilac has been in the ground for less than three years, leave it alone; it doesn’t need pruning yet. Many young lilacs won’t bloom during those first few years.
After three years, once your shrub is established, begin by removing just one of the thickest, oldest stems down to the ground every 2 years. This gentle approach prevents the shrub from becoming overgrown while encouraging newer, flower-producing growth.
How To Prune Older, Overgrown Lilacs
If your lilac has been neglected or grown out of control, you have two options:
Option 1: Gradual Rejuvenation
Begin by removing any damaged stems, as these invite pests that can harm the entire shrub. Next, remove only the largest, oldest stems by cutting them right down to the ground. The key is to remove no more than one-third of the living wood (dead stems don’t count toward that total). Leave the younger, thinner stems intact so your shrub can still bloom the following year. Repeat this process each spring for three years, and you’ll gradually restore the shrub to its full, flowering potential without sacrificing a single bloom season.
Option 2: Full Cutback
For a severely overgrown lilac that has been largely ignored, a complete cutback is often the most practical solution. Cut the entire shrub as close to the ground as possible, either in early spring or immediately after blooming. Yes, this breaks the general rule of never removing more than one-third of live wood, but lilacs are remarkably resilient and respond well to this kind of hard reset. By the end of summer, you will have healthy new stems of three to five feet tall. While the shrub won’t bloom for approximately three years after a full cutback, the long-term results are well worth the wait.
Deadheading Your Lilacs
Deadheading, or removing spent flower clusters after the blooms fade, is a simple task that’s separate from pruning, and can be done during that same two-week post-bloom window. When you trim off faded blooms, the plant redirects its energy from seed production toward building bigger, healthier buds for the next year. It takes only minutes and can make a meaningful difference in the size and abundance of next year’s flowers.
A Note on Lawns and Lilacs
If your lilac grows near a lawn, be mindful of how much fertilizer you’re applying to the surrounding grass. Lawn fertilizers are typically high in nitrogen, which encourages lush leaf growth, but too much nitrogen reaching your lilac’s roots will suppress flower production.
Worthy Rewards
Lilacs are remarkably long-lived, often outlasting the gardens and even the homes they were planted beside. So whether you’re nursing a young shrub through its first few years or breathing new life into an old, overgrown beauty, the effort you put in now is an investment that will keep rewarding you, and perhaps generations after you. Every single spring!
If you think a small space and a small garden are limiting when it comes to shrub choices, think again! Colour and texture, structure and seasonal interest are all available in many small shrubs. Whether you’re looking for beautiful blooms or evergreen foliage, you’ll love what our favourite small shrubs have to offer!
Follow the 5 links for more on our 5 favourites!
My Monet Purple Effect Weigela - Weigela florida
A deciduous shrub that’s deer resistant, colourful and low growing. This plant checks lots of boxes!! Variegated mint green and cream foliage with purple tones and pink blossoms, it makes a great companion to perennials, and as an edging plant. My Monet Purple Effect Weigela grows 18” to 2 ½ feet tall and wide in partial or full sun.
Little Gem Spruce - Picea abies ‘Little Gem’
This compact evergreen has dark green needles, making it attractive all year round. Its pyramidal shape makes it a great choice as an accent feature or in a border. It’s drought-tolerant and requires little care, making it a very appealing low-maintenance choice! Little Gem reaches a mature height of 10” to 1’ and a spread of 1’ to 2’. Plant this shrub in full sun.
Blue Star Juniper - Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’
Sun-loving and slow-growing, Blue Star Juniper graces the garden with steel blue evergreen foliage that’s a beautiful contrast to many plants. It’s also drought-tolerant and requires very little pruning, making it an easy to care for naturally small shrub. Growing 1 to 3’ tall and 1 ½ to 3’ wide, its shape makes it great as ground cover or as an edging plant.
Bluebeard - Caryopteris
Classified as a shrub or as a woody perennial, either way, it deserves to be on this list. Bluebeard loves full sun and grows anywhere from 2 to 4’ in a compact mound. Sweetly scented and long blooming, it attracts all the pollinators: bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Bluebeard foliage and blooms come in various colours depending on the variety, so it’s easy to fit into your landscape plans.
Inkberry Holly - IIlex glabra
Native to North America, Inkberry has lots to love. It looks similar to Boxwood and can be trimmed to shape, but this slow-growing evergreen also forms a tidy mound, and it blooms in the Spring! It will grow in full to part sun, and smaller varieties reach 3 to 4’ high.
While this list contains 5 of our favourites, we have lots more to offer in the garden centre. Come by and take a look! Discover how growing small shrubs in containers or small spaces adds beauty and texture, enhancing your garden bed, patio or balcony.
TIP: April and May are the best months to plant shrubs in Southern Ontario.