You don’t need a large landscape or even a plot of ground to enjoy growing shrubs. A balcony, deck, or porch provide enough space to put shrubs in tubs for year-round color. As an added bonus, these shrubs will thrive for years in the same pot without repotting.

The secret to success: a large pot with good drainage, quality potting soil, and slow release plant food.

The size of the container should be a few inches wider than the pot the shrub was growing in at the nursery and at least 18 inches deep. Use potting soil to ensure good drainage. Because the roots of the shrub won’t be able to spread out in search of food or water, I rely on a slow release plant food like Osmocote. Each spring all my potted shrubs get their annual meal when I work the fertilizer into the top inch of potting soil.

Best Shrubs for Tubs

Tall, dark and handsome

Get formal with a tall shrub in a tall pot.

Arborvitae Thuja:

These tough and hardy evergreens are often used for hedging but when grown in a large container you can enjoy a column of evergreen structure that can be moved around the garden. I potted a pair of Thuja in matching lightweight foam pots (I spray paint these pots black every few years to keep them looking shiny and new) and these potted shrubs are lightweight enough to move about the garden. Sometimes they flank the driveway, sometimes they mark the entry of a pathway, or in winter I’ll plunk them into a planting bed just to fill up the empty space of my dormant perennial garden.

For added color I have added the dark purple foliage of heucheras ‘Plum Passion’ and the golden leaves of the groundcover lamium. Dark black spikes of Black mondo grass poke up through the other low growing plants and all of these companion plants are evergreen in the winter months – providing color year round at the foot of my handsome arborvitae.

Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’:

I adore this tall and skinny form of Japanese Holly (Ilex) because it can be tucked into small spaces and never needs pruning to keep its columnar shape. All the Ilex varieties do well in containers but the narrow growing form of ‘Sky Pencil’ is the most dramatic, especially when used in taller containers. Pot the Sky Pencil into a cube-like, rectangular pot and you’ll have a dramatic exclamation point for the garden. As a bonus a tall container makes this skinny shrub instantly taller – and as elegant and fashionable as a six foot runway model.

Yews (Taxus):

If you are looking for a shrub that will survive in a shaded site than you need a yew. There are several yews that grow in a tall and narrow form such as the Hick’s yew (Taxus media ‘Hickii’), and no other evergreen shrub can take shearing and trimming like the yews. If topiary shapes are your thing, yews got it.

Full, Flowering, and Frilly

Blooming shrubs to spill from curvaceous or rounded containers.

Spiraea ‘Magic Carpet’

This is a low growing shrub with brilliant yellow leaves and hot pink clusters of flowers that appear in the summer. On my patio this fuss free shrub has been a work horse in a pot for going on six years – without needing a transplant. I do trim off any wayward branches in the spring and I water during dry spells. There are so many shrubs with green foliage – why not chose the novelty of yellow leaves and let ‘Magic Carpet’ provide sunshine in a pot?

Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer”

So many new hydrangeas on the market and I’ve grown many of them in containers in an area that is shaded from the hot afternoon sun. The ‘Endless Summer’ is a variety that flowers on both old and new wood – perfect for containers because you may need to get snippy with your hydrangeas to keep them in scale with the size of the container. A few of the more compact hydrangeas that do well in pots are ‘Pink Elf’, ‘Buttons and Bows’ and ‘Penny Mac’.

Rhododendrons and Azaleas

The compact root system of these evergreens makes them happy to be contained. I like to add a shovelful of peat moss to the potting soil and use a slow release plant food made for acid loving plants like Osmocote Azaleas, Camellia and Rhododendron food. Just like hydrangeas, rhododendrons and azaleas prefer morning sun only and need extra water during dry times. The “Yak” rhododendrons are naturally more compact and slow growing and the Hino crimson azaleas is a variety that can handle some sun and does well in a pot.

Adorable Dwarves

Compact shrubs for smaller spaces. Snow White had it right when she fell in love with the dwarves. Not only will these dwarf shrubs take up less room in a smaller pot but their slow growth allows for adding other plants in the same container. You can create a plant community or mini landscape using just one pot and a collection of dwarf shrubs. Fairy garden anyone?

Jeans Dilly Dwarf Alberta Spruce

This is a much slower grower than the traditional dwarf, Alberta Spruce, and the natural cone shape gives it a tidy form that looks great in a smaller decorative container or mixed with other shrubs and dwarf plants in a bowl shaped pot. You can expect it to grow less than one inch a year – very well behaved.

Dwarf Barberries

These tough and drought resistant shrubs have barbed branches but also winter berries and beautiful foliage. They can be kept trimmed into tidy balls or allowed to grow into compact mounds. For an accent of sunshine yellow, grow ‘Golden Nugget’ dwarf barberry, smashing in a dark blue or deep red pot. Crimson pygmy dwarf barberry adds red foliage to a container garden and can be framed with golden sedum ‘Angelina’ for a delightful, drought resistant container display.

Filling Fall Foliage

Let’s be practical. Once fall arrives those summer blooming annuals are past their prime and so are your pots of petunias and baskets of summer flowers. Chose these shrubs for your tubs and you’ll enjoy a second spring with fresh fall foliage every autumn.

Orange rocket barberry

This new barberry has taken off in popularity with supersonic speed. A narrow, upright growth habit means it always looks neat and tidy and all spring and summer the orange and green foliage adds sparks of color, but once summer ends the real fireworks begin. Fall is when orange rocket explodes with fiery foliage. Plant this barberry in a bright yellow container for a contemporary take on garden design or go more traditional and use a large clay or terra cotta pot to showcase the orange, red and yellow leaves. Set a container of orange rocket barberry near your Japanese maples or other trees that turn color in the autumn and you’ll be creating an autumn theme garden.

Nandina Heavenly Bamboo

All the new varieties of nandina make great shrubs for tubs and this shade tolerant shrub is evergreen in mild winter climates. For purple foliage color look for Nandina ‘Plum Passion’ or for more traditional fall colors Nandina ‘Sienna Sunrise’ will warm up a porch or patio with colorful new spring growth in shades of red and then more red highlights that appear in the fall. This Nandina grows slowly so adapts well to a container.

Makes Good Scents

Great gardens have sweet scents so why not pot up a fragrant shrub and place it where you’ll be able to enjoy the fragrance easily? A fragrant container near the front door will delight your guests and fragrant shrubs on the patio will add aroma therapy to your outdoor living space.

Daphne ‘Eternal Fragance’

Daphne has a reputation as being difficult to grow but the root of most daphne difficulties is poor drainage. Grow daphne in a container with good drainage and in a light weight potting soil and it is happy for years and will reward you with long lasting fragrant blooms. This evergreen daphne has small white flowers that don’t make a big splash with color but hold on to your socks because the sweet scent will knock them off your feet. Like most white blooming flowers this shrub releases a stronger scent once the sun goes down. Try placing a daphne in bloom right outside a bedroom and then open the windows to the sweet night air.

Sweet Box Sarcococca rustifolia

Got shade? This evergreen shrub thrives where the sun don’t shine so you’ve found a shrub that can grow in the darkness of a covered porch or patio. The small white blooms appear in very early spring and have a strong vanilla scent. I grew a sweet box near my front door and one guest thought I was baking cookies. Sweet Box comes in a dwarf form that would work in a smaller pot as well. It is called Himalayan Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis and this more compact evergreen would do well in smaller containers or even a window box on the north or shaded side of a house.