Wholesale Nursery News

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When You Need a Fast-Growing Plant

While your landscape and retail garden center customers are typically installing and selling shrubs for brand new landscapes, they may also commonly need a few replacement shrubs to fill for “holes” in established landscapes. Perhaps a previously established shrub has died or needed to be removed landscape or construction repairs. No one wants to live with that bare spot for long! That means contractors need plants that grow quickly in order to fill in the empty space.

Foundations are spaces in the landscape that often need to be filled quickly. If you’re looking for a beautiful shrub that is fast-growing and blooms almost continuously, Alyogyne huegelii is an excellent choice. Also commonly referred to as blue hibiscus, plants produce dark green leaves and large blooms throughout the growing season.  Plants are hardy and adaptable to different soil conditions. They’re perfect for quickly filling in bare spots in large landscape beds or foundations.

When it comes to creating privacy screens or even windbreaks, fast growing plants are usually a must for the property owner. The faster privacy can be established around a residence, the better; especially if the property is near an intersection or a heavy traffic road. It’s important that privacy screens are not only effective, but also attractive.

Vegetative screens are often a more attractive alternative to walls or fences. Plants often make better windscreens, as they can be grown taller than local ordinances may allow for fences or other hardscape structures.

Red tip photinia is a fast growing shrub that is commonly used to create large privacy screens or hedges. The plant’s new leaves emerge first with a bronze-red color and later change to medium green. Leaves are large and oval shaped. Clusters of fragrant flowers follow in spring if plants are not sheared regularly.

While fast-growing plants are typically not as long-lived as their slow-growing counterparts, they play an important part in our ever-changing urban landscapes.