Your front garden is the first thing visitors and passersby notice, and the right shrubs can dramatically improve your home’s appearance. Shrubs not only add beauty and structure, but they can also provide privacy, fill in bare spots, and enhance your landscape with year-round color and texture. Whether you’re looking for evergreens, flowering varieties, or low-maintenance options, here are 17 of the best shrubs to boost your home’s curb appeal.
1. Boxwood (Buxus)
Boxwood is a timeless choice for front-yard landscaping. Known for its dense evergreen foliage, it can be shaped into hedges, spheres, or other decorative forms. Boxwood provides year-round structure and elegance.
- Height: 2-6 feet
- Best for: Formal landscapes, year-round greenery
2. Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)
Hydrangeas are popular for their large, colorful blooms that come in shades of pink, blue, and white, depending on the soil pH. They add a burst of color during summer and are perfect for creating a welcoming, cottage-style look.
- Height: 3-6 feet
- Best for: Summer blooms, color variety
3. Lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
Lilacs are beloved for their fragrant, lavender or purple flowers that appear in late spring. These shrubs are perfect for adding a pop of color and a lovely scent near your front entryway or along the perimeter of your garden.
- Height: 6-12 feet
- Best for: Fragrant flowers, spring blooms
4. Azalea (Rhododendron spp.)
Azaleas offer vibrant blooms in shades of pink, red, and purple during the spring, making them a popular choice for adding color to your landscape. These low-maintenance shrubs thrive in partial shade and can be used as foundation plantings or border plants.
- Height: 2-5 feet
- Best for: Spring color, partial shade gardens
5. Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)
Butterfly Bush is a fast-growing, flowering shrub that attracts pollinators like butterflies and bees with its fragrant blooms. The tall spikes of purple, pink, or white flowers last from summer to fall, making it a great choice for color and wildlife-friendly gardens.
- Height: 5-7 feet
- Best for: Pollinator gardens, long-lasting blooms
6. Dwarf Alberta Spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’)
The Dwarf Alberta Spruce is an evergreen shrub that grows in a neat, conical shape. Its compact size makes it ideal for framing doorways or adding vertical interest to foundation plantings without overwhelming smaller spaces.
- Height: 4-6 feet
- Best for: Year-round interest, compact spaces
7. Spirea (Spiraea spp.)
Spirea is a versatile, flowering shrub that offers long-lasting blooms and vibrant foliage. With colors ranging from white to pink and red, spirea adds texture and color to your garden through spring and summer.
- Height: 2-4 feet
- Best for: Low-maintenance, colorful flowers
8. Yew (Taxus spp.)
Yew is a hardy evergreen shrub that can be shaped into formal hedges or left to grow naturally. Its dark green foliage provides structure and privacy while offering year-round color.
- Height: 4-8 feet
- Best for: Privacy hedges, formal gardens
9. Roses (Rosa spp.)
Roses, especially the low-maintenance Knock Out varieties, add a romantic touch to your front yard with their vibrant blooms and fragrance. Whether climbing or shrub-form, roses enhance your garden with stunning flowers from spring to fall.
- Height: 3-6 feet
- Best for: Colorful blooms, fragrance
10. Forsythia (Forsythia x intermedia)
Forsythia is one of the first shrubs to bloom in early spring, producing bright yellow flowers before its leaves appear. Its cheerful color makes it a standout in the landscape and a wonderful way to brighten up the front of your house.
- Height: 6-10 feet
- Best for: Early spring blooms, vibrant color
11. Lavender (Lavandula)
Lavender is a low-growing, aromatic shrub with soft, silvery foliage and purple flower spikes that bloom throughout the summer. It thrives in sunny spots and adds both beauty and a calming fragrance to your garden.
- Height: 1-2 feet
- Best for: Fragrance, drought-tolerant gardens
12. Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica)
Despite its name, Heavenly Bamboo is not a bamboo at all. This evergreen shrub features delicate, bamboo-like foliage that changes color throughout the seasons, from green to red and orange. In the fall, it produces bright red berries that persist through winter.
- Height: 3-6 feet
- Best for: Colorful foliage, year-round interest
13. Barberry (Berberis thunbergii)
Barberry shrubs are known for their colorful foliage, which can range from deep red to golden yellow. These thorny shrubs add color and texture to your landscape while also providing a natural deterrent for intruders due to their sharp thorns.
- Height: 3-6 feet
- Best for: Low-maintenance, colorful foliage
14. Euonymus (Euonymus fortunei)
Euonymus is a versatile evergreen shrub that comes in various forms, from low-growing ground covers to taller, more upright varieties. Its glossy, green leaves provide year-round interest, and some varieties offer vibrant variegation for added visual appeal.
- Height: 2-5 feet
- Best for: Foundation plantings, evergreen structure
15. Rhododendron (Rhododendron spp.)
Rhododendrons offer spectacular, large blooms in a range of colors from pink to purple, red, and white. These shrubs prefer partial shade and bring a burst of color to your front yard in spring.
- Height: 4-8 feet
- Best for: Spring blooms, partial shade
16. Box Honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida)
Box Honeysuckle is a compact, evergreen shrub that features small, glossy leaves and is easy to shape into formal hedges or topiaries. Its dense growth makes it an excellent choice for creating clean, structured lines in your landscape.
- Height: 2-4 feet
- Best for: Formal gardens, compact spaces
17. Camellia (Camellia japonica)
Camellias are elegant evergreen shrubs that produce stunning blooms in shades of pink, red, and white during the winter and early spring. Their glossy, dark green foliage provides year-round structure, while the flowers brighten the colder months.
- Height: 6-12 feet
- Best for: Winter and early spring blooms, evergreen structure
Final Thoughts
Choosing the right shrubs for the front of your house can significantly enhance your home’s curb appeal, adding both beauty and structure to your landscape. Whether you prefer evergreen shrubs for year-round greenery or flowering shrubs for seasonal interest, there are plenty of options to suit any style or climate. With these 17 best shrubs, you can create a welcoming, polished look that will make your home stand out.