Soil type: loam, clay

Sun exposure: Full sun, part shade

Mature height: 8ft 

Benefits: butterflies, pollinators, song birds

Description: This fast-growing shrub pleases every month of the year. During dark winter days, its red twigs glow under sunny or gray skies. Leafing out, the shrub forms a fresh green backdrop to its own clusters of creamy-white flowers and to other spring-bloomers. Red-osier dogwood will often bloom into late fall, so that you can see it with both flowers and its blue-white berries when the leaves turn yellow or maroon.