Function

• Some of the uses of landscaping bushes and shrubs include incorporation into rock gardens and employment as foundation plants along buildings, such as spirea. Other shrubs attract butterflies and birds with their flowers and fruits, including the butterfly bush. Bushes suitable for hedges and barriers to protect property include types such as Japanese barberry. Attractive and fragrant flowers and fruit allow bushes such as leptodermis to function as specimen plants.
  
  

Size

• Landscaping shrubs and bushes are often smaller cultivars of much larger trees. These type plants usually have many of the same features as the larger species, but are in shrub form and available for assorted uses. The shrub form of Japanese maple known as Shishio Improved grows only to 9 feet, a size allowing its use as a container plant or a patio shrub.
  
  

Geography

• Some landscaping bushes have cold hardiness that permits their use in severe climates where winters become frigid, such as the Alpine currant. Other types grow only where winters are mild, including the pomegranate shrub.