20 Shrubs That Like Wet Soil and Full Sun for Different Seasons

Shrubs that like wet soil and full sun can be a challenging task to find when there are so many species of shrubs to choose from. However, we have done the research for you and found them, placed in a compiled a list of some lovely shrubs that are suitable for growing in damp soil and direct sunlight.

Below, you’ll find a discussion that goes into further detail regarding these plants. Check out the options on our list to pick the best one that works ideally for you.

List of Shrubs That Like Wet Soil and Full Sun

1. Black Chokeberry

Black Chokeberry goes by the scientific name Aronia Melanocarpa. the reason why it is a prominent choice to take care of this shrub is because it is a low maintenance one as it blooms.

– Characteristics

The top of it is rounded and upright, and as the plant gets older, it seems to become lankier. The fruit, which can be consumed despite having a very astringent flavor, is produced from clusters of five to six flowers that bloom in the late spring.

– Features

The leaves will turn a crimson color in the fall before falling off for the winter. Its original home is in the eastern part of North America. You can plant it along borders or utilize it as a bush in more open areas of forested gardens.

It blooms in white or pink flowers during spring and contains elliptical or obovate-shaped green glossy leaves.

2. Winterberry

Ilex Verticillate is the scientific name of the Winterberry. It is technically a hardwood tree that can grow up to about twelve feet tall, although in the wild it is most commonly seen as a shrub. The plant needs to receive full sun so that it thieves, as the soil should be kept both wet and in an acidic property.

– Features

The leaves are arranged in an alternating pattern, each with a border that is deeply serrated and a hairy underside. The bark is paper-thin, silky, and brownish-gray in color. Flowers on stalks and yellow-green foliage grow into clusters in the spring.

It’s a shrub-type tree with a slow growth rate, requires low maintenance for blooming white, green, or yellow flowers in spring, and has glossy oblong, obovate, and oblanceolate leaves.

3. Inkberry

The Inkberry is scientifically called Ilex glabra. The inkberry is a member of the holly family and has characteristics such as being slow-growing, upright-rounded, stoloniferous, broadleaf, and evergreen.

– Features

It can establish colonies by spreading by root suckers and normally reaches a height of around nine feet when it is fully grown.

Its natural habitat is the coastal plain, which stretches from Florida to Nova Scotia and all the way down to Louisiana.

This shrub grows slowly with low maintenance, contains white fragrant flowers that thrive in summer and spring, and contains ovate or elliptical green leaves.

4. Sweet Pepperbush

The Sweet Pepperbush or Clethra Alnifolia belongs to the family Clethraceae. It can reach a height of about eight feet and typically forms clumps that are mounded.

– Features

Its natural range extends from the state of Maine all the way to the southern tip of Florida and west to the state of Texas in eastern North America. It is most commonly discovered in the wild in sandy woodlands, bogs, and thickets that are wet.

– Characteristics

This shrub is versatile enough to serve multiple purposes, thus it’s commonly used as a privacy screen, centerpiece, or even as a border when planted in groups.

– Growth Requirements

It is a shrub that grows at a medium rate, requires very low maintenance, thrives white fragrant flowers in spring, and contains showy green oblong or obovate-shaped leaves. As if would grow in wet or humus-rich soil and would receive direct sunlight.

5. Joe Pye Weed

In comparison to other types of species of the same genus, Joe Pye Weed is a dwarf cultivar with larger flowers.

– Growth Requirements

If the seed heads aren’t pruned, they’ll look pretty all through the winter. It thrives in direct sunlight to moderate shade and ordinary moist soils.

– Features

This is a perennial that has a medium growth rate, blooms pink fragrant flowers during fall and summer, and contains green deciduous lanceolate-shaped leaves. It reaches a height of around five feet and has swirls of foliage on reddish stalks.

6. Cardinal Flower

The Cardinal Flower plant can reach heights of four feet and thrives in moist areas, along streambanks, and in swampy areas.

– Features

It is a poisonous herbaceous perennial and it blooms irregular tubular-shaped flowers that are either white, burgundy, red, lavender, purple, or blue in color.

The largest leaves can reach a length of eight inches and a width of two inches, and they have a serrated border. The flowers have five pointed sepals and stamens. It thrives in moist, shaded regions near water or springs and in lowland forests.

– Growth Requirements

Propagation of this plant is simple, both from seed and by separating the annual offsets that emerge around the older, established plants.

7. Common Ninebark

The botanical name of the Common Ninebark is Physocarpus Opulifolius. This plant does well in direct sunlight.

– Features

This is a deciduous shrub that would be able to grow very fast with medium maintenance and its flowers thrive during spring and summer with a pink or white color. This shrub is able to grow two feet tall annually, as you provide the right requirements.

– Growth Requirements

You can prune shortly after the flowers have fallen off, but you shouldn’t wait until after the middle of August to do so. It is possible to prune it down to its roots in the winter so that it can regrow.

It is possible to find it growing on steep mountain slopes and along the banks of streams, which is why the soil that it needs is a wet one, and these places are high on their altitude, which means they will provide full sun.

8. Southern Arrowwood

The average height of a mature Southern Arrowwood tree is about eight feet. It is indigenous to much of the Eastern United States and may be found in the mountain regions and Piedmont of North Carolina in the United States.

– Features

In the spring, the flowers mature into clusters with flat-topped heads that can reach a width of up to four inches. In the early fall and late summer, the shrub bears a drupe that is bluish-black in color and reaches maturity.

It’s a shrub that grows at a medium rate, requires low maintenance, blooms white showy flowers in spring, and contains simple, cordate, green leaves.

– Growth Requirements

the Southern Arrowwood plant is one that doesn’t require so much care, if you let it sit under full sun, and water it thoroughly two to three times a week, it will thrive in your garden.

9. Cranberry Bush

The Viburnaceae family, of which the Cranberry Bush is a member, is indigenous to Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

– Features

It boasts magnificent fall colors as well as flowers, foliage, and drupes that are all quite lovely. In spite of the fact that it is commonly known as a Cranberry, the brilliant red fruits of this plant are not actually related to the Vaccinium genus at all.

This shrub requires high maintenance, grows at a medium rate, thrives showy white, yellow, or gold flowers during summer and spring, and has green deciduous ovate leaves.

– Growth Requirements

It prefers to grow in humus-rich, well-drained, and moist soil but it can thrive in other kinds of soil as well. In addition, you must make sure that it is in a location where the sun is directly on top so that it blooms.

10. Highbush Blueberry

The Highbush Blueberry is a member of the Ericaceae family of plants and is indigenous to the eastern region of North America. It is a plant with several stems that grows upright.

– Features

It is grown in gardens because it has stunning fall colors. Even though blueberries are capable of producing their own offspring, planting numerous cultivars of the same species that flourish at the same time will result in larger berries and a greater overall harvest.

It’s an edible shrub that grows slowly with medium maintenance, contains white or pink showy flowers which bloom in spring, and has elliptical or ovate-shaped green, red, or burgundy leaves.

– Growth Requirements

This plant is quite simple to care for, all you need to do is keep its soil moist, in addition, even if it is wet, it will still do fine, but the acidity level has to be between 4.0 to 6.0. As for the sun requirements, it needs to be placed in full sun, so that it would do perfectly, it would also tolerate partial shades.

11. Swamp Azalea

The Swamp Azalea is a branching broad-leaved plant that belongs to the family Ericaceae. Its natural habitat is the Southeastern and Eastern parts of the United States.

– Features

This poisonous shrub requires low maintenance to bloom fragrant white flowers in summer and it contains deciduous evergreen leaves.

– Growth Requirements

The common name for this plant correctly suggests that it may thrive in wet and humid conditions; yet, it does require adequate drainage to prevent the roots from becoming damaged by prolonged exposure to standing water.

12. Barberry

The barberry is a plant that is native to China and thrives in urban environments. The reason for the latter is due to its urge to resist pollution in the cities.

– Features

This plant may take a long time to mature, but once it does, it has a tiering habit, cane-like growth, and a propensity to sucker and create colonies.

It’s a broadleaf evergreen shrub that grows slowly, requires very low maintenance, thrives in fall and winter with yellow fragrant flowers, and contains leathery leaves.

– Growth Requirements

Although it can survive in little shade, it thrives best in full sun. This plant is susceptible to the development of leaf spots, fungus, and leaf scorch when subjected to wind. It is possible for it to suffer chlorosis on soils with high pH if it has wet feet.

13. Spicebush

The Spicebush may reach heights of twelve feet, and they can be located in rich woodlands, dry forests, and swamps.

– Features

There is a smooth edge on the alternate leaves. The bark ranges in hue from brown to pale and is covered in tiny lenticels of varying shades of white. Typically, fruit ripens in the autumn. There is nice yellow fall color on this plant. In addition, the flammability of this plant is modest one.

This slow-growing shrub has oblong and ovate-shaped leathery green leaves and it blooms green, yellow, or gold fragrant flowers in spring.

– Growth Requirements

A well-drained or medium-wet soil would be perfect for this plant to thrive because it has a high tolerance of water sitting underneath the soil. Furthermore, as long as you provide it with some full sun, it will be doing a great job and bloom in spring.

14. Laurel

Found in damp woods, valleys, thickets, and along stream banks. Organic matter, loamy clay, or sandiness are all ideal wet soils for this plant.

– Features

It’s a slow-growing poisonous shrub that needs low maintenance to thrive flowers in spring that have red, burgundy, purple, or a lavender color, and glossy leathery variegated leaves.

– Growth Requirements

The soil should be well-drained, with a moisture profile. The plant may survive in shady metropolitan areas with low soil quality and high levels of pollutants in the air.

However, you should note that the foliage can easily be damaged by wind, so choose a sheltered spot for your plant. Unless maintained via regular pruning, spotted laurel will reach a height of about ten feet.

15. Possumhaw

The Possumhaw is one of those native plants that you might find on calcareous glades and bluffs, beside streams in damp woodlands, and in floodplain valleys, sloughs, and swamps.

– Features

In cultivation, this deciduous tree normally reaches a height of approximately ten feet and has a spreading crown that is rounded at the top. It has a smooth texture that is gray-brown in color and occasionally has warts.

The fruit serves as a magnet for a wide variety of species, including birds and deer, as well as smaller mammals. This shrub-type tree grows at a medium rate, requires low maintenance, contains leathery, glossy, elliptical green leaves, and thrives in spring.

– Growth Requirements

In order to see this shrub successfully establish itself and to grow, it must receive full sun for eight hours a day. Furthermore, it needs to be placed in a moist soil, hence it is often found next to marshy lands, or near streams.

16. Silky Dogwood

The Cornaceae family includes the Silky Dogwood, which is indigenous to both the Eastern and even the Central regions of the United States as well as certain parts of Canada.

– Features

This shrub has the potential to reach a height of ten feet, has several stems, is open, and is rounded. This plant’s leaves and twigs both have hairs that feel like silk.

It is a shrub that requires medium maintenance to grow at a medium speed, thrives in white, yellow, or gold flowers in spring and summer, and has smooth ovate green leaves.

– Growth Requirements

Its natural habitats include wet areas such as the edges of swamps and wetlands, as well as areas close to streams and ponds, which is why when the soil is kept wet, it will thrive, because it is already used to this habitat. Nonetheless, you will also find it thriving as it is located under the sun.

17. Sweetshrub

The Sweetshrub is a member of the Calycanthaceae family and can grow to be upright or spherical. It can be found growing in the woodlands and along the streambanks of the Southeast region of the United States.

– Features

It reaches a height of around ten feet and a spread that is roughly equal to or slightly greater than that. The colorful and fragrant blossoms of this plant have earned it the common names Sweetshrub and Strawberry Bush.

This is one of those deciduous shrubs that are poisonous, have a medium growth rate, need medium maintenance, blooms red, burgundy, or brown fragrant flowers in spring, and contains leathery rough fragrant leaves.

– Growth Requirements

This shrub is capable to tolerate different types of soils, from clay-textured ones, to ones that are well-draining. Not only that but also consider that the light it receives should be a direct one.

18. Sweetspire

In most parts of North Carolina and the Southeast United States, you can find sweetspire growing along streambanks and in moist pine barrens.

– Features

It has gracefully arching branches and fall foliage that is able to reach a height of eight feet.

It’s a shrub with a medium rate of growth, contains smooth long-lasting green or orange leaves, and produces showy fragrant white flowers during summer and spring.

– Growth Requirements

The sweetspire plant thrives in full sunlight to part shade in soils that are moist, rich, and somewhat acidic. However, it is not particular about the type of soil it grows in.

19. Meadow Rue

Meadow Rue is a member of the Ranunculaceae family and can be found growing wild from Central Asia all the way to Europe.

– Features

Due to the fact that its leaves resemble the Aquilegia or the columbine genus, another common name for this plant is “Columbine Meadow Rue,” and the two plants are sometimes confused with one another

This herbaceous perennial is also a wildflower, requires low maintenance, has smooth green leaves, and blooms white, lavender, pink, or purple flowers in spring and summer.

– Growth Requirements

Meadow Rue can thrive in direct sunlight to partial shade on soil that is ordinary, medium moisture, and well-drained. However, it does best in soil that is rich in organic matter and receives dappled sunlight in the afternoon.

20. Tatarian Dogwood

The Tatarian Dogwood belongs to the family called Cornaceae and is cultivated for the decorative value it provides.

– Features

It has a form that is erect and loose, and as it ages, it arches with long stems that do not branch out.

This shrub has a fast growth rate with a need for low maintenance and has lanceolate showy green leaves that turn burgundy, red, lavender, purple, or yellow in the fall.

– Growth Requirements

This form can be clipped to cause it to grow into a little tree on clay soil. The Tatarian dogwood is a species of dogwood that is native to both Central and Eastern Asia. Which is the ideal place because the area foresees proper direct sun

Conclusion

As a result of what we have covered about shrubs that like wet soil and full sun, it should not be difficult for you to cultivate any of these plants in your own garden. To summarize the most important aspects of these plants:

• If you want to have a plant from which you can get edible fruits, growing the Highbush Blueberry is a good option.
• You may plant Common Ninebark or Silky Dogwood trees to produce gorgeous blossoms in the summer and spring if you give them the proper care.
• If you want to have a plant in your garden that does well even during the colder months, you may consider planting a Barberry tree.

Which of these plants would you be willing to plant in your garden, considering this list?