There is a need to reduce the overall management costs for urban landscape. This paper describes the findings of a study to determine the preferences for different forms of shrubs at various levels of management among a sample of residents of Sheffield in England. Shrubs, amongst the most common elements in landscape, were used as the object focus of the study. A survey was conducted among forty residents in the Darnall area and forty residents from Walkley area of Sheffield. Photographs of three different forms of shrubs, specifically the clipped (formal) shrubs, non-clipped (informal) shrubs and flowering shrubs, were shown to participants. The shrubs were presented in three different contexts, that is the rural, semi-urban and urban contexts. A total of 9 images were graded by the 80 public participants. A similar survey was carried out amongst 22 postgraduate students from the Faculty of Architectural Studies, University of Sheffield to represent the „expert group‟. The public group preferred flowering shrubs in all background contexts. There were no significant differences amongst public perception of formal and informal shrubs, and between rural, semi-urban or urban contexts. There was also no significant difference between the public and experts preferences in this research. Gender, age group, education, degree of interest in garden and degree of interest in nature did not show any significant difference in the preference scores. An exception was the significant difference in the preferences for flowering shrubs between the university degree graduates and university degree non-graduates.