Gardening & Landscaping
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
NB (or anyone with a tree opinion)
What's your opinion on vine maple (acer circinatum)? Lovely native or enough with the acers already?
I need some understory trees and shrubs that will fit in my urban yard, but fill up the blank space taken up by our fence and the neighbor's cedar trunks. Otherwise I'll just have 3' and under plants crawling about on the ground.
Here's one in a home garden:
but I've only seen them in the forest, looking more like this:
I'm looking to put a nice little shade vignette together and I need something to anchor it and draw the eye down from those cedar trunks (the owners before us sheered off the branches on our side so it's just trunk until about 20 ft up. Awful.)
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
Re: NB (or anyone with a tree opinion)
For my own amusement my proposed vignette:
Solomon's seal (Polygonatum)
bordered by some goatsbeard (arncus) on one side
ETA: the sunny half of this border already has hydrangea paniculata, mock orange and blueberries going in.
The border will be 50 ft long and 5-12 ft deep (undulating). PNW, USDA zone 8, Sunset zone 6.
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
I don't know about the Acer. But I will add that I love, love, love the pagoda dogwood I planted last year that has a similar shape and look. It's a newer variety called Cornus alternifolia 'Golden Shadows'. It has yellow leaves with a green center that look amazing when they are backlite by the sun.
They don't change color in the fall like the Acer but when they open up in the spring they have a red tint on the edges and look like flower buds from a distance.
As far as the perennials underneath.
Love the hakonechola grass. I had a white stripped one under the dogwood I was just mentioning. I was a good looking combo but some squirrels dug up the hakonechola in the fall/winter and killed it. I like the yellow with the green stripe you pictured better than the all yellow myself.
The columbine and heuchera sound like great choices. I have a purple sedum of all things (plants that are as vigourous as sedum I like to challenge to help keep them in line) under my dogwood and the purple with yellow combo is beautiful.
I like those varieties of dicentra for their foliage but they are not nearly as showy or prolific as the old fashioned ones. Mine only seem to get a few blooms per plant while the old fashioned ones have a whole string of flowers. Their smaller size would work well under a small dogwood or acer (not sure if you're going to start out with a small or a big shrub).
Solomon's seal spreads a lot so keep that in mind. I have it all over our property naturally. The berries are also poisonious so keep them away from dogs and kids. Personally I would only plant the variegated kind. They have a nice white edge on the leaves and don't spread quite as much as the standard kind. Other options are the dwarf solomon's seal which do not have the big graceful artch of it's parent plant but are cute just the same. They also spread but are easily dug up and divided.
I don't think fairy bells are hardy enough for our area so I have no experience with them. Also not familiar with the inside out flower. It looks kind of blah for a groundcover though. I like the "chip" varieties of ajuga myself for a shade spreading groundcover. They don't spread near as much as the standard ones and have interesting green, white, and burgandy foliage. They might be too aggressive in your warmer climate though.
Goatsbeard spreads a bit too but is a nice plant. The dwarf variety is a little more tame and tidy.
A few other suggestions that I like for shade that could work with your plan. Pulmonaria (the raspberry variety is my favorite color) they do spread but slowly, hellebore, dwarf iris which bloom earlier than the standard size varieties and take more shade, toad lily (I think you would like the arching shape like the solomon's seal), virginia bluebell a native but spreads, garden or creeping phlox (we have some native varieties around here), and a mini hosta. I have the mini 'Blue Mouse Ears' hosta near the dogwood and the contrast in size is fun. The mini hosta makes the currently small dogwood look big in comparison.
This is fun! We should have more posts like this.
I don't know if it will work for your location- it says zone 7-4 but I love service berry (Amelanchier canadensis) for the location you described. I like a focal plant like that to have multi-seasonal interest. Service berry has pretty white spring flowers, great fall foliage and pretty bark and habit for the winter.
"Enough with the Acers already..." - LOL, you know me so well.
I'll be honest... I am careful to plant natives on city-owned land, but in my OWN tiny backyard, you will find more exotics, like Davidia involucrata, Heptacodium micanoides, Franklinia alatahama, Stewartia pseudocamillia, and Parrotia persica. These are all small, except for the Davidia, which is medium at about 40' (and maybe the Parrotia).
What zone are you in there? 7? Or is it colder than that?
If you can deal with big, coarse, dramatic leaves, plant a Fig tree. A Celeste in it's zone 7. If it's zone 6 or marginally colder, a Brown Turkey Fig (more cold tolerant but not as tasty). The other native fruit trees I plant are Persimmons and Pawpaws. Asian persimmons are better for fruit, however.
I bet nobody there has a Halesia. Look into that genus. Native to parts of the country (as Franklinia once was, before it became extinct in the wild).
Amelanchier, that someone mentioned, is a sure-thing native; they're easy to grow and beautiful. So is Chionanthus (the native or the Asian, both are lovely).
Oh, and all of these tolerate some shade. You can count on just about any SMALL trees to be tolerant of partial shade, because that's just how small trees evolved... in the shade of big trees like Oaks. You don't need to memorize tree names, just keep that tidbit in mind.