Specialty Gardening: Vines and tall plants, 1 by jkom51

jkom51 wrote:
That's great that you've bought the SWGB - I think you'll find it very useful.

I noticed you haven't mentioned anything evergreen. You need those for the "bones" of your garden because otherwise 9 months out of the year you'll have little of interest going on. What are you thinking of in this respect?

I'm pretty sure Rhaphiolepis indica works in your zone, and 'Ballerina' is a great dwarf variety, about 4' TxW. The leaves are smaller and darker than the standard Rhaphiolepsis - great as background shrubs. They take little or a lot of water, get a little bit of blackspot in winter but shrug it off nicely without sprays, never have any pests, and have lovely pink flowers 2x year. (Here's a photo, below)

I'd also look into evergreen daylilies - I have some unnamed ones that never disappear even in winter - the traditional standard agapanthus, and bearded iris. I got a bunch of freebies from someone, so don't know the name, but it stays evergreen (which most don't), grows vigorously, flowers 2x year, and gives me deep purple blooms that look fabulous with callas and roses. I'll post a photo in a following message so you can see the foliage and blooms - the iris in the Rhaphiolepis photo is a different one, it disappears every winter.