Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Small tree - large shrub for shady border...., 1 by plymouthgarden

plymouthgarden wrote:
I posted yesterday about moving my Sweetbay Magnolias out of a too-shady spot, and now am wondering about what to put there in it's place. I had thought about a few Coral Bark Japanese Maples but I wanted to come here and ask if anyone had any suggestions.

What I really would like would be a few 10' tall broadleaf evergreens, but I'm giving up on that because of the amount of shade up there. It's on the edge of a wood, and the top of a hill - there's a little woodland path that is planted with astilbe, hosta, petasites, mayapple - it's a little memory garden for a kitty we lost last year. The bed between the grass and the woods/path is where I need help. That's sort of a focal point in the yard because it's at the very back - and there's a bunch of junk in the woods that the neighbors have thrown down - so I'd like something that will really fill in that space.

I've looked at these: skimmia (too small), rhodies (LOVE them, but the big ones are super expensive around here), pieris japonica (already have several); leucothe (sp?) - had 5, now have 2, haven't had great luck with them.

So what about a small decidous tree? We already have a Stewartia, a Heptacodium (it's gorgeous this year and the worms don't like it) and a white/redbud (i actually love the redbud, it's covered with tiny white flowers right now and is a bright spot in the back)....along with several favorite japanese maples. We have small Kousa Dogwood seedlings throughout our yard (dug from our neighbor's yard) too.

What do you tree & shrub folks think? Anything come to mind for that spot? One of the things on my gotta-have-it list is a Cornus Contraversa Variegata (my parents have one that is very big), but they are very hard/near impossible to find locally now. If I could find a sizable one, that would be gorgeous up there. The spot does get some afternoon sun - but not much.

Thanks in advance for any advice....in this first picture, it's the space "above" the grill under the big maples....

Kara