Please help - need to find a border evergreen plant

Hi,

I am looking for a plant with the below characteristics. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Ever-green or winter interest
Use as a border - front of a bed
flowering at some time of the year - butterfly attractive a plus
zone 7
Soil ok - fair amount of clay here in GA, but I am adding lots of "stuff" as needed.

I am not having much luck searching for this plant. The ones I have found are not for my zone.

Thanks -
RJ

How much sun?

If I were you I would call or contact a local nursery & ask what they would recommend - or drive around the neighborhood and look for a very well organised & tended garden and ask this owner what they would plant - this is always the most user friendly way of NOT wasting your time or $'s

Sorry. I knew I was forgetting something!... Full to part sun.

Thanks - RJ

I am not to far from you I like to you Rosemary in the front of the border it smells really good, looks nice and can be pruned to whatever size you like. There is also a really nice trailing Gardenia that only gets about 5 inches tall and spreads out. It is a very slow grower though. Hens and chicks are low growers and look nice any time of the year. Hope this helps

Thank you Joan(30157).

This is most helpful - I will look these up. Have you ever heard of something called Speedwort / Veronica as well? This one looks pretty cool in some of my books, but I think it might be a bit too much of a spreader.

Glad to find someone in my area. I just started gardening this year, but went pretty wild with my new tiller :-) ... Took out about half the back yard. It was nothing but eroded soil as we are on a slope and have a lot of dogs. After three years of trying to grow grass, I decided to go another route. I am so glad I did.

I am having a great time with this... lost many plants due to my lack of knowledge, but I (and my gardens) am so glad I found Dave's Garden.

Thanks again,
RJ

RJ, I haven't tried the veronica so I am no help there.I have yore most of our lawn out and put in flowers and grasses. I have an area with a slope and I use daylilies and ornamental grasses they hold the slope well and get thicker each year. Our dogs Boxers do not bother those. I use alot of oerennials in the front too they require less water then the grass.

Hi Joan,

Thanks for the info. Your picture inspires me. I have planted a lot of daylilies and some grasses as well. I wasn't sure how they would work out but thought I would give it a try. Great to hear it worked for you.

Right now I have wrought iron fencing and/or plastic "chicken wire" around all the beds to keep the dogs out. I hope that once things get established I can take down the plastic stuff.

Thanks again - RJ

I plugged your requirements in and came up with this
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/BEBRP.html

i would plant border grass or somethings called monkey grass, it does flower and it has purple berries. it growes very well in your ga clay. i also live in ga and i have transplant it everywhere i have lived.

If you're looking for something short and more green foliage or bird, butterfly interest - how about cotoneasters?

Thanks once again to all. Thank you flowergen - looks like a very interesting plant. Monkey grass... ah yes - my backyard has it in several places. It is a good choice, but not the look I want for this particular area. I will check out the cotoneasters as well. I think they are on my short list already.
RJ

I also live in ga and have aways used (40+ yrs) border grass or some times call monkey grass. I'm sure if you ride around you will see alot of yards with this. It does bloom and it is a spreader. When the border has filled in full start tranplanting the grass to your next flower bed. It will keep the yard lawn out of your flower garden. Most gardener will give you some to get started. It can be expense to buy as much as you will need.

Forgot: it will grow in all sun lights and shade, it is a ever-green, it will grow in your GA clay but adding to the soil will help with faster growth. Hope this helps out.
pondscogin

You could check out Dianthus (blooms in Spring and smells lovely) or Creeping Phlox (prickly leaves, blooms abundantly in Spring and will fill in an area with no problem).