Shrubs among pine trees?

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bthyme Buena Vista, VA Jan 18, 2007

My son meant to be helpful by cutting back the large pine trees that border my driveway. Unfortunately, some of them were limbed up--about four feet from the ground. That leaves a gap in my screen that I don't want. Is there a good-sized shrub or conifer (or even vine) that would grow between those pines to fill in the screen? I have thought about azaleas, forsythia, hydrangeas (including climbing), and rambler roses to climb up into the pine. Have you had an experience trying to grow something among pines? PS: something that would grow in the Shenandoah Valley

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David_Vermont Orwell, VT Jan 19, 2007

How about paper birch and red twig dogwood? This would give you some nice color and texture contrasts.

David

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CoreHHI Bluffton, SC(Zone 9a) Jan 19, 2007

Camellias would work well. They're evergreen, nice flowers in the fall or earily spring. They love shade and pine trees, you have a prefect spot for them. If you do it right you could have at least one blooming from Oct. till March. What zone are you in? Oh just looked up where you are, think your to cold for Camellias. If your zone 7 you'd be okay.

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bthyme Buena Vista, VA Jan 19, 2007

I like the red twig dogwood idea (I would be afraid of borers in the paper birch), but I really love the camellia idea. I have a friend who now lives in Pittsburgh who has grown camellias for years. She will be sending me an extra hardy one this spring. While I am reluctant to risk her gift in that spot, I usually see moderately-priced camellias at Lowe's in the spring. If that doesn't work, I'll try the dogwoods.

By the way, while I was looking at shade-tolerant roses on Ashdown's website, I found this tip: "A great way to test a rose in your shady spot is to dig a hole big enough for the pot and slip the whole pot, rose and all right into the ground. After a couple of months if the rose is happy take it out of the pot and plant in permanently in that spot. If it's not happy simply slip the pot out of the ground and try it somewhere else." Sounds like that would work for anything.

Thanks for the ideas.

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escambiaguy Atmore, AL(Zone 8b) Jan 19, 2007

You could consider Northern Bayberry. The southern cousin to it, which we call Wax Myrtle, grows well underneath pines here. You can do almost anything with them. You can cut them back at the top to make them bushy, or trim the bottom to make a small tree. Birds like the berries in the winter too.

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