Suggestions for native shrubs for urban/suburban gardens

bad joke

This message was edited Feb 15, 2007 10:04 PM

Peg,

American hazelnut over Beaked hazelnut any day. Beaked will run underground, and while the American will too, it is much more reserved. Blooms in March with a female flower that is no larger than the bud it emerges from. But there is not much blooming in March, except pussywillows. Hey, now there's an idea (and native too). You could cut it back every year or every other for good catkin production.

Grey dogwood is nice too, but may run too much for you also.

Any viburnum will be nice. But if you want to stick with native here, you have rafinsesquianum, trilobum or lentago. Lentago (nannyberry) can sucker, but it seems quite variable. I have seen some in landscapes that send up shoots profusely, but where I grew up in Dakota County, the wild ones suckered only occasionally - in the woods and in the yard.

Bush honeysuckle is too unruly in a small yard in my opinion, and it suckers too.

A cool large native shrub would be bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia). Great winter interest with the bladders. Flowers are pretty small, white or greenish-white.

The late fall blooming witchhazel (Hamamelis virginana) is a great idea. Easily hardy here. And no one else will have flowers outside in November. Takes a few years to get going with flower production.

Snowberry is a runnin' fool, and if it weren't for the big fruit, it would be one ugly fool too.

V. dentatum 'Blue Muffin' and V. rafinequianum cross pollinate just fine, as long as they bloom at the same time. Mine do, very early in the V. dentatum & friends bloom-time sequence. So, it will depend on your source of V. rafinesquianum. 'Blue Muffin' will ALWAYS be one of the earliest blooming V. dentatum, no matter where it is planted.

Thank heavens!

Until now, it seemed I was the only one who didn't understand all the hoopla over Snowberry. It goes in my "Ugly" category too.

It is a voracious runner that invades all of my garden beds until I have removed all roots. Almost done. I have kept several large colonies in the native area and have encourage more there but that is the only place. As all plants they are beautiful in spring and early summer. When the ground dries up = ugly. Here it is in the foreground.

I have only seen coralberry (snowberry) in my woodies class and the close up pictures of the berries you see in catalogs. I kept thinking, well, it must get better looking! Ha ha ha. It does look great as a border in the naturalized setting that you've got there Steve. In a landscape, I think it looks better if you cut it back hard, similar to how you would prune a spirea. It might look really nice lining the top of Peg's wall, if kept small and neat. It's not evergreen, and has zero winter interest, so I wouldn't do the whole wall in it, just a couple of small groupings to break things up.

The potentilla shrubs someone mentioned earlier might look nice too, they need excellent drainage and are xeric, so actually would work really nice there on the top of the wall. 'Goldfinger' potentilla would pick up the yellow color of the hypericum's flowers, and contrast well with the purple leaved plants.

It's great fun spending other people's money, isn't it?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm trying to systematically go through all the plant's that have been mentioned - I think I have a total of about 32. Through the A's (copied from a quick spreadsheet, so the formatting is a little wierd:

Abies balsamea Nana Dwarf Silver Fir
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/77967/index.html

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Abies+balsamea+Nana+&btnG=Search

Amelanchier alnifolia Juneberry
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/64424/index.html

Amelanchier canadensis Downy Serviceberry
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1511/index.html

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Amelanchier+canadensis&btnG=Search

Amelanchier laevis Allegheny Serviceberry
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/78536/index.html

Amelanchier stolonifera Running Serviceberry
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Amelanchier+stolonifera&btnG=Search

Amelanchier Princess Diana

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Amelanchier+x+grandiflora+%27Princess+Diana%27&btnG=Search

Amorpha canescens Lead Plant
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1512/index.html

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi- Bearberry
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/64442/index.html

The Links are to DG plant files, unless there were no pictures, in which case there's a google image search. I don't know how this is going to work out!

After first posting, I noticed that some of the plantfiles links didn't pull in properly, so I put in a google image search. Now I'm back to looking up the rest!


This message was edited Feb 17, 2007 2:28 PM

This message was edited Feb 17, 2007 2:33 PM

This message was edited Feb 17, 2007 3:10 PM

C-E:

Ceanothus americanus New Jersey Tea
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Ceanothus%20americanus&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Ceanothus ovatus Inland Ceanothus
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Ceanothus%20ovatus&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Comptonia peregrina Sweet Fern
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/90509/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Comptonia%09peregrina&btnG=Search

Cornus racemosa Grey dogwood
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/31680/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Cornus%09racemosa&btnG=Search

Corylus Americana American Hazelnut
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1602/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Corylus+%09Americana&btnG=Search

Diervilla lonicera Northern Bush Honeysuckle
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/55622/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Diervilla%09lonicera&btnG=Search

Euonymus atropurpureus Eastern Wahoo
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1593/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Euonymus%09atropurpureus&btnG=Search



This message was edited Feb 17, 2007 2:56 PM

This message was edited Feb 17, 2007 2:57 PM

This message was edited Feb 17, 2007 3:01 PM

This message was edited Feb 17, 2007 3:09 PM

On with the compulsion:

Hamamelis virginiana Witch Hazel
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/806/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Hamamelis%09virginiana&btnG=Search

Hydrangea quercifolia Oak Leaf Hydrangea
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/131/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Hydrangea%09quercifolia&btnG=Search

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' Smooth Hydrangea
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/48866/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Hydrangea+arborescens%09Annabelle&btnG=Search

Hypericum androsaemum 'Albury Purple' Sweet Amber
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/76625/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Hypericum%09androsaemum%09Albury+Purple&btnG=Search

Hypericum kalmianum Kalm's St. Johnswort
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/78363/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Hypericum%09kalmianum&btnG=Search

Ilex glabra Inkberry
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/80028/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Ilex%09glabra&btnG=Search

Itea virginica Virginia Sweetspire
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/80108/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Itea%09virginica&btnG=Search

Menispermum canadense Moonseed
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1693/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Menispermum%09canadense&btnG=Search

StPaulPeg: You could publish a book based on all this research you have. Very impressive.

Back after a little break - this is serving the purpose of making me go back and systematically look through all the suggestions. Now that the boys are busy watching the race, I think I might have the time to go back and edit and summarize comments after each listing. We'll see how far I get!

Physocarpus opulifolius Common Ninebark

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/65475/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Physocarpus%09opulifolius&btnG=Search

Potentilla tridentata Three-toothed Cinquefoil

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/81307/index.html

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Potentilla%09tridentata&btnG=Search

Rubus parviflorus Thimbleberry
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/65344/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Rubus%20parviflorus&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi


Sambucus nigra ssp canadensis Common Elderberry

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/957/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Sambucus%09nigra+canadensis&btnG=Search

Sambucus racemosa Sutherland Gold Elderberry

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/76829/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=Sambucus%09racemosa%09Sutherland+Gold&btnG=Search

Staphylea trifolia American Bladdernut

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/66296/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Staphylea%09trifolia&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Symphoricarpos albus Snowberry

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/53571/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Symphoricarpos+albus%09&btnG=Search

Tsuga canadensis Emerald Fountain Canadian Hemlock 'monler'

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Tsuga%09canadensis%09+Emerald+Fountain&btnG=Search

Viburnum lentago Nannyberry
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1616/index.html.
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Viburnum+%09lentago&btnG=Search

Viburnum rafinesquianum Downy Arrowwood

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2479/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Viburnum++rafinesquianum&btnG=Search

Viburnum trilobum American Cranberry

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2494/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Viburnum++trilobum&btnG=Search

Zanthoxylum americanum Common Prickly Ash

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/58202/index.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Zanthoxylum%09americanum&btnG=Search


This message was edited Feb 18, 2007 2:53 PM