looking for ideas for full sun area prefer natives

I am researching full sun natives for my lightly sloped back yard. When I say full sun, I mean from 8 am to 5 pm with absolutely no shade. That amount of sun can get pretty severe in the summer. My research tells me that many full sun plants do better in our area with just 5 or 6 hours of sun and some afternoon shade. Does anyone have any suggestions for a truly full sun area? We get hot, but usually we are humid too. The soil is rather poor quality, small rocks and some clay. I plan to amend it some, but not make it too rich because, again research says the natives won't like it. Am I on the right track here? I would love to get suggestions of good plants for this area. For example, I have some yucca on the edge of my woodland area that I think might like it better in the full sun. They are in part sun now, though, so I am not really sure.....

Are you interested in the whole range--trees, shrubs, flowers? I can tell you though that we had yucca growing in FULL sun in our other house and it just loved it. It was on a high slope in dry hard clay. It multiplied to the point we were having to constantly remove plants so it wouldn't overrun the neighbor's yard! That stuff is so tough that the first time we removed several plants from the outer edge, hubby just threw them down by our lake. The took root and grew right there and they were laying on their sides!

This message was edited Aug 19, 2008 8:02 AM

I hadn't thought about trees, but that is a good thought. I have (ugh) some still-small Bradford pears that run down the property line. I had thought about incorporating two of them in the bed, but maybe I should remove a couple of them and replace with something I like. Hmmmmmm. If I'm going to do that much labor, I might as well do a little more and have it the way I really like it! It will be kind of an island in my yard that will border my neighbors' yard. We don't have any fences, the yards just run together. I will probably start with a moderately sized area about 20 to 25 feet along the property line and about 8 to 10 feet wide. I will probably start with a few basics this fall and add more in the spring. If I do a tree, it will be a while before it will give enough shade to matter, so I should probably still go with full sun perennials for now.....(?)

I like my yuccas that I have and would love to move a couple of the smallish ones to this new area. Do they have a deep root system?

Since your bed is not real large, perhaps you'd be better off to put a couple of shrubs instead of a tree. As the tree grows, it's roots could rob all the nutrients and water from your flowers. If I were you, I surely would go ahead and fix the bed the way you want it even if it means extra work now--you'll be looking at it for a long time so it might as well be something you will really enjoy. When I did my flower beds here, I drew them out on paper first to get an idea of what would look nice. I have a mix of shrubs and flowers. My front flower bed is in a FULL HOT southern exposure. I have cleyera (shrub), Indian hawthorn (shrub), daylilies, blanketflowers, blackeyed Susan (Indian Summer), Mexican Flame vine (trellis), clematis (trellis), blackeyed Susan vine (trellis), and a couple of florabunda roses. These have all been in the ground for four years and are all thriving very well. Yuccas do have deep roots but we didn't have too much trouble digging up the small plants that formed on the outer edge of the mother plant. And I'm sure they will live because, as I said earlier, hubby just threw some down by our lake and they took root and started growing without even having been planted!

Thought of a couple more things that should work for you. If you do like the idea of a tree, a crape myrtle works well in a situation like yours. I have one in a very small bed with dwarf Hamlin ornamental grass growing around the base. I like the Hamlin because it's not invasive. I put blackeyed Susans around the Hamlin grass and it makes a real nice accent to the grass.

I wondered about a crape myrtle. They are so pretty, even though they are Japanese Beetle magnets! I hadn't thought about the grass. The black-eyes would be good and hardy, I'll bet....
Tell me I'm crazy, but now I am thinking about transplanting a small sumac over there.

I have several crape myrtles and (knock on wood, LOL) haven't ever had any problems with Japanese beetles on any of them. And I don't think you're crazy on the sumac idea--I think they are very pretty when they are full of those beautiful red seedheads. I have two volunteers here in my yard that my birds apparently were kind enough to plant for me. And they put them in perfect places too! I read up on them when I was considering transplanting one from our deer camp and it said they have an average life span of 20 years. They supply food for certain song birds during the winter months too.