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Container Gardening

Shrub for wine barrel?

17 years ago

Hi there, I am looking for a nice evergreen shrub that would grow comfortably in a wine barrel. It needs to be hardy to zone 7 or 8 and fairly tolerant of shade since it's in the SE corner of my yard underneath a curving butterfly bush and also receives some shade from a neighbor's tree...It's not in a deeply shaded area though.

If the bush produced flowers or decorative berries of some sort that would be a plus. Any suggestions you could provide would be appreciated. Thanks!

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Comments (3)

watergal
17 years ago
I have a dwarf pieris japonicus in very similar conditions. It does very well and has nice white flowers, similar to lily of the valley, for several weeks in the spring.
jenny_in_se_pa
17 years ago
You could try a rainbow leucothoe (multicolor leaves, white flowers), which is what I'm growing (although in a smaller container). Other possibilities include cherry laurels which has white flowers (eg., 'Otto Luken'), pyracantha (white flowers, red or yellow or orange berries), just about any evergreen holly (meserve, opaca, crenata, glabra, etc - you need male/female pair for berries), daphne (fragrant flowers), hardy camellias (rose-type flowers, and if moved to a protected spot due to the reduced hardiness of containers, tea camellia), aucuba (speckled leaves, white flowers, red berries with male/female pair). Lots of choices!
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The recommendation is really for a plant that is hardy to at least 2 zones lower than yours if you intend to leave outside all winter. For a zone 5b location, that means you are looking at plants hardy to zone 3. That would eliminate any possibility of a crape myrtle and seriously limits whatever else you might consider. Dwarf Alberta spruce is a good candidate. So is the native ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius. Other choices could include alpine and clove currant, Hydrangea paniculata or arborescens, Cornus sericea, a few viburnums (lentago, opulus/trilobum), Amur maple.
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kyplantjunkie
17 years ago
Oh, I'm sooooooo jealous of your zone!! When we lived in the Atlanta area, I had a tree form gardenia in a barrel on my deck. Evergreen, fragrant blooms, filtered shade. It was beautiful. Good luck.
Robin

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