I actually love Northern Red Oaks. (1) The Chinese city is a Southern coastal town of mildest climate. I think they should talk to city planners of Charleston SC before choosing exotic plants. There are so many in the tropical list. (2) I think they should buy seeds instead. (3) I link some images of Hangzhou. I have a hard time imagining the Northern Red Oaks in the landscape. However, it would be interesting to see :-) Here is a map showing the location of Hangzhou. It is a Southern coastal city with mild climate suitable for many exotic plants.

Here's a lilst of fruits for Zone 14 (the Sunset Western Garden Book designation for the Sacramento area; we don't use USDA zones in California with accuracy): POME AND STONE FRUIT TREES Apple -- [best crops with two different trees] Arkansas Black Astrachan Beverly Hills Black Twig Fuji (bears alternately) Gala (Royal Gala) (fireblight-prone) Golden Delicious Granny Smith Gravenstein Jonathan Melrose Mutsu Newtown Pippin Northern Spy (slow) Rome Beauty (Red Rome) Spigold Winesap Winter Banana (Winter) Pearmain Apricots -- Autumn Royal (ripens late) Blenheim (Royal) Floragold Golden Amber Royalty Tilton Aprium (apricot-plum hybrid) Flavor Ann Flavor Delight Honey Rich Tasty Rich Cherry -- [need two different trees] Bing Black Tartarian English Morello (sour) Montmorency (sour) North Star (sour) Royal Ann Stella Van Cherry-Plum -- Delight Sprite Nectarine -- Desert Dawn Double Delight (ornamental, too) Fantasia Flavor Top Goldmine John Rivers Independence Silver Lode Snow Queen Southern Belle (genetic dwarf) Stanwick Sungrand Nectaplum (nectarine-plum hybrid) Spice-Zee Peach -- Bonita Babcock Bonanza II (genetic dwarf) Desertgold Donut (Saturn) Early Elberta Elberta Fay Elberta Fortyniner Gold Dust Halehaven Honey Babe (genetic dwarf) Indian Free July Elberta Redhaven Rio Oso Gem Peach-Plum  Tri-Lite Pear -- Bartlett Baldwin Comice Fan Stil Flordahome Hood Kieffer Monterrey Moonglow Seckel Sure Crop Winter Nelis Pears, Asian -- (Some are relatively self-fertile but still do best with a pollinator; others absolutely require a pollinator (because pollinators are specific in many cases, check your references before purchasing just any pollinator). Also check for fireblight resistance (a common disease among some cultivars).) Chojuro Hosui Ichiban Kikusui Kosui Mishirasu Nihon Nashi (Okusankichi) Niitaka Nijisseki (20th Century)  for coldest areas Seuri Shinko Shinseiki Shinsui Tsu Li (Tse Li) Ya li Yoinashi Yongi Plum, European -- Brooks Damson Early Laxton* French Prune Green Gage Imperial* Italian Prune Mirabelle Reine Claude Seneca* Stanley Sugar Plum, Japanese -- Burgundy Casselman Eldorado Elephant Heart Kelsey Laroda Nubiana Santa Rosa Satsuma (many others) Pluot (plum-apricot hybrid)  Black Kat Blue Gusto Crimson Heart Dapple Fire Early Dapple Flavor Fall Flavor Gem Flavor Gold Flavor Grenade Flavor Heart Flavorich Flavorite Flavor Jewel Flavor King Flavorosa Flavor Queen Flavor Supreme Flavor Treat Flavor Wynne Geo Pride Marcia's Flavor Plum Parfait Royal Treat Spring Flavor Quince -- CookeÂs Jumbo Orange Pineapple Smyrna OTHERS Fig -- (Black) ÂMission ÂBrown Turkey ÂConadria ÂKadota Jujube (Ziziphus) -- ÂJin ÂLang ÂLi ÂSherwood ÂSilverhill Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) -- ÂBig Jim ÂAdvance ÂChampagne ÂGold Nugget ÂMacBeth Mulberry, Black (Morus nigra)  ÂPersian ÂBlack Beauty ÂKaester ÂPakistan King ÂSullivan ÂThompson Pomegranate -- ÂAmbrosia ÂBlaze ÂEarly Wonderful ÂEversweet ÂGrenada ÂPink Pearl Drops ÂRosamia ÂSweet ÂUtah Sweet ÂWhite ÂWonderful NUTS Almond (takes two for pollination with noted exceptions *) -- ÂAll-in-OneÂ* ÂCarmel ÂGarden PrinceÂ* ÂMission ÂNeplus Ultra ÂNonpareil ÂPrice Chestnut (takes two to pollinate)  ÂColossal ÂDunstan ÂEurobella Filbert, Hazelnut (takes two to pollinate)  ÂBarcelona ÂBrixnut ÂButler ÂDavianna ÂDu Chilly ÂEnnis ÂWhite Aveline Pistachio (Pistacia vera) (takes two to pollinate)  ÂJoley  female ÂKerman  female ÂPeters  male (pollinator) ÂSfax -- female Walnut -- ÂChandler ÂHartley ÂHoward ÂTehama UNCOMMON HARDY FRUITS Mulberry hybrids -- ÂCollier (Morus alba X M. rubra) ÂIllinois Everbearing (M. alba X M. rubra) ÂTehama ("Giant White") ÂWellington (ÂNew AmericanÂ) Black persimmon (Diospyros digyna) Che (Cudrania tricuspidata) Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) (some self-fertile, otherwise hand pollinated) Potential (not tested well) -- ÂMary Foos Johnson ÂMitchell ÂOverleese ÂProlific ÂRebeccaÂs Gold ÂSunflower (sf) ÂTaylor ÂTaytoo ÂWells Persimmon hybrids -- ÂKeener ÂNikitaÂs Gift ÂRossiyanka Strawberry Tree, Chinese (Myrica rubra) Joe

Hi MT! Oh, gosh, thanks for the compliment that I "seem to know so much". I want you to know that I am rolling on the floor laughing because EVERYTHING I know I have learned the hard way by doing everything wrong and then having to educate myself to correct my errors!!!! Of course, experience is the best teacher, but it can be a painful (and expensive) one. Anyway, if we'd had an internet with something like Garden Web when I started gardening as a young adult in the 1970s, I think the learning experience would have been a lot less painful. LOL I'll try to come up with some suggestions for shade, but I don't have a lot of experience with shade, as we built our home in an old cow pasture in between two wooded areas, so I have almost all sun, except for the shade of the one large pecan tree in the front yard. I do have lovely natural wooded areas on some of our acreage, but the copperheads and rattlesnakes enjoy them more in the warm weather than I do. First, when you say you have shade, I don't know what kind of shade. Heavy shade? Dappled shade? Shade all day? Most of the day? For the sake of making a list of shade-loving shrubs, I'll assume you have fairly heavy shade all day long. Some good shrubs for shade are: Abelia grandiflora, aka Glossy Abelia: This is a graceful, arching, spreading shrub that will become about as wide as it is tall. It can grow in full sun to part shade, but I don't know if it will flower well if it is in heavy shade. The leaves are fairly small. It flowers in late spring to early summer, and the flowers are small, sort of tubular and white to pink. The old standard form gets about 6' tall and 6' wide. There are smaller dwarf varieties, like "Sherwoodii" and "Compacta" which eventually get about three feet tall. A taller one (3' to 5' when mature) that has really pretty purple flowers is "Edward Goucher". Abelia is considered semi-evergreen to evergreen. Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hyndrangea quercifolia). Different from most hydrangeas, this one has leaves shaped like an oak leaf. It will get about 6' tall and will eventually spread out that wide. It has lovely fall color, which is a bonus. It blooms in early summer. There are many cultivars in different sizes. It isn't truly evergreen, but its foliage and flowers will stay on the plant until mid-winter. Oregon Grape Holly (Mahonia aquifolium): One of my favorites for shade. It gets from 3 to 6 feet tall, and 3 to 4 or 5 feet wide. It has beautiful bluish-green evergreen foliage. It has lovely yellow blooms in the spring, and the berries are bluish-black. It is really prickly, so don't plant it too close to paths or play areas. English Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) does better in our climate than Japanese (littleleaf) Boxwood. It is just your standard, compact green foundation shrub that has little pest and disease problems. Sometimes in very cold winter the foliage will turn brown, though, so that's a negative. It does need very well drained soil as it will drown and die if it sits in waterlogged soil for any length of time. There are many cultivars of English Boxwood available. Kerria aka Japanese Kerria (Kerri Japonica) is a lovely flowering shrub for shady sites. It prefers shady sites with rich, humusy soil. This is one of those shrubs that grows in an arching manner, so it needs room to spread out. You can't prune it tightly like you could Boxwood, for example. It blooms in spring and early summer. And it is prone to foliar dieases, so it needs good air circulation. It is deciduous. Possumhaw Holly (Ilex decidua). I have these everywhere on my property, from full sun to full shade. When mature they can get to be the size of a small tree...15 to 20 feet tall and spreading 5 to 10 or 15' wide. It is deciduous but has lovely berries that stay on the plant until mid- to late-winter. I think it will grow in any soil. There are many named cultivars. One of the prettiest is "Warren's Red" or "Warren Red". It has gorgeous red berries and lots of them. There are some dwarf and compact cultivars that stay much smaller. The birds love the berries. Southern Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera). Another of my faves. There is a standard version and a dwarf version, which is Myrica pussilla. Wax myrtles are in the same family as bayberry and the foliage has an attractive aroma sort of like bayberry. The standard wax myrtles can be pruned and limbed up like trees, which is how I treat mine, and the dwarf ones will top out at about five feet, while the standard ones can go to 15 or 20 feet. They are fairly fast-growing. The foliage is a light green that is almost a yellowish-green. I had to look for quite a while before I found some of them at a Lowe's, as they are not easy to find. Viburnum (Viburnum species) There are many cultivars available in many different sizes. Some are tall, some are short. Some are evergreen, some are deciduous. I have the common native Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum. Many named cultivars are available commecially. Spirea (Spiraea species) These are fairly compact shrubs, reaching from 2' to 6' in height and from 2' to 4' or 5' in width, depending on which cultivar you plant. They bloom in late spring and early summer, and most have flowers in various shade of white, pink or red. They are deciduous. I have them in a place where they get early morning direct sun, and then dappled shade at mid-day and full shade from mid-afternoon on. They are easy to grow. There are many, many cultivars available. Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) Many cultivars of this evergreen shrub are available in many sizes. They will grow in almost any soil, and in everything from full sun to almost total shade. Mine get some afternoon shade. They bloom in early spring, and the berries are lovely. Some of the common ones you'll see in stores are "Stokes" which is a dwarf and "Pride of Houston" which is a tall, upright version. I don't know of any dwarf red oaks, but Shumard Oak is among the prettier oaks with red fall color. If you have heavy shade and good soil, there are a lot of red-leaved dwarf Japanese maples. You can plant dwarf crape myrtle anytime now, I would think. Hope this info helps. Dawn

That's a beautiful viburnum in the above post! I am trying to landscape for wildlife in my yard, and this has been such a useful thread! So far, in my yard, a large holly seems to be the "favorite" of most wildlife. The birds use it for shelter year round, and it comes alive with bees in the spring when it flowers. Much of the recent plantings I have made (I only moved into my current house ~3 years ago) haven't been super succesful in attracting wildlife. I suspect the problem is that my yard is in the midst of a suburban residential area that almost entirely consists of manicured, empty green lawns. Maybe my lone yard, diversely planted as it is becoming, just isn't enough attraction for most wildlife? Birds in particular seem few and far between, though I do notice a variety of bees and other pollinators in the spring. Sadly, my neighbor just cleared out all the undergrowth and brush in a small patch of woods on his property because, as he told me, he was "afraid of snakes." I am worried that the brush pile I am trying to create on my own property will not last long...the folks in this neighborhood like to complain about any landscaping that deviates from the manicured norm. But I am trying! Claire