Burfordii 'Nana' USDA zone 6-9 This is the Dwarf Burford Holly. If the area is on the west or southwest side of your house the micro climate there might be warm enough for this rugged evergreen to survive in your USDA boarder line 5/6 zone. This shrub is reported to produce a darker green and more dense leafing habit when compared to the full size Burford holly. The Dwarfs also grow a little slower. They are reported to grow 5-6 feet tall and about 4 feet wide. They also can be trimmed. Lowe's usually sells this shrub at a reasonable price. Sometimes you can find them on sale later in the season. If those local sales happen when there is not much time before you winter temps drop below freezing, the ones purchased at that time would need to be repotted into a one size larger pot, kept watered, and protected from the pots freezing. Once the risk of freezing passed in the following spring, they could then be planted in their bed. If you do want to chance the wait to see if they are not sold out by the end of the season sales, then make sure to run at least 5 gallons of water through each pot at least every three days in the daily heating temps of above 70 degrees F. and once a week in the cloudier and cooler temperatures of Fall and Winter.

Shummard Oak from the Western 1/3 it's native range is indeed quite adaptable to alkaline soils. The problem is that Shummard Oak from the Eastern 2/3 (of course this is a rough estimation) aren't nearly as alkaline tolerant. Shummard Oak in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas grows in limestone derived soils and often times on drier rocky hills, while further East it's more typical of a lower rich bottomlands. I suspect there might be either the beginnings of or already are 2 species, which are morphologically almost indistinguishable, lumped into Shummard Oak. Kind of like Laurel Oak (Quercus laurifolia) and Darlington Oak (Quercus hemisphaerica) were. Only genetic studies can probably prove or disprove this theory of mine. Sooo....if you can find Shummard Oak being sold that is from a tree farm in say Oklahoma(there are several large ones supplying the Wichita and Kansas City markets with Shummard Oak native to Southern Oklahoma and North Texas) being sold by a nursery in Nebraska, it will be alkaline tolerant. Also, Texas Red Oak (Quercus buckleyi) will grow well in alkaline soils. I've seen it growing very well in places like Amarillo, TX, Wichita, KS, and Salina, KS all of which either have alkaline soils or large parts of them have alkaline soils. Gambel Oak(Q. gambelii) also grows well on alkaline soils and is often a smaller growing Oak. Shrub Live Oak (Q. turbinella) also does well on alkaline soils and is more a large semi-evergreen shrub rather than a tree. It's also quite cold hardy, well into zone 5 and it does very well in the Denver area as well as apparently in Kalamzoo, Michigan(Oikos tree crops has said it's doing well for them). If you're interested at all in some exotic Oaks, English Oak(Q. robur), Mongolian Oak(Q. mongolica), Oriental White Oak(Q. aliena)(this and English Oak are both just as alkaline tolerant as Chinquapin Oak), Daimyo Oak(Q. dentata), and I believe Hungarian(sometimes called Italian) Oak(Q. frainetto) do well on alkaline soils. Many of these are usually available through many mail-order nurseries and some are usually available through larger local nurseries. Chinquapin and Bur Oak are both excellent very well adapted Oaks to alkaline soils and harsh great plains conditions(to areas with annual rainfall as low as about 15"(380mm) or so) like the other posters said. In the Southwestern part of it's range, Chinquapin Oak does tend to grow in more sheltered and moister areas, but in the NW part of it's range it's often growing on dry rocky South and West facing slopes as well, so should do well for you no matter where you planted it.

greenhearted I don't know if you want this much info or if this is anything like what you are thinking about, but here's my shrub border, big because I have lots of room and lots I wanted to camouflage behind it. My goals were for the shrub border to be 10-15 feet high to visually distract from solar panels and a general work area behind it since it's right by where the drive ends (the drive is off the left in the west-facing photos); year round interest; foliage variety; and some flowers. I spent a lot of time searching for photos of mixed shrub borders, but couldn't find photos that appealed to me. Local nurseries tried to talk me into a hedge of one kind of plant and thought I was a bit weird getting three of one plant and 5 of another for each of several plants. I mostly have perennials around the edges, a variety of evergreen and deciduous shrubs scattered along the middle and edges, and clematis are mostly around the edges, though some of the earlier ones are in the middle since there was more space and sun there earlier on to help them get established. I did the bones first and then have added as I saw things that would fit or the voles ate original plants. The H. quickfire and C. Little Bas combo is part of it. I am generally pretty happy with it. It's 5 years old now. Spring front side looking west Late spring, early summer looking east Back side looking west, summer Fall front side looking west the wide end along with a bit of the front on the left side (east end looking west) in the fall Here's how it started, spring 2010 after fall 2009 first plantings. You can see what I am trying to distract from visually in the background. Hope this is helpful.

Anytime, John. Personal experience is worth its weight in gold. You could always add these too that are for our climate: Pinus resinosa (moderately fast) Pinus banksiana (very slow) Pinus koraiensis (9" per year - quite slow) Pinus parviflora (slow to moderately slow) Abies concolor (slow-moderate) Abies koreana (very slow) Abies balsamea (moderate growth rate) Abies alba (doesn't do well in my zone 5b - in 5a and cooler summers should do fine) Abies nordmanniana (slow and should be in 5b not 5a) Abies borisii-regis (difficult to find - moderate growth rate) Abies bornmuelleriana (same as nordmanniana *stats*) Abies homolepis (moderate - great choice) Abies recurvata (moderate - great choice) Abies chensiensis (moderate - great choice) Abies holophylla (moderate - great choice) Abies veitchii (moderate - good choice - beautiful fir) Abies fraseri (semi-quick but not fast) Larix kaempferi (fast) Larix decidua (fast) Larix x marschlinsii (hybrid larch - fast) Larix principis-rupprechtii Larix mastersiana All Larix are iffy to get established but once established will grow like wildfire and live a long time. Taxodium distichum (very fast) deciduous conifer Metasequoia glyptostroboides (extremely fast) deciduous conifer Picea obovata (fast - very difficult to find) Picea wilsonii (slow-moderate & very difficult to find) Picea asperata (moderately quick - not much different from Picea abies/Norway sp.) Picea glauca (moderately fast) Picea jezoensis (moderate - difficult to acquire) Pinus cembra (slow to moderate but is susceptible to wilt) worth trying Pinus peuce (slow to moderate) beautiful pine Pinus ayacahuite (fast) good pine with long needles Pinus rigida (moderate but also is not a full-looking pine with age like P.resinosa) Pinus contorta var. latifolia (same as rigida/resinosa) Pinus virginiana (a scrubby pine like contorta var. lat./rigida/resinosa) Pinus densiflora (moderate) does burn some winters Not to add list because of disease propensity: Pinus nigra Picea pungens Picea engelmannii Pinus ponderosa Pinus jeffreyi Larix laricina Pinus sylvestris Pinus thunbergii Abies procera These are some of the common plants you'd stumble across/find. along w/ others not listed as good choices.......... Dax