Shorter shrubs for part shade, clay soil?

11 years ago

Looking for things to plant in a mixed border/bed on the east side of a house, gets some morning sun, soil is fairly heavy clay but was amended a few years ago and will do additional heavy amending before replanting the bed.

So far, I've come up with some of the following things that I like and think will do well there:

Hydrangea Pinkie Winkie, Hydrange White Diamonds, Itea Henry's Garnet, Thuja Whipcord, Calycanthus aka Sweet Shrub, perhaps some type of hardy blue holly.

What else would be fun for part shade and heavier soil???

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Comments (5)

jimbobfeeny
11 years ago
There are hundreds of shrubs you could choose from! The "Shorter" part does limit you a bit, however.

We have tons of spicebush (Lindera benzoin) around here, but they're a larger shrub.

Purple-flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) is a really pretty shrub - I've got one growing in moist woods, just planted this spring. It has leaves that look strikingly like sugar maple; definitely not for formal situations.

For evergreens, I like dog-hobble (Leucothoe fontanesiana), but it doesn't really like heavy soils or alkaline soils.

Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) is a good one; it smells really good. It prefers acid soil.

Keep looking, there are many, many more possibilities!

Good Luck,

-Jim
denninmi
Original Author
11 years ago
The flowering raspberry is an interesting thought. I've seen photos but never had one or seen in person.

I guess I should clarify "shorter" -- basically 8 feet or less. I know the Pinky Winky (Pinkie Winkie?) gets to about 8 feet, most people wouldn't probably consider that a short/low growing shrub, but relative to something that can grow 20 feet or more, it is.

LOL, I have a spicebush about 40 feet away from this area. I love it. I always wanted to get a few more, so I could have male and female and get fruits. My poor fellow is male and he's never had a girlfriend!

I also really like the suggestion of the Clethra.
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I can grow pretty much anything in my clay, but how well it succeeds may depend on my watering heavily now and again. I look at my clay as a bonus, holds water better than sand or loam in the dry times. Something you can do is add dry stuff to the hole you plant in. I have a leaf shredder, so I save some of those little leaf pieces all year for adding to holes of new things. I have been quite surprised how well the leaf shreds attract worms, feed the roots on new plantings. Most of my leaves are Oak, so they stay a bit crisper than some other leaf varieties. I rototiller them into the soil, use as mulch on the garden beds. With Fall coming, you could get leaves from your yard, the neighbors, for adding to your plants. Lots of discussion on other forums about STEALING bagged leaves from the roadsides!! Running over the leaf piles with lawn mower works just as well as a shredder. Without a bagger on mower, you just have to pull the smaller pieces back into a pile for using. I really recommend adding leaves or leaf shreds, to anything you plant. Sure has improved my soil. However even with clay, you need to keep the plantings damp, especially in drought times, off to a good start, for success. Some shrubs need a year or two to get good roots going. I have been real happy with soaker hoses, saves on wasted water, to keep some plantings happy. My big Oaks do drink a lot of the rainfall, so some bushes need extra water, have soaker hoses.
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Other possibilities, that can take the part-shade, include Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet', which has early summer, white flowers and red-purple fall foliage, or 'Saturnalia', flowers the same, and has multi-colored fall foliage. the first grows to about 3-4' x 4-6', and I believe the second takes after the species, maybe a bit smaller, but probably 4-8' x 4-6'. Beautyberry, Callicarpa species would be another thought - the fall foliage isn't wonderfull, but the berries are - there are native and Oriental selections, most of them with purple berries, but one has white berries, showing up about now. They can get big, but taking out a third of the stems annually, after the first few years, will keep them smaller. They do sucker, as does Itea, but they are easy enough to take out if you are prompt! Oakleaf Hydrangeas, Hydrangea quercifolia, gets red leaves in the fall - there are several cultivars, with tighter flowers, heights, etc., and a new one with lime-yellow leaves, 'Little Honey', that stays small, under 3-4'. Winterberry, Ilex verticillata, isn't noted for fall foliage, but rather for the red berries which persist into mid-winter - you need both a male and a female to get berries. Size for these can be kept by pruning - but most are 6-10' by the same.
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I have a sunny wet area like that. Maybe these will work: (after the plants grew, the soil didn't stay so wet) Winterberry holly, daylillies, chokeberries, bog iris, mock orange, rose of sharon, sedum, houtyannia(sp?), siberian iris, hosta. Just plant and try. I've found that some things that work in my yard,won't in a neighbors yard and viceversa. Good Luck
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Well, that stinks. Seems like you lost a little chunk of change on your lawn and arborvitae. Where did you purchase it? If it is less than a year old, you might have a warranty on it. Did you save the tags? Did you use a landscaper? He should have known better. All good advice so far. Why is your ground wet? Are you near a wetland area? a stream? the bottom of some runoff or a high water table? You need to troubleshoot that or work with it. For evergreens that like shade, look at yews, hemlock (you might have to spray that for wooly adelgid) and broadleaf evergreens like rhododendren, hollies. But before you invest more, investigate your drainage. Will the roots be sitting in standing water? Can you fix that? Because if the answer is yes and no, you will have to choose accordingly. Also, do you need the privacy in winter or do you mainly just use the yard during the more mild seasons? That could open your choices a little. Don't forget to consider if deer feast in your neighborhood. Although it sounds like a water / light problem, don't forget to check your lawn for grubs. They like to eat root systems and a sign of them is grass pulling up easily. You will get visual privacy from shrubs but you will never get sound privacy. For that you need something solid without holes and resistant to sound transmission. Quick illustration: you are in your house with windows closed - open one window and you can hear everything even though most of your surroundings are more solid than a bank of trees and shrubs. So if you want to try to mask sound, try berming the edges of your property and building a solid wall. If the wall is a couple of feet high - higher than an exhaust pipe, it will at least bounce back some car noise. Then there is white noise. You can use that to mask other sounds. A good example of this for the garden is the sound of water flowing or splashing. OK? At least that is what I remember from my acoustical engineering class. The holes could very well be squirrels hiding or looking for their stash.
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jimbobfeeny
11 years ago
I see. Well, that broadens your possibilities again! I was imagining something like 4-6 feet. By the way, amended clay is some of the nicest soil to garden in; it is rich and moisture-retentive. We have a fair bit of clay around here, with silty loams in the bottomlands. I thought Michigan had fairly sandy soil - Could be mistaken, I guess.

I've got an Itea 'little henry' on the north side of our house in a planting bed - It's out from the house, so it does get all-day sun. From what I've read, it gets just as big as 'henry's garnet' - I was envisioning it as a 4-foot shrub!

A few more I came up with were Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia - suffers from winter dieback occasionally around here), common blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum - Believe it or not, an outstanding landscape shrub), flame azalea (Rhododendron calendulaceum - requires acidic, well-drained soil), and mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia - also requires acidic, well-drained soil)

Just rambling, hope that helps.
denninmi
Original Author
11 years ago
The glaciers brought me all kinds of interesting soils, and it changes VERY abruptly. I guess some of it could have been due to farming in the 19th and early 20th century, but my yard was never graded or leveled or anything like that. I have sandy/gravelly soil, sandy loam, true loam soil, heavy dense clay. The only major soil type I lack is an organically based muck type soil. There are places in my yard where I can stand with one foot on heavy clay and the other on sandy loam. I think this is the work of the glaciers, I don't think it was human intervention.

Yes, I like the idea of Mountain Laurel as well. I saw some very attractive ones in bloom about 2 weeks ago at a local nursery. They are not common here because our soils do run in the neutral range, and aren't acidic enough without intervention. Oakleaf Hydrangea also --something like 'Snow Queen' would be nice. Blueberries -- well, I already have 22 of those in another area, so probably not there, but yes, I think they are a fine ornamental, mine generally have excellent fall color, burgundy to red with just a little yellow and orange highlight. Possibly some azaleas of some type, I have a pink deciduous one in another area that is nice.

Thank you so much for the suggestions.
strobiculate
11 years ago
viburnum
willow, variegated
dogwood, red twig and yellow, silver variegated and yellow variegated

depending on wind exposure...most of the broadleaf evergreens...kalmia, rhododendron...azalea, deciduous, bayberry...gibe me an hour...i'll have a book.

Shorter shrubs for part shade, clay soil?

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Shorter shrubs for part shade, clay soil?

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