Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold' might look nice with some blue hostas like Halcyon to give you some color contrast.

A few Solomon's Seal (polygonatum commutatum) might look nice as well.

As always, if stuff isn't growing the way it should there could be issues with the soil or drainage that need to be fixed before spending money on more plants. Have you tested the soil acidity for the Rhododendron? Is the rootball sitting up nice and high? Sometimes, a little Hollytone is all it needs.

yews that are always dropping pine needles.

===>> how do yews drop pine needles??? i suppose you are going to tell us it has pine cones too??? lol .. if it isnt obvious .. it has yew needles .. and yew cones.. if in fact they are yews ....

let start by stepping outside the box.. you have already set yourself in..

can you trim up the yews... to increase brightness???

can we have you step back with the camera.. and give us a bigger view of the whole???

and the dark part.. in that full sun pic.. should probably be considered barren.. nothing is going to THRIVE in that cave ...

ken

Thanks all! I haven't tested the soil acidity so I'm not sure why the rhodi isn't doing well. the rootball is sitting up nice and high, maybe a little too high... I should probably throw some soil around it as a start.

As for yews and yew needles :), I actually did trim them back, that is them trimmed. I can't reach any higher to trim more at this time. I have had a few landscaping companies come out and tell me they are yews and I should cut them all down. But I like them for privacy so I'm leaving them there. Surprisingly, there are actually ferns, bleeding hearts and vinca growing in that cave like area.

Here is a picture of part of the hillside from the front and also a picture of the pathetic rhodi. It has always been pathetic, even when i had other plants thriving there like 5 feet high butterfly bushes. A lot of stuff didn't make it when i had the retaining wall rebuilt.

{{gwi:233027}}

Here is the sad rhodi:
{{gwi:233028}}

White wood aster (Eurybia divaricatus) would look nice in front of the shrubs en masse.

Hillsides are not good, unless you live in an area with constant raining and the soil is very porous. The first thing I would do is to make some terraces instead, using stones or logs or whatever.Then you could plant whatever you want , shade plants in shaded areas and other plants in sunny areas.

Geranium macchorizum?

mistascott - thanks, I looked white wood aster up and it seems promising. I will see if I can find some at my local nursery.

jayco - i have some of that growing in the front in full sun. It is spreading so I'm going to dig some up and try it out back. thanks for the idea.

1k a year for mulching? I might come on down and do it myself for $750!!! Just kidding, but it does sound high.

I think you have a nice retaining wall and yew border there. Just be careful about the grape vines on top of the yew, they should be removed or if you can't reach them, find where the vine goes up into the yew and cut through the stem to kill the top growth off.

Your plant selections are nice shady plants, but I'm not sure if they will (1) cover the ground enough to keep back the weeds and (2) be able to handle the root competition of the yews. The vinca and daylilies will work also the hostas, sedums and black eyed Susan. I like the idea mistascott had for Solomon seal. If you can get some it does a good job keeping weeds down and won't mind the roots.
Btw Don't rake or blow away the yew needles, they are free mulch for an area that could really use it. If mulching the whole area is out of the question maybe buying bags and mulching just the new plantings would be more manageable....

Hellebores would work too as an evergreen option. For low-level stuff try liriope, wintercreeper, ajuga...you have plenty of options here. It just comes down to designing something coherent that mixes colors, textures, flowering times, deciduous/evergreen, etc.

I don't think that is a steep enough hill to be problematic in terms of drainage/erosion.

My suggestion is to do large sweeps of a limited number of plants. My suggestions for the plants that are hard as nails, need no care, are attractive for a loooong time, and will spread VERY quickly:

Rear- shrub-Redwing Euonymus(unless it's on your state's invasives list)
and/or
Rhodotypus
Front of these shrubs:Eupatorium Chocolate
Front of eup choc:
Persicaria Lance Corporal and Corydalis Lutea

you'll find photos of these last 3 on our website
www.cottonarboretum.com/

best,
mindy

IT IS STEEP ENOUGH to cause lack of water if the soil is anything like mine. I doubt it will ever be pretty, no matter how many fancy plants people will write. I can write 100 suggestions , it is not the point here.

Will you post a close-up photo of both the base (where the trunk goes into the ground) and the foliage of that Rhodie?

I hate to say this, but I totally agree with wieslaw. Unless you're willing to bring in some professional help and do a major make-over of site itself, I just can't see this area as anything but what it is now. Sorry. I feel for you. Simply planting a mish-mash of various plants just isn't going to work IMO.

My first thought when I saw your photos was "Too bad orange daylilies or ostrich fern didn't take over the site a decade ago." I really don't like either of those plants, but they do have their uses.

Kevin

Thanks for all of the input everyone.

kato_b - I actually had a plan for today to find the end of that vine, wish me luck.

Kevin - I do have daylilies taking over the hillside. I planted one on the end which became trapped under the weedblock and grew huge under there (but when I pulled the weedblock off it had wilted obviously). Now there are five more young ones growing on the hill, evenly spaced across. So maybe in a few more years there will be more. :)

carrieb - here are the closeup pics of the Rhodie

{{gwi:233029}}

{{gwi:233030}}

Given time (and a lack of weed block) the vinca will do a fine job.

My first thought when I saw that list of plants is that most of them are going to have some sort of issue with a shady, dry slope. Either they want more sun or more water than is going to be available. Then there is the question of whether or not they can compete with the vinca, whether the vinca should be the major plant life on that slope, and how all this should be arranged.

I'd start by deciding if this should be a garden with a variety of plants, or a groundcover area. If a garden, then look for lists of plants for dry shade.

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA. We get the same amount of precipitation as Seattle. It's quite overcast and rainy here. This spring we have had an unusually small amount of rain, but I have been digging on that hillside and the soil is pretty moist. I'm not sure if that changes anyone's opinions on the plants. I haven't encountered any dry soil up there yet.

If you have moisture you can try plants like pulmonaria, spiderwort, tricyrtis (I think you mentioned having this already), astilbe, bergenia and galium odoratum (somewhat invasive).

Even if it is moist now, I imagine a large leaved hosta pumps a lot of water from the ground, which evaporates in the wind. The lush hills you can see in the films from the tropics , they all receive rain each day.
Astilbe on a slope?

Hosta will do OK. The astilbe will fry in August, as will a lot of the other things.

I appreciate everyone's input. I am going to experiment this year with the suggestions and see what comes back in the spring. Luckily I have some nice neighbors who have given me quite a few of the plants to try out. The hostas I planted are doing quite well, my only concern with them is the deer since they love to walk on that hillside. Also turkeys love to walk up there as well, although I'm not sure they go after the plants. So I am spraying the hosta with an egg/milk mixture to keep the deer away and also trying to surround them with some deer resistant plants. I'll report back next spring/summer and let everyone know what makes it.

Hi carpathia, I am in Pittsburgh also and doing a hillside. I know the conditions you are dealing with and you will probably not have to terrace it to have plants survive and have a beautiful area.

I did throw all my fall leaves up there every Fall and it made the soil rich and that really helped to make the soil retain even more moisture.

I am using a lot of bushes. I will fill in as I go with some other plants but a large hillside I felt like it needed something more substantial than a bunch of little plants. I am using vinca as the ground cover.

I have so far....
Buddleia
Caryopteris
Cornus Arctic Fire
Hydrangea (hopeful with this because the deer love it)
Physocarpus Coppertina
Sambucus Black Lace
Sambucus Sutherland Gold
Weigela My Monet
Rose of Sharon

Check out Lowes Clearance rack in the back of the store. They have some awesome sales. I picked up a lot of bushes for 3.00 last fall for the hillside.

Hi Marquest, Thank you for the suggestions!! Where did you find the Sambucus Sutherland Gold? That one looks great. My only concern is if it will grow too tall. I may have to stay on top of pruning that one. I did pick up an azalea bush in clearance at Home Depot the other day for 3.50 and put it on the sunnier side of the hillside. Once I put it in, I was also thinking a few more shrubs would look nice. Which Lowes has the clearance in the back? I was at the one in Bridgeville the other day and didn't see it. Also, if you buy the bushes in the Fall do you put them right into the ground or keep them inside until the spring?