If it doesn't have to be a bush, check out the different kinds of Amsonias. I like the narrow leaf varieties. They bloom bunches of little blue star shaped flowers in the spring, then have seed pods that hang on them. I shear mine back after blooming, though, to keep them from getting too big. They bush back out and look nice, with nicely colored foliage in the fall. They die to the ground in winter. Also, a couple day lilies would work there, along with a tall growing iris. Fireworks goldenrod is a fall blooming plant I love that would fit in that space. I'm not sure what zone it is. Sue D.

Great thread, I love out-of-zone plantings! Can a windmill palm really be grown in zone 3 or 4, even with generous winter protection? That would be great, but is seems way out of zone here in the Cdn prairies. I checked out the website, and I've seen them growing on the west coast of Canada (pic included below), but that's a very mild climate, like zone 8 or thereabouts. Catalpa seem reasonably hardy for prairie gardeners looking to test the limits. I've got a small one (two feet high and several years old) growing in my increasingly shady back garden here in Edmonton. It's still very small and is sheltered from winter winds by a nearby fence, but it doesn't seem to have suffered much winterkill during the past couple of winters (but they weren't harsh winters). Ginkos are great... I had a small one but it didn't make it past it's first year in Edmonton's suburbs, yet I know of one on the University grounds downtown that has survived at least 10 years. Actually, I haven't seen that tree in about 10 years, so I really need to locate it again and see if it is still doing okay. I used to also watch a ginko growing in Drumheller, Alberta, near the Red Deer River (pic included below) -- last I saw it was small but healthy, but I haven't checked it out for the past decade so I really need to take another look. My sugar maple is about 12 feet high, growing more as a bush than a tree. It is maybe 10-12 years old, and has a fairly thick trunk. It can winterkill quite severely, but has been doing pretty well the past 5 years or more. I have a butternut tree roughly 12-15 feet tall, at least 10 years old, and it has produced nuts for the past several years. My grapes (Valiant) produced heavily this fall, and the wine from them is now bottled. Pears (Ure) are usually ignored when they ripen, but they are tasty and the tree has been growing vigorously for 15 years. Magnolia and Northern lights azalea survived several winters but seemed to get increasingly smaller each year, eventually discarded. Forsythia did great in a mild winter, but crappy otherwise, and were a pain to chop out, including all the sucker-plants. Well, that's all my info on out-of-zone plants. If I can actually grow palms here in zone 3, please let me know! Ginko growing in Drumeller, Alberta - 5 to 6 feet tall, healthy but with some winterkill of top branches Windmill palm growing in a garden on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Hello ptilda - Annabelle is hardy to z3. She is as popular as the H paniculatas in our zone, as they are nearly carefree. I must have been the last in my area to get one ('08) ... I planted her on the N facing foundation strip, gets a few hrs of good AM sun & again an hr + of setting sun. She is about 5' tall & loaded with saucer size white balls. I encaged her, when I noticed she was growing quite fast & filling with buds (we were getting a great many rainy days that would weigh her down). The wire cage is unnoticeable with all the growth. I learned about this type of support, for fast growing Annabelle, in another thread in this forum. Dappled sun/shade site would be my choice ... sandy native soil mixed with some compost is better than clay, I think ... I'm not an expert - I think you are going to be just fine! I've noticed that several of the shrubs I purchased seemed to have been grown in a sandy-nursery-soil mixes.) Since this is going to be their first season, perhaps a thick wood chip mulch/pile of dried oak leaves won't hurt. There are several older threads wonderful to learn from in this forum! Good luck!

.... Where do you live? How big is front yard? Is privacy an issue? No privacy issue. While we can access upstairs thru this door, it will primarily be used to access storage under house/ yardwork and as access between front / back of house since length is 65 feet, a long walk around. Since we need a door and could go upstairs from it, thought to make it more 'front door' looking instead of discreet door. Attached shows traffic in / out of prior house before rebuild for us / neighboring family members, all located to the left as also is the shore. Thank you again to all who helped with their opinions !! This post was edited by Jaynes123 on Thu, Jun 26, 14 at 15:08