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California Gardening

tall flowering bushes/afternoon sun

happygirl-gardener

16 years ago

Can anyone help me with a few tall plants that flower and like Sacto type weather? I want them next to my house, in the afternoon hot sun. I would apreciate any help--annuals or perenials. Thanks in advance.

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Comments (9)

gardenguru1950
16 years ago
How tall is tall?

Joe
Lydia Lee
16 years ago
Hey happygirl,

We have a similar situation--hot late afternoon sun on the north-facing side of the house. We have three Copper Canyon daisy shrubs (they were sold to us as Mexican marigold, but I think they are tagetes lemmonii, not tagetes lucida) planted there and they really seem to thrive in the heat without a lot of water. The strong tarragon scent is said to bother some people, but I rather like it (and since they are by the house, we don't brush up against them very often).

The golden flowers are small but nice, but my favorite aspect of the plant is the feathery foliage. You have the feeling of some screening but not a big dense shrub, if you know what I mean. They are more subtle than say, euryops.

Good luck!
cowper

Here is a link that might be useful: Tagetes lemmonii
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I am in zone 5 so I can't give you any specific suggestions for plantings, but thought it might be helpful if I gave you an idea of some of the kinds of plants I use on the west side of my home with its morning shade and afternoon sun. It can be tricky - especially in your heat! Trial and error may be necessary. My west facing garden is along a wall of my house. On the south end of my west facing wall I use sun plants. I have a large climbing rose and a clematis growing together, a few small daylilies, one large catmint, some yellow variegated sedums, chocolate eupatorium, a shrub rose, and for later color, a mixed stand of helenium, monarda, black-eyed susans, and Purple Dome asters. The middle section of this west bed is narrower and also gets less sun. On the wall there are 3 vines on 3 spaced trellises. The one towards the south has a clematis, the middle a porcelain vine (grown for variegated foliage and fall berries, the third vine at the north end (the name of which I have forgetten) is for vertical folliage only. These are fronted by orienpet and oriental lilies, which are themselves fronted by some shortish asters that will grow anywhere, and a patch of some yellow self-seeded (culled by me for this bed) echinaceas, cardinal flowers, more BESusan that will grow anywhere, and another patch of Purple Dome aster. All of these grow well in part sun/part shade. As you move to the north end of this west facing bed into more shade (from the folliage vine on) there are Black Beauty lilies that will bloom well in quite a lot of shade and some shorter asiatic lillies that don't mind some shade and get replaced off and on if they do thin out, some of the so-called "ditch" daylilies (tall orange flowered ones that spread - called many names depending on location) that again grow most anywhere here. There are also some gold spiderworts, one variegated sedge that grows best in part shade, and some clumps of an old yellow daylily that I've had forever, another large catmint (flops a bit here but grows big and fast) and some more Purple Dome aster and the ever invading BESusans. This bed then bleeds into a North facing bed with a collection of specialty hostas. As you can probably tell by the plant choices, this is a hot color bed and it is mostly the bright bold scheme of clear yellow and both bright and dark red shades, with cooling patches of blue, that hold the bed together, across the varying conditions of sun and shade, although any carefully controlled color scheme would work (a focal point of sorts, in this case the trellis structures helps, along with foliage variety). BTW the bed also varies greatly in moisture levels being wetter towards the north, except for one area at the south that my neighbor's sprinklers hit. I had to move the shrub rose twice trying to avoid this overhead overdone watering. Good luck and have fun.
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Since you said you prefer a yellow flower, I have to agree dune sunflower can't be beat for heat tolerance. There are 2 different forms (both have a spreading habit, but one form is more upright and the other lower). I have both forms in different places in my yard that receive full sun with no protection whatsoever and are exposed to radiating heat from pavers and concrete. One (the upright form) is in a driveway cut out next to a busy street; these were basically planted in mostly paver sand. They are only irrigated when I remember to hook up the hose to the drip irrigation lines. The other, lower form is planted next to my pool in built-in planters, which has better soil. I am sure my pool cleaner guy steps on them and drips pool water on them and they are not affected. Both of them have been in prolific bloom since I planted them last year and show no sign of stopping. They are very vigorous and you may have to trim them back occasionally if you are planting in a smaller space. Also, they tend to look a bit ratty after a heavy cutting, but that will go away once the formerly underlying branches sprout more leaves. My upright form seems to be a bit more floriferous than the lower form as well.
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Your county extension office can test your soil for you. You can either find them on your county's website, or if you're a technophobe or just can't find the dang folk, call your library and they will be able to get you in touch with them. There are a lot of really nice morning plants. How big would you like them to get? Loropetalum is a great shrub; it's purple leaved, semi-evergreen, touch and flowers bright pink. There are several varieties available that get different sizes. Gardenias, camelias and azaleas are all nice plants but they require special site preparation and fertilizers. There are some nice hollies out there, some with berries that feed the birds. I saw a great-looking variegated holly at Calloway's the other day. If you want stuff that stays low, say under a window, part-sun perennials can work too. Crinums, ginger, balloon flower, columbine, elephant ears for a tropical look ... Lots of really great options! I would get your soil tested, think about how much you're willing to do in terms of site preparation and care (fertilizers and water), what size plants you need, whether you want to deal with pruning, and maybe what kind of colors you're going for.
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The boards on that fence look suspiciously like green wood to me, unless they have been protected with something. A fence like that wouldn't last long in western Ks, not with our wind. Also I can't tell if they are wood posts or covered with wood. At least you got the pretty side. I have a new shadow fence on the south side of my yard, 6 ft is our limit, but since every yard on this block drops a foot, it is really 7 feet. The reason for this fence is I'm trying to block out all the soccor balls that find their way into my yard. What a nuisance, last year I lost a lot of my vege plants, and have a broken tree peony, a flying soccor ball can do a lot of damage, and now another pest has invaded. I think every child around me got a drone for Christmas, Of course they don't know how to control them, so I'm constantly having to fish one out of shrubs ect. This is going to be a whole new way to garden along this fence. I've been watching the shadow line for a month now, and trying to figure how much sun I will have, of course it will be ever changing as the season progresses. I'm hoping I can plant daylilys and clematis this spring, I need to break up this 100 foot of new thats staring at me. half of the 100 feet will be in my vege garden. I'm afraid I've built myself a gardening nightmare. Help!
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lilboy
16 years ago
I've been having a great time growing Papyrus in the ground and some in large pots...both the very tall and the dwarf variety....they are just beautiful.
I had a dream the other night about growing a white Agapanthus in a large pot near them.
Do you think it would grow in a large urn type pot?

Frankie
happygirl-gardener
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the info. I'm looking for plants 8-10' tall. I will look into Cowper and Frankies ideas.

Happygirl-gardener
jakkom
16 years ago
Tagetes lemmonii doesn't get 8' tall. I've had several of them, and even in great soil it doesn't get much over 6'.
Oleander will do it, as will yellow cestrum (the original, not the hybrid colors which are much shorter). Yellow cestrum is limited in distribution, as far as I know only East Bay Nursery in Berkeley was rooting some of it. Grows like a week, totally xeric once established, pest-free, not as bushy as oleander though.

The original yellow cestrum rootstock came from my gardener's backyard, which is how I ended up with three of them in my yard! It hasn't been sold commercially for over 50 yrs until EBNursery started rooting some.

The two have different shapes: oleander is more classic bush shape, thicker at the bottom than at the top. Cestrum has tall, slender multiple branches; less fully leafed and they tend to arch outwards, growing more vase-shaped.
gardenguru1950
16 years ago
Six to eight feet is VERY tall for a perennial and almost unheard of for an annual (except giant sunflowers and hollyhocks).

If you're not sure that what you want is some kind of upright shrub, here are some of the tallest "perennials":

Arundo formosana 'Oriental Gold' GOLDEN CHINESE REED GRASS
Bambusa multiplex ÂGolden GoddessÂ GOLDEN GODDESS
Bambusa multiplex riviereorum CHINESE GODDESS BAMBOO
Bocconia frutescens MEXICAN TREE POPPY
Fargesia murielae UMBRELLA BAMBOO
Fargesia nitida FOUNTAIN BAMBOO
Heliantus angustifolius NARROW-LEAF SUNFLOWER
Helianthus maximiliani MAXMILLIAN'S SUNFLOWER
Hibiscus moscheutos ROSEMALLOW
Lavatera thuringiaca SHRUB MALLOW
Leymus condensatus BLUE LYME GRASS
Muhlenbergia dumosa BAMBOO MUHLY
Otatea acuminata aztecorum MEXICAN WEEPING BAMBOO
Romneya coulteri MATILIJA POPPY
Yuccas (many)

Joe
wanda
16 years ago
Leonotis (Lion's tail)
Many of the Salvias (Anthony Parker, Waverly, etc.)
Ceanothus 'Concha', 'Ray Hartman' and others (CA native)
Iochroma cyanoides
Malcothamnus fremontii (CA native)
Loropetalum

Another idea would be to plant a nice green shrub and let a Clematis grow through it.

wanda
dicot
16 years ago
Buddleia - butterfly bush, although it may take some extra water.

I would second the Lavatera - there are a few species that will work.
lilboy
16 years ago
A Papyrus that I planted 3 weeks ago ( it was about 6' tall) is now a good 8' tall. Yikes.
I can't seem to stay away from the local nursery. The second tall Papyrus I planted is very happy also.
I just bought a Kangaroo Paw plant and can't wait to plant it near the papyrus. It's about 6' tall.
I was hoping to get a tall white agapanthus but they were out of them. The nurseryman said he didn't know why they were so popular this year.

Frankie

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