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Plants for Difficult Places

north side, wet in winter, sun in summer

17 years ago

I'm looking for ideas for the north side of my house. It faces a section of a circle driveway (or it will when the driveway is put in!)

The problem is that this side of the house is cold and stays moist or frozen all winter but in summer it gets full sun for a few hours every day. I'm afraid the typical shade plants won't like the hot evening sun. I have a Pieris "Valley Rose", a Hosta "Night Before Christmas" and an Amsonia there so far. Just planted them last summer and I'm not sure they will be happy. The pieris doesn't look too happy right now. The two perennials haven't shown any sign of growth so far either.

This is the side where the dryer and water heater vents come out too but the plants are not close to them.

Any ideas will be so appreciated!

VG

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Comments (7)

mulberryin
17 years ago
I am no expert, however, I had a great deal of difficulty growing plants on the north side of my home for years...yews tolerate almost everything and survived there as did some of my holly and euonymus.
ziggy___
17 years ago
Since it gets some sun, I assume it is not true north, but at an angle to it. Any plant hardy in your zone should be fine in winter when it is dormant. Go by the conditions during the growing season.

Ziggy
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"When choosing plants for the bed, choose those that grow in full sunshine. Since plants grow most actively in the spring and summer months, anything you plant there will need to be tolerant of summer sunshine. The winter shade should not affect sun loving plants at all." This is true if you have spring summer growing plants that can tolerate the USDA hardness zone you forgot to mention. Example the east side in zone 5B adobe here gets very little sun during winter the same east location receives enough sun to keep many " full sun " plants happy from Late April early May to early mid October. To include Apple trees cherry trees hydrangea juniper and even roses. ( All PIG's of course) In theory a dormant plant doesn't need much of anything and often does include " full sun". Chances are; even with a solid transition the sunny summer east side here would easily fry the Euphorbia, Agave, Aeonium you mentioned before mid June if they where in a pot. If pigged they wouldn't make it though the winter for reasons of the USDA hardiness zone 5-B IMO as you mentioned " BED " at least make some mention of your USDA plant hardiness zone.
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vegangirl
Original Author
16 years ago
Mulberryin, thanks for the suggestions. I like the dwarf hollies.

Ziggy, I think it is pretty much true north, within a couple of degrees of magnetic north. The midsummer sun goes directly over the house and shines on the north side for a several hours.

The hosta and amsonia are showing growth now :-)
giboosi_alttara
16 years ago
Why not hydrangeas or viburnums?
vegangirl
Original Author
16 years ago
Good idea! I like them both. Thank you for the suggestion.
bradarmi
16 years ago
I have the majority of my plants on the N side of the house and all do well. In fact, they have really taken off and I had to remove the old globe abrovitae I planted years ago. Since it gets some sun in the growing season, the below plants will thrive. Like you, we have wet soil all year on that side and since these are mostly woodland plants, they perform well. There is a walkway about 5-8 feet from the side of the house that connects our driveway to the backyard deck. On the side it is planted with the following, (the side closest to the house).

I have a Jap. Maple, a staghorn sumac, several hostas and ferns, Solomon's Seal, hydrangeas, Jap. toad lillies, digitalis (foxglove) and yews. There is also a magnolia planted on the NW corner of the lot and it gets sun most of the day since the house and the shed bordering it are not true N-S orientation.

On the sunnier side of the walkway, a narrow strip of rocky, hot soil, I have a climbing rose (Ballerena) and a clematis (underplanted with mini roses), as well as drought-tolerant plants, like lavender and sedums since the walkway gets very hot in the summer and the heat reflected from it seems to much for the shade-loving plants.

Even though we are only talking about 4 feet, sun-loving plants do well on the N side of the walkway and shade-loving plants do well on the S side of the walkway, along the house. It took a while for me to realize that only a few feet offers a completely different growing area. My advise is to observe how the plants do and plant accordingly. You be surprised how well plants can grow in eth conditions you describe.
vegangirl
Original Author
16 years ago
bradarmi,

Thank you for the ideas! How interesting how much difference the 4 feet makes. I have a clump of toad lilies that I've been wanting to move and couldn't decide where. They are under a spicewood and I can't see them unless I bend down. I'll put them on this north side in the spring.

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