Wet Tolerant Plants

I recommend planting daylilys in between shrubs, I have two in low lying areas and they thrive in water. They can also tolerate salt and drought, they don't care what the pH is.

What may grow depends on details of the site conditions including seasonal variation in water levels and how clean (or not) the water is, how acidic the soil is etc.

If there are similar but undeveloped sites nearby with natural vegetation still present you may get some hints of what shrubs are possible from those. In my area what we often see are willows, hard-hack spirea and red-twig dogwoods where there is much standing water. Other native shrubs that grow in damp soils here are nine-bark, salmon-berry and twin-berry honeysuckle.

The spirea and dogwood sucker to form large thickets; in the case of the former it may grow over and dominate entire openings over water in time. Local pioneers called some such sites "prairies" - most of this area was heavily forested before European settlement occurred.

dtwright, if you add zone and general location information in your profile (in the "About me" section, it will help you get useful suggestions. What will grow in wetlands in Illinois is often different from what will grow in NH, FL or NV. Also, a photo or description of the area you are concerned with will help. (is it several acres or a small damp patch in a suburban yard?)

One of my favorite plants for ordinary to shallowly flooded soil is a deciduous holly, winterberry holly (Ilex verticilata.) It is plain green during the growing season, but the berries ripen in September and are bright scarlet clusters on bare branches until the birds eat them in early to mid winter. Needs male and female plants. We have acid soil which this plant likes, so if you don't this won't work for you. If you don't have deer, the type of native arborvitae that is commonly called eastern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) is a bushy evergreen. The common form is a tall tree, but there are selections that are a more manageable size.

In addition to GG48's and Embothrium's suggestions, check out buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) for its unique flowers which pollinators love, and a couple of acid- and moisture-loving Rhododendrons: swamp Rhododendron (Rhododendron viscosum) and rhodora (Rhododendron canadense). R. viscosum blooms late spring/early summer in vanilla-scented shades of white and pink and rhodora blooms early spring in bright lavender. Sweetspire (Itea virginiana) has white summer flowers and bright fall foliage.

A lot of good suggestions. I have a low swale in my backyard that gets soggy and have a serviceberry, winterberry, sweetspire, buttonbush, and dogwood (arctic fire) that do great.

Hi, I'm rather new to this and not sure if this is an inappropriate question here (if so, please accept my apologies and I'll post a separate question).

I've been debating whether to plant a Sunshine Dogwood shrub (you recommended dogwood above), or an Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine' (aka Florida Sunshine Anise) in a garden bed by the road that gets snow dumped on it in winter (and thus I consider wet). My garden is a zone 6 garden and while dogwoods are way hardier and the Illicium is only hardy to zone 6, the dogwoods can attract deer whereas the Illicium repel them.

Any thoughts or advice on my debate welcome (or experience with either shrub). - pajamagardener13

Welcome, Dina. Your question is absolutely appropriate for this forum but you will probably get more answers if you start a new thread of your own. This thread is about shrubs for wet soil and people who could help you may not open it if they are not interested in the subject.