my first thought was daphne. how much sun? they appreciate partial shade down here. they are not unattractive when out of bloom, especially the variegated forms. they have just finished blooming here (daphne odora)and are evergreen.

Nord, my definition of wet feet relates to those varieties that are under water, which happened from time to time in certain areas of the field where I grew hundreds of tomato plants. I expect to see yellowed foliage when we've had lots of rain as we have this summer, I'm not that far from you, and of late it's been cool as well, but I see a warming trend coming up. If you were to look at many of my plants, now grown in Gro-bags in the backyard, with good drainage holes, you'd see that the majority of them do have a lot of yellow foliage, which I expect, and when the sun shines and the temps go up I know they'll be green again and grow just fine. One of the major lessosn I learned from under water plants is that different varieties have different capacities to withstand too much water. When soils are waterlogged the roots can't take up much oxygen or nutrients. But a few of the varieties did better than others and I think it's b'c transport within the plant is not the same with all varieties. But we already know that's true in terms of those varieties that are more susceptible to BER, which is a transport issue, not from root uptake but from transport of Ca++ within the plant. Last year I didn't get fruits off half of my plants, but was spared Late Blight probably b'c I knew it was around early and had Freda, who now has to do all my gardening for me, start with Daconil alternating with copper. And the year before, 2008 wasn't that much better as to fruit yield, etc., b'c it was so cold and rainy as well. So my fingers are crossed for this summer, but already my plants are behind what they should be. Carolyn

(I'm not wanting to do much amending, just plop it in and let it go) ==>>> see link below on planting in clay .... then look at the section on proper watering ... do not rely on your opinion that its always wet.. to just go popping it in and walking away .. you might also do a perk test ... to see how bad your clay might be... drainage is the issue with clay ... and once you understand how it drains.. you can water properly ... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=garden+perk+test&t=ffcm&ia=web not many things that grow to 5 feet... will magically stop at 5 feet ... so be careful with size .... how deep is the bed... out from the foundation??? ... try to find things and plant them far enough away .. so that you will have a 2 or 3 foot empty space between the house and the plant.. for house maintenance ... this MI boy doesnt feel qualified to offer suggestions on specific plants ... but i would further suggest... that you will get the best suggestions ... if you give us a pic of the front of the house ... and perhaps give us a big city name ... as GA is rather large.. north to south .... good luck .. ken https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

I have a lot of Maple Trees, Spruce, a sycamore, White pine, all surrounding my small property in the yards of my neighbors. I have two mature Maples and a Japanese Maple in my yard. I have planted shrubs and it's really been difficult to get much to grow, except in areas that are a distance from tree roots. Anything I planted under the tree, did not thrive and eventually was dug out. Even shrubs that are said to be able to tolerate those conditions. I have some at the dripline that do okay. Taxus right near a mature Maple have no problem. I have one western Arborvitae which is growing within 5ft of a mature silver Maple that has done great, tripled in size already. But, it needs a lot of attention to watering. If I let it dry out, I get some browning and I hate that, so I have a soaker hose under it and especially in dry spells I make sure it gets enough water. I had Viburnums that grew in those conditions but, they ended up with pests and other reasons that made me eventually pull them. I just had no luck with them. Oakleaf Hydrangea has done very well, right under the dripline of a large mature Maple. Clethra as well. In my darkest corner, between two Maples, I tried so many things that didn't work, then I planted a Gray Dogwood [cornus racemosa]. It took off. Grew to about 8ft pretty quickly. It spreads and if you can't keep up with it, it might be a problem. I'm surprised with all the shade, dry conditions and roots that it didn't slow it down. I haven't found it that hard to keep up with. It's better to check it every spring and remove a couple of small ones. If you want you can wait for every 2 years and check and end up taking out about a half dozen a little larger suckers. I'd rather it didn't sucker so much but, I put two Hydrangea endless summer in front of them between them and the lawn and for whatever reason, they have not spread into the lawn at all. They are pretty easy to remove the suckers. A shovel and some yanking and I get them out with the root easily. I have thinned them and pruned them after storm damage and they come right back strong. They don't get more than a couple of hours of morning sun yet they do flower - white flowers. They have a lot on them this year No pests or disease in the 8 years I've had them. The flowers turn into white small berries that the birds strip. It's supposed to get red fall foliage which I would love, but mine doesn't for some reason it has yellow fall foliage. I agree with what others have said, buy small shrubs and you'll be surprised if they are happy, they will grow fast.