My favorite GROUNDCOVER is geranium maccrorhizum. It smothers all weeds, is so easy to transplant, doesn't need shearing or dividing or edging, has a bloom period, is tidy but natural looking, takes sun or shade..... My favorite TREE is locust. It has towering and straight trunks, gnarled and twisty branches in the sky, delicate leaves that cast dappled shade, and makes the best burning and building wood when it's over.....My favorite SMALL TREE is Japanese maples, especially ones that are less typical in shape and color of leaf. ...My favorite SHRUB is cotoneaster. It has dark glossy leaves and red berries, a graceful arching habit whether low or tall, smothers all weeds....My favorite PERENNIAL is nepeta. I can't add to the effusive praise I've given this plant on many other posts here.. All of these are also deer proof, which makes a big difference where I live.

Eileen, Can you tell me what sort of soil you have. Clay? Clayey loam? Sandy loam? Sugar sand/river sand? Also do you know the pH of your soil? If it is acidic the list of what would grow well for you would be very different from what grows well for someone with a soil pH that is neutral or near neutral, and even more different from what someone like me grows on highly alkline soil with water that also is highly alkaline. So, for us to list our favorite plants will not be especially helpful for you if we have soil that is vastly different from what you have.

In order for your landscaping project to succeed, you need to select plants suited to your soil type, its texture, how well it does or doesn't drain, and your soil pH.

Also, knowing you average rainfall helps a lot. If you don't know what the average rainfall for your area is, tell me which county in OK you live in and I'll link your county's climate data pages from the OCS. Someone who lives in a part of eastern OK that averages 50 or 60" of rainfall per year can plant entirely different plants from someone in western OK who averages 15"-20" of rain per year, or someone in southern OK who averages 30 or 40" per year.

It would not be helpful for you for me to list my favorites plants for you, since they were chosen for their ability to survive in dense red clay that is highly alkaline and slow draining and able to survive on average rainfall of 30-40" a year but also able to tolerate drought years with as little as 19" per year, with highly alkaline water as well if you have totally different conditions from mine. So, if you'll describe your conditions as well as you can based on what you know about your area, then all of us can list for you the plants most likely to do well there for you in your soil in the conditions you have and with the soil type and rainfall you have.

I have one more suggestion---think native plants. That doesn't mean only native plants, but there are tons of beautiful ornamentals that either are native or were bred from natives and those are the plants that can best survive whatever Mother Nature throws at us. During the state-wide Drought of 2011, even some natives did not survive, but I noticed a higher perentage of those survived than non-natives. And, when I say survived, I mean that they still needed supplemental watering but at least people weren't watering them and watching them die anyway.

It would be easy to type endless lists of favorite plants, but I'd rather list favorite plants that have the best chance of doing well for you in your specific growing conditions.

Dawn

I believe Eileen is in Catoosa. Bustani Plant Farm in Stillwater specializes in plants that can take our summers including natives. I've always wanted to go there, but haven't made the trip so far. Maybe you could talk to someone at Redbud Valley about native plants, since you're so close.

I can't tell you a favorite. I will tell you I wish I had not planted wisteria. It is beautiful, but invasive. Crape myrtle is another thing to be sure of, because you can't kill it. DO NOT plant Bradford pears. They are invasive and short lived. The wind will break branches. Elms can get a disease that rots them from the inside out. Had one just fall over one day with no warning. DO NOT under any circumstances plant a privet hedge. Fought them for 40 years at 2 properties and hate them. You can't kill them either.

We have some slow growing bushes at the front (north) of the house that are easy to maintain, but I don't even know what they are.

Has any one grown the geranium groundcover mentioned by Kitasei in Oklahoma? I'm always looking for something to replace bermuda. But I'm thinking full sun here would be too much for it. I'm trying to get White Dutch Clover to grow in my yard. Most people consider it a weed, but it is low growing and can duke it out with bermuda. And the bees and lady bugs love it.

Good luck, Eileen.

Haha this is complicated.

Dawn, our soil is clay. I need to get a pH soil test to know the pH though. Yeah.. I don't know the average rainfall here. I am in Catoosa, Rogers county. Thank you for asking these specifics to give me the best recommendations.

Amy, thanks for telling me what not to grow. That is valueable info! Hmm I will visit Bustani Plant Farm when they reopen in September. It's near Lake Carl Blackwell which I had bookmarked in my google maps.

Eileen, Well, the good news is that I have clay and I can tell you a long list of plants that do not thrive in, nor often survive in clay. Then I can tell you which ones can tolerate it. Once you know the pH, we can talk about specific plants.

You also should do the jar soil test to understand your soil texture and it will help you understand how well your clay does or doesn't drain---it makes a huge difference, for example if your clay is 95% clay and 5% sand or silt, or if it is 50% clay and 50% sand or silt, or whatever.....your numbers could show you almost anything, but they are a good starting point. So, here's the test.

Jar Soil Test for Soil Texture

Try it with soil dug from several areas where you intend to plant and see what you learn. In our dense red clay that is almost 100% clay, not much grows or survives until after we have done a tremendous amount of amending with organic matter. In our soil in the back yard just behind the house that is a clayey-sandy blend, almost anything will grow. So, knowing how much clay is in a given area matters too....though not as much as the pH does. If I hadn't done separate jar soil tests for various parts of our landscape, I probably wouldn't have realized how different the soil can be just 100' away from a different sort of soil. It was an eye-opening experience.

Now, here's the OCS climate data for your county. Hopefully you'll find lots of useful info in it:

OCS: Rogers County Quick Facts

For more detailed climate information:

The Climate of Rogers County

Based on your climate data, you should get enough rainfall most years, so at least there's that. With clay, though, soils that go into summer in pretty good shape still can dry out quickly if the rain just stops falling. I am shocked, sometimes, how quickly our red clay goes from being totally waterlogged to being concrete/rock hard and cracking.

I am pretty sure that if I was interested in making pottery, I could make red clay pots out of the soil closest to our house. Or, gray or yellow clay pots from the soil near our son's house. Had he not chosen that building site, I probably never would have known that we also have gray clay and yellow clay as it is in an area where I didn't intend to plant anything, so I didn't do a jar soil test for the soil in that area.

Dawn

Dawn, I finally got my soil tested! Sorry it took forever because i was waiting for DH to dig a hole to get the soil. (Didn't want him to complain that I ruin the lawn)

The soil is ph 7. There was a fertility meter on the soil test too. It is in the "too little" range for fertility.

I'm sorry if my question is too generic. I think the main thing I'm looking into now is Shade trees (for front yard, north side) and small trees (to place in front flower beds, north side).

Eileen, three years ago (up north) my favorites were--large tree, red maple; small tree, Japanese maple or panicle hydrangea; shrub, Diablo ninebark, black lace elder or bridal wreath spirea; ground cover? wild ginger; perennials, too numerous to mention--Asiatic lilies, Husker red penstemon, trandescantia, Shasta daisies bee balm, rose campion (a biennial), hostas, rudbeckia, and so on and on. Hostas!!! Now, large tree, oak; small tree, Japanese maples (not that I've had one--they're SO expensive), crepe myrtles; shrubs, crepe myrtles, snowball hydrangeas, mock orange; perennials, I make no distinction between perennials and self-seeding annuals now; not interested in ground covers now. I had many favorites up north that would not do down here at all. But have discovered many new favorites--unfortunately have not yet zeroed in the sure things for my yard--so much depends on microclimates, soil, shade/sun. Dawn and many others have had several years, as have others, to discover that. I haven't yet, and so will keep experimenting.

I know what isn't working in my yard after 3 summers of gardening: crazy though it seems, I have about had it with morning glories--bugs (aphids) eat the heck out of the leaves; zinnias, rudbeckia, and bee balm get bad cases of powdery mildew; phlox, that was a non-starter--began with a couple lovely pots; mildew attacked instantly. I'm a bit paranoid about crepe myrtles now, with the crepe myrtle disease circling the state (a virus, right, guys? ditto with rose bushes.)

By far and away my favorites now are my four o'clocks, datura and brugmansia (thank you, Dawn), and nicotiana--more for their fragrances than their actual flowers, though all have great flowers. Brugs most likely are not hardy in your area, though on the FB OK gardening network, many folks in 7 have said theirs come back well each year (with proper placing in microclimates and mulching.) I'm hoping for that, but even if it doesn't come back, I'll have cuttings to begin new ones next spring. They can grow from 20 inches to 6 feet in one summer.

I still love tradescantia, and it does well here in partial shade or mostly sun. The ones I've mentioned are not picky about the soil, or sun/shade, and most, drought. I babied the brug and kept grass clippings piled around it in the well amended soil and provided plenty of water. One I love but haven't planted yet--but will as soon as I get my sunny rock garden going is autumn sedum. Can hardly wait, I'm going to plant it everywhere there. Another one I can't kill here is yucca. They get enormous (they'd take the place of "shrub") and produce a single amazing stalk of beautiful white flowers. Hyacinth beans did an awesome job for me this year, and I'll be growing mostly them instead of morning glories now.

There are just so VERY many to choose from down here, Eileen, that you would do well to focus on what is lovely to you, and then to decide if it might do well in your yard, based on your soil, your zone (cold AND heat); the amount of sun vs shade you have, if there are lots of deer or rabbits in your neighborhood--then go for it. You will have some failures, and you'll have some successes. One of my big surprise successes was endless summer hydrangeas. I'd never grown them well up north, but would get some blooms each early summer. I lucked out and put a row of them in the PERFECT place here, apparently. Although they did turn pink instead of the exquisite blue (alkaline rather than acid), they are monstrously big, and for the first time ever, have actually bloomed all summer since May. I am astonished.

It has been a big big big learning curve for me, and doubtless it will continue to be until I die or cannot garden anymore. But so fun and worthwhile.

Hey Dawn, I don't know if you remember, but where I lived in Wyoming, I mentioned that we could have made pottery! Actually, had I stayed in that location forever, I'm sure I would have tried it.

A funny aside. I have adored climbing hydrangeas. . . has been a longtime dream to have one. So got one my first summer here, put it strategically against a large oak nearby that I wrongly assumed got a lot of dappled shade--nope--gets full hot sun from about 3-6 pm. Poor thing's oak-climbing tendrils shriveled up and died. Second summer, I planted a nandina in front--fast-growing, thought it might shade the hydrangea--but it didn't grow tall enough fast enough and tendrils again died. Imagine my laughter this year, discovering that I had many new growing vines/tendrils growing on the NORTH side of the tree. Deader than a doornail on the west, but new ones growing happily on the north side of the tree! We may have lift-off with blooms yet if I live long enough! LOL

It's all a crapshoot--but the more we study and learn, the more the odds will be with us--right?

"Too little fertility?" As all our experts here on this forum (Dawn being the main spokesperson) repeatedly tell us here, it's all about making our soil the best it can bee with mulch. My approach has had to be building up, as we can't dig down because of rocks. I heavily lasagna layer twice a year; this is the third year, and we're already seeing a dramatic improvement. Cardboard, straw, mulched leaves (mostly mulched leaves, as we have tons), compost (which we now have plenty of), peat in places; grass clippings. . .

PS: Your layout is lovely. Me, I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants person. I go however in the yard it happens. Thank GOD, GDW doesn't care one little bit.

Nancy, thanks for your reply! That's a layout someone in the Landscape forum recommended. I'm trying to slowly work toward it. It will probably take me years. Yes, there's just so many options I don't know where and how to start. I guess I'm just being impatient and want to figure out as much as I can before next year.

The autumn sedum and endless summer hydrangeas look great! I might have to give hydrangeas a try. I adore peonies and have tried to grow two of them. So far, it's been pretty much a flop. Roses seem easier to manage than peonies for my garden so far. I wish I can go to all of your gardens to see what I like. I have to make sure DH drives me to the Spring Fling next year!

Hmm I guess I'm going to make more trips to my FIL's place and get some of his compost until my own compost pile is good enough. lol lucky he is more than happy to share.

I love peonies, too--but ours are planted in a BAD location--and are slowly dying out due to flooding in the spring and not enough sun. I wanted to move them all, but for the life of me can't figure out a good place. Too many ^%$# rocks wherever there's enough sun, and wouldn't even really see them. And so. What's the point! They're one of those I love but realize this is not the place to be growing peonies. Bye bye. Besides, I tell myself, the flowers last for maybe 2 weeks before we get a heavy rain and they all flop over, no matter how well I have them supported. Yep, bye bye. My main quest down here is to closely follow what savvy experts say are their never-fails and go from there.