My south facing wall border change plan, reasonable?

guoxiaotian

5 years ago

Hi experienced gardeners,

Gardening newbie here.

I am in PNW (zone 8) and have a 24'x4' border against a south facing garage wall, shown in picture below.

I'd like to make some changes to it -

- Remove the Conifer on the left - it's not doing well there. Backside of it is an eye sore from my kitchen door.

- Remove the magnolia tree on the right. It was planted 1 foot from the wall, and I think it's not the right tree for this place. In the past year I have seen it grew many flower buds but I have only seen one actually bloomed.

- Replace the Conifer with a hydrangea, like 'Endless Summer or Nikko Blue', I have no experience with them but that spot get about 3+ hours morning sun and protected from afternoon sun. (could circulation be a problem? )

- Replace the magnolia with 3 Peonies. The spot gets 6 hours of sun around the blooming season.

- Add some bulbs (Tulips) in front of the Peonies and some Alliums between them, to add early colors and some dimension.

Does this plan look reasonable? One potential problem is that I am replacing 2 evergreens with deciduous shrubs, but during winter to early spring the yard will get very little use due to wet weather.

Another issue I am having trouble is the wall under roof overhang - I want to add some vine but don't think any flowering vine would grew well there.

Any suggestion would be appreciated!

-X.T.

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Comments (4)

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Yardvaark
5 years ago
Your plan seems like a big improvement over what you have now.

What kind of vine? Growing directly on the wall? Or on the trellis? You should be able to do it if part of the vine is not restricted to below the overhang.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Be sure to pick plants that will stay within scale of the planting area (primary issue with the current plantings). Many bigleaf hydrangeas like Nikko or ES get huge here in the PNW (6-8' tall and wide) and a need to prune them to keep size in check will limit the flowering. Also afternoon sun exposure in that location is likely to be far too strong and result in daily wilting. You might want to look into some of the more compact or dwarf forms of Hydrangea paniculata, which can take full sun and can be pruned to size (if necessary) without affecting any flowering potential.

Even if only viewed from indoors during our rainy season, I would still want to see something evergreen in that bed....otherwise you will just have bare dirt for a good 4-6 months and that means weeds :-) We are not limited in the variety of smaller evergreen plants available in this area so I would visit a local nursery to see what's on offer that you might like - euphorbias, candytuft, hebes, dwarf abelia or pieris. Even a groundcover or a carex or two.
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guoxiaotian
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you both.

@Yardvaark most likely with a trellis, but in the background the upper of it won't get much sun as shown in the picture.

@gardengal48 I wasn't aware they can be that big. From several different plans profile websites ES matures to 4 feet in both diameter and height, Nikko 4-6 feet. 6-8 across is a little too large. Also why do you think the spot is too much sun for hydrangea? it's at the corner of east facing and south facing wall(see picture), no sun after 1pm.

As to ground cover, is it ok to plant evergreen ground covers where perennials grow, would it prevent perennials (like Peonies, Tulips) grow next year?
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
LOL! Everything grows larger here :-) A mild climate and a plentiful (usually) rainfall typically assure that. Always go with the larger size on the range and then add a couple of feet. I have clients with a couple of ES hydrangeas that are massive - easily 8' tall and about 10 feet across! In fact, about the only plant resource you should be looking at for this area is the Great Plant Picks website, created specifically for PNW gardeners. And even they tend to err on the smaller side.

And if no sun after 1 pm, the bigleaf hydrangeas should be fine (although eventually overly large). I was just focusing on the southern exposure and amount of sunlight showing in your photo.

You might want to consider the ES Bloomstruck hydrangea.........IME, that is a more compact form than the other two. And there are excellent dwarf varieties available at local nurseries.

It depends on the aggressiveness of the GC you choose but most will combine well with bulbs and perennials provided they do not become too thick.

My south facing wall border change plan, reasonable?

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Yardvaark

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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My south facing wall border change plan, reasonable?

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Yardvaark

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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