Laurie and others have mentioned Thunderchild Crab so often that I've got one on order - my greenhouse neighbor is getting trees/shrubs from a nursery this year, and I've asked her to make sure to get me one, as well as a Mountain Ash. She's getting a lot of stock in - it might be a good time for me to convert another bed I've had in mind to shrubs. How about the fruit of the crab - if I should plant it in the lawn area, will it fall all over and be messy? Or will it hang onto the tree so hopefully the birds will clean up the fruit? About 'bridal wreath' spireas - I'm pretty sure mine is Spiraea trilobata Fairy Queen. It has the same blooming form as a bridal wreath and is rock solid hardy. Here's a pic of it in bloom.

Hello, everyone, A year ago I moved into an 1870's cottage in Little Rock. The front yard (holding to old Southern nomenclature for now) is already a pretty, highly traditional (if predictable) azalea, dogwood, oak mix, but the back is a mess with some nice plants. It already divides fairly naturally into three areas. I'm going to follow my longwinded predisposition and describe the whole space before getting to my questions, which mainly apply to the third, quite shady area north of the house, which will be a woodland areas focusing on natives and bird habitat. 1. The first spot is tiny, about 12' square just north of the garage. The garage is a separate outbuilding west of the house, and I'm turning it into a pottery, so gardening-unlike myself-is on a no fat diet for now. Bamboo, an unknown tree, loropetalum, and a non-blooming biggish crepe myrtle grow there now. The crepe myrtle is on the property line opposite the garage, and makes a natural division into the next area, I plan to stay with all dark foliage and blue and pink bloomers back here. 2. in the central portion, I cut down two sassafras trees (to which my neighbors objected and for which I had no love). This made a sunny area. This is 35 feet wide at one end and 25 the other (where the deck cuts in), and about 50 feet long. Here, I want roses and other sun lovers in the broader, full sun space. The narrower portion is partly shaded by a large unidentified tree that butts up to the deck and is midway between the house and the garage. The narrower space ends where a magnolia grandiflora stands just west of a large crepe myrtle. Almost buried behind the trash trees among broken furniture was a lovely wrought iron, gothic arch. I've moved that so that it bisects this sunny section of the yard from area 3., which is almost full, but not deep shade, as it lies on the north wall of the house. Steps come down from the deck across from the crepe myrtle. To the left of the steps, a small fishpond sits off a picture window in the sunroom. The pond is currently uninhabited due to Beelzebub the raccoon, who ate the previous tenants last winter. The pond needs a total. face lift and has to be deepened before restocking. However, my desk is by that window and, even in it's ugly as-is state, you talk about bird watching heaven! I LOVE it! So re-camping that little pool is where the largest pot of my broke-ass garden-dedicated pesos are headed this round. OK, so now you'll pass under the arch into 3., a small (25' L x 15' W?) woodland garden. At present this area has 2 small redbuds, a pretty 10 foot Enlish holly, a lot of spindly nandina, a multitude of evil-minded vicious, but well-grown Rotunda holliies, and the a/c condensers. Opposite the house is a 6' fence. I thought I could put in 2-3 native shrubs and some vines here. On the other side against the house, I want to replace the Rotundas with mix of camellias and natives. So I finally get to the question, what should I plant, hoping for 4 season interest?

At this point, it's ANYTHING! I am so excited about expanding my beds this year I don't know what to do with myself. And to see everything waking up from the winter sleep is just so comforting. I'm even doing container gardening this year. Each plant seems to have it's own kind of reward. Herbs are always a favorite for me because not only can I use them to cook and such, but the bees and butterflies love them. The Yarrow from last year looks like it never died. The Sweet William never did either-- I took clumps off of it to plant elsewhere. The Cornflower I WSed is about 7 inches high already and it's been in the ground since late March. And I just picked up some trailing Geranium and Non-Stop Begonias at a nursery near Cooperstown (the Begonias wowed me to no end. I couldn't leave without some). I now have a better looking shade garden plan than I ever intended! I thank God for the opportunity to garden and all the help GardenWeb folks have given me :-)

Well that's quite a large wall to work with and anything that helps to shade/screen it will, no doubt, cut down on the electric bills. Besides trees/shrubs, you might consider a tall trellis/vine as well. You could also train a non-vine type plant on it such as the evergreen (orange/red berried) Pyracantha. The birds will thank you. Trees that have similar orange/red berries are Yaupons and Possumhaws. The Yaupons are evergreen the Possumhaws drop the leaves and show just the berries. Then there's the sun loving, orange flowered miniature pomegranite that gets about 10-12 feet. But if you don't want the fruit then don't do it. Keeping with the natives, there's always the fragrant Mountain Laurels. Very slow growing so buy one that is fairly mature. Another lovely native is the Vitex with its lavender blooms that are enjoyed by bees and hummingbirds. It's deciduous. As far as small trees go, my new favorite is the Tea or Sweet Olive (Osmanthus Fragrans). Fragrant, evergreen, and can be used either as a shrub or a specimen tree (find one with a single trunk). As for evergreen junipers, there are varieties of Sky Rocket Junipers (or rocket junipers) that might be appropriate. They keep a fairly slim width and height under 20'. Attractive, sun loving and drought tolerant, but I'm not sure how they do in Texas. There are many more 'smallish' trees that could be used in that space. Too many to name.