Suggestions for perennial or small shrub to go under my birdbath

3 years ago

I recently converted my birdbath to a succulent garden, and now I need something to go underneath the birdbath that is maybe 12-18" tall, blends well with the succulents AND the surrounding flowers and shrubs, looks OK in the winter, doesn't spread (too badly), and is good with full sun.

Maybe a type of sedum (not Autumn Joy, I have it everywhere)? Or a red salvia? Based on pics, maybe another type of beardtongue (as I understand it's hard to transplant)?

Here is the birdbath; ; pic is about a week ago, the only change is that I added a cute little bird statue :-)

And here are some full frontals:

From my front door

(in the pot in the bottom left is a mondo grass that I had kept on my front porch over the Winter; it might come back, but if not I have a ton of it. And in the upper right you'll see where I have 4 pots of spiky dracaena that I've only recently taken out of the greenhouse and put in the sun; I'm not sure where I'll place them yet)

Standing in front of the garden

So you can see the surrounding plants

A little closer

Starting at the house and moving forward, I have a line of (3) Ever Red Fring Flower loropetalum, with (2) Sunshine Ligistrum in front of them. I planted those last year and the ligistrum is doing great, but the loropetalum is still a little small.

At the black structure on the left, I have Mandevilla in a container that's just now starting to come up. It should grow up the structure and have big white blooms.

In the pots are a mix of bulbs; right now you see tulips, in the back pot I have full size Asiatic lilies, and in the front are dwarf Asiatics.

To the right of the birdbath is a stunted Tamukeyama Japanese Maple. I had it in a pot for several years before planting it in the ground, and it seems to have stunted the roots because it's never gotten any bigger.

In the shadier areas, I have a mix of red and yellow calla lilies. In the brighter areas I have orange daylilies.

In front of those are purple irises, yellow lilies, blue speedwell, Black Eyed Susans, purple coneflower, Autumn Joy sedum, and Purple Heart setcreasea. The irises are starting to bloom, but everything else is just now coming up. You can also see some mums from the Fall that are still doing great, which is really weird because they usually die away :-O I might move some lamb's ear to the very front, but I'm not sure if it's OK to cut off their flowers? If not then they would be too spiky for this garden.

And there's a small water feature in the middle of it that's surrounded by mondo grass, with Red Rocks Beardtongue (new last year, it hasn't bloomed so I don't know what to think) and creeping jenny at the base. Ignore the plants sitting in it, I'm using it to salvage a few holly trees that I'm going to plant around the perimeter of the yard.

In front of the water feature are (4) hyacinth, but they're on their way out for the season.

In addition to these, I have Devil's Trumpet, Angel's Trumpet, petunias, spinach, peppermint, coleus, and hot peppers in the greenhouse, and I have tiger lilies and Queen Anne ivy that I can move around.

And right now I'm setting up a sprinkler system. I would have been done last week, but I'm having a hard time finding one specific adapter :-/

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Comments (9)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years ago
i dont understand the placement of the giant Sunshine Ligistrum in relation to the house behind??? .. but you didnt ask about that.. so never mind ... lol ..

is the birdbath plumb??? it looks crooked in one of the pix.. might be a camera trick??

ok.. ive dawdled long enough .. im not sure you need anything under it ... its early spring.. but it looks like you might be full up by the time everything grows to size for summer ...

and keep in mind.. you are going to need to walk up to it for watering and care during the season.. so you dont need a lot of anything much.. imo ...

ken
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
3 years ago
Haha, when I bought the ligistrum last year they were only about 1' tall!! LOL I specifically bought them because they would be a little smaller than the loropetalum; the loropetalum is supposed to get up to 6' tall, and the ligistrum is supposed to be 3-6' tall, but the land slopes downward slightly so even if both reach 6' then it will look smaller.

The callas in front of them get to about 4' tall, and the irises and other bulb flowers are 3', so I figured it would all stagger out nicely.

The birdbath should be plumb, I put it on a paver and leveled it before adding the succulents. It's harder to check now with the mound of soil, so I hope it's still level! In person it looks right, so I think that's just a trick of the camera :-O

As a rule, I've always used the Japanese garden rule that nothing should look like it sticks up out of the ground without something live at the base. I have enough room behind everything to move around pretty easily (well, until the shrubs mature) and I have sprinklers, so (in theory) that shouldn't be an issue. But I do get jealous when I see these pics of thick, lush gardens, and mine look so bare in comparison!!

Like this one (scroll down about half way):

https://ourfairfieldhomeandgarden.com/upcyclerecycle-project-creating-a-succulent-garden-birdbath/
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lkloes
3 years ago
I think you need more succulents in there as it’s pretty sparse. Plant some trailing ones so that they spill over and down. Then I don’t think you’ll need to plant anything around the base.
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
@lkloes, you mean in the birdbath? I thought I might give that a little time; the lemon ball in the middle and ice plant on the side are going to spread out a bit, so I wanted to give them some room to grow. But I'm open to suggestions!

I posted this list of what's in the birdbath on a previous thread:

At the bottom (say, 5 o'clock position) is my original hens and chicks, after I split out 12 chicks :-O I don't know what kind it is, but I love the color :-)

Counter clockwise at the 3 position is a Royal Ruby hens and chicks.

At the 12 position is Dragon's Blood sedum.

At the 11 position is Cobweb Buttons hens and chicks.

At the 7 and 10 position is some kind of shorter sedum that I've had for a few years, but didn't really fit in anywhere so I dug it up and placed it here. I did some research and I THINK it's "reflexed stonecrop" (sedum rupestre L). I'm not sure how it will work out, but I'm hoping it will trail down a little.

At the 9 position is an ice plant.

And in the middle is Lemon Ball stonecrop; great right now for the color, but I suspect that I'll have to split it up a few times a year to keep it from taking over :-/

Also at the 7 position, between the hen and ice plant and sorta tucked in with the lemon ball, I placed a small bird figurine:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0175A59RQ/
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Would you consider returning the birdbath to its original purpose? I change the water in mine at least every other day and I just dump the water into the surrounding garden where I have astilbe and hosta with an occasional fern near one of the birdbaths. The astilbe thrive with the frequent watering and there is the added plus of offering the song birds water!

ETA: Seems all my birdbaths (I have seven here) are constantly out of plumb. Sigh. Moved one onto the back of a patio to try to fix at least that one.
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
@cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA), I have 2 other birdbaths, but they've NEVER been used by a bird! I followed all of the guidelines and suggestions I found online, but nope. I have plenty of birds around so it's not a lack of demand... I think that they just prefer the water in my goldfish pond in the backyard.

It was really too much work for too little benefit, which is why I converted it just a week or so ago.

As an added bonus, now it's not all that noticeable if it gets out of plumb a little :-)

I have a plastic one in the backyard that my MIL gave me a few years ago, I'm about to hack it up and make it a planter for trailing annuals...
nickel_kg
3 years ago
Your bird bath would look nice with more hens & chicks on the ground around it. If you're artistic maybe it could look like they spilled over the edge, like water would. I have a cracked bird bath ... you're inspiring me to try something similar! :-)
GreenGlam Gardening
3 years ago
IMHO Hens and chicks would look nice or you could try sedum purple emperor for color. Or hardy aromatic geraniums if you like them.. here is a link:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/121357419982839/
l pinkmountain
3 years ago
There are many colorful sedums to chose from. Dragon's blood sedum is one example.

Suggestions for perennial or small shrub to go under my birdbath

Comments (9)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
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lkloes

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Suggestions for perennial or small shrub to go under my birdbath

Comments (9)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NCOriginal Author

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lkloes

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cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

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l pinkmountain

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Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
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Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
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Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
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