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jason_carlton26

Centerpiece tree for new garden, maybe a Blue Chinese Wisteria?

I have a new garden space, it was going to be a fruit and nut orchard but now I'm thinking to just make it ornamental.


About the Garden Area

The new garden is roughly 100' long and 75' wide.

It's not enclosed, so I have to worry about local wildlife; mainly deer, rabbits, racoons, opossum, squirrels, birds, voles, moles, snakes, and coyotes. And the occasional fox or wild turkey. I want to attract many of them (not moles, voles, and coyotes, of course), so I need plants that are tough enough to not be damaged by the occasional nibble or trample. Or taste bad so that the animals aren't going to eat them.


The ground is on a slight slope, direct sun from around 9am with evening shade from wild trees on the Western side. I've recently taken down field pine, red oak, hickory, poplar, and maple trees, along with a ton of greenbrier. The tree stumps will probably just be cut below ground level and covered up.


I'll be running sprinklers, so there shouldn't be an issue of watering.


Nearby is a mature Tulip Poplar that blooms red late-February through early-April, then it's green for the rest of the year. There's also a White Dogwood that blooms white from around April through May. Both are similarly sized at about 30' high.


The backdrop is American holly, followed by wild woods.


Surrounding flowers and plants

All of these are just plants that I already have that could easily be extended to this area.


Flowers that I have on hand are purple irises, yellow irises, yellow and white daffodils, white lilies, yellow canna lilies, Asiatic lilies, Devil's Trumpet (Datura, large purplish-black flowers), Moonflower (also Datura, with large white flowers that open in the evenings), Autumn Joy sedum, speedwell, salvia, purple phlox, and I have no idea how many annuals seeds.


I'll probably plant orange / red habanero nearby.


And I can take cuttings of butterfly bushes (purple), Sunshine Ligustrum (yellow), and Ever Red Fringe Flower (red).


For ground cover I have mondo grass, Chocolate Chip Ajuga, Creeping Jenny, and Anne Marie ivy.

I also have a Blue Java banana tree that needs to go somewhere, but it will probably be closer to the end of this garden. And I can surround it with canna lilies and maybe elephant ears, since the leaves are similar.


In addition, I had set aside $1000 for this new garden so I can buy other plants.


Future Plan

In my dream world, I'll be adding a water bog and 2 koi / goldfish cascading ponds near this garden area. I have a 1000G pond in my back yard that I love, and I really want to extend the look to the front of the house. I'm really not a fan of lawns, anyway, so my long term goal is to convert almost an acre of lawn in to usable and pretty flower gardens, with maybe 1/4 acre left for grass.


Now for the Question

I am considering a centerpiece tree that would be surrounded by bushes, flowers, and ornamental grasses.


I would love to find something that does well in my area (zone 7a) but isn't overly common. It needs to be smaller than the tulip tree and dogwood, a different color than those two trees, and it would be great if I had a longer season of color.


Crape myrtles would work, but are pretty common.


Then I came across this:

https://www.naturehills.com/blue-chinese-wisteria?id=8018


The pictures are beautiful, it seems to be tough and hardy, and I don't know that I've ever seen one.


What's the catch?


Is this an actual tree, or a vine that's just shaped to look like a tree?


I found this article that scared me:

https://www.thespruce.com/chinese-wisteria-plants-2132898

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