Big shrubs

Lumen

Collective wisdom sought!

I've cleared out a bunch of dead and dying shrubs from the front border and now need to fill the gaps.

The bed as a whole is about 3m wide, and I've probably three spots to fill, a small, medium and large.

I guess what I want is one or two big "architectural" shrubs, up to maybe 2-3m tall. I prefer deep greens, not a fan of yellow, and would like them to look at their best in summer although have only a weak preference there.

I think I want to avoid "clumpy" flowers like rhododendron and hydrangea, although I do like that rhododendron look good year round even when they've no flower. I've loads of hydrangea and photinia, so those are out.

My favourite plant in the garden is a pieris, although it's quite small and in a container, not sure it would work at larger scale.

The area is fairly well sheltered, about 3km from the east coast, and there's generally good light but not full sun all day due to tree and house shading.

Soil is wet watered and probably drains OK although the clay is quite compacted under the top couple of inches of hummus and leaf litter due to the previous owner putting down heavy plastic sheeting which I've removed.

More pics here:
https://imgur.com/a/xy3rdf8

Ideas?

Lumen

Do magnolia run out of steam by early summer?

Magnolia liliiflora 'Nigra'

Lumen

Oh, and Echiums are out, because they'd taken over the whole bed before I murdered them all.

Godawful things.

Lumen

Viburnum cinnamomifolium?

http://www.architecturalplants.com/plants/id/viburnum-cinnamomofolium

looksee

The black stemmed Pittisporum with silvery grey leaves makes a very attractive bush imo. I had one in a previous garden that produced tiny purplish flowers and berries, but I believe this is a bit unusual.

Magnolia is a nice shape but once the flowers have gone it doesn't do much for the rest of the year.

The 'common' pink camellia is in flower at the moment which is a bit spectacular, and has nice glossy evergreen leaves, if overall a bit dark looking, for the rest of the year. It does tend to hang on to its dead flowers for a while so looks a bit scruffy for a couple of weeks after flowering. Makes a good background for a smaller deciduous shrub with lighter foliage.

looksee

If that is a Photinia Red Robin in the pic I would be inclined to cut it back significantly to make it thicken out and improve the red colour.

Holly might be nice, it grows faster than its reputation suggests and can be cut and trained with no ill effect (I turned a very large bush into a tree by removing huge lower branches, and it was absolutely fine, looked much better too).

You could also consider a conifer.

Lumen

looksee wrote: »

The black stemmed Pittisporum with silvery grey leaves makes a very attractive bush imo

Interesting. A lot of the pics I can see are quite a closed habit, I'm looking for something quite open, although there are loads of varieties.

http://architecturalplants.com/plants/id/pittosporum-tenuifolium-anderson

I guess as you've done with the holly that most bushy things can be crown-lifted to look more open.

Like this viburnum rhytidophyllum...

(I did have a lovely virburnum tree that got chopped by the fencing contractor when I wasn't looking, so I'm slightly attracted to getting another one, although I have about 30m of tinus hedging at the back so I feel like I've done my bit for the viburnum species).

Lumen

Fatsia japonica is cool but it looks like I have one of those already in that bed.

macraignil

Lumen wrote: »

Collective wisdom sought!

I've cleared out a bunch of dead and dying shrubs from the front border and now need to fill the gaps.

The bed as a whole is about 3m wide, and I've probably three spots to fill, a small, medium and large.

I guess what I want is one or two big "architectural" shrubs, up to maybe 2-3m tall. I prefer deep greens, not a fan of yellow, and would like them to look at their best in summer although have only a weak preference there.

I think I want to avoid "clumpy" flowers like rhododendron and hydrangea, although I do like that rhododendron look good year round even when they've no flower. I've loads of hydrangea and photinia, so those are out.

My favourite plant in the garden is a pieris, although it's quite small and in a container, not sure it would work at larger scale.

The area is fairly well sheltered, about 3km from the east coast, and there's generally good light but not full sun all day due to tree and house shading.

Soil is wet watered and probably drains OK although the clay is quite compacted under the top couple of inches of hummus and leaf litter due to the previous owner putting down heavy plastic sheeting which I've removed.

More pics here:
https://imgur.com/a/xy3rdf8

Ideas?

I agree with Looksee that the Pittosporum can make a nice garden shrub. There is one I got called silver queen that really brightens up the part of the garden it is in. I also got a purple leaved one that provides interesting contrast to the plants near to where it is growing and it has been fairly slow growing so might be an option for the smaller shrub in your planting. There is also mention of the pink flowered camellia which I don't like personally but there are also red flowered and white flowered varieties that might be worth considering.

Pieris do look well as larger shrubs but they do need some shelter and take some time to get to a bigger size. I have planted three of the forest flame in an exposed part of the garden and they are not getting bigger at all.

You mention you have a preference for darker leaves so my suggestions would be Ceanothus, Berberis, Osmanthus, Mahonia, Lithodora, penstemon, , bottle brush shrub,rock rose, Rosemary(needs trimming to continue to look good) and Myrtle if you want evergreens and if you don't mind the shrubs being deciduous fuchsia(hardy variety), cape fuchsia, philadelphus, smoke bush (cotinus), purple leaf elderflower, aronia, potentilla and flowering quince might be worth considering. There is a play list of shrubs in my own garden attached to the link copied above to the one showing the pittosporum I mentioned.

Lumen

Wow, loads of suggestions there, thanks!

I can't help feeling that there's something out there with a bit more...drama.

Anyone grown ginger lillies in Ireland?

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/317970/Hedychium-Tara/Details
http://lindacochran.blogspot.com/2013/09/hedychium-tara.html

(although these look quite similar to the Echiums I claim to loathe)

macraignil

Lumen wrote: »

Wow, loads of suggestions there, thanks!

I can't help feeling that there's something out there with a bit more...drama.

Anyone grown ginger lillies in Ireland?

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/317970/Hedychium-Tara/Details
http://lindacochran.blogspot.com/2013/09/hedychium-tara.html

(although these look quite similar to the Echiums I claim to loathe)

Reminds me of the red hot poker plant which might be worth trying. My aunt has spectacular ones but when I tried propagating some in my own garden the root just produced a shoot that was killed by slugs before it could get growing properly.

Also might be worth considering Acanthus which are a bit more resilient and also produce interesting spikes of flowers in the summer.

looksee

Some great suggestions there Macraignil - the purple elder is a lovely shrub. I suggested the pink camellia as it is as tough as old boots, and flowers very early. I have found the other camellias a bit too fussy for any garden I have had.

Lumen

looksee wrote: »

I suggested the pink camellia as it is as tough as old boots, and flowers very early. I have found the other camellias a bit too fussy for any garden I have had.

I have this one (I think it's a camellia) but thought that camellias were better suited to deep shade. But I guess since they're related to the tea plant which grows in direct sun in India that can't be right.

looksee

Yes that looks like the one I meant. I had one growing in an eastfacing spot in the garden where it got a certain amount of sun but was soon in the shade of the house each day. Across the road a neighbour had one in a westfacing garden where it got south sun too. His flowered about a week or two earlier than mine, but otherwise they performed the same.

Edit, though that one appears to be in flower in about May, so probably not the same one. The ones I am talking about are in flower at the moment.

magicbastarder

probably too big for your spot, but one of my favourite large shrubs in our garden is this one; brilliant for bees and butterflies:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=104722734

Lumen

looksee wrote: »

Edit, though that one appears to be in flower in about May...

10 June. Not bad!

New Home

What about an oleander? It has lovely flowers, and it comes in quite a few colours. The only thing is, the whole plant is poisonous.

macraignil

New Home wrote: »

What about an oleander? It has lovely flowers, and it comes in quite a few colours. The only thing is, the whole plant is poisonous.

Another thing to consider about oleander is that it is not tolerant to frost. Tried planting one in a sheltered spot in the garden myself and it did not survive.

looksee

Amelanchier is pretty, though it doesn't exactly fit your dark leaf requirements - they are a very nice tree in the garden though https://www.johnstowngardencentre.ie/p/amelanchier-lamarkii----juneberry-tree

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syn-a-canadensis/amelanchier_canadensis

Lumen

looksee wrote: »

Amelanchier is pretty, though it doesn't exactly fit your dark leaf requirements - they are a very nice tree in the garden though https://www.johnstowngardencentre.ie/p/amelanchier-lamarkii----juneberry-tree

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syn-a-canadensis/amelanchier_canadensis

I got a couple of those last year and while I expect they'll eventually turn out lovely for part of the year, out of season they're a bit twig like. Maybe I'm judging them a bit prematurely though.

New Home

macraignil wrote: »

Another thing to consider about oleander is that it is not tolerant to frost. Tried planting one in a sheltered spot in the garden myself and it did not survive.

Although they may die back if the frost spell is prolonged, the roots should survive and sprout back in spring. This site says that they should survive temperatures of -6°C.

macraignil

New Home wrote: »

Although they may die back if the frost spell is prolonged, the roots should survive and sprout back in spring. This site says that they should survive temperatures of -6°C.

That site does say some cultivars are more frost tolerant than others and I have no idea what variety I tried. I only got mine at a small enough size and was unaware of how poisonous it is when I bought it in a reduced section at the local garden centre. It did look healthy in the pot and if it was not as poisonous I would have delayed planting out a bit longer. As it turned out that year had some fairly hard frosts in the spring and so it never really had time to settle in to its new position before being killed. To be honest I was put off by what I read about it being poisonous after I got it so I should really say I played a part in letting it get killed by the weather.

The RHS page I gave a link to does say: "Tender, minimum winter temperature of 2-10ºC".

macraignil

Lumen wrote: »

I got a couple of those last year and while I expect they'll eventually turn out lovely for part of the year, out of season they're a bit twig like. Maybe I'm judging them a bit prematurely though.

I think you are judging them a bit early and have found the ones I have growing are doing better each year. They do look a bit bare in the winter but there is some interest in the rest of the seasons with spring flowers, summer berries and interesting leaf colours at different times of the year.