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| Topic by Cindy | posted 466 days ago | 615 views | 0 times favorited | 5 replies | ![]() |
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466 days ago |
And it’s so hard to choose! I would love a huge acreage to fill – lol. Debbie, I envy your yard so much ; ) Before, I posted asking about a small tree. I was narrowing my choice down to serviceberry or kousa dogwood. As it turns out both would get too big, and I’m not sure I’d want to prune a tree back as heavily as it would need to fit the space. Btw, I had decided on the serviceberry. I decided I want to stay native and the bird benefit won out. I double checked, and I can only have a width span of 10 feet before limbs would encroach into my neighbor’s side. (as a reminder, I live in a mobile home park and my lot is 40’ x 120’, my 14’ x 80’ mobile home is smack in the middle of the lot). This is the east side of my place, and my neighbor is a doll. She has severe allergies & rarely leaves the house – she says she can’t breath outside – but she loves my gardens and said I can plant any tree I want regardless of it going over the boundary line. However, when & if she moves, my next neighbors won’t be so forgiving. Besides, I believe good fences make good neighbors and I would never let my garden ooze into another’s space. So, a small tree isn’t totally out of the question. However a big shrub is definitely in the running now. This plant is going to be near my living room windows, facing east-slightly south. Morning light, shaded in the summer after 4pm. The wind comes from the west, so it will be protected from winds. This side of the home is much cooler than the west side. I live in the Virginia Appalachians, at about 2500 elevation. Zone 6. So, My newest choices shrub-wise, are (and I change my mind constantly, so bear with me!) doublefile viburnum “Shasta” (presently my 1st choice), common witch hazel, and arrrowwood viburnum. Viburnums are my favorite native shrub. I’m still considering the serviceberry, and perhaps a dogwood – not kousa. However my neighbor on the other side planted a white dogwood last year, about 4 feet from my driveway, so I can admire hers from the living room windows on the west side – lol. I specifically asked her to plant the dogwood where I could see it form those windows : ) She plants as much as I do, but she has no concept of mature size, and I worry about some of her choices. Their lot is the same size as mine, and facing my west side she has planted the white dogwood, a saucer magnolia, a crape myrtle, a forsythia, a maple whose name she never saved, and more! I have two Profusion crabapples on my west side, and I keep them pruned so the branches are only in my yard, but I know one day her trees & mine will touch ; ) I do think she would let me prune her trees too, when they get bigger. They are in their early 70’s so they can’t really prune. Their sons could but none of them have a clue when/how to prune different plants. So aside from my rambling, I’m wondering who here has shrubs they are especially fond of? Shrubs (or small trees) that can be pruned so they stay relatively tidy, as this will be seen by everyone? I’m even thinking about trellising a climbing or shrub rose or two, if I can find hardy, healthy, resistant ones! Thanks! -- ~ Cindy, Virginia Appalachians, UDSA Hardiness Zone 6 ~ |
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