Greetings from west central Illinois. My wife and I have a wooded lot. We're looking for a good medium-sized shrub that can thrive in fairly deep shade (some late afternoon sun), alkaline soil, and USDA zone 5 winter temperatures (occasionally to -15°F/-21°C). Nice fall color and/or berries that attract birds would be a plus, but are of secondary importance. Some varieties we're looking at: - Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii "Profusion" - Callicarpa dichotoma "Early Amethyst" - Daphe x burkwoodii "Carol Mackie" - Fothergilla gardenii "Blue Mist" Does anyone have experience with any or all of these plants that could help us choose from among them? ... or any other suggestions? Regards, Don
Hi Don, Welcome! The shrubs you have selected want more sun then just a bit of late afternoon sun. The Calicarpas want full sun to get their berries, the Daphne is a fussy plant and has a habit of just up and dying, and the fothergilla will want part sun - 4 to 6 hours. I don't know of many flowering shrubs for the shade garden that will offer berries to the birds. Japanese yew might work for you but that can get quite large. It has a tendancy to become invasive in a woodland setting. Another large shrub or small tree would be American Bladdernut - Staphylea trifolia http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/s/statri/statri1.html Blackhaw Viburnum - Viburnum prunifolium can take shade and offers nice flowers and berries. http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs/TMI/Plantlist/vi_olium.html http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/v/vibpru/vibpru1.html A place for the birds to seek shelter could be helpful. For so much shade you might want to consider hydrangea. I'm thinking of the Oak leaf hydrangea. Nice fall color if it gets some sun. Take a look at this site. http://hydrangeashydrangeas.com/ Here's some sites about shrubs for birds. You can always do a search at google for their needs. http://www.colorwithplants.com/nate/wl/wildlife.asp http://www.wildbirds.org/page2.htm#trees http://www.pineridgegardens.com/birdfood.htm#plants You might also want to consider limbing up some of your trees for more sunlight as there are many shrubs that will thrive in part sun. Newt
