Best shrubs for Southern Indiana

Fri Apr 10, 2009 11:35 pm

Hi, I live in South western Indiana. I have recently landscaped the front half of my house. I currently have one azalea bush that is left over from the previous owners landscaping attempt. My wife purchased a purpleleaf sand cherry for the area as well. My aunt has this same plant and it did well for her so she was hoping it would do well for us. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for beautiful shrubs that would be good for our area and climate?

Cory

Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:59 pm

I don't live in IN but you are either in Zone 5 or 6 so if you don't get responses do a search for healthy plants that will do well into Zone 5. Sand cherries are beautiful when they flower but my experiences when I lived elsewhere is they have a tendency to be weak plant, do to a bad winter, but if its protected from the sun and wind you shouldn't have a problem. Look at cotoneaster or potentilla frusticosa which is deciduous but will have yellow blooms all summer, Katherine Dykes.

Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:15 am

give us a few more clues please.... is the area where you want to plant shrubs in AM sun, afternoon sun, all day sun, dappled shade? How big an area do you have and how tall do you want your shrubs to get? Do you happen to know if your soil is acid or limey or neutral, sandy vs clay? The more info you can give, the better help we can be...

Sun Apr 19, 2009 7:49 pm

Hope the sand cherryu and the azalea are in different places as they have very different needs...

We are big fans of native plants to feed wildlife; turns out some of them are just plain pretty (I love serviceberry, which we call shadblow around here. I have two in the yard now and am contemplating more...)

http://www.indianawildlife.org/shrubLife.htm

But RG is right; we need more info to go on. Images help a lot too...

HG

Thu Apr 30, 2009 3:48 am

Hello fellow Hoosier!!

If you notice the azaleas around here, the outstanding ones are always on the north side of a structure (house, barn, fence, etc,). The winter sun does not hit them and give them sun scorch.

Look for yourself before you take me up on this.

Rick