Suja wrote:

paghat wrote:

One problem with adding the larger shrubs last is you'll disrupt or have
to entirely remove the low-growing perennials after they've worked so hard
to establish their root systems, & some of them will hate that & will take
a long time to reestablish their own roots. I'm not as much a grass fan
(though I do love lily turfs), which is why I suggested wintergreen &
lingonberry for their continuing winter presence.

I guess I wasn't clear. The shrubs will get planted with everything
else. I'm still working on which ones those should be. Trying to put
together a list of everything I really, really want had me going in
circles, so I decided to make one list up, get done with it, and then
make the other one up. Since I'll have more perennials than shrubs, I
thought that should get done first.

I will take a look at I.foetidissima and black mondo grass. I'm not a
big Iris fan in general, but anything that provides year round interest
would be a great addition.

Suja

IMO, the iris looks more like a grass than it does a lot of other irises. It is
grown primarily for its valuable trait of being evergreen and readily adaptable
to dry shade and the brightly colored and long lasting fruit - the flowers are
quite insignifcant as irises go. I grow two different cultivars, too - the
straight species and a variegated one, both produce bright, red orange,
berry-like seeds. Mondo grass - regardless of color - is a great shade
grass-looking plant. The black is just such a striking contrast against anything
in the gold or chartreuse tones. Other than certain species of Carex, there are
really no evergreen grasses for shade. Some really nice deciduous ones, though -
Hakone grass, golden wood rush (Milium). Molinea. They'd add a lot of color
during the growing season.

pam