On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 13:32:59 -0500, Groundswell
wrote:

Hi --

I live in the northern Washington DC suburbs and I'm looking for ideas
for a flowering hedge or thick border plant. I'm bored with the idea of
the typical yew or boxwood or privet. The location has mediocre quality
soil, it's neither heavy clay nor heavy sand, full to medium sun. The
length of the hedge would be about 40 feet.

I'm interested in something that is relatively low maintenance. It
doesn't need to be a privacy or security hedge, just something to define
the border and discourage the dogs and kids from running off the
property. Ideally it would thrive at somewhere between 3 and 5 feet.

One possibility is Rose of Sharon -- I have a couple of plants right now
and I'm used to taking care of it. I've had bad luck with azaleas for
whatever reason. I'm not crazy about the look of forsythia. I'm also
open to the idea of a mixed planting -- say 4 different plantings to
flower at different times of the year.

Any suggestions are welcome.

I planted a Rose-of-Sharon hedge 5 years ago and now it is about 7
feet tall. I trimmed it last year. It is about 180 feet long. I
planted each ROS far apart so that I could get my lawn mower between
them, but now I have a line of mulch and seedlings growing between
them. They flower mid summer to fall and attract hummingbirds and
bees. Aphids and Japanese beetles like to attack the ROS, but now
there is a high ladybug population. ROS's are tough, but you should
trim them once a year to keep a tidy hedge. I planted my hedge to
screen out the neighbor's ugly yard, although you can see through it
during the (short) winter in east TN..