paghat wrote:
In article , wrote:

I don't know if it's nasty enough for you, but Blueberries and
Holly do really well around Puget Sound.

I realize you don't want roses, but a row of Nootkas (itty bitty
PNW natives) would be pretty much maintenance free and grow well
in spots that usually aren't considered optimal.

I have no great love of fancy roses, but I love my wild native
Clustered Swamp Rose which is quite a bit like the Nootka & can
hybridize with the Nootka. Though often seen growing in drainage
ditches or next to a skunk cabbage in mud, it does not need all
that much water when gardened, it does just fine with ordinary
watering schedule in a regular garden. But if there were a
poor-drainage area nothing else would grow in, this would. Mine is
not thorny, but more commonly they are extremely thorny. The leaves
are small feathers, it's just so beautiful even when not flowering.
It's pretty in winter too because it holds on to a great many of
its pea-sized hips long after leaf-fall.

I finally got me a pair of Indian Plums too. I'd only seen tiny
ones for sale for a couple years, & unsexed; but I stumbled onto a
native plants specialist who is growing stocks from seeds &
cuttings, not swiping plants from the wild, & I got two of the
Indian Plums while they were flowering (they're still flowering
now) so I could sex them. These become large suckering shrubs over
time, & they got their name from the little fruits on the female
shrub that look just like blue Italian prunes but tiny. In full
flower the female plant smells quite nice (like a watermelon) but
the male plant smells bad -- only if you shove your nose in it
fortunately. Indian plum can make a quick grand privacy hedge too,
just make sure to get mostly females since only one male would be
needed & he'll have the potential to stink.

Blueberries certainly are gorgeous for their own sake but can be
comparatively high maintenance. English holly sucks because though
evergreen it sheds too many sharp leaves that seem never to decay
making the ground too dangerous to go barefooted, plus in our
county english holly is invasive. I cut mine half to two-thirds
down this month, & will eventually have removed it altogether. I
was taking it down six foot sections at a time with a pole saw
careful not to crush the azalea collection on its morning-sun side,
& strained a shoulder. Now it's short enough that the remaining
trunk is just too big around for my handsaws, so the bottom third
may remain there a while yet. I wanted to take it down six years
ago, but there weren't a lot of big things in the yard at the time
& I couldn't bring myself to take down one of the older items even
though I didn't care that much for it. When it started to keep the
paperbark maple from getting its share of sunlight I decided it was
high time to get rid of what comes close to being a junk-tree even
when its at its best.

But a superior native plant with similar appearance, & a shrub
rather than a tree, is Oregon Grape, a no-mainteance shrub with
extravagant yellow flowers in late winter, extremely tasty fruits,
& holly-like leaves.

-paghat the ratgirl

The former owner of our house on a corner lot planted Oregon Grape as a
hedge on the two street sides of the property. For the last five years
I have been trying to get rid of this pesky plant. Its roots are
everywhere and they send up little OG plants *everywhere*. I would
think twice before planting OG.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5