patandchickens
Deeply Rooted
On another thread, vickiemontana (hope I have remembered that correctly) asked about plants for usda zone 4, windy, low area.
I'll put down what's working for me so far (ymmv in different areas and on different soils!) and I'm really hoping others will share what they like for these conditions, because I could sure use more information and ideas myself!
I am in what used to be a cedar swamp but was a hayfield for a long time before the house was built. Much of the back yard floods every spring (along with much of the front horse paddocks and a whole lot of the adjacent hayfields and meadows). We have 6-12" of clayey topsoil underlain by pure bricklike tan or bluish clay down at least 5 feet. I believe our soil is a bit acidic but have not done widespread testing. The main thing is that we're in a serious frost pocket (ave. last frost is 1st wk of June, almost 2 wks later than urrounding higher land) an it's open and WINDY!
I can't say much about trees as alas we have hardly any other than poplar, willows and silver and manitoba maple (all of which shed branches like crazy but grow real well, much as I dislike them) and white spruce and eastern white cedar. The cedar does well here, even in fairly windy sites if planted in dense clumps or double hedges so they protect each other. I planted about 15 tiny larches (tamaracks, you know? the native one), some of which are now taller than me and they seem to do pretty well if well mulched for summer (otherwise braches die back during droughts), hopefully they will continue to thrive as they enlarge. Scots pine and junipers do well in areas of higher sandier soil. Chokecherries, including (so far) Amur chokecherry Prunus maackii with extremely beautiful coppery bark, do well here too. Oh, and Amur maple in non-soggy places. Many of these things naturalize into pernicious environmental scouges so check in your region before you plant.
Trees that demonstrably do poorly on our property include european and paper birches (planted by former owners in lawn, their roots bake in summer and they are dying slowly and uglily -- BUT if they were in a clump, well-mulched, in more organicky soil they would prob. be fine as we have many wild ones around), apples (too darn soggy, than too baked in summer).
I can be of a little more use on shrubs. Can't-kill-it-with-a-stick mainstays include lilac (including korean, palibin and littleleaf); ninebark (incl. wild type as well as the purple-leafed cultivars, I just don't care for the yellow-leaved ones or 'coppertina'); shadblow or saskatoons or whatever you personally call the hardier coupla spp of Amelanchier (highly reccommend for brief flowers, fruit and fall color); bridalwreath spirea (S. vanhouttei, probably other v. hardy spireas would do as well); manchurian aka peking cherry whose latin name I cannot offhand recall; shrub type potentillas; and any Aronia chokeberry, 'brilliantissima' of the red species having a really nice set of flowers, berries and fall cover (rabbits just ate mine, though, aargh). Winterberry (Ilex somethingorother) and seven sons tree Heptacodium may do well but needs a few more winters for me to really know. Snowberry and relatives (Symphorocarpos, spelling?) does real well but only in less windy places. As vine cover for even really exposed fences, I have splendid, beautiful, vigorous results with Clematis tangutica.
Shrubs that do adequately for me only if given extra shelter from wind and extra organic matter in soil include Viburnums (highbush cranberries, nannyberry, etc), the hardier species roses (tho haven't tried rugosas yet can you believe it), Cephalanthus buttonbush, Clethra (really sucks unless hardly any wind and lots of water), Hamamelis virginica witchhazel, Kolkwitzia beautybush, and butterfly bush (fine in sandy-soil, windless suntrap).
Shrubs I have killed and won't bother trying again include blue holly (nope, not even with maximum wind protection and lotsa water and antidesiccant spray), forsythia 'Northern Gold' (dies almost to ground yearly, won't flower), and fancy Clethra cultivars.
There are lots other things I intend to try, but my priority has been (as yours might should be) to get bone-hardy windbreaks of shrubs and trees started growing first. I would prefer to live in a forest clearing or downwind of a woodlot, but failing that I am placing my faith in lilacs and ninebark and Clematis-covered chainlink (unfortunately can't plant many trees nr house, and besides they take awful long to grow up). And filling up what already-sheltered bits we have
If you can cut the wind and (if on clay) add lotsa organics to the soil, and either improve drainage or plant on raised areas IF enough mulch and organics and clumping of plants to keep soil moister and cooler in summer, then there will be a lot more that you can grow. Plants purchased small will adapt better in the long run than initially-bigger specimens, plus you can afford more small ones and clump them to buffer the wind.
Don't be afraid to experiment with inexpensive healthy-at-purchase 'out of zone' plants though... to prove all is not lost, I have several usda zone 7 (!) perennials (tall woody things are harder to push) repeatably overwintering here, albeit in well-drained drift-catching suntrap locations
Hope this helps,
Pat
I'll put down what's working for me so far (ymmv in different areas and on different soils!) and I'm really hoping others will share what they like for these conditions, because I could sure use more information and ideas myself!
I am in what used to be a cedar swamp but was a hayfield for a long time before the house was built. Much of the back yard floods every spring (along with much of the front horse paddocks and a whole lot of the adjacent hayfields and meadows). We have 6-12" of clayey topsoil underlain by pure bricklike tan or bluish clay down at least 5 feet. I believe our soil is a bit acidic but have not done widespread testing. The main thing is that we're in a serious frost pocket (ave. last frost is 1st wk of June, almost 2 wks later than urrounding higher land) an it's open and WINDY!
I can't say much about trees as alas we have hardly any other than poplar, willows and silver and manitoba maple (all of which shed branches like crazy but grow real well, much as I dislike them) and white spruce and eastern white cedar. The cedar does well here, even in fairly windy sites if planted in dense clumps or double hedges so they protect each other. I planted about 15 tiny larches (tamaracks, you know? the native one), some of which are now taller than me and they seem to do pretty well if well mulched for summer (otherwise braches die back during droughts), hopefully they will continue to thrive as they enlarge. Scots pine and junipers do well in areas of higher sandier soil. Chokecherries, including (so far) Amur chokecherry Prunus maackii with extremely beautiful coppery bark, do well here too. Oh, and Amur maple in non-soggy places. Many of these things naturalize into pernicious environmental scouges so check in your region before you plant.
Trees that demonstrably do poorly on our property include european and paper birches (planted by former owners in lawn, their roots bake in summer and they are dying slowly and uglily -- BUT if they were in a clump, well-mulched, in more organicky soil they would prob. be fine as we have many wild ones around), apples (too darn soggy, than too baked in summer).
I can be of a little more use on shrubs. Can't-kill-it-with-a-stick mainstays include lilac (including korean, palibin and littleleaf); ninebark (incl. wild type as well as the purple-leafed cultivars, I just don't care for the yellow-leaved ones or 'coppertina'); shadblow or saskatoons or whatever you personally call the hardier coupla spp of Amelanchier (highly reccommend for brief flowers, fruit and fall color); bridalwreath spirea (S. vanhouttei, probably other v. hardy spireas would do as well); manchurian aka peking cherry whose latin name I cannot offhand recall; shrub type potentillas; and any Aronia chokeberry, 'brilliantissima' of the red species having a really nice set of flowers, berries and fall cover (rabbits just ate mine, though, aargh). Winterberry (Ilex somethingorother) and seven sons tree Heptacodium may do well but needs a few more winters for me to really know. Snowberry and relatives (Symphorocarpos, spelling?) does real well but only in less windy places. As vine cover for even really exposed fences, I have splendid, beautiful, vigorous results with Clematis tangutica.
Shrubs that do adequately for me only if given extra shelter from wind and extra organic matter in soil include Viburnums (highbush cranberries, nannyberry, etc), the hardier species roses (tho haven't tried rugosas yet can you believe it), Cephalanthus buttonbush, Clethra (really sucks unless hardly any wind and lots of water), Hamamelis virginica witchhazel, Kolkwitzia beautybush, and butterfly bush (fine in sandy-soil, windless suntrap).
Shrubs I have killed and won't bother trying again include blue holly (nope, not even with maximum wind protection and lotsa water and antidesiccant spray), forsythia 'Northern Gold' (dies almost to ground yearly, won't flower), and fancy Clethra cultivars.
There are lots other things I intend to try, but my priority has been (as yours might should be) to get bone-hardy windbreaks of shrubs and trees started growing first. I would prefer to live in a forest clearing or downwind of a woodlot, but failing that I am placing my faith in lilacs and ninebark and Clematis-covered chainlink (unfortunately can't plant many trees nr house, and besides they take awful long to grow up). And filling up what already-sheltered bits we have
If you can cut the wind and (if on clay) add lotsa organics to the soil, and either improve drainage or plant on raised areas IF enough mulch and organics and clumping of plants to keep soil moister and cooler in summer, then there will be a lot more that you can grow. Plants purchased small will adapt better in the long run than initially-bigger specimens, plus you can afford more small ones and clump them to buffer the wind.
Don't be afraid to experiment with inexpensive healthy-at-purchase 'out of zone' plants though... to prove all is not lost, I have several usda zone 7 (!) perennials (tall woody things are harder to push) repeatably overwintering here, albeit in well-drained drift-catching suntrap locations
Hope this helps,
Pat
