Hit the Dirt; Hearty Shrubs

Hi this is Claire Ackroyd and this is hit the dirt. Last week I talked about trees that you can use in difficult situations and I'd like to mention a few of the shrubs that I find are invaluable part of my repertoire for dealing with difficult places where other things won't grow. There's a little shrub called Stephan and her incisive crisp I doesn't really have. A common name you can call it a cut leaf Stephon under it which doesn't get you very much further than you will with its Latin name. It's a nice little plant that grows about two to three feet tall in the tangled mass of thin stems that arch over touch the ground roots and start over again. It will grow under a very wide set of circumstances. And it's habit of sort of spreading by almost like a strawberry where it touches the ground little routine going again means that it will hold eroding banks and slipping loose soils than very well it has a very fine textured leaf which is quite a trick for a plant that is a tough character to also have a rather refined look to it. This stems in the winter a rather pretty bright

chestnut color and it gets covered in about June with sort of small yellowish whitish flowers that are pretty but not spectacular. It seems to tolerate full sun part shade would probably grow fine in fairly deep shade and will grow under almost any stall conditions as long as they are not really actually holding water in Saudi what conditions it will grow poorly. Another great plant that is very similar to Stefano except it's rather it's a sort of upright looking leaf and flowers are very similar. It's a plant called mine bark. It's latin name is Pfizer corpus. I think I'm going to make myself a vanity license plate. This has a number nine and then bark and nobody except the few people who grow this plant will know what my license plate means they'll all think I'm some kind of dog breeder. But nine bark is a nice plant to grow the street species Pfizer carpus opulent foliage is not very much

cultivated and not very well known. It is better known for the two selections there's a dwarf one and the dwarf common one bark which only grows about four or five feet tall which is plenty big enough for a hedging shrub amassing shrub. It has a nice fine texture cut leaves looking a little bit like a sort of finely cut maple leaf. Pretty sort of chestnut colored stems that have a flaky bark that gives it a little bit of character in the winter. Back in my experience will grow under a very wide set of circumstances they don't seem to mind very poor soils and considerable drought. There's a nice selected one called dark gold. It is a bigger growing plant it probably grows 10 to 12 feet and has a bright golden leaves in the spring which fade to a greenish gold in the summer and has a very heavy and much heavier texture and a very obviously peeling bark that gives it a lot of something to look at in the winter. It appears to thrive under conditions represented by roadsides one

I planted in Arno got run over by a Mack truck the first winter it was planted and came back the next spring looking better than ever. Where less a plant would have given up and died. There's another nice plant called Die a villa the southern Bush honeysuckle which is again has very little circulation in the industry in the trade. Not well-known at all. It will too will grow under almost any circumstances. Shade sun varying amounts of moisture. It has a pretty girl about three to four feet tall and suckers circle spread and sort of grab a hold of poor ground by spreading underground has a rather nice bronzy foliage in the summer and no particular fall color just a sort of good clean looking somewhat colorful foliage plant that will fill a difficult area. Make a nice background massing shrub and be a tremendous relief to you when you find something that will actually grow and look well. What other plants have failed. This is

Claire Ackroyd and you've been listening to hit the dirt. So those are a few shrubs that you can use under soil conditions and light conditions. That are too difficult to grow the standard ornamentals so sort of conditions where your roses and rhododendrons and other favorites won't grow. And next week I want to talk about some underappreciated ornamentals that are possibly a sort of higher grade ornamental and no easy plants to grow to. Because something I think. Yes so those are a few. Yes yes yes. OK. So those are a few shrubs that you can use under very difficult circumstances of poor soil bad drainage difficult slipping soils too much shade road salt piled on snow and heavy traffic conditions the kind of conditions where your favorite ornamentals will probably do poorly next week I want to talk about some of the

underappreciated plants and this is Claire Ackroyd and you've been listening to that.