The layout
- Green Anise Tree · ×3
- Chindo Viburnum · ×2
- Wax Myrtle · ×2
- Japanese Aucuba · ×3
- Fatsia · ×2
- Japanese Camellia · ×1
Dry shade under mature trees is the hardest assignment in southern gardening - every plant here is competing with a 60-foot oak for water. This screen is built from the evergreens that actually win that fight, tested under my own Raleigh canopy. Slower than the sunny version, but by year four it's a solid green room.
What blooms when
The plants
-
3×Green Anise Tree Illicium parviflorum
The dry-shade MVP: dense, olive-green, deer never touch it (crush a leaf - that anise scent is why).
12.5 ft -
2×Chindo Viburnum Viburnum awabuki 'Chindo'
Glossy, fast, and lush-looking - give it the brightest gaps; in deep shade it thins out and sulks.
13.5 ft -
2×Wax Myrtle Morella cerifera
The native that takes both sun and shade; use it where the canopy opens up.
12.5 ft -
3×Japanese Aucuba Aucuba japonica 'Rozannie'
The champion of the darkest, driest corner. Compact, self-fruiting, unbothered.
7 ft -
2×Fatsia Fatsia japonica
Huge tropical leaves that make the whole screen look intentional; blooms in November when nothing else does.
7 ft -
1×Japanese Camellia Camellia japonica
Slow, but it blooms in February. One is enough to change how you feel about winter.
9 ft
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The Good-Neighbor Screen
A living fence for a sunny property line - five evergreens in a staggered double row instead of one long hedge of identical trees. Mixed screens survive what monoculture rows don't: when disease or a bad winter takes one plant, you lose a tooth, not the whole smile. Eye-level privacy by year three; a 15-foot green wall by year six.
The Southern Classic Foundation Bed
The other foundation bed - for the front yard that wants gardenia perfume by the door and hydrangeas you can cut for the table. Whites, pinks, and purples on an evergreen backbone, with something in bloom from the first gardenia in May to the last camellia in December. Same rules as the native version: nothing blocks a window, nothing gets sheared into a meatball.
The Easy Shade Garden
Shade isn't the problem - empty shade is. This 10×6 ft bed layers seven woodland plants so something is blooming under the trees from February (yes, February) to September, with evergreen ferns holding the floor all winter. Built for the bright-to-dappled shade on the north side of a house or under tall hardwoods.