We’re pretty desperate to repopulate our slope with plants of various sizes. We’re aiming for a balanced mixture of small trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers.
When we order plants, we try to order a lot, and then plant them in various spots we think they might be happy, and then see how they actually work where they were sited, over time. It’s good to order numbers of things also, since not all will survive.
The fall is a great time to pick up plants on sale. Each fall, I try to hit the big garden places and pick over what they’ve got left. Twice, I found Clethra alnifolia (summersweet) this way. Otherwise, clethras can be pretty expensive. In fall of 2012 I also acquired:
1 Sweet Autumn Clematis – W side of nursery area
1 Phlox Paniculata Eva Cullum – garden phlox – mid slope, close to “lawn”
1 Vaccinum Macrocarpum “WSU” American Cranberry – W slope dappled sunlight
3 Monarda didyma “Bee Balm” “Fireball” – slope E side, closer to pond