For the tall shrub, have you considered a podocarpus (sp?)? I think it must be pretty doggone drought tolerant, because we had one on either side of our garage door, inside of little 3' x 3' "cutouts" in the driveway concrete ahwile back (before we added on to our house) and they didn't get any water, except what Mother Nature provided. I know they can take the shade.

Or, a holly that could handle shade (some do better than others) might be good. You'd need to water it some in the beginning as it takes hold, but that's true of just about anything I would think.

I'm sure others here have some great ideas.

My house has the same direction, here is what is working: japanese maple, annabelle hydrangea, sasanqua (nw corner), lorapetalum, boxwood, lenten rose, contorted filbert, sweet olive, peonies, juniper, mondo grass, anthony waterer spirea, georgia blue speedwell.

I have found that my NW corner is full sun, and my NE corner is part sun.

Lzygrdner, your foundation garden sounds beautiful.

Thanks very much to both of you for responding.

the tough part is finding a nice shrub that is evergreen (but not Holly) to fill a position like that. i can't stand 99% of the Hollies out there, but it seems to be what everyone has ever suggested to me for an anchor spot like you've mentioned.

i'd plant a Magnolia grandiflora for the anchor "shrub", heigh is 10-20ft for it.

for the fill-in space, any of the following is GA native, should be drought-tolerant, and would be a breath of fresh air compared to non-native invasives that people tend to plant:

- Fothergilla (good late winter/early spring bloomer)
- Sweetspire (good mid-spring bloomer)
- Summersweet (good mid-summer bloomer)
- Sweetshrub (good early summer bloomer)
- Witchhazel [vernanalis] (good late winter/early spring bloomer)
- Doghobble (dense, unique flowers, mid-to-late spring bloomer)

If you want to do an edible native, think about throwing a couple of lowbush blueberries into the mix. not sure how well they will handle the dry, but being an edible, at least you could claim - no matter how sincerely - it's part of your personal garden (food supply).

These are just a few things I've been looking at lately in my yard to plant around the house. Note that they're shrubs, not perrenials, and I am pretty sure most of these will handle just "some" sun - do your research, though.

I can list off some good perrenials as well, if this is of interest?

Another nice evergreen shrub that is native is Illicium floridanum - Florida Anise. It prefers afternoon shade. Nicely fragrant foliage.

Satellitehead, thanks for your suggestions. Yes I'm interested in the perennials. Once we get the anchor shrubs/bushes in, we plan to add perennials for interest and to fill in.

Esh_GA, I have researched Florida Anise, and I think it could work for our space even though it will be exposed to afternoon sun in the summer. I read that sun will cause the leaves to be a lighter shade of green. Thanks very much for the suggestion.

Tell you what, I finally found the sheet I picked up some time ago from GNPS this morning while I was looking around for foam flower. Here's a link - should give you a nice long list of natives, which, once well-rooted, should handle drought nicely and all are gorgeous.

http://www.gnps.org/pdf/GNPSBroc2.pdf

I will only add one caveat: We grew a very tight row of blackeyed susans and purple coneflowers last year - the blackeyed susans were (I guess) too close together, and wound up getting a grey ashy/furry fungus of some sort. I looked up what it was, and apparently it's a common thing if they are too moist. Doesn't sound like it will apply to you, but it wound up killing mine off, and the ones that survived seeemd to all be mutated

I cut them down to the ground and removed half of them, and I'm letting them come up again this year, they seem to be OK. I'll tell you...there is nothing nicer than going into your front yard and having so many amazing native flowers that you can cut them off and make a bouqet for every room in the house that you'd pay $20-$50/bouquet for elsewhere :)

Oh yeah - and if you're into cooking, consider tucking away rosemary somewhere. Evergreen, great smell, looks great, can cook with it, etc. It's like aloe - something nice to have around the house whne you need it. (I guess aloe could actualy grow there well as well).

Yes, I have Florida Anise in a sunny spot (I should move it, it gets tortured by the afternoon sun) and the leaves are much brighter green than the ones that I have in afternoon shade.

By the way, if you need to find some, call and ask at Buck Jones (Woodstock and Grayson). They had some several weeks ago, including the cultivar 'Shady Lady'.

I have Florida Anise growing by my side door where we come in from the driveway. I love love them. They have grown so tall over the years and are always interesting to me. My only problem with them is in the spring especially, when it rains, they smell like a stinky dog. I pruned them two years ago, and they are recovering nicely, but I'd like to learn the correct way to prune them. I've had to cut back some branches that got too long and floppy from my incorrect pruning, but they need it again. Any advice?

Satellitehead and esh_ga, thanks again for your help.

Satellitehead, I have Rosemary in our herb garden out back, and also tucked into a couple more of the flower beds we have. It makes a nice shrub and whenever I'm near it I make a point to brush against it. It is oh so lovely.

opal52 - no problem! we have rosemary on either side of the stairs to our front door, i do the same every time i walk into the house!

teleigh - it could be worse (re: wet dog smell) - it could be a bradford pear; they smell like semen when they bloom (this drives me nuts every time i drive by the ATL Zoo on a humid night b/c somone nearby has a mess of them). or even worse yet, amorphophallus titanium smells like a rotting corpse when it blooms :) thankfully, there aren't any nearby!

Oh my gosh. I looked up the amorphophallus titanium that satellitehead mentioned to make sure I never bought any while I was out and about. No worries there. Ugh.