Sorry, forgot to include zone and location.

i was going to ask your zone and then voila - you gave it.

generally north walls in cooler climates like ours do get less attention. its probably shady and cool there. i would reccommend some ferns. christmas ferns tend to stay green almost all the way through december. any shady or part shady plants would probably do well there.

i like to mix culvers root (veronicastrum virginicum) and ironweed (vernonia altissima) together - they provide a nice tall contrast to stand behind many other shady plants that are commonly much shorter. (i just posted something on similar thread).

i am a native nut so the previous plants that i mentioned are natives. if you are not confined to planting with just natives, holly bushes are often planted along north walls in our area. they are evergreen and provide nice winter interest. however some people dont like them because the leaves are spiny and will scratch you... but i prefer the look of holly bushes over the common and often overused square cut evergreen hedge. (the mcdonald's near my house has great holly bushes planted along the north side of its building and they look great.)

Do you want mostly perennials, or a mix of perennials and shrubs? I've got 12' between my wall and that of my neighbors and have used a mix of shade loving plants. Shrubs to consider would be Itea virginica, Enkianthus spp., Hamamelis spp. (the various witch and winter hazels), and hydrangeas. I have a climbing hydrangea that I'm training to grow up the wall. A previous poster suggested hollies for evergreen interest.

Perennials to use might include ferns (Christmas, ostrich, royal, sensitive are some I have), hellebores, Aruncus (goat's beard). What else - hostas, heuchera, epimedium, astilbe, cimicifuga. I'm probably the only person I know who intentionally put violets in her garden (most of my neighbors spend a lot of time trying to get rid of the things).

While your perennials and shrubs are getting established, you can fill in with shade or part shade annuals like impatiens, pansies, torenia and begonias.

Hope this helps!

Yes it does. You have a hydrangea that is growing on a
north wall with no problem? My wall is all cedar ciding.
Is a hydrangea okay in that setting, or should I build
some kind of trellis away from the wall for it to grow
on? How fast does it grow?

TIA,
a

Glad to be of assistance. My siting is a little different than yours, but the hydrangea is growing near the northeast corner of the house. I just put it in this past spring (and have it growing on a copper trellis attached to the brick). I'm told that the growth sequence will be "first year, sleep. Second year, creep Third year, leap." I can vouch for the first part of the triad. :) A friend has a 7 year old climbing hydrangea that she hacks back mightily to keep it from eating the east wall of her garage.

I love climbing hydrangea but I wouldn't plant it or any clinging climbers up my brick walls for fear of moisture damage to the wall and interference with the wall maintenance. I have Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle', hostas, lamium and Daffodils planted along my north wall. I would have loved an oakleaf hydrangea but the wall is only about 4 feet from the property line.

If you really want a climbing hydrangea, I think you should build a trelis. Climbing hydrangeas have short arial roots that cling to the wall. You might not want that beautiful cedar wall of yours under those roots. Also, be aware that climbing hydrangeas are very slow growing in this climate. I planted a 1 gallon size two springs ago. It has not grown much at all.

Good luck with your decision. :-)

Been doing some research and am developing something of
a plan. I think I'll put an arched entry trellis at
both the front and back of the north wall and maybe a
short trellis kinda "fence" along the lot line. I'd like
to have climbers on this and have started reading about
climbing/spreading rose vines. Anyone in this region
have info about how those would do?

I think I'll still need something a little taller in
the middle, perhaps in a couple of places. And the
walkway will be gravel mostly.

At least until I think about it again for another week:-).

aphilla,

I have a few questions regarding your kitchen and kitchenplace. I saw your reply on the kitchen forum but couldnt figure out a way to email you. I hope you dont mind my bothering you here but this is the only way I could think to get a message to you. Please send me an email.

Thanks,
rainsend