Bigred, I feel your pain! A few years ago we had a huge Elm tree that had to go; its branches were right over the power line coming to the house and we had already had to have the line replaced once after an ice storm because of its falling branches.

Then.....I kept noticing how my hostas next to the north foundation kept scorching and looking absolutely dreadful and it seeped through my brain.....the elm had been shading them! I have wracked my brain about what kind of shade I can provide, but may just have to move them too.

At least, I just have about 15 feet of plants....Good luck.

gld

gld,
thanks for the sympathy. I have some river birches in pots I guess I can use and will grow pretty fast.

PP

How sad. Did they have a good excuse for cutting it down?
River birch is a pretty tree. Are they good to garden under? Our tree choices for our yard couldn't have been much worse. Wish I could go back about 15 or 20 years and pick different trees. : (

Christie,
these are THOSE kinda neighbors that don't assoicate with the likes of us local yokels. Moved here about 6 yrs. ago from Big D(Dallas) and treat most of their neighbors like poor white trash so I wouldn't ask them why.Only two trees in their yard shading their trailer...the oak they just cut down and a gum tree that's growing not even 2 ft. off the bedroom end of their trailer. It should be mature enough next year for a really good crop of gumballs.Nothing like the sound of gumballs tip-tapping on a metal roof in a windstorm.Hee-he! They're gonna be in a pickle if they want to cut it down being that close to their trailer and no direction to fell it.Can't fell it in the back yard,it'd take out all their tacky little storage buildings...can't fell it too the front into the street and onto the powerlines and last but not least into my yard where it'd crush my fence that it's growing almost right against and flowerbeds.

I think that property has been owned by 4 different people and only one couple did I get along with. One guy,raised a couple of hogs right on the property line ...pens lined up dead on even with our front patio about 50ft away,second ones...don't know what I did to get that next owners dander up,I was always nice to her when I saw her out when they first moved in then she was always threatening to whoop my butt...go figure and now these people! Property must be a magnet for nutjobs.

PP

Big Red so sorry about what happened. Can you rig up some canvas or a tent to shade them. That way you could really impress the neighbors with how yokel you are. Hope you can get everything moved in this heat before they get damaged to badly. Judy

In that case Peggy, perhaps you can fashion a tarp out of boxer shorts or something. lol Are you good at piecing things together? A couple of old toilets would work well to fill with concrete for the poles. I guess you would need four. Just kidding you know. Revenge is usually not a good thing. Sounds like they cut down the wrong tree. The hog neighbors must've been worse though.
Redbuds are supposedly deep rooted and they're easy to come by. Those might work to plant around your river birch while you're waiting for them to grow. I have a couple in my yard I could share if you need them.

You might try some shade cloth until you figure out what to do.I am so sorry too.Gardening is always a challenge.Posy Pet

I'm thinking a functional double seater outhouse,doors facing there direct and hubby using them every morning before work. You haven't lived until you've seen my hubby's glowing white bird legs sticking outta of his shortie-short,shorts....Get'er Done!....LOL

Christie,
I'm thinking....replace flowering shrubs with a line of birch and maybe a few native dogwood and redbuds(they come up like weeds in my yard),have about a 4ft.wide strip of lawn for pathway then the new bed.

Moving plants around is nothing new to me but I'm worried about the 10 ft.tall oaklief hydrangea. I've never had good luck re-locating them. I'll have to prune it back hard just to be able to get under it to dig it out.

Finding all the woodland plants that go dormant after blooming is going to be like excavating a crime scene.

PP

I planted my River birches and red oak in 1999 and they have made fantastic growth. In fact, when I looked up when I bought them, I couldn't believe it.

I think I would give the oakleaf hydrangea a chance, My Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs lists it for either full sun or part shade (moist, acid, well-drained soil).

Here is a pic of my River Birch.It gets plenty of water since I planted the hummingbird bed this year, but before that, just regular rainfall.

Love the outhouse idea. lol
I have an oakleaf hydrangea in full sun too from early morning until late evening and it's doing ok. It's only about three years old and I water it once a week or so during drought but I can't remember seeing it wilt or burnt leaves. They seem to be more sun tolerant than most hydrangeas. I'm not as far south as you though. Yours may get burnt leaves until your trees are big enough to shade it. I have a couple mophead hydrangeas I need to move and my dad warned me to wait until March. He's had trouble transplanting those before.

The redbuds and dogwoods will be soooo pretty together. That's something I never tire of. Multi-trunked redbuds will spread out fairly wide and give you more shade than a narrow tree would. I like multi-trunk trees better anyway. A lady I sent some redbuds to awhile back was going to try planting three in the same hole to get a multi-trunk look. It might work and you probably have plenty to play around with. I wonder if they would grow faster or slower than a single tree with three trunks.
Gld - pretty photo. What are your red plants? Looks like hummingbird heaven.

The red flowers are a new salvia splendens from Park called Salvia Whopper Lighthouse raised from seed this year. They salvias are not my favorites, but the hb's really seem to like them.