My father-in-law grew beautiful pachysandra in Pennsylvania in rich, humusy acidic soil under the dense shade of tall, mature trees in an area where drought is rare and hot weather in the summer means, oh, about 85 degrees on a brutally hot day. I loved, loved, loved it as soon as I saw it, and I instantly knew that it never would do well in the heat in Texas, where we lived at that time. Research I did at the time confirmed my suspicions that it wouldn't like alkaline soil and extreme summer heat punctuated with frequent droughts. So, although P. terminalis 'Green Sheen' is, indeed, exceedingly beautiful, it seems doubtful to me that it would do well for you unless you are in northeastern OK with acidic soil and plentiful rainfall, and have the ability to water it pretty heavily in summer, especially when rain isn't falling very often or in good amounts. If you're in an area where water restrictions are common in dry summers, it might not be the plant for you. I did see pachysandra in some nurseries in Texas in the 1980s and 1990s but haven't seen any in high-quality nurseries in recent years, which also might be a clue that it is hard to grow here. I'm pretty sure I have seen it in big box stores in the spring (by it I mean pachysandra in general and not necessarily 'Green Sheen'), like maybe Lowe's or Home Depot, in recent years, but just because a store carries it does not mean it does well here. The people I know who have attempted to grow any form of pachysandra in either Texas or Oklahoma have not had much luck with it, and I don't know that any of them tried 'Green Sheen', just that whichever pachysandra they tried (at considerable expense) never really established, and slowly faded away.

One thing about 'Green Spreen' is that J. C. Raulston introduced it in North Carolina and I know NC has some serious heat, though I don't know how their heat compares to ours. However, they also have high humidity (which pachysandra likes and thrives on) and humidity can be all over the place here in OK, with high humidity in wet springs and summers, but not necessarily in dry ones. Dr. Raulston searched long and hard for plants that would tolerate NC's very difficult growing conditions, which include lots of rainfall and high humidity, so if he liked 'Green Spreen', that's one thing in its favor. I just don't know if Oklahoma has enough humidity and moisture to keep it happy.

I sometimes test a possible ground cover by buying and planting one single plant, telling myself that if it does well, I'll put in a larger area the next year. This method has kept me from spending a lot of money on ground covers that don't do well in my hot, dry summers and frequent drought conditions. So far, any ground cover I felt so unsure of that I bought only one plant to test has failed to perform here, so it has been a positive experience in that regard.

You might try visiting local botanical gardens and such in your part of the state later in Spring, in the April-May time frame and see if any of them are growing it. If you find it succeeding there, then maybe it is worth a try in your home landscape. That's not always true because botanical gardens have a lot more resources to amend soil, water heavily, etc. than the average home owner has, but if I see a plant thriving in a botanical garden, I do take that as more of a sign that maybe I ought to try it.

Wow, Dawn! That's a lot of great info! I especially like the idea of only buying 1-2 plants and trying it out. Thank you! You know, I've been to the Dallas Arboretum several times, the US Arboretum in D.C., and the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Garden. Also the Tulsa Botanic Garden. But, I have never been to the one in my own city. I know. Weird. I did find out from one of the head guys at the D.C. Gardens that they get some of their plants from Bustani Plant Farm in Stillwater! D.C. guy told me if I saw it growing in their gardens, I could probably grow it at home. I especially liked the Meadow Rue.

ajuga might do well in that situation. It has a beautiful purple flower in the spring. I would look into succulents as well.

....and I had to move the hydrangeas on the east side of my house...There was too much sun. So I moved them all to the south side of my house underneath my one remaining real tree. Guess what got hit in the ice storm this year?

nowyousedum, If Bustani is growing it, I'd consider that a positive sign.

Lisa, Oh no. Poor tree. Hydrangeas were an epic fail here. Our sandy soil, even well-amended, where I had planted them drained too quickly and I couldn't keep them alive in the drought years of 2005 and 2006, though I kept them alive through the drought of 2003 in which even less rain fell. It might just be that we were out at a lot more fires in 05-06 and I wasn't home to water them as much as I had watered in 03 (I didn't join the VFD until 04). It doesn't matter what I can or can't grow here in average years, obviously, because most things can be kept reasonably happy if you water them enough. It is the drought years that kill plants, and we have had far too many drought years since moving here, with not nearly enough wet years. I guess last year made up for all the dry years, and it did it all in one year. Now I'm learning what can and cannot tolerate or at least did or did not tolerate 78" of rain in one year.

Dawn