Software
Houzz Logo Print
lisa_bennett58

Companion Plant for Azalea

9 years ago

I need some help with companion plants in a bed I have! It's situated against the front of the house, facing east/southeast, so it gets great morning light especially in the summer. I'd say it's full to partial sun. The bed is about 14' long. In the left corner is a "Mountain Fire" Japanese Andromeda - love the dramatic red of the new foliage - and in the right corner is an azalea with bright pink flowers. So, that leaves me with about 8' in between to play with. What should I plant? Right now I have some daylilies, columbine, and geum, but I'm not thrilled with a large winter bare spot and would be open to putting in a shrub or two. I need something fairly low as I have a window on that side of the house and the sill is only 2-3 feet off the ground. I'm in Rhode Island zone 6b. Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

Comments (11)

  • 9 years ago

    Forgot to mention: deer, squirrels, rabbits, turkeys, I have them all. So, needs to be wildlife-resistant.

  • 9 years ago

    I always do better at making suggestions if there is a photo.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I know the azalea looks horrible with no leaves. It's getting severely pruned when the flowers die; hopefully it'll flesh out new growth next year.

  • 9 years ago

    I think adding more shrubs to the current lineup might be too much. Right now the Andromeda overwhelms the rhodoendron so I would be inclined to move one or the other. I would vote to move the Andromeda becasue it looks too high relative to the window, but it looks healthy so that might be the perfect spot. A row of boxwoods would give you symmetry, year round foilage and they are deer proof. If you keep the Andromeda in that spot I would plant something in front of it to cover up the legginess of the Andromeda. Maybe move some of your daylillies in front, but they are not deer proof. Tell us what you decide!

  • 9 years ago

    I forgot to mention that you could try a couple of holly bushes on each end.

  • 9 years ago

    Would you be willing to take a few steps backwards and take one more photo so that all of the Pieris is shown and whatever is in the daffodil bed (a crabapple?)? Would it make sense to try to join the two beds or is the thin strip of grass important for access to another part of the yard? How is this bed edged? Would it be OK with a fairly vigorous perennial? How far is the window above the ground?

    My first thought with these photos is that the two plants seem unbalanced with the Pieris being really large and robust while the rhododendron is more suited for the space, but perhaps that is the angle of the photo. Do you like the lavender pink of the rhodie and crab(?) combined with the more red of the new Pieris foliage? I might be inclined to move one or the other, as CTGG mentioned above, but I can't tell how this fits into the rest of the yard, so perhaps this isn't the best solution.

    I would most likely go for something that will give a single mass of foliage/flowers in that spot rather than one of this and one of that (perhaps adding bulbs for early color) and I would probably add the same plant somewhere else in the yard (is there a space somewhere on the other side of the walkway?). I might go for one of the evergreen groundcover Geraniums such as G. macrorrhizum Album, Bevans Variety or Ingwersen's Variety, or G. x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo', St. Ola, or Karmina, all of which combine evergreen foliage, spring flowers, and for several, fall color. Iberis sempervirens/perennial candytuft is a mass of white in the spring and then tidy green foliage the remainder of the year. I think it will look better with a plant that is at least a foot tall, though, so the Iberis might be too short since it's 6"-8".

    You could go for deciduous shrubs underplanted with a lower evergreen groundcover. Something like Hydrangea paniculata Bobo which is fine in a lot of sun unlike the more common bigleaf hydrangeas underplanted with an evergreen spreading Dianthus (Greystone is my favorite) or Veronica 'Georgia Blue' or the Iberis mentioned above. I leave the dried flowers on my H. paniculatas since I like the look of the tan dried flowers and they give the winter branches some substance even without leaves. This arrangement would give a mass of color at ground level in the spring before the Hydrangea fills out, a mass of green at ground level for the winter, and a mass of frothy white to pink flowers for July-frost that reaches 3'-4'. There are several threads on Bobo over on the perennials forum. I haven't had any of my panicled hydrangeas bothered by deer, but YMMV. Are you willing to spray with a deterrent or spread Milorganite if it's an issue?

  • 9 years ago

    Thanks NHBabs for the advice. I'll take a few more photos tonight when I get home from work, but for now I can answer a couple of your questions. I'm also going to preface this by saying I bought the house in 2014, so I'm still new to landscaping and would prefer a low maintenance yard as it's just me taking care of it.

    Yes, that is a crabapple in the daffodil bed! It is a circular bed edged with Belgian block which has been cemented in place. The pieris and rhododendron bed was edged with circular slices of wood which were also cemented in. I took out the wood as it was rotting and just the cement is left. I don't mind the strip of grass in between the two.

    I agree that the bed looks unbalanced with the pieris being so large and the rhodie so small. If I were to remove anything, my first inclination would be the rhodie since it is looking scraggly anyway and with the apple, I feel as if there's too much pink on that side of the house. I hate to cut down the pieris since it seems to be doing well in that spot, even if it seems a little too tall for the space, and I don't have a good spot right now to move it to. Oh, there's also a yucca of some sort cramming the pieris; the yucca is getting removed in a few weeks.

    More pictures forthcoming! CTGG, I have lots of holly elsewhere in the backyard so I'm hesitant to use those.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Be aware that yucca can be difficult to remove. Plan on removing what you can, and then dripping undiluted glyphosate herbicide on the cut surfaces of remaining roots (don't spray near plants you want to keep). It may still resprout, but keep pulling and dripping as soon as you see them, and eventually they will be gone. There is a really long thread on removal of yucca on the perennials forum with all kinds of bizarre substances that folks have tried to use, but persistence in removing sprouts quickly and judicious use of glyphosate (which won't remain in soil to damage other plants as some herbicides do) are your best bet. I don't use many man-made chemicals in my garden, but there are a few cases where I do, and removal of problem persistent plants is one.

  • 9 years ago

    Finally got to take more photos this morning. Hopefully this will help. Yes, the crabapple is getting pruned possibly as soon as the 13th as I will have family here helping with a different yard project. I think one somewhat low growing shrub under the window will work - the bottom of the window is 41.5" above the bed. I would prefer something evergreen since both the pieris and the azalea are, and I hate to have such an empty spot in winter. . .but I'm always open to any suggestion! Thanks everyone so far.

  • 9 years ago

    It looks better in views where you can see the crab apple.

    I'd move the azalea to the middle and put another Japanese Andromeda in the right corner. It would look more symmetrical and with a little pruning the azalea could be kept under the window. I don't think the Japanese Andromeda is too big.

    Check the raised bed around the crab. Make sure the crab isn't planted too deep, and if possible make sure there are drainage holes in the little wall around it.

  • 9 years ago

    I like the distant view much better as well. For me the only thing I might feel iffy about is the range of different pink/red tones all close together: crab, rhodie, pieris and front door.

    I don't think I would add another Pieris by the front door since it will get large enough to crowd the walkway.

    Before I make other suggestions with incomplete info, could you take some photos standing out by the curb in line with the front door, perhaps two or three slightly overlapping photos so we can see the whole yard? You suggested moving the rhodie to the other side of the yard, but there aren't photos of that, so I don't know what might work.

Sponsored
J.Holderby - Renovations
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars4 Reviews
Franklin County's Leading General Contractors - 2X Best of Houzz!