here is another pic...

pic didn't upload... i'll try again

try again...

i think you ought to long term plant to get rid of the yellows ... i SUSPECT they wont look great with the new stuff.. but you can call that the 3 or 5 year plan ...

how deep is the bed .. and remind us where you are ..

did we help you with the other side.. this house looks vaguely familiar???

im not sure you have room for the sizes you suggested.. 8 feet tall and 12 wide??? .. trees and shrubs dont stop growing at some magical height.. and anything that gets that big.. will just keep on going ....

any reason you cant come out into the lawn ... and plant a decorative tree or two .. i think part of the visula issue.. is the size of the house.. compared to the small width of the bed .... as those there grew... they looked out of proportion compared to the house ...

im thinking redbud [location???] or some of the shrubs that can be trained into tree form ..

that would leave you with much smaller things nearer the foundation ... this would add depth the the landscape.. rather than all jammed on the foundation ...

ken

Why don't you go ahead and remove the 4 shrubs in front of the window? Then take some more pictures with them gone. It will be much easier to see what to do then.

good idea Tigereye. Ken north of Toronto. Yes I've posted here many times and I've posted pics of my property. Inshod take a pic of the whole front. I hbe a red oak and a Norway maple further out from the house. They're a a recently planted serviceberry and if you look carefully there a recelty planted concolir for ton the left of the golden mounded juniper. It's an archers dwarf and 10 feet from my foundation. It grows very slowly and remains narrow which is why I anted it only 10 feet from house.

I'll post a pic of the whole from yard.

And yes redbuds work here. I have one on my backyard.

I have a Viburnum plicatum tom mariesii in the backyard... only 2 yeas old but already developing some character and it has decent fall color... I wanted the shasta but at the time the mariesii was only available. I've heard the shasta is a bit better.

Here are some more pics... hopefully gives you a better idea.

I also like the idea of a hybrid witchhazel like a Jelena... same size as the shasta i think..

Check that you have a balance of winter interest with the flowering and autumn foliage shrubs. Right now I don’t have a feel for what you will have for winter color and interest once this set of evergreens is removed, and at least here, winter can be approaching half of the year, and about half of that typically has little snow. If you have a preponderance of deciduous plants the house may look fairly boring for a good chunk of the year.

there is an emerging concolor blue archer's fir.... take a look at this pic once again.. as well, I may keep the golden junipers (i forge the cultivar). I am thinking fothergilla too.. maybe three specimens as they are small and slow growing. I have one in the backyard.. amazing fall color and neat little shrub.. but one alone is almost point less I am beginning to realize.

The Viburnum you want will get too large for that space. Larger than the plant you want to remove. It could be kept shorter with shearing but that limits the beauty of the plant.

If you like the gold color junipers why not put another in the center?

so a smaller shrub...thanks

although I measured the space, including moving the two gold juniper, and it's about 20'! Shasta grow more than 20'? Wow, if they do, that's one hell of a big shrub!

It’s not the width, but instead the height of the Viburnum that will be an issue. I think you will be hard pressed to keep it below the window, and if you do it will be awkwardly shaped. I think the Fothergilla will be better sized for the spot it ir is a somewhat homely shrub midsummer. I grow summer-blooming clematis vines over mine to add interest between the spring bloom and autumn color.

Perhaps add an evergreen groundcover to make it less plain in winter?

Do you think i should stick to one fothergilla, NHBabs? Or could I group three? They aren't very large growing shrubs... it'll be a long time before that gap fills in even if I plant some ground cover..

One Fothergilla won’t fill that spot, so if you want one kind of shrub, then yes plant three.

I have three F. Mt Airy that are at least a dozen years old, started from rooted cuttings in a space that is about 14’x 5’. IME they were close to the size they are now after about 4 or 5 seasons. Consider making the bed deep enough front to back so that you have room for some smaller shrubs or perennials in front and plant some evergreen shade tolerant groundcover such as Veronica Georgia Blue or one of the evergreen Geraniums to fill in around it as well as a couple of bright hard prune clematis to grow over it.

Would you suggest the clamatis be planted to grow up the walls of my home?

Seems like Fothergillas top out at 5 x 4 or so.. my plant has barely grown over the past 3 years.. doesn't help than the damn rabbit munched down on it this past winter as I forgot to cage the plant.

If I go this route with 3 fothergilla I am going to leave the 2 gold junipers in place for now.. those would give me the 'evergreen' component.. I actually kind of like them... and they would give contrast to the space - color and texture... add some of the Veronica Georgia Blue or something similar... might work...

Get your viburnum - in fact several - and plant them as a short hedge coming out from the end of the house to screen the neighbor's big blank wall and garage. Not suggesting a full hedge to divide the properties, but just a gesture to frame your own with greenery. The view in your picture would seem to be a key one to get the composition just right, as this must be where people park and enter your own walk to the front door. Study the picture and imagine what you would like to see added or edited.

That's really interesting, Babs..

I got this idea from another gardener here many years ago. The shrub needs to be stiff enough that the branches will support the clematis, so I have also used stiffly branched panicled hydrangeas and a nonsuckering species of lilac, but not floppier plants like Spiraea or Deutizia or even a panicled hydrangea like vanilla strawberry that has more flexible branches.

A most disconcerting look is what's below the main window. If the juniper were removed from the back, and the three remaining shrubs were pruned as a single dome shape, it could come together.

The problem with that yardvark is that they are arborvitae. once I cut out the juniper they will be dead brown on the other side.

took a look at the plant again and Yardvaark is on to something... it might work.. can't hurt to try.

"... once I cut out the juniper they will be dead brown on the other side." Is that the back side? Who cares? It's either that or remove everything and start over below the window ... with maybe just one shrub next time.

Ya previous owner didn't consider how big these things get! Most people don't everything I pant these days I take into considering ultimate growth...