the globes near the foundation .. insure that you give yourself enough working room for getting in there and shearing them once or twice per year ...

your ideas are pretty good.. but they look over planted ...

be careful.. when you buy babe plants.. that you allow for the future potential for them to grow to specs .. dont buy twice what you need.. just to fill it up at the beginning ... and a few years down the line.. you are over stuffed ...

one way to see the future.. is to google the latin names ... and look to the images page to see what the future might hold..

same goes for your vetical conifers ... plant them so there is plenty of space from the eaves ... so they arent rubbing on them in the future ...

i would probably add something out into the lawn ... to soften the hard horizontal lines of the sidewalk and foundation ... just a couple things.. to add depth the the plan ...

just keep in mind.. plants are planted to hide the foundation ... not in the foundation ... shrubs and conifers.. really never stop growing.. at some magical size ... and at that point you either prune them to tame them... or remove them ... unfortunately.. the pruning can become a PIA annual or twice a year project .. which at our ages.. i would suggest you plan around.. rather than make a annual job out of ..

ken

ps: i suspect the 30+ year old shrubs you removed.. where removed because of improper siting.. and lack of knowledge of their future potential ... but thats just a guess ...

They were kind of out of control when I bought the house and I tried pruning them back which left too much of the woody branches showing so I cut them all the way back to the ground to see if they would come back which they did (as shown in the first photo) but I wasn’t happy with the results. I asked an arborist when I was having a tree looked at and they said shrubs should be replaced when they get that age.

I am planning the plants base on there mature age. When I start measuring, I may find I don’t have room for the three rows. The last photo just shows two rows. Maybe I will go with two rows but plant the front row in groups of three to break up the straight lines like the one photo.

P.S. You should have seen the size of some of those 38 year old roots.

It’s nice that you have such deep beds to work with. Generally folks make them way too narrow for most things except perennials. I’ve no comment on your design (not my forte), but I might suggest you pass on the barberry. It’s a listed invasive in your state, and it’s no fun to prune or clip out dead stuff with those thorns.

some ideas:

plants shown are cleyera. otto luyken laurel, spanish lavender, midnight wine yarrow. dwarf nandina, softtouch holly, sasanqua camellia

Interested, what are the names of the plants you added?

I'm not sure you had mentioned the exposure -- full sun? Hot and dry? Part shade? Wet? well-draining? It's next to impossible to make recommendations until we know that.

If very sunny and hot, well-draining, maybe consider Pittosporum or India Hawthorn instead of the larger hollies? Hellerei's need part shade and really good drainage. Ilex cornuta Carissa holly is a bit spikey, but loves the heat. Maybe consider some smaller forms of Ternstroemia.

If part shade and well draining, there are some wonderful compact miniature Kalmias, like 'Minuet'. Silversword Azalea has a nice variegation. Osmanthus heterophyllus rotundifolius might be hard to find, but is a nice, friendly, slower-growing mounding plant with very few pests.

Crimson Pygmy Barberry are deciduous, right? Maybe consider an evergreen dwarf Loropetalum instead?

Also, the spreading habit of Fall blooming Camellia sasanqua 'Bonanza' might be nice to work in, maybe by the garage. Can be clipped to take the shape it needs.

I guess by 'Florida shrubs' you mean Weigela? Also deciduous. In Raleigh there should be a million evergreens to choose from for year-round appeal. Unless they want blooms.

Anyway, just some different plants to consider.

Thanks, I realized later I forgot to include sun exposure. My house faces East and I have large pine trees in front of my house so I have partial shade to partial sun.

One place I looked said Crimson Pygmy Barberry was evergreen and why I chose it. I guess there are no purple shrubs that are evergreen?

I will look into some of your suggestions. I was looking for a lighter or contrasting color for in front of the hollies.

I did consider one of the smaller Camellias by the garage. There actually was a Camellia there from the prior owner, but it was the larger size and it grew out over the sidewalk so I removed it. The smaller variety is a contender.

Really doubt that Crimson Pygmy Barberry is evergreen. It's deciduous around here every winter. Thorny too.

I’ve switched the Crimson Pygmy Barberry to Purple Daydream® Dwarf Loropetalum.

Here’s what I settled on. I’m still not sure about the pink Camellia. My wife wanted some pink blooms. If it turns out I have room, I might try some pink drift roses as a ground cover. I may go back to some columnar shrubs on each end of the garage if I can convince my wife.

I hope I don’t regret taking on this project. It’s starting to look a lot bigger than just replacing twelve hollies. :-)

Spring Awakening is an amazing camellia!

If I drop it out of the front landscape, I’ll put it in the back on my next project, if I live through the front.