Foundation Plantings: The Whys, the Whats, and the Hows
In “Foundation Plantings: The Whys, the Whats, and the Hows,” I’m spilling on my reasons for implementing foundation plantings in an ornamental garden, my own ideas about what actually makes foundation plantings actual foundation plantings, and what I think is an effective plan for implementing them. And, as you’ll soon see, those reasons and ideas are not necessarily garden variety.
By John G. Stamos
Table of Contents
Introduction to Foundation Plantings: The Whys, the Whats, and the Hows
Greetings, gang, it’s your old pal John G., back with a few definite opinions about some gardening things. Some ornamental gardening things. And today, those ornamental gardening things are foundation plantings. Specifically the whys and the whats and the hows of foundation plantings. In this article, I’ll deliver some info to you that you may or may not have already seen and already know (but, really, more than likely have), and some info, which finds its origins within the recesses of my own brain, that just might be new to you. And maybe a little bit of this new stuff comes from my heart, too. Who knows? In any case, it’s all good, and it should definitely be helpful to you if you’re planning a new ornamental garden space, or re-working an existing one. So, like the sign says, you’re going to get the lowdown on why foundation plantings are important, the kinds of plants that I believe satisfactorily serve as legitimate foundation plants, and how to implement foundation plantings so that your garden ends up looking pretty cool. There’s also a ton of pics here, direct from my own hardiness zone 5B/6A garden, so you can understand, graphically, what I’m trying to explain. Finally, you’ll get a product rec or two, which, naturally, will be excellent. Here you go…
Foundation Plantings: The Whys - It's All about the Design... and Something Else, Too
My garden, my design.
Long-time RGG readers and subscribers might remember an article I wrote back in 2021 titled “My Garden Design Scheme.” In it, I laid out the importance of implementing strong, sizeable components as anchoring elements in my own ornamental garden’s design and layout. Many of those components, at least as far as that particular article was concerned, were hardscape structures. Limestone walls and planters, wrought iron arches, limestone pads and walking paths, and a heavy wooden arbor and trellis structure were highlighted as anchoring components and focal points in my garden’s overall design. These hardscape structures arrest the eye and call attention to the organic-meets-inorganic dynamic that’s developed as my garden’s plants mingled with and swarmed over them.
But substantial anchoring plants – foundation plantings – were also briefly discussed in that article. Like the substantial hardscape elements of my garden, and as you’ll soon read, these foundation plants also serve as garden anchors and focal points. And they accomplish even more… but more on that in a few more beats.
Foundation plantings: the "obvious whys."
Why plan a garden that features foundation plantings? Well, my groovy gardening cats and kittens, there exists the proverbial shitload of reasons – a good percentage of which is made up of either common sense or common knowledge, or, at the very least, things you may have read in a garden design book or heard some garden designer type going on and on about. I’m going to get a few of the main, more obvious reasons out of the way first, and afterwards, hit you with my mystical/emotive/esoteric/introspective/highly-personal reason. So, like I was saying… the obvious reasons why you’ll want to utilize foundation plantings in your own garden’s design:
1. Ground-to-eye-level and ground-to-sky continuity. I consider substantial, medium tall, to tall, to quite tall plants to be important focal points in an ornamental garden. In addition to arresting one’s eye with their particular attributes and dimensions, they put that eye in motion as they draw its line of sight up from the ground to eye level and beyond. By forcing this ocular travel pattern in the observation of an ornamental garden’s overall appearance, a longitudinally accented panoramic effect is achieved. A tapestry is woven, as interpreted by the brain, that stretches from soil to clouds. Lower growing flowers and foliage are “swept up” into this vertical kaleidoscope and the sense of depth and dimension of a particular garden is heightened. Who the hell am I to run my mouth about this visual-physio-psycho-sensual phenomenon? A neurologist? An optometrist? A psychologist? Nah. I’m just a guy who experiences it on warm and sunny days in my own garden with frightening regularity. Foundation plants that have some height going for them will do this for you.
2. Obscuring what you’d like to hide. There’s nothing like a tall brawny bush or tree (or lots of tall brawny bushes or trees) to hide stuff that you’d prefer not to see: fencing, utility drops and feeds, electrical distribution components, your pain in the ass neighbors and their obnoxious swimming pool, etc., etc., etc.
3. Mass and substance create a foundation and anchor a garden space. I like to think of my ornamental garden space, in its simplest terms, as a king size bed mattress, and the pretty perennial plants that grow there as a bed cover (whoah – it’s a floral pattern – glory be!) that blankets it. This simplest-terms-mental-construct of a bed has no bed frame, no headboard, no side rails, nor footboard, and certainly, it’s not a four-poster. It’s just a big old flat mattress, and it’s laying right on the floor. And there aren’t any big, fluffy pillows laying on top of it. My meaty little hoglet of a dog hasn’t curled herself into a ball in its center to snooze and snore. Nope. It’s just a flat mattress with a bed cover on it. And, although that floral-patterned cover is pretty, it, and the king size bed mattress it covers, are still flat. And not very interesting. And you know what? This simple little mind’s eye chambre à coucher ensemble – flat bed mattress and 2-dimensional bed cover – gives me the impression that I, or anyone else who’s so inclined, can walk right up to that mattress and yank that pretty floral bed cover right off, maybe even haul the mattress itself out to the old roll off and shitcan the whole thing. And why would I or anyone else want to do that? Well, hell, guys, because it’s flat and uninteresting, and in its current 2D-ish state, it looks ready for the scrap heap. Now, with this vision in your head, imagine what a bedframe, headboard, four solid posts, awesome big pillows, a contentedly snoring dog (who’s not moving for anything), maybe even a canopy… just imagine what all of that does for that flat mattress and pretty-but-simple (and, don’t forget, flat) bed cover.
I think you’re maybe getting the picture…
Substantial, intelligently (and creatively) placed foundation plantings add interest, dimension, and an anchoring sense of permanence to an ornamental garden. The pretty flowers and foliage of herbaceous, less substantial perennials are augmented by the presence of bigger, heartier, and/or taller bushes and trees growing at key locations in their midst. Foundation plantings give our flat king size mattress a frame, and add all of the visual and emotive cues that make it a regal bedroom component: Upright bushes and trees convert that flat king size mattress into an eye-arresting four-poster; full, meaty bushes and hefty plants do for a garden full of delicate flowering perennials exactly what pillows and a lazy snoring pup do for a pretty, but flat and uninteresting, bed cover. Foundation plantings turn a bunch of pretty flowers into a garden.
Get the picture?
Foundation plantings: The "not-so-obvious whys."
Ok, gang, here it is. Here’s my personal, introspective, and somewhat esoteric reason for including foundation plantings in my garden. It’s like this: The plants that I use in my foundation plantings are all substantial and very long-lived. I personally become very attached to these plants. I experience a profound communion with them, and I’m very, very sensitive to their health and well-being. Every bit of growth that they experience, I experience right along with them. They’re the living, breathing (yes, plants really do breathe) embodiment of the passing years. As these organisms thrive, grow, and expand to help define the character of my garden, it’s impossible for me to not mark the progression of my own life and the ongoing formation of my own character. Sounds silly, sports fans, but I actually feel myself growing in tandem with my garden’s maturing, expanding foundation plants. They grow right along with me, and I with them. As their branches strengthen and strive for greater height, inching closer and closer to the life-giving light of our planet’s great sun, I marvel at the physical changes they undergo as they swell and harden, and their roots grow ever deeper into the earth. These beings fulfill their destinies, their individual biological imperatives, as I watch and the years pass. And I can’t help but feel that they maybe even garner a little bit of wisdom – just as I do – along the way.
Foundation Plantings: The Whats
Traditional foundation planting candidates.
The sky is virtually the limit when it comes to choosing foundation plants for an ornamental garden. Trees and bushes of every size shape, with sunlight requirements that are just as diverse, are available to help you build your own garden’s foundation. Below is a brief list of some of the plants that create excellent foundation plantings in my garden. In addition to those really wonderful foundation plants I’ve already referenced (Rose of Sharon, elderberry, Spirea, holly, privet), each of the names on the following list fit the foundation planting bill perfectly. There are a few pics to go along with the info, too.
1. Rhododendron and azalea. No doubt about it. These woody, substantial, well-branched, evergreen (rhodies and some azaleas), and beautifully blooming bushes and trees make remarkable anchoring foundation plants for an ornamental garden. Their closely related cousins of the Pieris genus, which are very similar in appearance and habit to rhodies, are excellent candidates, as well. I’ve got some of each growing in my ornamental garden as foundation plants.
2. Hydrangea. Big, bushy, and often covered in flowers for really long periods of time, hydrangeas make excellent foundation plants. Use them as a central high point in a raised bed or hill, or line them up along a wall, fence, patio, or deck. They generally play nice with smaller perennials, and look great in mixed beds. I’ve got bigleaf (Hydrange macrophylla), smooth (Hydrangea arborescens), and panicled (Hydrangea paniculata) species growing in my garden, and they all work beautifully as foundation plantings.
3. Contorted filbert, aka, Twisted witch hazel or Harold Lauder’s Walking Stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’). A robust, woody shrub with a fascinating form, the contorted filbert prefers a mostly sunny to partially shady location, and grows to approximately 10′ in height and width. Mine grows in a very shady spot and still performs beautifully. It’s located along my garden’s fence, and I prune it in order to keep its size manageable.
4. Roses. Yep. Roses make great foundation plants. In my garden, I grow floribundas, English shrub roses, hybrid teas, Knock Outs, and most recently, a rugosa rose, and any and all of them make excellent foundation plantings. Grow them together in one feature, as a hedgerow, surrounded by lesser companion and groundcoveror plants, or as individual anchoring specimen bushes. Although I hard prune my rose bushes every year in the very late winter or early spring, they grow back quickly in robust and healthy fashion. Many of my bushes grow to heights and widths of four or five feet (my baby Rosa rugosa should grow to six feet in height and width). Their form, beauty, and size make them ideal foundation plants.
5. Bush peonies and Itoh peonies. Definitely. Although these long-time garden favorites are herbaceous, they’re extremely robust and often reach very large sizes during the growing season. In spring, they’re early to emerge from the ground, and they reach their full size very, very quickly. Although they’re done flowering comparatively early in the growing season, their beefy stems and lush foliage remain throughout the summer and well into fall, making them substantial, verdant anchors for any ornamental garden. (Click here to read The RGG article, “How to Grow and Care for Bush Peonies for more info on these time-honored beauties.)
6. Lilac. Plant most lilacs in a sunny spot in your garden or landscape, and before long, you’ll have a very seriously large and robust foundation plant that also happens to smell better than just about anything else on Earth. Mine is 25 or 26 years old and about 15′ tall. It grows at the northeast corner of my house and distracts observers from noticing that my wood siding needs a paint job. Plant them anywhere there’s full sun and watch your lilacs respond, baby.
7. Sweet pepperbush. Clethra alnifolia ‘Vanilla Spice’ is the one I grow. It does well in partial sun, dappled sunlight, and partial shade, and it grows to five or six feet in height and spread. The white flower spikes are gorgeous, and, since this deciduous bush blooms on new wood, it can be pruned back aggressively in the late winter or early spring to help maintain its shape. Awesome as an anchor in a mixed bed, or as a standalone specimen planting. Mine grows in a big limestone planter with my elderberry tree, Japanese pieris, and hostas.
Vines as foundation plantings?
You betcha. Especially when they’re scrambling up a substantial hardscape feature like a trellis/arbor or an arch. The climbing vines that grow in my garden, like Clematis (‘Jackmanii’ and ‘H.F. Young’), Goldflame honeysuckle (Lonicera x heckrottii), and climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris) are all substantial, woody, and very long-lived vines. Each one is a check in all the good-foundation-plantings boxes. When these plants, growing on their respective hardscape structures, form backdrops for other foundation plants or smaller perennials, the effects are striking. Consider using robust climbing vines like mine as foundation plantings for your own ornamental garden. And be sure to read my article of 2022 in The RGG, “How Do Climbing Vines Actually Climb,” to learn the mechanics behind each type of climbing vine’s particular climb. Understanding the physiology behind a particular climbing vine’s method of attachment and ascent will help you make the proper choice in terms of the type of structure it will be scaling, and ultimately, its location in your garden.
A surprising group of foundation plants: herbaceous perennials
A lot of the garden designers and landscape architects I know don’t typically consider herbaceous perennials (with the exception of bush and Itoh peonies) to be good candidates for foundation plantings. Evidently, since they’re not woody (at least not overtly so) and they’re not deciduous, these plants don’t land on many garden designers’ or landscape architects’ foundation plantings lists. Well, I say damn the torpedoes! Forget what the non-believers say! In my own garden, there are some pretty awesome herbaceous perennials that function as amazing foundation plants (at least throughout the warm months of spring, summer, and fall). Below are a few examples of herbaceous perennials from my garden that I consider to be great candidates for foundation plantings.
1. Hostas. Do they die back to the ground in the fall? Yep. But are they also tough as nails and do they totally and reliably deliver form, mass, and rich green foliage and color wherever they’re planted? Are certain of them massive enough to appear bush-like and merit specimen planting status? Yes, yes, and yes. I love my hostas, and whether they’re in a front border, a back border, or in a central location in a particular planting bed, they lend form, solidity, and substance to a garden’s overall design. For more ideas and info on what hostas can do for your garden, be sure to check out my RGG article, published a few years back, “Green Up Your Garden with Hostas!”
2. Old-fashioned bleeding hearts. Dicentra spectabilis, old-fashioned bleeding hearts, is another ostensibly unlikely foundation planting candidate. Again, as a herbaceous perennial, it’s not often immediately considered as a foundation plant or an anchoring presence in an ornamental garden. But listen, folks, I’m here to tell you that it should be. I grow a pair of the ‘Alba’ (white-flowered) variety in my garden, and these bushes get enormous. From around the middle of April through much of May, they’re covered in the beautiful white heart-shaped flowers that give these plants their name. And they stay green for much of the summer up until the end of September or so when they start to yellow. But while they’re thriving and displaying their rich, green foliage and beautiful flowers, these shrub-like plants remain robust and reach a height and spread of over 3′. They look amazing encircled by lower growing flowering perennials and growing in front of even taller foundation plantings. They absolutely serve as an important anchoring component in my garden’s “Blue and White Hill” planting feature. I highly recommend them as foundation plantings. But be careful: they self-sow aggressively.
3. Oriental lilies. Another surprise here. Oriental lilies grow from bulbs, and are definitely herbaceous. And, unlike their lily tree hybrid cousins, they’re rarely thought of as foundation plants. In my garden, however, my Oriental lilies attain massive height – often 7′ or more – and they feature trunk-like stems covered in lush, glossy green foliage and huge numbers of massive blooms. They anchor not only my garden’s “Lily Patch” planting bed (featuring true lilies – Oriental and Asiatic lilies and daylilies [Hemerocallis], which aren’t lilies at all), but a large central section of my overall garden, as well. These plants are so incredibly tall and robust, they cannot be considered anything but foundation plants. They anchor an entire section of the garden with their presence, and they serve as one of my garden’s most arresting focal points. Oriental lilies as foundation plantings? Yep. Definitely.
An unexpected evergreen foundation plantings choice.
Hellebores. Helleborus, as a genus, does not typically immediately come to mind as a source of foundation planting candidates. But in my garden, I consider a number of its species among the very best of my foundation plants. I’ve written extensively here in The RGG about these fascinating, beautiful, and highly toxic evergreen bushes. To learn more about these gorgeous, long-lived beauties, feel free to read “Say Hello to Hellebores” and “Potted Christmas Rose Turning Brown? Hey, Don’t Quit on It!” For the intents and purposes of this article, suffice it to say that these plants are robust, have gorgeous, hearty, leathery evergreen foliage, and produce stunning blooms in various colors at some of the most unexpected times of the year. I’ve got four or five hellebores growing in one shady section of one of my garden’s most substantial planting beds, and they serve as excellent anchors for their beautiful but decidedly less robust perennial neighbors. My two biggest bushes grow to approximately 2′ in height and 3′ in spread.
Foundation Plantings: The Hows
This part right here? The fundamentals of implementing foundation plantings? It’s the easy part. You now know why I think foundation plantings should be implemented in a particular ornamental garden’s design, and you’ve got an arsenal of foundation plant suggestions. So, right here in this section, I’m going to give you what I consider to be the most basic of blueprints, and I’m going to trust you to use your own creativity, your own vision, and your own appreciation of the potential that the plants you choose as your anchors possess, and the legacy that they’ll create in your garden. Here are a few basics to keep in mind…
Remember the king size mattress analogy.
Think first, like I do, of a particular garden space as a flat mattress and bed cover. Then imagine how it would look with a frame, a headboard, a footboard, posts, pillows, and maybe a sleeping pup or kitty curled up on it. Where those items are placed on that flat mattress and bed cover, within your mind’s eye, is where you’re going to locate your garden’s anchoring foundation plantings. I believe this is the best way, and the best place, to start thinking about this whole process.
Another analogy: A pitched tent.
Generally, when a tent is pitched, it’s anchored to the ground at its four corners (if it’s square/rectangular), or at similarly-spaced intervals around its circumference if its oval or round. If your garden space is quare or rectangular, think about that pitched tent and locate substantial anchoring foundation plants at the corners. If your garden space is unusually shaped, or round(ish), place the most substantial anchoring plants at sensible intervals along its perimeter.
Poles are used to maintain a particular tent’s interior height and upright position, and to keep it from collapsing. Your garden’s anchoring plants, particularly the taller ones, will be placed according to this concept. They’re going to be in spots that support the notion of height and dimension in your garden.
So, thinking tent-wise, you’ll be locating your garden’s foundation plants in corners and/or along perimeters, and in various “support” locations within its interior where those substantial plants will arrest the eye, draw it skyward (or at least toward eye-level and’or beyond), and lend dimension to the space.
Locational, structural, and geographical details.
Are you planting in front of your house? What do you think about taller plants at its corners, and shorter plants beneath windows? Sounds reasonable. Are you trying to obscure a fence or a property line? How about planting tall, bushy evergreens in front of it? An arborvitae kind of thing? Will you be creating planting beds along the perimeter of your garden? Will taller foundation plants at the back border of each bed and shorter ones toward the front border look good? Yep. I bet they will. Is the planting bed you’re designing island-like, situated in the center of your garden space? Think about planting your tallest foundation plants toward the bed’s center, with shorter anchoring plants and less substantial perennials radiating outward. That plan works for me in my garden. I’m confident it will work for you, too. Do you have a long patio or deck facing out toward your garden? Wouldn’t some low-growing but substantial foundation plantings look good running right along its edge? What about one taller foundation plant located at each end of that edge, serving as bookends or twin exclamation points for the lower-growing plants? It’s a good look, I’m thinking.
The bottom line, guys, is that foundation plantings enhance a garden space or landscape by creating visual interest, texture, and dimension, and they can be used to accentuate what you’d like to be seen, and hide what you don’t. You can tailor your use of foundation plantings in response to your own garden’s or landscape’s particular locational, structural, and geographical characteristics. Be smart about it, and be creative. Your judicious use of foundation plantings in your outdoor space’s design is definitely going to give it the look and feel and vibe that you’ve always wanted it to have. It’s guaranteed, baby!
In the end, it's all up to you...
With the notion in mind of foundation plantings directing your gaze upward from soil to sky, sweeping all of the color and beauty your garden has to offer right up into a kaleidoscopic dynamic of height and motion, you’ll make your plan. With the knowledge that substantial, robust foundation plantings anchor your garden and give it heft and dimension in your hip pocket, you’ll lay out your garden space. And maybe, if you’re anything like me and you feel yourself growing older and wiser right along with your solid and reliable foundation plantings, you’ll locate them where you can keep a close eye on them, and watch every single development.
Product Recommendations
Each of the four products featured below are excellent. Of course, I use all of them and I enthusiastically and wholeheartedly recommend them. Their use figures prominently in the continued health and vibrancy of so many of my foundation plantings. I’ve experienced nothing but great success with each one of these products. I wouldn’t recommend them if I didn’t have faith in them.
Espoma Organic Tree-tone. This is an excellent organic food for so many ornamental and fruit and nut-producing trees and shrubs. It’s got an N-P-K ratio of 6-3-2, and it features Bio-Tone, which is Espoma’s proprietary population of beneficial microbe colonies. I apply this product to my contorted filbert and sweet pepperbush, and my ‘Juliet dwarf cheery tree, and they’ve thrived beautifully as a result. To learn more about this excellent organic product, or to order it right here, directly from Amazon, please click the #advertisement link.
Espoma Organic Soil Acidifier. Espoma Organic Soil Acidifier is the perfect product for lowering the pH and increasing the acidity of your garden’s soil. It’s a fabulous organic product that I use to lower soil pH for plants like my blue hydrangeas and my rhododendrons, azalea, and pieris. It’s very effective, and it allows acid-loving plants like these to properly access and utilize nutrients from fertilizing products. Order it here, from Amazon, by clicking the #advertisement link.
Espoma Organic Holly-tone. Espoma Organic Holly-tone is an unparalleled food for acid-loving plants and evergreens. It’s an organic formulation with an N-P-K of 4-3-4, a multitude of beneficial microbes, and a respectable amount of sulfur (5%, in elemental sulfur form) on tap for performing its own bit of soil acidifying. As a stand-alone product, there is, in my own experience, simply not a better fertilizer for rhododendrons, azaleas, pieris, hollies, and other acid-loving evergreen bushes. Click the #advertisement link to learn more, or to order it here, directly from Amazon.
Ohrstrom’s Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed Plus Iron. Ohrstrom’s Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed Plus Iron is a remarkable source of iron for acid-loving plants. When used in conjunction with Espoma Organic Soil Acidifier and Espoma Organic Holly-tone, it literally works miracles. It’s got an N-P-K of 0-0-1 and it contains 2% iron. It’s sourced from Ascophyllum nodosum seaweed harvested from the waters along Norway’s coastline. The beneficial effects of this product are noticeable almost immediately after its application. Click the #advertisement link to learn more, or to order it here, from Amazon.
And, We're Done!
I’ll mention one final thing before we stick a fork in this one: I suggest a look around in The Renaissance Garden Guy Photo Gallery. There, you’ll find 19 individual image galleries, many of which do a pretty decent job of showcasing the foundation plantings I’ve referenced in this article. It might be worth the stop.
That’s it girls and boys, you’re done with me. And not a moment too soon, right? Well, at least you’ve got a handle on what I think is a halfway decent paradigm for the implementation of foundation plantings in an ornamental garden. You know why I think implementing these types of plantings are critical for the design of a garden, you know what plants I use in my own garden as anchoring foundation plants, you have a basic conceptual guide for implementing foundation plantings in your own garden design, and you’ve got four excellent product recs that will keep so many of your own foundation plantings happy and healthy.
And now, gang, I got nothin’ left.
Thanks for sticking this one out, and, as always, thank you for your continued kind interest and readership.
Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
The Renaissance Garden Guy is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, The Renaissance Garden Guy earns from qualifying purchases.
Additionally, The Renaissance Garden Guy is a participant in the Bluehost, SeedsNow, and hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting) affiliate programs. The Renaissance Garden Guy earns a fee/commission each time a visitor clicks on an ad or banner in this site from one of these companies and makes a subsequent qualifying purchase.
Please click here to view The Renaissance Garden Guy Disclosure page.
What beautiful images of a divine garden 😍
Great article packed with valuable insights and information.🌸🌼🌺
Well, I thank you very kindly, Roxxy! I’m so glad you enjoyed the article, and I’m extra excited that you think my garden doesn’t look too horrible. It’s been a brutally dry fall, winter, and spring, and my poor plants really took a beating. But I think most of them are finally starting to make a comeback! Thanks again for your kind words, Roxxy, and for reading the article – I really appreciate it!
Great article with lots of excellent detailed information. This article is a must read for everyone who is in the planning phase of a new garden. It is also a great read for anyone who wants to do additional planting in an established garden. Thanks for the product recommendations as well.
Thank you so much, Kevin. I really appreciate the kind words, and I thank you for reading the whole thing. It’s difficult to give someone blow-by-blow instructions for designing an ornamental garden without being right there on-site with them. I thought the best route was suggesting foundation plantings as a starting point and encouraging those readers who might be in the planning phase to think about their particular outdoor space’s geography and topography. Thanks once again, Kevin.
An in depth but always enjoyable article. Your ability to successfully explain through examples is effective.
Thank you, Rick, for reading the article and for your kind comments. I’m happy you found it enjoyable, and I’m really glad to know that you found it comprehensible. It was fun to write it, and it’s good to know that I was able to get my ideas across successfully. Thanks once again, Rick.
I enjoyed reading this article. Unfortunately, many of the plants you mentioned might tolerate the heat but not direct sunlight, which is mostly what I have now. Years ago I had a huge almond tree in my front yard and grew lots of shade-loving plants with ease. That tree was removed many years ago, and I have very little shade.
I love hostas and will explore if they can grow here in my part of Jamaica. There are parts of Jamaica where it gets pretty cool.
Thanks for this indepth article on foundation plantings.
Thank you so much for reading the article, Yvonne, and for your kind thoughts and words. You do bring up an interesting point with respect to hardiness zones and growing zones. I’d be curious to know in which zone you’re located. Believe it or not, many of the foundation plants I referenced in the article perform beautifully in direct sunlight. Without knowing your area’s hardiness zone, however, it would be difficult for me to make any specific suggestions. In terms of sun tolerance, Hydrangea arborescens and Hydrangea paniculata (USDA hardiness zones 3-8) perform beautifully in full sun, as do bush and Itoh peomies (zones 3-8), Rose of Sharon (zones 5-9), Goldflame honeysuckle (zones 4-9), Clematis (zones 4-9), lilac (zones 3-7), Black Tower elderberry 9zones 3-9), and even certain hosta species, like ‘Guacamole’ and ‘Fried Banana’ (zones 3-8 or 9). Maybe, if your garden’s hardiness zone allows, you could give some of these beauties a try. Thanks once again, Yvonne, for reading the article and for sharing your thoughts and kind words here.