AboutMarc Chapelle, ASLA Expertise As a licensed Landscape Architect, I can answer general questions about style and design, ideas and suggestions for site amenities, larger site-planning issues, or recreation and park design.
IF YOU JUST WANT A PLANT SUGGESTION GO HERE: http://www.growit.com/PlantInfo/LandScape.htm
I prefer you ask somebody else why your petunias are not as perky as they should be...I'd LOVE to tell you how can use those petunias to increase your home's value!
Experience Member, American Society of Landscape Architects (ALSA.org); Past clients have been mostly contractors, developers and local civil engineering/architecture firms, plus the occasional homeowner. Currently, I design recreational facilities for the National Park Service (DOI).
I am located in the dry Great Basin area (Greater Nevada/Utah), so the use of landscape materials OTHER than plants is emphasized. As a licensed Landscape Architect on the East and West Coasts, I have been in practice over 20 years.
Organizations ASLA (ASLA.org)
Education/Credentials BSLA in Landscape Architecture, 1989
Many additional seminars, educational venues, and classes (both taught & attended)
Awards and Honors Best Multifamily project, 1993
Best Model Home Landscaping, 1993
Question I am tearing out overgrown (25 years old 8 to 10 ft. across) junipers from a 90 ft. area of my front yard. The front is two tiered (rock wall three ft. high separates the front). Lower area is 90x36. Upper is 90x24. The junipers are woody and are across the top of the rock wall and take up about 40% of the area below the wall. They face north and receive ~ 4-6 hours of afternoon sun. My intention is to sod the lower front with a sculpted area for possibly some Endless Summer hydrangeas. Since the area is now totally covered by the junipers, I wondering whether the area will look too sparse. In addition I'd like to know if this variety of plant is a good choice. Recommendations?"
Answer It is a fine thing to fall in love with a single plant, but in order to display it for optimum enjoyment, your Hydrangeas needs “context”. Even the best of deserts make a lousy breakfast-lunch-dinner menu if that is all there is to enjoy. I agree that too much(plus old & leggy) juniper is a bad thing, so out they come.
As far as “endless summer” hydrangeas, they are deciduous, so for several months out of the year, they will just be brown twigs sticking out of the ground.
Like a good jeweler displaying his diamonds, you’ll need a backdrop of velvet (in this case a “green” velvet of other more mundane plants) to make the Hydrangea’s beauty stand out...So yes, replacing the juniper with just lawn & hydrangea alone would be too sparse.
You didn’t mention what part of the U.S. you are in. Now the acidic soil from the removed juniper area will give you awesome Hydrangea bloom colors. However, that isn’t the only challenge for this Southern plant: Here is discussion about growing this warm-loving Hydrangeas in a colder climate: http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2008/06/01/forever-and-ever-hydrangeas-takin...
