Shrubs in new woodland garden..Vibrunum, Hydrangea, Laurel??

Sunflower

So over the last few weeks, we've cleared away 10+ years of overgrowth and rubbish from a long stretch under pine or cyprus trees at the end of our garden here. It's about 120 meters long, south facing and @ 8 meters depth. So I want to make a maintenance free woodland garden under it. It is a lot airer than it was and gets nice dappled sun throughout the day. It's also well mulched with yrs of decomposing pines, branches, etc - so, while I haven't tested it I'd imagine it's acidic.

So I was wondering about what shrubs to plant? I'd like something that, apart from annual pruning / tidy up, would take care of itself once established, especially as we're often gone for wks at a time during the summer.

I have laurel or Vibrunum in mind for some coverage at one long end from the road?? Is there a better choice?

I'd also like to mass plant some flowering hedge. I'm not a massive fan of azaleas which prob be best choice.
I'm leaning towards hydrangea - mophead, teller or the oakleaf??

Any advice be greatly appreciated before I get stuck in!! Thank Smile

TMAK · Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 12:41 pm Post subject:

Hi sunflower. I’m not sure about putting laurel in as the get huge and have a tendency to take over. Is the soil very dry with all the trees. I would be tempted to put lots of spring bulbs around the fringes. It would come alive in springtime. Daffodils and bluebells. I would have a try with primroses and some ferns too.
Hydrangea like a damp soil but the dappled shade would suit them. Have you thought of rhodendrons. And if the soil is moist some hostas would love it in there.
The trees may have taken a lot of goodness from the soil so a bit of a feed wouldn’t go astray when planting. Are there any local areas that have similar conditions that you could have a look around and see what grows naturally. Would give some more ideas of the type of plants.

Sunflower · Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 3:12 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the reply – I appreciate it.

There are actually a lot of ferns and primroses there already and I am planning to plant bulbs in Sep for next spring – particularly bluebells.

I was afraid you’d say that about hydrangea. I think I’ll take another look at rhododendron & azaleas, maybe some of the smaller kinds would suit the space.