Native Plants

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Saturday - May 29, 2010

From: Fort Branch, IN
Region: Midwest
Topic: Shrubs
Title: Flowering and evergreen shrubs for landscape in Indiana
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I live in Southern Indiana and we are getting ready to redesign our front landscape. Currently, we have some yews and other shrubs that are unruly and require a lot of pruning and care. My husband hates to trim the bushes and I prefer flowering plants. We are wanting to know of some possibilities for low maintenance, flowering shrubs and evergreens or both in one plant. All I can find are azaleas and rhodos. Also if I chose mainly azaleas, what other greens would complement them? I'm even considering a dwarf tree of some kind as accent if it didn't get too large. Thank you for your help!

ANSWER:

On our Native Plant Database you can do a COMBINATION SEARCH by selecting Indiana from the Select State or Province box and then 'Shrub' under Habit (general appearance) to find shrubs native to Indiana. We don't really have a way to search for evergreen plants in the database and Indiana doesn't really have a lot of native evergreen shrubs, but here are a few I found by looking at the different species pages of the Indiana native shrubs.

Chamaedaphne calyculata (leatherleaf) is evergreen and flowering, and here are more photos and information.

Juniperus communis var. depressa (common juniper) is evergreen, but not flowering, and here are photos and more information.

Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel) is evergreen and flowering

Mahonia repens (creeping barberry) is evergreen and flowering

For native Indiana flowering shrubs that aren't evergreen, you can find quite a few on our Indiana Recommended list. On this list are commercially available plants native to Indiana that are suitable for landscaping. You can use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option in the side bar to select characteristics important to you. For instance. you can choose 'Shrub' in the GENERAL APPEARANCE to narrow the list. You could also limit the results by making a choice in LIGHT REQUIREMENT and/or SOIL MOISTURE. Here are a few flowering plants from that list that aren't evergreen:

Cornus alternifolia (alternateleaf dogwood)

Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda (shrubby cinquefoil) This shrub can be evergreen in some locations.

Physocarpus opulifolius (common ninebark)

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus (coralberry)

You can do a similar search for trees in the Indiana Recommended list. Here are three smaller flowering trees from the list:

Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac) has blossoms, showy red fruit and spectacular autumn leaf color.

Prunus americana (American plum)

Cercis canadensis (eastern redbud)

Here are photos from our Image Gallery: