Suggest another plant for me, please.

[AmyRey]

For the front of our house. I want a shrub or maybe small tree to go in front of the house, off the side of the porch. Height needs to be at least 3 feet.

Our house faces south, with no shade at all on this spot except for very early in the morning. It will need to take absolutely BRUTAL summer heat and sun, be drought resistant and tolerate sandy, acidic soil.

I would like something with red foliage or flowers, to pick up on our red front door. Red red, not pinkish red.

Dark red (like a red delicious apple) would be better than bright red, but I might be getting a bit too picky. Anywhere from #6 - #8 on the right from this chart would do.

Any suggestions?

 

[patandchickens]

What zone?

Wanting RED-red, not pinkish red, foliage or flowers in a very physically-difficult site may not happen...

Pat

 

[AmyRey]

Border of 7 & 8. Central Georgia.

I'm looking at red flowering dogwoods currently (I didn't know they came in RED red). We have native dogwoods here that do great with a touch of shade, so clearly the soil isn't a problem for them.

 

[patandchickens]

"absolutely BRUTAL summer heat and sun" may be a dealbreaker. I sure wouldn't expect a dogwood to live there.

There are red crape myrtles, that would be my first thought. Be sure to pick a variety that will mature to the desired size (or can be controlled to that size without undue damage to health).

There are reddish shrub potentillas if you want something smaller, they are VERY heat/drought-tolerant (at least up north, I *think* they're fine in your zone too) but not necessarily as pure red as you are wishing.

(e.t.a. - also for smaller-ish things, how do some of the really bone-hardy can't-kill-with-a-stick disease-resistant roses do down south? Up here there would be a variety of good red ones to choose from -- hardy landscaping-type shrub roses I mean, with lots of smaller flowers most of the season, not fancy high-maintenance disease-prone tea (etc) roses. You might look into it anyhow)

Pat

 

[AmyRey]

Ha! I haven't run across ANYTHING I couldn't kill. Except for kudzu and nandina. lol

Here's a pic of the space. This shrub (I'm leaning more toward tree now, for shading the porch.) needs to go on the left of the picture, in the corner of the house and the porch. Left side of the house is due west. And the corner area (it's hard to tell from the pic) is probably 10ish'x15ish'.

 

[lesa]

Lovely home, Amy! You and I are worlds apart zone wise- but I have a beautiful climbing rose bush in full sun, on the south side of my house. Of course, we do not have "brutal" summers...What do you see your neighbors growing in those conditions?
Weeping cherries are very popular around here- but they are not red.

 

[AmyRey]

Thank you!

Everybody here grows Bradford pears (I wouldn't like the smell so close to the house) and Yoshino cherry trees (which would get too wide for the space).

I think I might just need to pick a non-flowering tree for the shade aspect, then go with some red flowering, shade tolerant bushes/plants underneath.

A bit of shade from a tree would open up more options for the plants below.

 

[AmyRey]

I think a "dynamite" red crepe myrtle is sounding like the ideal choice. I just can't find anything that's not suited to that location.

 

[aussieheelr]

What about a tree? Maybe a RED MAPLE? They're darn pretty. So long as it's given water and not allowed to dry out that should work. Or maybe a red butterfly bush. My thought has pretty much been so long as you water it and it's in soil that makes it happy ie: sandy, well drained, clay, acidic or whatever the plant should do "ok."

 

[vfem]

I say Crepe Myrtle!

They come in red, light pink, dark pink, violet and white!

We have a dark pink and light pink we dug up from the side of the road that grew wild... and we LOVE them. Someday they will give us some good shade.

Plus, the hotter and more humid it is.... they bloom like CRAZY!

Plus, I have found my azaleas have done well in part shade and bloom in spring long before the crepe myrtles do... so you can really get a lot of southern bloomage by planting some azaleas down underneath the tree and have 2 gorgeous bloom times!