Still Going to the Dogs

I'm still sitting inside during these dog days planning out my fall gardening strategy.  In this last installment of this series, I'm showing what shrubs and trees I want to plant in the yard.

 

The above picture shows one of my all time favorite shrubs.  It's evergreen, gets about 15' tall, and wafts fragrance all over a yard during the fall, winter, and spring.  It's the Osmanthus fragrans ("Sweet olive.")  I've already got one of these in the front yard, but I'm thinking about putting a row of them along my back fence as an evergreen privacy hedge.  They are fairly slow growers, but eventually fill out - and that fragrance!

Another plan of mine involves putting some Encore azaleas in between the sweet olives in my new hedge.  Autumn Moonlight and Autumn Angel are the two I'm considering.  They are both white blooming azaleas.  The above Encore is my Autumn Twist.  Encores take sun much better than regular azaleas, plus they bloom up to three times per year.  I've always wanted some white ones in my yard, so the above choices would fit the bill perfectly. 

Two flowering shrubs/trees that I've been wanting are Eastern redbuds and Innocence mock orange.  Red buds have been one of my favorite flowering trees since I was a child and saw the one blooming in my grandma's yard.  Mock oranges are another of those fragrant blooming shrubs that are great for an understory planting beneath large trees.  I'm thinking of planting a small grove of redbeds in my back yard.  The mock orange would compliment the area too.  Innocence is a variety known to have strong fragrance.  I may also plant a Korean Spice viburnum to add to my collection of fragrant shrubs.