Looking for perfect shrub

I'm looking for a good hardy shrub that will grow in Seattle that has nasty thorns and will inflict painful and possibly slight maiming and some shredding of clothing. Need to plant several masses of these under a few windows for various reasons. Not roses or blackberries! Some sort of landscaping type shrub hopefully evergreen. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Val

Reply to
Valkyrie
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Blackberries.

Reply to
Travis

Hawthorne, english gorse. Grevillea (might be too damp for that though).

ant

Reply to
ant

Evergreen barberry, Berberis replicata.

Reply to
David J Bockman

I don't know if it's nasty enough for you, but Blueberries and Holly do really well around Puget Sound.

I realize you don't want roses, but a row of Nootkas (itty bitty PNW natives) would be pretty much maintenance free and grow well in spots that usually aren't considered optimal.

Reply to
John Thomas

I have no great love of fancy roses, but I love my wild native Clustered Swamp Rose which is quite a bit like the Nootka & can hybridize with the Nootka. Though often seen growing in drainage ditches or next to a skunk cabbage in mud, it does not need all that much water when gardened, it does just fine with ordinary watering schedule in a regular garden. But if there were a poor-drainage area nothing else would grow in, this would. Mine is not thorny, but more commonly they are extremely thorny. The leaves are small feathers, it's just so beautiful even when not flowering. It's pretty in winter too because it holds on to a great many of its pea-sized hips long after leaf-fall.

I finally got me a pair of Indian Plums too. I'd only seen tiny ones for sale for a couple years, & unsexed; but I stumbled onto a native plants specialist who is growing stocks from seeds & cuttings, not swiping plants from the wild, & I got two of the Indian Plums while they were flowering (they're still flowering now) so I could sex them. These become large suckering shrubs over time, & they got their name from the little fruits on the female shrub that look just like blue Italian prunes but tiny. In full flower the female plant smells quite nice (like a watermelon) but the male plant smells bad -- only if you shove your nose in it fortunately. Indian plum can make a quick grand privacy hedge too, just make sure to get mostly females since only one male would be needed & he'll have the potential to stink.

Blueberries certainly are gorgeous for their own sake but can be comparatively high maintenance. English holly sucks because though evergreen it sheds too many sharp leaves that seem never to decay making the ground too dangerous to go barefooted, plus in our county english holly is invasive. I cut mine half to two-thirds down this month, & will eventually have removed it altogether. I was taking it down six foot sections at a time with a pole saw careful not to crush the azalea collection on its morning-sun side, & strained a shoulder. Now it's short enough that the remaining trunk is just too big around for my handsaws, so the bottom third may remain there a while yet. I wanted to take it down six years ago, but there weren't a lot of big things in the yard at the time & I couldn't bring myself to take down one of the older items even though I didn't care that much for it. When it started to keep the paperbark maple from getting its share of sunlight I decided it was high time to get rid of what comes close to being a junk-tree even when its at its best.

But a superior native plant with similar appearance, & a shrub rather than a tree, is Oregon Grape, a no-mainteance shrub with extravagant yellow flowers in late winter, extremely tasty fruits, & holly-like leaves.

-paghat the ratgirl

Reply to
paghat

The former owner of our house on a corner lot planted Oregon Grape as a hedge on the two street sides of the property. For the last five years I have been trying to get rid of this pesky plant. Its roots are everywhere and they send up little OG plants *everywhere*. I would think twice before planting OG.

Reply to
Travis

We planted Mahonia (OG) next to the road, where the snow plows pile salt, ice and snow, and on the north side of an old stone barn. It is doing great. It doesn't spread, but it fights off all these adversities and just keeps looking great year after year.

Reply to
Stephen Henning

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