Hello-

I am new on this forum, but a regular in other GW forums. I'm hoping some of you rhody experts can help:)

I'm re-designing the plantings around our new home. The area I am working on now is the east side of the house. I am looking for two plants...

Along this stretch of wall, I have, from the left corner:

a 'Tina' crabapple planted at the edge of a deep bed on the corner. Tina blooms in May and has pink buds opening to white flowers.

#1 PLANT CHOICETo the right of Tina is one spot I want to put a rhody or azalea. I would like it to be about 3-4' high and 5-6' wide. I'm not sure about blooms. I guess ideally it should bloom later or earlier than Tina.... but if it overlaps, it needs to look nice together. Match or contrast? I don't know!

#2 PLANT CHOICETo the right of that new shrub is a blue Fothergilla (5' high in 10 years). It blooms (white) in early May and is completely bare until then. It just looks way too bare against the house there, so my thought is to plant low-growing, denser, evergreen or semi-evergreen shrubs in front of the Fothergilla to fill it in the rest of the year. I'm thinking of a low azalea/rhody and a 'Nana' Leucothoe (24" high, 5' spread. Green and reddish foliage.) So something about 24"-30" high...

To the right of those is a Dorothy Wycoff Andromeda/Pieris. Then the front door, then a grouping that includes another Pieris, a weeping red japanese maple, a low blue juniper, reddish-purple heuchera, lenten rose, and perennnial grasses. At the other end of the planting (with a dwarf white cedar and blueberries in between) is the last major piece: a 'Betty' magnolia that blooms in late April/early May (just before 'Tina') with white and magenta blooms. Things will be filled in with spring bulbs, ornamental grasses, magenta peonies, and other perennials.

(Elsewhere in the yard are some Aglo and/or Olga rhododendrons and some unidentified ones that I think are standard purple/pink.)

To give you an idea of the aethetic: The house is oil-dipped natural cedar shingles (beige-grey) and a sort of modern cottage aethetic. The garden has a sort of modern Asian/1950's feel.

Here are some I am condidering:

for #1 spot next to crabapple:

Korean Azalea 'Sweet Sixteen' (although I am not convinced it's not deciduous here! Local nursery lists it as "evergreen foliage" but I read otherwise on line...)

Rhody 'chionoides'

Rhody 'Boule de Neige'

For #2 spot in front of Fothergilla:

Azalea 'Girard's Karen'

Azalea 'Girard's Pleasant White'

Azalea 'Rosebud'

Rhody 'Pohjola's Daughter'

Rhody 'Yaku Prince'

These are all in local nurseries' catalogs, so I think I can get them.

Any thoughts??