Lex: while photos are extremely helpful to us in visualizing the situation, the one you provided is not doing your garden justice - it's a bit too small and the panorama effect distorts the perspective. Is it possible for you repost with individual photos of the garden areas rather than a panoramic composite? And a quick plan sketch with some measurements would be equally helpful. Beyond this, suggestions will be unfortunately vague :-) Depth of available planting areas will determine to a large extent what can be used successfully for screening as well as layering.......and if this is your intent, it is best to err on the side of generosity. And some quick thoughts on plant selection. It's impossible to see from the photo provided where formalized, sheared hedging may be appropriate. Arborvitaes are ideal for taller formal hedges and pruning or shearing is optional, as many (like the Emerald Green) are by habit narrow and columnar. For shorter hedges, box or Japanese holly are popular and for good reason, but germander, rosemary, even lavender could work in the right situation. Formalized hedges require ongoing routine maintenance to keep them looking sharp, so keep that in mind when making your plant choices - don't select a shrub or tree that naturally wants to grow to 20+ feet when all you are looking for is an 8' hedge.......too much work involved :-) Otherwise, an informal screening as a backdrop for lower plantings is relatively easy to achieve, provided the depth of the planting bed is suitable. A mix of evergreen shrubs/small trees and deciduous plants will accomplish this, with the weight placed on the evergreens. Your second group of listed plants could comprise the bulk of this, but I might consider replacing the viburnum choices with the evergreen V. tinus and adding Choisya ternata, camellia or smaller selections of Hinoki cypress. I am personally very fond of fastigiate hornbeams for deciduous screening purposes and use them often in designs. Their very upright and dense branching structure makes them pretty effective for this purpose even out of leaf. Carpinus betulus 'Frans Fontaine' is my cultivar of choice. And some of your listed plants are just not well advised for your area or for the purpose you have in mind. Butterfly bush is a listed Oregon invasive plant, redbuds tend to be rather short-lived in the NW, sumac suckers aggressively and over a wide distance and privet has a host of issues that make it a less than wonderful choice. Hope this will be a start to get you thinking. And come back to us with more photos if you can.

I have 2 Viburnum plicatum tomentosum--1 is"Mariesii" and 1 is "Shasta", 1 V. rhytidophylloides "willowood", 1 V. dentatum? "cardinal candy", 2 V. burkwoodii mohawk. LOVE viburnums! Anyway-completely carefree are the burkwoodii (1 gets the sprinkler and 1 doesn't--no problems), rhytidophylloides--gets sprinkled-awesome shrub -flowers for me in spring and again in fall!!(the Allegheny variety doesn't bloom in fall-so get this one!) V. dentatum gets NO water--stunning fruit!! everyone asks about it. for the MARIESSII...1 is 7 ft. from a maple tree and is doing horrible--these seem to really need water-it gets sprinkled but just not getting enough sun i think. I just cut it to the ground because had so much dead and a new sprout with horizontal branching came up to the side of it! (we'll see). Other Mariessii (gets sprinkled) is a tree form and boy has it taken off!! planted too close to house (tag told me 12-15'wide) It just keeps getting bigger! I try to prune even though I know you shouldn't but I need to use my stairs! Here is what I do...in fall I trim the tips (sorry!) of whatever branches need it back to a set of 2 side branches--figure I am still encouraging the horizontal effect that way. Seems to be doing ok. I have done this for 3 yrs. Still get the flowers and fruit. Probably would be better display if I didn't prune--but still impressive looking!!

What the nurseries don't tell you is that most (not all) Viburnums need cross polinators to give the most berries. Some V.'s seem to berry themselves without help, but I personally can't get enough V.'s in my yard so I can't use that as excuse too often. I will tell you that mine did not produce berries the first two years I had them. The link below (GardenWeb Shrubs Forum) has a comprehensive discussion about Viburnums. It enlightened me! One of the first things is to get the whole scientific name, since V.'s are quite varied and it can get confusing if you just use the common name or the variety name. You have two V. dilatatums (the Linden V.) and one V. dentatum (the Arrowwood V.), your Blue Muffin. Many V.'s bloom at different times and therefore won't have the pollen available when needed, so the trick is to buy the shrubs that have the same blooming time. I found some V. acerifolium (the Maple-leaf V.) growing wild in my woods and transplanted a couple near my V. dilatatum's, and a V. carlesii. All are showing the promise of lovely berries this year for the first time and it may be that the wild V. had a long bloom period at the same time the other V.'s needed the pollen. Or, it could just be that the V.'s I have are finally established enough to make berries. If you have two V. dilatatum Michael Dodge's grown from seedlings they will have a different genetic makeup and can cross pollinate whereas two grown vegatatively (from cuttings) from the same mother plant will be clones and therefore identical. You'd have better luck buying one each from two different nurseries who would share the name of the wholesalers to ensure they are not from the same mother plant. Your V. dentatum Blue Muffin does not need to be paired to make berries. I would recommend that you buy another V. dilatatum and plant it somewhere between the Michaeil Dodge and Cardinal Candy. Erie or Oneida would have different colored berries than yours - just to make things interesting. or, you could get another one of either of the V. dilatatum's you already have. Check out the Exchanges page or do a search to find someone to trade with. The V.'s are quite easy to propagate and grow amazingly fast. Nancy the nancedar Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb Shrubs Forum on Viburnum

Hi Cathy, you definitely want to be involved with the Georgia Native Plant Society. Most events are held in the metro Atlanta area, but even the website is a source of information for you. You should identify how much shade you have (2 hours of sun, 4 hours of sun ...?) to determine if you have partial shade or deep shade. Which I know you said you have both, but figure out which areas have partial shade; berry producing plants will need at least partial shade (and will do better if you can provide up to 6 hours of sun). Viburnums are good berry plants (and there are many native ones). Serviceberries are a favorite food also; these are small trees, but they do need some sun. If you can't provide much sun, then you could concentrate on plants that provide cover for birds. Red tip is not a native plant (it is a hybrid between chinese and japanese plants), but if it is not invasive, you may not want to worry about removing until you have a replacement started. Since it is usually evergreen, it is a good cover plant for birds. Other trees that sapsuckers like are hollies and sugar maples. I find this to be a good site to determine if a plant is native or not: USDA Plants Database What area of Georgia are you located? I'm just north of Atlanta. Here is a link that might be useful: Georgia Native Plant Society