Welcome to Tennessee! What part of the state did you land in?

Now is a GREAT! time to plant most tree and shrubs. A few fleshy-rooted trees (like pawpaws and some magnolias) do better if planted in spring, but they are the exception.

Hardy perennials will also appreciate being planted now. It will give them a head start on growing roots for next year, and will help them sail through the hot, stressful summer months with ease. Some perennials, like daylilies and rhizomatous iris, usually do better if planted in spring or summer.

Marginally hardy plants would probably require protection if planted now. So if you are going to try to grow something like palms, bananas, etc., you might want to wait until spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting a Tree or Shrub

I am in Church Hill, and wow do i love it up here. I have some pansies going, I moved here from Florida and down there I couldn't plant them till about January, so that is great! I bought a pot of Mums at Home Depot the other day and was looking around and what was there to get some idea's.

I am looking into purchasing a hemlock, Saw one at Home Depot, but I am fairly sure i can find it more inexpensively elsewhere. My idea is to buy a fairly large one, use it as a live Christmas tree and then plant it in the yard. Being from FL it's limited what tree's i could do that with. I am fairly sure I have seen Blue Spruce growing around here, so may have to have more than one Christmas Tree!!! Anyways thanks for the warm welcome Brandon and I am checking that link out now!

I forgot to mention in my last post, I have heavy clay soil. This stuff is hard to dig in and i have a fair amount of what I believe is shale. Whatever kinda stone it is it flakes off easily and It appears that its all over up here. I have a small spring that traverses my property and there is a shelf of this stuff under the water. Being from Florida I am more used to sandy well drained soil.

I have already started to compost, but it will be awhile before it "cooks" so I will have to use other amendments. I am hoping to find plants that can take this soil. I brought a few of my roses with me, and have most likely killed them, as they stayed way to wet. I have possibly saved 2 of them but the 3rd is gone. I have it potted in some soil i brought from my yard with a few assorted things that i wanted to try and move up here. For now I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can bring it back. I guess I am going to have to go looking for replacements in the spring.

Besides doing research on the web, your local Extension Office should be a great source for knowing what grows well there. Your county's office is located at:

850 W. Main Street
Suite 1
Rogersville, TN 37857-3653
Phone: 423-272-7241

Better nurseries in the area might also be helpful, but take their advise with a grain of salt (many nurseries / nursery employees don't seem to know as much as they should).

Maybe a fellow local gardener will see your post and say hi. I know there are people on here from the Tri-Cities, but I don't know how close they are to you.

If you have the opportunity, come to the East Tennessee Plant Swap in the spring. Time and location will be announced here a few months before the event.

Oh I most certainly will, I have a few things I can bring with me as trades, and would love to get to know others in my community. Thanks for the info on my local extension office, didn't even think about them.

Your soil sounds exactly like ours. I found that everything I planted on the front hill didn't take. We had maybe an inch of soil over the shale which I discovered when I began planting. Juniper and daylilies failed completely there. The daylilies have done well in the clay elsewhere. I finally gave up and let the trumpet vine and vinca minor run rampant.

Purple Cone flower does well. When I had to rip it all out after an aster yellows bout, a local cousin told me it's almost impossible to get rid of coneflowers here.

I'm still experimenting in the field of wet weather springs up the hill behind the house. The cardinal lobelia I planted there was taken out by a fallen tree and didn't reseed, but I plan to try again.

I look forward to hearing what you find works in your new garden.

Chris, I'm not sure exactly where Churchill is in relation to the new USDA zone map, but you might want to check. Moving up to zone 7 will increase your plant palate.