Hardy evergreen shrubs for front of shady house?

Hi all,

We have a two story brick house in South East Michigan in zone 5B. The house is north facing and it is extremely shady. We have scraggly holly bushes in front of our first floor windows that grow 'out' instead of 'up' (seeking light). We are going to dig them all out and replace them this year. The home was built in 1920 and is pretty traditional looking, so despite my love of cool unusual plants, these shrubs need to be at least somewhat traditional. I don't have a great track record with woody plants, and can't keep hydrangeas, rhods or azaleas alive, let along looking presentable. The ideal shrub would be: shade happy (very tolerant) , evergreen, topping out at around 2 - 2 1/2 feet tall, with low maintenance needs. I'm leaning toward dwarf boxwoods, but wonder if there is something else out there that might be better for this very shady spot, or might be just as happy and look slightly more cool.

Any ideas? Thanks for your suggestions!

Barb

yews are great and I have the box woods as well they've both done great!

Hey barb,
Your biggest challenge is really how much wind you get at this location? Many cedars and
Chamaecyparis will have browning with allot of wind ( it is the North right?)
Well in the plant files here you can find many Chamaecyparis will work, also dwarf pines , some
new spireas, crimson barberry, Arcadia Juniper, dwarf scotch pines, there is a real nice juniper "daub's frost"
and some Thujas.
really allot of choices. Many will not flower well or in weigelas and barberry's they loose leafs.
The pines and other "evergreen" types are for year round color and form.
Go to a place like "Bachman's home and garden plant finder" put in the sizes and color and plant type you are interested in and Voila!! A big list of available plant material with pictures will appear!

Good Luck!
Julie

Barb, hi, neighbor. I'm in Dearborn, too. 1930's house. A few suggestions that might work. I've successfully grown gold thread cypress in the shade. They have a lovely soft mounded appearance, bu may not have a lot of gold if they get no sun at all. Weeping hemlocks might work, also, but they are a little hard to find. I was in Home Depot today, and they had dwarf hinoki cypress that said it grew in part shade and they have a very interesting form. As if you want a mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs--sambucuses have some amazing foliage, spirea (I'm partial to the variety called limemound which has beautiful lime green foliage even in the shade), and the wiegelas which would add the flowering demension. Nancy

Thank you so much for your great suggestions everyone! I really appreciate it! Barb