are you in lenawee county??? .. i am in raisin twnshp ...

i dont understand what you want to do .... presuming you are behind those Picea pungens.. why bother on the road side of them???

and your base problem will be watering.. until fully established ... not only are the trees very mature.. and very aggressive in stealing water.. you would have to have at least 1000 feet of hose ... to water such for a year or two ...

the county soil conservation office offers.. very cheap.. small native shrubs.. at proper planting time... but that delivery date is very fast approaching.. i do NOT know if you can get on this springs orders.. due for delivery in 3 weeks or so .... see link ...

50 serviceberry for 43 bucks.. but you would have to make some very fast phone calls.. to see if you can get some this spring.. if not.. talk to them about the fall plant sale.. if any ... but i would suggest that you NOT plant all of one thing.. diversify your planting ... they also offer dogwood ... etc ...

native plants.. would be much more likely to survive w/o a high amount of TLC ....

again.. i would landscape the side of the pungens.. i see.. and not bother with the road side ...

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: pdf file

I envy your row of Blue Spruce.

Something that turns vibrant orange in the fall like Viburnum opulus 'Roseum' which is tough and can take neglect and you can practically mow it down if it gets unruly. It will also look nice when it leafs out chartreuse in spring and then of course there are the flowers which start off chartreuse before they fade to white.

Physocarpus like Coppertina would be nice, too, and it turns good color in autumn as well.

Ken did bring up some good practical considerations...

Sara

Sara

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue and orange foliage combinations