So species N. domestica - do I dare plant it in front of the living room window in a mixed border? Clay loam, up to five feet tall is okay and I don't mind annual pruning, but will it sucker and thug its way around? Should I give it its own space instead?

If you've grown this in the northeast/northern mid-Atlantic, how has it behaved for you?

I've been having great luck with Nandina d. 'Plum Passion.' The foliage color in cooler weather is a great burgundy purple and I just found out that 2 of the 3 planted under a variegated river birch ('Shiso Splash') are female and the male turned out to be the one farthest from the path. Nice!

They're evergreen and doing very well. They're not yet as big as I'm reading about (just about 2.5 feet), but as stated in a post above, they wouldn't be very difficult to keep in bounds with some judicious pruning in early spring.

Best of luck!

Steve

ps - I'm sorry that I can't remember where they came from. They were very, very hard to find then and I remember having to order them bare-root and having never done that before, I was kindof hesitant at first, but it's worked out great! Now I'm wishing that the red-berried Pyracantha planted nearby was really orange-berried. Maybe I'll mix an orange one in with the red. That would be cool, eh?

Mine will be in between an Illicium henryi and a Marydel Azalea. Was thinking of using fewer nandina and putting in a red witch hazel - the leaves were a good balance, but decided all the nandinas were better together.

Big round leaves - hosta, asarum at their feet, and then I thought of mayapples as the bed only gets morning sun and never dries out. Ferns probably too similar in divided leafiness, but mayby cinnamon ferns on the other side of the Illicium. Maybe a dutchman's pipe on a trellis.

Any other notions?

Pat

Hi Pat, I did get some Hakonecloa aureola (also 50% off, love those end of season sales) so the strappy, fountain-y part is there. Although the variegation may be a bit too much - we'll see in the spring. Then I'd have to find the All Gold one. Or maybe, a mid-sized gold hosta could sort of mediate between the nandina and the variegated hakone grass, which gets to spill over a little stone retaining wall.

Which wall I just rebuilt, along with replanting the bed. And all because I cut down our overgrown mountain laurels. The original plan was to let them come back from the stumps but a whole new bed was just too much fun and a lot more interesting.

I had a single compact variety for several years, which fruited well with no mate. Nandina is rarely if ever grown in this part of the country, and I know there isn't one near me.

I now have a pair of the species, also fruiting nicely, and since they're from the same parent plant I know they're not different genders. They are from Lazy S's Farm, and L.S.F. tells me the parent plant is by the door to the house. They hack it back to keep it in its allotted space, and, apparently, to take cuttings.

These two are young - maybe 2 years - so I don't have any personal experience with their ultimate size. The texture and foliage are fabulous; glossy, deep green. I'd think this would make ferns a good foil, since although both are divided foliage, the effect is quite different; but you have some other excellent ideas above.

My compact is paired with an asparagus plant (ornamentally grown, not cut in spring) which towers over the nandina with extra-fine ferny (and matte) foliage. At its feet are hellebores and creeping thyme. It works for me. I love the suggestion of liriope - may have to find a place for that in the mix - the white-striped one would be lovely.

Don't you love hellebore? They're unkillable. I transplanted a whole lot of seedlings to under a Norway maple we have to cope with. They spread faster than pachysandra and the deer and the slugs have NEVER ONCE taken a bite out of them. Never, never, never. And after the flowering is over, you would think the mature ones were little evergreen shrubs that always stay in bounds.

Not wanting to get too far off-topic for this thread; yes, I love hellebores and I agree, they're mostly trouble-free. I did lose a large swath of H foetidus to some kind of disease (fungus, I think) a few years back, but they rebounded the same season and are now really beautiful. Watching for seedlings is half the fun.