[r schipul]

I'm doing a planting plan for a large commercial site. As with most commercial sites run be a non profit, there will be minimal maintenance. The architect mentioned that he doesn't think his client will be able to afford the maintenance of the large building never mind the landscape. That being said, I'm interested what your favorite super low maintenance plants are. zone 6

[Dale Wiley]

# 3000 concrete wall to wall.

[trees]

Aside from the Landscape Architect's favorites (Manhattan Euonymus, Purple Wintercreeper, etc. -- appologies to agla, but most LAs I've dealt with only have 3 trees, 3 shrubs and 3 groundcovers on their plant pallet), let's see...

How about Edward Goucher Abelia, Spiraea, Sweet Bay Magnolia, Pennisetum 'Hameln', Switch Grass, Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass, Liriope, Stella d'Oro Daylily, Compacta Japanese Holly, Procumbens Nana Juniper, Creeping Jenny, Nandina? (depends on where you are in zone 6)...

That'll give you a thought starter anyway.

[Fine Edge]

Carissa Holly, Dwarf Burford Holly , Indian Hawthorne, tons of liriope, this is what we see

[GLAN]

most plant material I use for residential.....is used at commercial locations.

What I do for commercial different than residential is some what less creative.......more hearty plant material.......drought tolerance

[sleepy]

lol dale thats what I was gonna say!

[VoodooChile]

Cranberry Cotoneaster...they won't have to clean the garbage off the parking lot or the leaves off the grass.

[Lanelle]

Indian Hawthorne and Hamlin Fountain Grass are not hardy in Zone 6. Nandina is doubtful.
At some point, nearly every shrub needs some maintenance. If you have large open areas, some junipers and hollies could work along with the Manhattan Euonymus. If they can let things naturalize, and not shear the shrubs, the maintenance will be less. That said, many deciduous, flowering shrubs could fill areas and provide color interest.
This is a case for using the right shrub in the right place to reduce the need for constant maintenance.

[agla]

If the site has wodland along its edges, it makes sense to use native understory plants to extend the woodland into the site to restore disturbed areas that you do not need to keep open and do not want to maintain. In my area I often have a parking lot or driveway that cuts into the woods and there is only a few feet of disturbed area. The trees and the woods look fine, but that edge looks odd, so infilling with more of the same understory makes it look like there was no disturbance around the edges after a year or two. In my area that is usually lowbush blueberry, clethra, arrowwood, inkberry, and others.

I think that Lanelle sums it up with the "right plant/right place". Look for drought tolerant plants if there is no irrigation. But if there is irrigation your plant choices could be entirely different.

Think about snow removal, so don't put woody plants that will break in harms way. Winter Creeper Euonymus types or even daylilies can better in parking planting islands than junipers if there is adequate water.

I think ornamental grasses planted in bigger areas really look bad without good maintenance. They are low on demands for themselves like water and shearing, but they leave you with beds to take care of.

I think that you need to think about long term vs. sort term maintenance as well. In this case it sounds like you should be more worried about the shorter term and the survivability of the plants rather than what kind of pruning will be needed five or ten years from now.

Having to cut grass is a pretty well expected maintenance thing. Unless the site will have no lawn at all, I'd suggest using lawn to restore as much of the disturbed area as reasonably possible. Maintenance is usually let go in the treatment of open areas in planting beds - as in weed control. The least amount of left over open mulch areas, the better. That means that larger faster growing shrubs make a lot of sense as long as they are not going to cause other nuisances with sight lines or the building. That is why mass plantings of the same shrub is often done. Plants of the same type still look fine as they grow into each other, but less so when they are of different types.

Goal number one is to make sure what you plant survives.

Number two (can I say number two on this website?) is to keep plants from causing problems as they grow without maintenance by choosing the right plant for the right space.

Number three is to reduce the opportunity for weed growth by reducing open beds.

These are not plant names, but concepts that will help you choose plants.

[r schipul]

Thanks for your thoughts. I most likely will not be installing the project. I've done similar work for this architect in the past. A couple times of year I'm asked to develop a planting plan on trash paper for these large commercial projects(not my specialty). The site's bed locations have already been layed out. My job is to determine what goes into those beds. They then transfer it to CAD and submit the drawings. I would imagine they project eventually goes out to bid. I've already been told as with most sites like this, the only maintenance I can count on will consist of shearing every plant into a cone or ball once a year and weekly lawn cutting, that's it.

I think Voodoo has it right, fill the place up with cotoneaster to save on the cleanups.

A install mostly residential and I'm usually using a lot of herbaceous plants. These commercial sites are always tough because most commercial clients have a different mindset when it comes to landscaping especially when the main focus of the non profit is helping people not plants

The existing site is your typical 2.5 acre city lot. The only shade is from the existing Bradford Pears(of course)

Low maintence shrubs i've been considering include Spiraea, dwarf Lilacs, Fothergilla, Junipers (oh I hate junipers), Quince, Clethra, Cotinus, Witchhazel, Hollies, Weigela, Itea, shrub roses, Stephandra, Viburnum, and lots and lots of Vinca, Stephanandra and Duetzia to tie it all together. I'd like to see more ground hugging plants to help tie areas together and cover the ground to limit weeds. Also trees for parking islands other than Pear's.