Best Plants for Nashville’s Clay Soil: A Designer’s Honest List for Zone 7a | The Grass Girl
A designer’s honest plant list for Middle Tennessee — what actually performs, what quietly dies, and why the cultivar matters more than the common name.
I’m going to save you some money and some heartbreak.
If you’ve ever bought a gorgeous plant from a nursery, followed every instruction on the tag, and watched it slowly give up on you anyway — it probably wasn’t your fault. It was probably the soil. And if you’re gardening anywhere in the Nashville basin — Wilson County, Williamson County, Davidson, Sumner, Cheatham — your soil is most likely heavy clay. That one fact changes everything about what you can plant, where you can plant it, and which specific varieties will actually reward you for trying.
This isn’t a generic Zone 7a list copied from a national gardening website. It’s what I’ve planted, maintained, and watched perform on real properties across Middle Tennessee. Some of these picks are Tennessee natives. Some aren’t. I choose plants that do a job and do it well in our specific conditions — our clay, our humidity, our ice storms, our brutal Julys. If a non-native outperforms a native in a particular role, I’ll tell you. If a beloved plant has a habit of quietly dying here, I’ll tell you that too.
And I’m going to give you cultivar names, not just common names. Because “plant a hydrangea” is not advice. Which hydrangea? It matters.
First: Know What You’re Working With
Nashville sits in USDA Hardiness Zone 7a, which means our average extreme winter low ranges from 0 to 5°F. We get about 47 inches of rain a year. Summers are long, hot, and humid. Winters are mostly mild but will throw you a surprise ice event when you’ve let your guard down. All of that matters for plant selection.
But the biggest factor — the one that trips up more homeowners and even some landscapers — is the soil. Middle Tennessee sits on clay. Dense, heavy, nutrient-rich clay that holds water like a bowl when it’s wet and cracks like pottery when it’s dry. The University of Tennessee Extension calls heavy clay one of the most significant challenges for Tennessee gardeners, and after years of digging in it, I’d say that’s generous.
Here’s what that means in practice. When you dig a hole in Nashville clay and backfill it with nice amended soil and a pretty plant, you’ve essentially built an in-ground flower pot with no drainage hole. Rain fills the amended pocket, can’t escape through the surrounding clay walls, and the roots sit in water. They drown. This is the number one way plants die in Nashville landscapes. Not cold. Not neglect. Drowning in soil that won’t let go of water.
The soil also varies more than people expect across our area. Williamson County tends to hit limestone bedrock surprisingly shallow — sometimes 18 inches down. Wilson County often gives you a better layer of loam over clay. Davidson County changes block to block, especially on properties where construction has scraped away the native topsoil and left compacted subsoil behind. This is why you can’t plant from a list alone. You have to read the specific piece of ground you’re working with.
Before you plant anything: Get a soil test through the UT Extension Soil, Plant and Pest Center. It’s inexpensive and tells you your pH, nutrient levels, and what amendments you actually need. Don’t guess. Don’t assume your soil is the same as your neighbor’s. Test it.
How This List Is Organized
Most plant lists are organized by type — trees, then shrubs, then perennials. That’s how a nursery thinks. I’m organizing this by what the plant does in your landscape, because that’s how I think as a designer. Every plant in a good design has a job. Structure. Screening. Seasonal color. Texture. Groundcover. Anchoring a view. Softening an edge. If you know what job needs doing, you can find the right plant. If you’re just shopping by what’s pretty at the garden center in April, you’re going to end up with a yard full of strangers that don’t know how to live together.
The Bones: Trees That Give Your Landscape Structure
These are the plants that define the shape of your property for decades. They create the canopy, the shade, the vertical rhythm that everything else lives under. Get these right and the whole landscape holds together. Get them wrong and no amount of beautiful perennials will fix it.
For Shade and Canopy
Red Maple (Acer rubrum) — Native. Tolerates clay and occasional wet feet better than most maples. Brilliant red fall color that earns its name. Fast-growing for a hardwood, which means you’ll actually see shade within a few years instead of a decade. Full sun to part shade. One of the most reliable shade trees for Nashville properties.
White Oak (Quercus alba) — Native. Slow-growing, and absolutely worth every year of patience. Adapts to clay, becomes drought-tolerant once established, and will outlive everything else you plant. The Tennessee Division of Forestry and UT Extension are actively encouraging white oak planting through their reforestation initiative. If you have the space and the long view, this is the legacy tree.
Shumard Oak (Quercus shumardii) — Native. One of the best oaks specifically for Nashville’s heavy clay — it tolerates both wet and dry conditions and grows faster than white oak. Reliable red fall color. Less commonly planted than red maple, which means your property won’t look like every other property on the street. Deserves more attention than it gets.
For Year-Round Structure
Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara ‘Karl Fuchs’) — Not native, but one of the most beautiful evergreen trees you can grow in Nashville. Graceful, pyramidal form with soft blue-green needles and an elegant weeping habit at the branch tips. ‘Karl Fuchs’ is the cultivar to look for — it’s significantly more cold-hardy than the straight species and handles our Zone 7a winters reliably. Wants decent drainage, so amend the planting area in heavy clay. Give it space. This tree earns the room it takes.
Deodar cedar trees provide an interesting texture and changing seasonal color to a privacy screen
Arizona Cypress ‘Blue Ice’ (Cupressus arizonica ‘Blue Ice’) — Striking silvery-blue foliage on a fast-growing, upright evergreen. Drought-tolerant once established and surprisingly tough in Nashville clay with adequate drainage. This is not a tree you see in every yard, which is part of its value in a design — it gives you structure and color that’s distinct from the standard green wall of conifers.
Juniper ‘Taylor’ (Juniperus virginiana ‘Taylor’) — Native species, columnar cultivar. Tight, narrow form that works beautifully as a vertical accent — flanking an entry, framing a view, or providing structure in a border without taking up much lateral space. Handles Nashville clay without complaint. Drought-tolerant. Disease-resistant. Deer-resistant. One of the most useful structural plants in this climate.
Southern Magnolia ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’ (Magnolia grandiflora) — This specific cultivar is the one to grow in Nashville. It’s more cold-hardy and compact than the straight species, handles our Zone 7a winters reliably, and still gives you that classic glossy evergreen presence with fragrant white blooms. Needs some soil amendment in heavy clay. The leaf litter is real — big, leathery leaves drop year-round. Worth it for the architecture of the tree.
For Small Spaces and Understory
Vitex ‘Shoal Creek’ (Vitex agnus-castus) — Not native, but a phenomenal performer in Nashville heat. Trained as a small tree form with a clear trunk, it gives you a vase-shaped canopy with lavender-blue flower spikes from midsummer into fall — right when most other things are just trying to survive July. Blooms on new wood, so you prune it hard in late February and it comes back strong. Handles clay, handles drought, handles neglect. Pollinators lose their minds over it. One of my most-used plants.
Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) — Native. One of the most reliable small trees for Nashville. Tolerates clay, handles part shade, and every spring it’s covered in those pink-purple blooms before the leaves even emerge. Relatively short-lived (20–30 years) but fast-growing and beautiful the whole time. Heart-shaped leaves and good yellow fall color.
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) — Native. The classic Middle Tennessee understory tree. Stunning spring bloom, red fall color, berries for birds. But dogwood anthracnose has been an issue in Tennessee, so choose disease-resistant cultivars, plant in part shade with good air circulation, and avoid full afternoon sun in heavy clay. When it’s happy, nothing is prettier.
Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.) — Native. Multi-season value: white spring flowers, edible berries in early summer that birds fight you for, orange-red fall color. Works as a single trunk or multi-stem. An underused tree that deserves far more attention in Nashville landscapes.
Screening and Privacy: What to Plant Instead of Leyland Cypress
Let’s talk about the elephant in the landscape. If you’re searching “privacy trees Nashville,” every other list will tell you Leyland Cypress. Here’s the truth: Leyland Cypress is one of the most overplanted and problematic trees in Middle Tennessee. It grows fast, which is why people love it. But it’s shallow-rooted, prone to bagworms, and susceptible to Seiridium canker — a fungal disease that is widespread in our area and has no cure. When one dies in a row of them, you’re left with a gap that takes years to fill. I have walked onto too many properties where half the “privacy screen” is brown and dying.
Here’s what I’d plant instead:
Green Giant Arborvitae (Thuja ‘Green Giant’) — Not native, but it performs. Fast-growing, disease-resistant, deer-resistant, and doesn’t have the canker problem. Gets 40–60 feet tall and 12–18 feet wide, so give it room. Tolerates clay with decent drainage. This is probably the most reliable fast-growing evergreen screen for Nashville right now.
Juniper ‘Taylor’ (Juniperus virginiana ‘Taylor’) — Already mentioned above, but it works beautifully in a staggered row for screening. Native, bulletproof in clay, tight columnar form. It won’t grow as fast as Green Giant, but it won’t die on you either. And its narrow footprint means you can plant it closer to property lines.
American Holly (Ilex opaca) — Native. Slower than the conifers but dense and evergreen year-round with red winter berries. Works as part of a mixed screening planting with other species for a more layered, designed look — rather than a monotonous green wall.
A note on screening: a single-species row is the most vulnerable approach. If disease or a bad winter takes out one, it takes out the row. I prefer mixed-species screens — combining different evergreens at staggered intervals. It’s more visually interesting, more resilient, and more forgiving.
The blue hues of Deodar Cedar ‘Karl Fuchs’, paired with solid green privacy hedging, create a far more interesting privacy screen than repeating the same privacy tree in a row.
The Workhorses: Shrubs That Do the Heavy Lifting
These are the bones of your planting beds. They give you year-round structure, define spaces, and — chosen well — they mostly take care of themselves after the first couple of years.
Evergreen Structure
Hollies — and why the cultivar matters — I use hollies constantly, but not all hollies are the same plant. Ilex crenata ‘Hoogendorn’, ‘Steeds’, and ‘Compacta’ give you different forms — mounding, pyramidal, and dense globe. Burford Holly (‘Burfordii Nana’) gives you a tidy, compact evergreen with minimal fuss. Dwarf Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria ‘Nana’) handles heat and clay and barely asks to be watered once it’s established. These are the plants that hold a design together through January when everything else has dropped its leaves. Pick the cultivar that fits the job and the space, not just “a holly.”
Distylium ‘Vintage Jade’ (Distylium spp.) — This plant is quietly earning its place in Nashville landscapes. Evergreen, compact, disease-resistant, and genuinely unfussy about clay, heat, humidity, and drought. It stays low and billowy without constant shearing. It’s becoming a smart replacement for boxwood in situations where boxwood struggles — which in Middle Tennessee is more often than people want to admit.
Japanese Plum Yew ‘Duke’s Garden’ (Cephalotaxus harringtonia) — Not native, but extremely well adapted. Evergreen, deer-resistant, and handles heavy shade and clay — a combination that eliminates most other plants. This is one of the best choices for shady Nashville foundations where azaleas struggle and boxwood gets blight. It grows slowly, so be patient with it. And be careful pruning — what you cut off takes years to come back.
Otto Luyken Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’) — Glossy, dark green, low and spreading. Works as a foundation hedge or a layered mid-border plant. It’s slower-growing and less forgiving of heavy pruning than hollies, so give it the space it needs at planting rather than hacking it back every year. Over time, a row of these grows together into a low, tidy evergreen hedge that looks intentional.
Deciduous Shrubs with Multi-Season Interest
Oakleaf Hydrangea ‘Ruby Slippers’ (Hydrangea quercifolia) — Native to the southeastern U.S. and the hydrangea I reach for first in Nashville. Four seasons of interest: white cone-shaped blooms in summer that age to rose-pink, bold burgundy fall foliage, and interesting peeling bark in winter. Handles clay. Handles part shade to full sun. ‘Ruby Slippers’ stays compact — about 3–4 feet — which makes it far more useful in residential landscapes than the larger oakleaf varieties. Blooms on old wood, so don’t cut it back in February — just remove dead or crossing branches and save any size reduction for after it flowers in midsummer.
Virginia Sweetspire ‘Henry’s Garnet’ (Itea virginica) — Native. Fragrant white flower spikes in late spring that drape the arching branches, followed by deep garnet-red fall color that holds late into the season — sometimes into December. This plant tolerates wet clay better than almost any other flowering shrub, which makes it a genuine problem solver on Nashville properties with drainage issues. It’s a rain garden plant by nature. Suckers gently to fill in, which is usually what you want it to do. Part shade to full sun.
American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) — Native. Nothing else in the landscape looks like this in October. Electric magenta-purple berry clusters wrap around arching stems, and they’re so vivid they almost look artificial. Over forty species of songbirds eat the berries. The flowers are small and subtle in summer, but pollinators find them immediately. Tolerates clay, part shade, and heat. Loose, informal habit — not a hedge plant. Use it where you want something with genuine personality and real wildlife value. You can cut it to 12 inches in late winter for a more compact shape, and it comes back and fruits on new wood.
Fothergilla (Fothergilla major) — Native. One of the most beautiful and underused shrubs available for Nashville gardens. Honey-scented white bottlebrush flowers in early spring, before the leaves emerge. Then spectacular multi-colored fall foliage — yellow, orange, and red, often on the same plant. The UT Extension’s Tennessee Smart Yards program lists Fothergilla major as tolerant of poorly drained silty clay soil, which is exactly what most Nashville properties have. Grows 6–10 feet tall. Full sun for the best flowers and fall color, but handles part shade. This is a designer’s shrub — four-season interest, native, clay-tolerant, and almost nobody is planting it.
The Hydrangea Conversation
Everyone in Nashville wants hydrangeas. Here’s the honest breakdown, because the type you choose determines whether you’re delighted or frustrated.
Oakleaf (H. quercifolia): Best choice for Nashville clay. Native. Four-season interest. ‘Ruby Slippers’ for compact spaces. Blooms on old wood, so do not prune hard in late winter — you’ll cut off your flowers. Already covered above.
Panicle (H. paniculata ‘Limelight’): The other hydrangea I use constantly. Blooms on new wood, so you prune it in late February — remove dead and weak stems, reduce the rest by about a third to a strong outward-facing bud. It comes back and blooms reliably every single year. Tolerates full sun and handles clay better than bigleaf types. The blooms start lime-green, age to white, then blush pink. Hardy and forgiving. If you want a hydrangea that performs without drama in Nashville, this is the one.
Many panicle hydrangea varieties, such as ‘Firelight Tidbit’ (above) and ‘Limelight’, begin as white and change to shades of pink as the seasons progress.
Smooth (H. arborescens ‘Annabelle’): Native. Big white globes in early summer. Extremely clay-tolerant. Blooms on new wood. The stems can flop under heavy blooms after rain — ‘Incrediball’ has stronger stems if that bothers you. Reliable and low-maintenance.
Bigleaf / Mophead (H. macrophylla): This is the one everyone pictures — the big blue or pink globes. Here’s the truth: they’re fussy in Nashville. They need consistently moist but well-drained soil, which our clay rarely provides. They bloom on old wood, so a late frost can wipe out your entire season of flowers. They need morning sun and afternoon shade. They can work here with real babysitting, but they need more from you than most people expect. And Nashville’s soil pH tends to push them pink regardless of what the tag promised.
The Color: Perennials That Come Back and Actually Thrive
This is where most people start shopping, and where most of the heartbreak happens. A perennial listed as “tolerates clay” in a national database might still struggle here because our clay is paired with our specific heat and humidity. These are the perennials I plant and maintain on Nashville-area properties. I’m giving you cultivar names because they matter — a generic “coneflower” recommendation isn’t the same as telling you which coneflowers I’ve watched thrive for seasons.
Full Sun Performers
Echinacea — multiple varieties — Native genus. This is the backbone of Nashville perennial gardens. I use ‘Magnus’ (the classic large purple coneflower), ‘Tiki Torch’ (warm orange, a real standout), the Kismet series in yellow and red, ‘Rainbow Marcella’ (coral-pink), and Echinacea pallida (the pale native species with drooping petals that’s elegant in a more naturalistic planting). They bloom June through September, attract pollinators, tolerate clay and drought once established. Leave the seed heads up in fall — goldfinches eat them and they give you winter texture.
Black-Eyed Susan ‘Goldsturm’ (Rudbeckia fulgida) — Reliable, cheerful, and virtually indestructible in Nashville clay. Spreads to form nice colonies. Blooms mid-summer to fall when everything else is flagging in the heat. One of the best perennials for filling space with honest, bold color.
Catmint ‘Junior Walker’ (Nepeta × faassenii) — A sterile, compact form of the award-winning ‘Walker’s Low’ — which means it puts all its energy into flowers instead of reseeding everywhere. Low, mounding habit covered in lavender-blue flower spikes from late spring into fall. Shear it back after the first flush and it blooms again. Drought-tolerant once established. Deer-resistant. Aromatic gray-green foliage. One of the best edge-of-bed plants for Nashville — it softens a border beautifully while handling full sun and clay. About 14–16 inches tall and spreading to 30 inches, so it fills space without overwhelming its neighbors.
Russian Sage ‘Little Spires’ (Perovskia atriplicifolia) — Silvery, aromatic foliage with lavender-blue flower spikes from midsummer into fall. Cut it back hard in late February to a low framework of 6–8 inches — this keeps it upright and prevents the woody, floppy mess it becomes if you’re timid with the pruning. Prefers lean soil. If your clay is rich, go easy on fertilizer or skip it entirely. This plant wants to be a little hungry.
Baptisia ‘Burgundy Blast’ (False Indigo) — Native genus. Gorgeous burgundy flower spikes in spring on a shrub-like perennial that gets 3–4 feet tall. Once established, it’s essentially indestructible — deep roots, drought-tolerant, clay-tolerant. Don’t divide it. Don’t overfertilize it (it’ll get floppy). After year two or three, you can stop feeding it entirely. The seed pods are attractive and rattle in winter wind. This is a “plant it and trust it” perennial.
Penstemon ‘Husker’s Red’ (Penstemon digitalis) — Native species. Dark burgundy-red foliage with white flower spikes in late spring. The foliage alone earns it a spot in the design — it provides color contrast even when it’s not blooming. Tough in clay. Self-sows gently.
Blazing Star (Liatris spicata) — Native. Unusual vertical purple flower spikes that open from the top down. Blooms mid to late summer. Pollinators love it. Handles clay and heat. Works in mass plantings or mixed into a border for that unexpected vertical punch against softer, mounding forms.
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) — Native milkweed. Critical for monarch butterflies. Bright orange clusters in summer. Extremely drought-tolerant — its taproot goes deep. Don’t try to move it once it’s planted (that taproot doesn’t forgive transplanting). Slow to emerge in spring — mark it so you don’t accidentally dig it up thinking it died. Prefers lean, well-drained conditions, so it’s better on a slope or berm than in a low, wet clay pocket.
Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia ‘Fire Dance’ and Poco ‘Orange’) — Not native, but a sculptural favorite. Tall, torch-like flower spikes in red, orange, and yellow. Don’t cut the foliage flat like a grass — just remove dead or damaged leaves and leave the green skirt arching naturally. Needs decent drainage in clay. When it blooms, hummingbirds show up within hours.
Silver Mound Artemisia (Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Silver Mound’) — Low, mounding, soft silvery foliage that contrasts beautifully against greens and purples. It’s a texture plant, not a flower plant. Needs good drainage — it’ll melt in wet clay. Use it on slopes, berms, or raised bed edges where water moves through. When it’s happy, it looks like a little silver cloud at the front of the bed.
Part Shade to Shade
Hellebore / Lenten Rose (Helleborus) — Semi-evergreen. Blooms in February and March when nothing else is showing color. I use the Ice N’ Roses series — ‘Red’ and ‘Carlotta’ — for strong, saturated flower color. Cut last year’s foliage to the base in late January before the new blooms open, so the flowers aren’t hidden under old leaves. Tolerates clay, shade, drought, and deer. One of the most valuable shade perennials in Nashville because it gives you color when the rest of the garden is still asleep.
Heuchera / Coral Bells (Heuchera spp.) — Native genus. The foliage is the star. I use ‘Glitter’, ‘Guacamole’, and the tougher H. villosa ‘Caramel’ — the villosa types handle Nashville’s heat and humidity better than some of the showier hybrids. Tiny flower spikes attract hummingbirds. Part shade. Avoid full afternoon sun — the foliage scorches. In early spring, just remove dead or mushy leaves; don’t shear the whole plant.
Grasses, Sedges, and Texture Plants
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ and ‘Shenandoah’) — Native. ‘Northwind’ is stiffly upright — a strong vertical line in the garden. ‘Shenandoah’ has red-tipped foliage that deepens through summer. Both tolerate clay, drought, and wet conditions. Cut to 4–6 inches in late February before new growth emerges. They give you movement, sound, and a completely different texture than everything around them. Leave them standing through winter — they’re beautiful in frost.
Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Little Bunny’ and ‘Cassian’) — ‘Little Bunny’ is a miniature — about a foot tall, perfect for edges and rock gardens. ‘Cassian’ is larger and fuller. Both produce soft, bottlebrush flower plumes in late summer that catch the light. Cut back to 3–4 inches in late February. In Nashville, these are warm-season grasses, so they’re late to wake up in spring — don’t panic.
Carex ‘Everillo’ (Carex oshimensis) — Not native, but incredibly useful. Chartreuse-gold, fine-textured, evergreen sedge that brightens shady spots and bed edges. Don’t scalp it — just comb out dead blades with gloved hands in late winter, or at most shear the top third. It provides year-round color and texture, which is harder to find than you’d think.
Holding the Ground: Groundcovers That Work in Clay
Bare soil is an invitation for erosion and weeds. These plants fill in, hold the ground, and look good doing it.
Sedum ‘Lemon Ball’ (Sedum rupestre) — Low, creeping mat of chartreuse-gold succulent foliage. Shear lightly in late February to even the mat and encourage dense new growth. Handles full sun and lean, well-drained conditions. On slopes, it’s excellent for covering ground quickly while looking intentional.
Ajuga ‘Bronze Beauty’ (Ajuga reptans) — Low, spreading, bronze-purple foliage with blue flower spikes in spring. Fills in between stepping stones, under shrubs, along bed edges. Tolerates part shade to full sun. Shear on the highest setting in late winter to clean up old leaves. It can spread assertively, which is either a feature or a problem depending on where you put it.
Blue Rug Juniper (Juniperus horizontalis ‘Blue Rug’) — Silvery-blue, flat-spreading evergreen groundcover. Covers slopes, fills spaces between large shrubs, spills over walls. Very tough in clay and full sun. Trim back runners that creep into lawn or paths, but otherwise leave it alone. Never cut into brown interior wood.
Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata) — Native. Carpets of pink, purple, or white flowers in early spring — one of the first things to bloom in Nashville and it puts on a genuine show. Evergreen foliage. Handles clay and slopes. Full sun.
Blue fescue grass. sedum, and drought-tolerant native perennials are wonderful varieties to consider for a full-sun, well-draining, and sloped bed area.
The Exceptions: Mediterranean Plants That Can Work (With Conditions)
I’m going to contradict something you’ll read in almost every Nashville gardening article, including the first version of this one I drafted. The blanket advice is “don’t plant Mediterranean herbs in Nashville clay.” That’s mostly right. But “mostly” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Rosemary ‘Arp’ (Rosmarinus officinalis) — ‘Arp’ is the most cold-hardy rosemary cultivar available, and it can survive Nashville winters. I’ve grown it successfully in the ground in Wilson County. The key: it needs excellent drainage. Don’t put it in a low, wet spot. A raised bed, a slope, or a berm with amended soil is fine. Tip-prune dead tips in late winter but never cut hard into bare, leafless wood — rosemary doesn’t regenerate from old stems. If you’ve killed rosemary in Nashville, you probably planted the wrong cultivar in the wrong spot. ‘Arp’ in the right spot is a different story.
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) — Same principle. Needs drainage, hates wet feet, but in a well-drained sunny spot it’s perfectly at home here. Useful as an edging plant, between stones, or in an herb garden. Lightly tip-prune in late winter and it comes back fine. The key is never putting it somewhere water sits.
The lesson: it’s not that these plants can’t grow here. It’s that they can’t grow in heavy, undrained clay. Know the difference and you open up your options.
What to Avoid (Or at Least Think Twice About)
This section is going to annoy some people. Good. I’d rather you be annoyed now than broke and disappointed in two years.
Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana)
If you have one, I’m sorry. If you’re thinking about planting one, don’t. They’re structurally weak — the branch angles are so tight that they split apart in storms, often within 15–20 years. Tennessee now classifies them as invasive. They escape into woodland edges and crowd out native trees. Beautiful for about ten days in spring. A liability the other 355.
Leyland Cypress
Already covered above. Fast growth isn’t worth disease susceptibility, shallow roots, and the cost of replacing them in five years when Seiridium canker shows up. There are better options.
The “Well-Drained Soil” Warning
When a plant tag says “requires well-drained soil,” that’s code for “will drown in Nashville clay.” This includes most lavender (except in raised beds or berms), many Mediterranean perennials, and a lot of the plants that look stunning in garden magazines shot in California or the English countryside. You can grow them — in raised beds, containers, or heavily amended berms. But don’t stick them in a hole in your yard and blame the plant when it rots.
The exception, as I noted above: if you choose the right cultivar and put it in a spot with actual drainage, some of these plants surprise you. That’s the difference between reading a tag and reading a site.
Boxwood (in certain conditions)
I’m not saying never plant boxwood. But boxwood blight is present in Tennessee and spreading. If you’re going to use it, choose blight-resistant cultivars and give it good air circulation. If you’re looking for a compact, evergreen, low-maintenance foundation shrub, Distylium and dwarf hollies are increasingly the smarter bet in our area.
When to Plant in Nashville
Fall (October through early November) is the best time to plant trees and shrubs. The soil is still warm, roots establish through our mild winters, and the plant isn’t trying to grow leaves and roots at the same time. By the time July hits, a fall-planted tree has months of root development that a spring-planted one doesn’t.
Spring (after last frost through early May) is good for perennials and grasses, and the second-best window for woody plants. Our last frost date in Middle Tennessee is typically mid-April, but I’ve seen frost as late as early May. Don’t rush it. The garden centers start stocking early because they want your money. The weather doesn’t care about their business model.
Summer planting is possible but hard on the plants and hard on you. If you’re planting in July or August, be prepared to water deeply and consistently until the roots establish. In Nashville’s heat, that’s a real commitment.
Late February is the single most important maintenance window of the year. Cut back grasses and perennials, prune shrubs that bloom on new wood, clean beds, apply mulch and a single light round of fertilizer. If you do one thing right each year, make it this.
The Real Secret: It’s Not Just the Plant. It’s the Plan.
A good plant list gets you started. But a plant without a plan is just a thing stuck in the ground. The right plant in the wrong spot will fail. The right plant in the right spot — with the right soil preparation, the right drainage, and somebody who’s actually read your specific piece of land — that’s a garden.
Every project I take on starts the same way: walking the property, studying the light, reading the soil, and listening to what the land itself is telling me before I ever open a plant catalog. My background is in fine art — composition, color, the way light moves through a space across seasons — and that’s the lens I bring to every garden I design. The plants on this list aren’t just species I’ve researched. They’re plants I’ve specified, sourced, installed, and maintained on properties across Wilson, Williamson, Davidson, Sumner, and Cheatham counties. I know how they perform because I’ve watched them perform.
If you’re staring at your yard trying to figure out where to start — or staring at a landscape that isn’t working and wondering why — book a consultation. I’ll walk your property, read your site, and help you build something that actually belongs on your land. You bring the questions. The dirt will tell us the rest.