Yes, you can grow plants there; Ideas for difficult locations

It doesn't take long for gardeners to realize not all plots of earth are created equal.

Sure you have a sunny, open area that just seems made for roses or a magnolia tree or whatever you are itching to grow.

But you also have places in your yard where the grass dies no matter what you do, and even dandelions do not seem interested.

What's a plant lover to do?

Consult the folks who know and find out what grows in difficult spots.

Conditions you might be struggling with: Sunny but dry; shady and dry; wet; and wet until July or August.

People with answers: Kunso Kim and Todd Jacobson, assistant directors of the Plant Collections Program at the Morton Arboretum, Lisle; Rory Klick, chairwoman of the Horticulture Department at the College of Lake County, Grayslake; and Elizabeth Britt, horticulture manager, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn.

Here's their advice to get those tough spots blooming:

Dry sun

Autumn Fire Stonecrop, hylotelephium, with gray foliage and pink flowers that turn bronze and coppery is an offspring of the popular sedum Autumn Joy.

Yucca like Bailey's with sharply pointed foliage look like they belong in the Southwest, but some are hardy and do well here.

Shining Sumac Prairie Flame, rhus copallina latifolia Morton, is a shrub that can grow 6 to 7 feet tall. The male blooms but doesn't set seed. The yellowish flowers bloom in July, and the fall leaves are brilliant red.

Compact Goldentuft, aurinia saxatilis compacta, is easy to grow on a slope with loose gravel soil and low moisture. The spring flowers are intensely yellow, the foliage gray.

Russian sage, perovskia atriplicifolia, is well known, but what a joy for neighbors and passers-by. It seems to thrive on neglect, and blooms for months starting late in the season.

- Kunso Kim

Dry shade

Black-haw viburnum Wilson, prunifolium, is a slow-growing shrub with fantastic red fall color.

Geranium macrorrhizum Bevan's Variety creates a carpet of clean foliage. The magenta flowers bloom mostly in spring.

Christmas fern, polystichum acrostichoides, is evergreen most winters and grows 11/2 to 21/2 feet tall.

Japanese sedge Ice Dance, carex morrowii, boasts green blades 1/2 inch wide with white edges. It grows about 12 inches tall.

Yellow barrenwort, epicedium sulphureum, is a ground cover that takes a while to fill in. But once it does, it's fantastic. It flowers in the spring, and the heart-shaped leaves are tinged with red.

- Todd Jacobson

Wet

Joe-Pye Weed, eupatorium purpureum, grows 4 feet or taller and blooms in late summer or fall. Different varieties, some of them shorter, are available.

Ferns give interest and texture to the shade garden and often like evenly moist soil.

Blue joint grass, calamagrostis canadensis, is known for its blue color and grows up to 5 feet tall. Sedges also give a grassy look.

Spirea, an old-fashioned spring favorite, is deer resistant, and some put up with wet soil.

Juncus is a rush with round stem that grows 2 to 5 feet tall.

Pickerel weed, pontederia cordata, grows 2 to 3 feet tall with dramatic elongated heart-shaped leaves and purple flowers.

- Elizabeth Britt and Rory Klick

Wet until dry

Swamp milkweed, asclepias incarnata, grows lovely and waist high and produces pink flowers in the summer.

Asters - both purple stemmed, symphyotrichum puniceum, and New England, symphyotrichum novae-angliae - bloom in the late summer or fall.

Prairie blazing star, liatris pycnostachya, produces late-summer purple flowers so beautiful they could be sold as cut flowers.

Marsh marigolds, caltha palustris, grow 12 to 15 inches tall with bright yellow spring buttercup flowers in woodland or partially shady areas.

And of course, you know that native plants with their deep roots and centuries of adapting to this difficult climate are frequently recommended for many conditions.

"They are ideal for rain gardens," said Klick. "They can handle the spring rains and after it dries out, they can handle that, too."

- Rory Klick