05/27/2026
Good plants in the wrong place? That’s the most common landscaping mistake we see in Northern Virginia.
Here are the six we see causing problems most often:
Leyland Cypress — planted for instant privacy, but the bottom canopy dies off by year eight and the screen you planted it for disappears completely.
Colorado Blue Spruce — beautiful at the nursery, but plant it in wet clay soil and needle cast disease works its way up from the bottom until the tree looks like a stick.
Emerald Green Arborvitae — same story as Leyland Cypress. When they're planted too close and one dies, the survivors have bare sides that never fill in.
Crepe Myrtles (wrong variety) — some grow 60 feet tall, so you can either prune it back every year forever, or just pick the dwarf variety that maxes out at 15 feet and gives you the same flowers.
Rhododendrons in clay soil — they need rocky, well-draining soil. Northern Virginia clay is the opposite of that.
Boxwoods for instant fullness — planted three feet apart, they merge into a solid wall with no air circulation within five years, and then you're removing every other one just to get back to reasonable spacing.
Every single one of these looks great at the garden center. The problem isn't the plant. It's the match between the plant and the place.
