Do you have that one spot in your garden that never looks the way you want no matter what you plant? We used to have a sunny side and a shady side in our front garden, which made planting almost trouble-free. That system worked well until several years ago when we lost an enormous beech tree in a severe storm. Without the massive beech, we no longer had a shady spot in the garden.

We tried a variety of shrubs as a focal point, but all of them dwindled and failed after just a few years. I managed to nurture a border of small hostas mingled with variegated Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum “Variegatum”) primarily because these plants nestled against the picket fence, but other than a few daffodils each spring, the bed was almost empty. We had planted a Camellia sasanqua “Yuletide” in the center of the bed several years before the beech tree fell, but it never flourished, and we replaced it three years ago with a variegated Weigela I had grown from a cutting.

Th...