If you have heavy clay soil in your yard, don't despair! Payne's sells lots of beautiful shrubs that are adapted to heavy soils. You should, of course, amend your clay with liberal top-dressings (3-4 inches minimum) of coarse, well-aged compost (such as Payne's Soil Conditioner) or animal manure, followed by a second layer of coarse builder’s sand (not the fine sand used in sandboxes unless you want a garden of adobe bricks!). Then dig or till the amendments in to a depth of 6 inches. Some people also recommend digging in gypsum, which is said to help break up clay and to slightly acidify alkaline salty soils.

Some great shrubs tolerant of clay soils include (clay-preferring shrubs marked with an asterisk*):

• alpine currant* (Ribes alpinum)
• American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
• arborvitae* (Thuja occidentalis)
• chokeberry* (Aronia melanocarpa)
• clove currant* (Ribes odoratum)
• green barberry (Berberis thunbergii)
• forsythias ‘Meadowlark’* & ‘Northern Sun’*
• glossy buckthorn* (Rhamnus frangula)
• grey dogwood* (Cornus racemosa)
• honeysuckle* (Lonicera sp.)
• junipers* (Juniperus sp.)
• Korean barberry (Berberis koreana)
• lilacs* (Syringa sp.)
• ninebark* (Physocarpus opulifolius)
• potentilla* (Potentilla fruticosa)
• red osier dogwood* (Cornus sericea)
• rugosa rose* (Rosa rugosa)
• serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.)
• scarlet elder (Sambucus pubens)
• Siberian peashrub* (Caragana arborescens)
• silverberry* (Elaeagnus commutata)
• sumac* (Rhus sp.)
• Tatarian dogwood* (Cornus alba)
• viburnums* (Viburnum sp.)
• white cedar* (Thuja occidentalis)
• white snowberry* (Symphoricarpos albus)
• willows* (Salix sp.)
• witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)