Can anyone recommend a zone 6 hardy flowering shrub that likes wet feet but can tolerate dry conditions, too?

That's a tall order - plants usually like either damp conditions, or dry, but I can't think of anything that doesn't mind both, except really boring and not particularly attractive things like possibly Prunus laurocerasus

Hi, Bamboo:

Thanks for the suggestion. I just planted a 'spotted laurel'; Aucuba japonica Crotonifolia in the front yard near where the sump pump outflows.

I have not seen the 'English Laurel';Prunus laurocerasus in our nurseries but I will look for them now!

Is there a particular type (cultivar?) you would recommend that won't get too large of a spread or that will tolerate shaping? I need the approximate spread of the forsythia back there which seems to be about 7 foot high and about 6 foot across.

Thanks,
Lisann

Weigela

Don't get prunus laurocerasus then - gets huge. What about the Mahonias? There are ones that get this high, plus others smaller - it's fairly tolerant. Only other thing that puts up with almost anything is Leycesteria, though its deciduous. I still think, though, that you will have difficulty getting anything to stay alive thats alternately dust dry or standing in water. Desert plants might survive that though!