I planted several apple trees on the dike of a pond and others on a considerable slope. I had my best luck mounding the soil and planting the bare root tree actually above grade. My soil is quite sandy in some areas but the only amending I've done is adding some richer soil from a different area on my property to the mound soil. I mulch heavily with woodchips and water if it doesn't rain for 3 weeks or more. I don't know why the mounding approach seems to work so much better but the results have been pretty consistent. the only negative I've encounterreed is that the semi-dwarf trees on mounds take some staking to keep them growing vertical.

Shade is not the problem. Most of the areas in question get loads of sun, as they are 30-40 feet from the trunks. In fact, the sunnier areas do worse, probably because they are more stressed for water now in the summer heat. The problem is the smaller roots of the trees that extend far out across the lawn, just under the surface, right where the grass roots should be. I'm just trying now to find a way to enrich the surrounding soil so that the roots and the grass can co-exist.

It's been a mucky mess the last 3 springs, including this one, hasn't it? Farmers can't even get tractors into the fields. They sink. What usually is a great spot for roses has turned into mud bogs. I raised the beds, I have a sump pump, and I'm in the process of plotting out some new beds designed for shade plants that will hopefully gobble water in some of the boggiest areas. Right now I'm seriously hoping that this is a short term pattern, but only time will tell. In the meantime, I've traded gardening clogs for those rubber rain boots and invested in a lot of Oxyclean to get the mud out of all my jeans. I refuse to transform to container gardening and I'm determined to ride out this weather pattern. And guess what...more rain forecast today. They've been blowing dams just south of me in the Cairo area this week. So sad.

I have had these survive two winters. Note these are unlike our native Arisaemas which can take quite a bit of water. I don't believe it is moisture that is the problem but the getting of air. In the winter they cannot take standing water and will rot. Wet clay will also suffocate them and start the rotting process. I have high clay soil and this is what I did. I used a post hole digger to create a deep hole. I then put in a well draining soil mix. At least 50% sand with lots of humus. I added some bone meal too. I filled to within 5 inches of the top. I then put in one inch of sharp sand and then covered the bulb with sharp sand. They put out long roots that will easily go through the 1 inch of sand into the better soil below and around the bulb. I then covered with the native soil amended with humus and a bit less sand than I had put in the hole. This way water seeping into the soil will have a hard time at first, then hit the sand and go right past the bulb and into the faster draining soil below. If I had filled the hole to the top with sand it would have resulting in surface water running directly into the hole and then pooling at the level of the bulb as it tried to move into the less porous soil below. It is the relative porousity of the layers that determines where the water pools. A quarter inch layer of clay at the surface over the winter would keep the bulbs much dryer. Of course this all depends on your having a site with good drainage. If the location is a swamp your bulbs are would die anyway. Note that I gave a couple plants to several neighbors and they just planted them straight in the ground and have had perfect survival. Their locations however were naturally more sandy. I also found that too much shade reduces their ability to survive the winter. They just cannot store enough food or something. Make sure you do not plant to deeply. They are not good at penetrating lots of over laying soil. It sucks up their resources even if they do make it to the surface and sometimes they actually open their leaves and flowers underground. I had planted 6-8 inches and had this problem. I planted at 4 inches and it was no longer an issue.