Winston123 wrote: "We just bought a variegated Norway maple and during transport the leading branch broke off." Just wondering how this happened. There may be a useful lesson hear for other readers. How was it transported? . This post was edited by tenacre on Sat, Jul 19, 14 at 8:49

I do not think that keeping the Norway Maple as a snag will cause toxins to persist longer. Even if you cut the maple you will still leave most of the roots in the ground, so I don't think there is a big difference between cutting and killing it for a snag. I also do not think that the toxins are the biggest problem created by Norway Maples. I think the dense shade and dense, shallow roots are the problem. Once the tree is dead these two problems will disappear. However, the tree will not be dead immediately whether you cut it or snag it. In either case the roots and stump may try to live for a while. Therefore I do not think it is a great idea to plant the serviceberry immediately. Can you wait and plant it later, perhaps in the fall? You probably would want to transplant it to a larger pot for the summer. I definitely would not dig a hole in clayey soil and amend it with bagged soil. This will create a bowl in the clay, which will fill of water, potentially causing your serviceberry to drown. Even if it lives the serviceberry may never root right because of the difference between the amended soil in the hole and the unamended soil in surrounding the hole. Instead I would plant the bush in the native clayey soil. Many plants will do very well in clay, and your serviceberry is probably one of them. I would amend all of the soil beneath the existing tree by digging in several inches of leaves, rotted leaves, compost, peat moss, or other organic material into the top 6 or 12 inches. I think the more organic material and the deeper you dig it the better. However, you might not be able to dig because of the tree roots. The alternative is to simply place 6 inches of organic material over the surface and allow nature to work it into the soil - that is how it is done in the forest. I prefer to use fallen leaves for this purpose, but you could use compost or some other organic material if you don't have leaves. If you use leaves, you should place them at least foot deep or more, since they will compress to a depth of 4 or 6 inches after the first couple of rains. As the leaves rot they will help create a topsoil laver and you can begin to add plants. If you are instead trying to have a lawn you might want to try to loosen the existing soil or import a few inches of soil to allow you to plant grass. If the tree has really shallow roots that are sticking out of the ground, then importing soil will probably work better and certainly will be quicker than removing the roots or waiting for them to rot.

The only tree I have on my urban lot is what I thought was a Norway maple. It takes up an entire corner of my yard, so pretty much a quarter of my property. It took a while to do the entire area, but I have a pathway walking straight towards the trunk that then splits into two paths, one going off to the side where I have a deck and the other simply circles the tree and joins the other path. I have lamium, hay scented ferns, blue columbines, corydalis lutea, fringed bleeding hearts, and a couple hosta growing right at the base of the tree and then under the rest of the canopy to either side of the path I have more of the same, plus brunnera, 5 or 6 other ferns, epimediums, European ginger, creeping forest type phloxes, dozens of hosta varieties, Solomon's Seal, Jacob's ladder, lungwort, sweet woodruff, Lady's mantle, and toad lillies. I do have to water during dry spells and in some areas the plants barely flower, if at all, but they're green and growing and better than clay, rocks, and weeds, which is what was there when I started. I keep a thick layer of cedar mulch around everything but I plan on switching to shredded leaves for mulch once I get a shredder. I do realize you can't heap soil and mulch ontop of tree roots without killing the tree so I didn't go crazy, but the couple inches of mulch I have down has been there for 5-6 years now and the tree is fine. In some areas I dug the ground over, but in others I was lucky I could hack a hole in the cement-like clay and masses of roots big enough to shoehorn the plant in. In that area I stuck with cast iron plants like the hay scented ferns and basic hostas like lancifolia - nothing fussy. I figured what lives lives and I'll worry about replacing what dies. Nothing's died yet! Lisa

The underlying problem, if not excess shade, is root competition. The tree was there first and its needs come first. Its roots have most likely explored every cubic inch of soil. To establish any new plants in that root zone, you will need to manage them as if they're in intensive care. Perhaps set up a drip system for each newbie.