Mayflowers I would love to hear about what you tried, what succeeded and what failed since you posted this a few years ago. I have two large, 50+ year old established Zelkova trees and I just learned they produce juglone like black walnuts, although to a lesser degree. I didn’t realize that! Did you know that? Your garden is beautiful by the way. :-) The plants under the Zelkovas when we first moved in were mature and well established, but also juglone resistant, such as juniper, holly, etc.... awful choices in my opinion so I removed them. I didn’t think about their juglone resistance at the time. Since then I have mulched and planted, but things under the Zelkova haven’t flourished as much as other areas of the property. Now it makes sense! It’s not just shade and root competition, it’s juglone! I’m moving some azaleas I have mounded under the canopy now and trying to find out what may work there instead. I think I’m going to leave the carpet roses, nepeta and creeping boobiala under my other Zelkova, but I may change my mind. They’re doing OK, but not as great as others planted elsewhere. My Zelkovas are in a large front yard with ample space all around (no fence near them), so much more sun gets through than it looks like in your yard. It really isn’t that shady under them at all except for midday. It always seemed strange to me how different plants struggled there, even when mounded, mulched, watered appropriately. Now it makes much more sense. I need juglone resistant plants there! Or nothing at all. Did anything recommended here flourish under your Zelkova? Thank you!

Thanks, I moved the Borinda and think I'd better move the Yellow Grove as well. I have a Pseudosasa japonica that actually I did buy for this very spot in the first place, but since it was just a 1 gallon, I have it in part sun, figuring it will grow faster than it will in full autumn /winter shade. Is the best plan to probably to let it grow in part sun until it is a large size, then move it to the winter shade area? Whatever i put there needs to eventually tolerate summer sun as well. Thanks!

BrugGirl100, (Does '100' mean like you are the 'New and Improved BrugGril'? LOL!) Anyway....if it doesn't flower, or doesn't flower much, it is too much shade. Great help, aren't I? Hey, what do you expect for free? hahahaha Personally, I find that they require 1/2 sun or more to get big rushes of flowers. In shade, they can occasionally get a couple flowers, but the more sun, the better. Wildcat

ya know.. when you start with all those platitudes.. its REALLY hard to ignore you .. lol ... shade is undefinable in words ... but i question your conclusions... but dont know how to debate such ... can you give us some pix??? shade will NEVER kill anything... in a fast way ... it is better to move bigger plants in there... and i mean bigger root masses ... its hard to grow a babe into such.. if in fact.. it is too dark ... and try to stay away with anything with a lot of white tissue ... except the undulata clan ... there is just that much less green tissue for photosynthesis ... so if you move a plant in... and next year.. it is the same .. or bigger... you were wrong about the light ... if it is smaller ... significantly smaller.. not just from the transplant .. but because of lack of vigor.. them move it out .... you dont really even try to define the amount of light... is there any actual sun.. how many hours.. what part of the day ... etc ... and frankly more importantly.. what is making the shade.. if its a maple forest.. just give up w/o trying ... i lost focus.. lol... so i will say good luck... and await further input from you and others... ken