I grow a very wide variety of things under a huge Norway Maple, and know others who also grow things under maples, including hosta. I know folks say you can't. That might be true in some cases. It's not for me. I don't know what the difference is. Maybe prep; I had someone come in and install a shade bed, they tilled just the top few inches of spoil, then laid down two or three yards of topsoil, into which my plants were planted.

I grow hostas under maples. I have sugar maples and crimson king maples. However, I did add soil on top of the existing soil when I first built the beds so that may have helped.
Jen

The best growing hostas in my yard are right under a sugar maple. Everything near the maple grows like a weed.

Including this Sun Power. Picture from last year. Is now over 60 inches across. That's the maple behind it.

Thank you for the encouragement. I think I will give it a try. My biggest fear is they all die and it leaves her with a place for weeds to grow! You have renewed my resolve, Bless you all!

As far as I can remember, ken is the only one who says he can't grow hosta under a maple, and I think that it's because of his very sandy soil and all the root systems have to be in the top 4 inches of soil.
I grow hosta very well under sugar maples and under amur maples. I know people who have a lovely hosta garden in the shade of a silver maple and another under box elder trees which are acer negrundo.
I have lots of rich soil for everything!
Linda C

The silver maple I have is almost 50 years old..I too added top soil and planted hostas there.

Well 10+ years later some died, some grew but were smaller. I removed all the important hostas and now have just very common ones planted there.

Live and learn. I work with what I have in my yard and make the most of the only really big shade trees I have.

Connie

href="http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h45/hostasformez4/?action=view¤t=005-3.jpg"; target="_blank">

The tree is only partually seen in the upper left hand corner of the picture.

arcy, my advice as a gardener, and not necessarily as a hosta grower, is to try a small area first, and not invest a lot of money ion plants to begin with. You should be able to tell fairly soon how well they will do and if it would be wise to add more plants. I also recommend adding a couple inches of soil where the planting bed will be.

Happy planting!

not all maples are created equals...

Silver maple is a fast growing... some would say "weed"... tree. It is noted for the network of fine thread-like roots it forms right at the surface. I don't think slow-growing elegant maples like the sugar maple are nearly as competitive...

It affects hostas two ways. One, the fine roots capture all the food and moisture to produce fast tree growth before they can be absorbed by the deeper hosta roots. Two, the roots actually strangle hosta roots, growing around and through the hosta roots.

With lots of water and top dressing, you can grow hostas there... but eventually they will get smaller and smaller.

I am very intrigued by the planting bags available. They were invented in Canada for use by shrub and tree nurseries. They feel like your usual permeable garden fabric, but these are impregnated with copper. Copper stops root growth.

The nurserymen use these to naturally root prune the plant they place in the bag, making a denser root ball with no roots growing out into other pots or the ground.

A hosta grower turns the bag inside out and plants in it. The copper turns away the encroaching roots. You leave about 1 inch of the bag above the soil so the roots won't go up-and-over... some folks spoke very positively about these bags when I saw them at the convention...

Alternatively - find a landscaping company and recycle some of their 10 or 20 gallon pots... the big pots they get trees in... most times they just send these off to the landfill. You can dig in the pots, leaving the rim above the soil level. People really on top of things give the pot a quarter turn every few months, snapping off the maple roots that will inevitably invade the pots through the drain holes.

I used to do shovel pruning... once a year I used my long shovel to cut a circle around each hosta, cutting off the maple roots. It got old. I cut down the tree...

I'm growing hosta under my Silver and Norway Maple trees.
When I water my hostas I lay the water hose down on the ground and totally drown the whole area around the trees.
That system of watering seems to be working well for me.

Maples tend to have a shallow root system, and they are thirsty.

I've begun an experiment by digging my hole, and lining it with that black cloth you are supposed to be able to put on top of the ground to keep down weeds. It has to be a fairly large hole. Then I line it, and fill the hole with amended soil  pine bark mulch and peat moss go into the mix.

This is a trial run. I plan to dig it up again in about 2-3 years to see if the experiment works. It sounds sound, however.

Remember to water a lot.

dave

I have hosta growing under huge silver and sugar maples( seven total in the back yard). They are all in the Spin-out bags that Jim is talking about. I had tried to grow them for years with no success. All they were doing was dwindling away to nothing, no matter what I did. Two years ago I dug them all up and started over in the spin-out bags. Which I heard about on this forum. It's made a huge difference already. I can't wait until my leap year next year to see what happens. Here are a couple pics of them this year. I was determined to grow hosta, but am not willing to give up my shade. So far, so good.

I HAVE A MAPLE AND I PLANTED HOSTAS AROUND AND YES THE PLANTS COULD HAVE DONE BETTER, I THOUGHT ABOUT CUTTING TREE DOWN , NO PROBALY NOT AN OPTION. I WONDER IF I BUILD AREA UP AROUND TREE WITH 4-5" OF SOIL AND LEAVE LANSCAPE FIBER THAT IS ALREADY THERE WOULD BE AN OPTION AND REPLANT THE PLANTS, DOES THIS SOUND WORKABLE ?? KJ

kjhosta
This is NOT a good idea.
Building up the soil will in essence cause the tree to be planted too deeply and will smother it.

WHOAA, kj--you're hurting my ears! LOL I guess you're as excited about hosta as the rest of us! :o)

I have some landscape fabric that I had thought to use in a whiskey barrel as a lining, but when I
experimented with water found it did not allow for good drainage so wonder if that could work for
you with the roots. I'd hate to go to all the trouble of building up the area with 4-5" of soil to
find out otherwise. But, IF you find it didn't work you could always go to the spin-out bags, BUT,
you'd have to dig down and cut out the fabric in the chosen spot, because the bags are fairly
deep--much deeper than the depth you'd have with your build-up!

And, I agree--the SILVER Maple, more specifically, is the biggest problem in planting around!!
They have VERY shallow roots that can get as large as an arm! It takes a very determined hosta
grower to make it work--like Sassy!!!

A couple years ago I bought a big bunch of those SpinOut bags, but my hubby had cancer surgery the following spring which left him weaker then usual and can't operate his auger for digging holes for me.

I only used 3 of the bags so far. (I dug the holes myself, thank you). LOL

Here's my take on them...They may work BUT, they are sized all wrong for hostas.
They are waaaaay tooooo deep.

I have a Sum & Substance, Papou's Liberty and ? planted in the biggest I could buy (5 gal size).

That Sum & Substance is now 3 ft wide and doing great, but
I'm wondering what its roots are doing down below in that long and narrow bag.
The bags are so deep I have to either cut off several inches off the top or row the top over.

Either way it looks really ugly in the winter when the plants are sleeping.

This is IMHO, of course

Maples are well known to be the biggest problem, but if you ever saw the roots of a Sweet Gum Tree you may change your mind.

I just lay the hose down, turn on the water and walk away until the ground is drowned.

Our water bill is enormous during the summer, but my hostas are my only vice. LOL

(Hope you don't mind the double spacing...I find it easier on the eyes using a monitor)

THANKS FOR ALL THE INPUT , THE CHAINSAW SOUNDS REALY GOOD AT THIS POINT LOL BUT THE STILL HAVE TO DIG ALL THE ROOTS,
I HAVE TO WAIT FOR FALL TO SEE WHAT COLOR, WHEN YOU PLANT YOUR YARD INITIALLY WELL YOU ALL KNOW. WILL KEEP WORKING ON IT ...