I tried to make a bed under one once, because the surface support roots were sticking up making it difficult to mow. The feeder roots just came up into the soil. I have violets and ajuga under there now for a ground cover, and rudbeckias do love it there. One Albo Marginata I planted as an experiment there is still healthy, but it has never gotten very large in about 15 years. The surface roots are now a foot or more across and stick up a good 5-6" on this 75 or so yr old tree.

I started a new bed under a silver maple this year. But I put only 1 hosta there and it seems to be doing ok, at least at this point.

Most everything else I put there are more prairie type plants that I think can tolerate competition for water: shasta daisy, sedum, golden alexander, daylily, penstemon, etc. So far, so good.

I think Silver Maples and Norway Maples are worse than other types. Not that any of them are great.

The best place to grow hostas in my yard is within a few feet of a sugar maple. I've got several 60-inch hostas growing there, including a Sun Power that lights up the yard.

Lamium is probably a good choice for silver maples.

here is my pic ... the depth of the maple roots is the hat ....

ken

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Ken,

What kind of Maple is that?

a dead one???

ken

Ba dum bump.

Harry, by the look of the bark, it looks like a silver maple.

Here's an interesting piece of information for ya:

I have a couple of silver maples that are maybe 24" apart on center. Before I knew they were silver maples, I planted a Great Expectations between them. I also didn't know of Great Expectations reputation for being a little difficult.

Turns out, it's doing GREAT there!

I wonder if it's cuz the feeder roots that are so fibrous are further out from the base.

But I do have a total of 3 silver maples in a 10 foot radius. My hostas seem to be doing great there.

My best advice, melissa, based on growing under a silver maple for twenty-five years is to feed those plants regularly - along with heavy watering, of course.

I used to post pictures of my huge hostas under my silver maple and I'll admit it - my postings may have been a little smug about it. Had a nice 6' Abba Dabba Do and similar success...

but then, over a period of about 5 years, it was clear they were diminishing in size... not that they couldn't grow, they just lost ground each year. I attributed it to the root competition for water and the fact that the fast growing silver maple extracts all the nutrients available in the soil. I cut the monster tree down and the results have been positive - but the hostas haven't come back to full size in this third year. I think I will have to seriously amend and feed to regenerate the area...

I have no choice but to grow under Silver Maples. I water religously but rarely feed. Planting anything takes 10 times longer and digging things up is also a nightmare. In 10 years I have only had one hosta decrease in size which is Fire & Ice. Heucheras definately get choked out within a few years.

I have read that if you only water your beds near maples that the roots will grow towards the moisture and fill the bed with roots faster than if you water the entire yard evenly.

You know idiot and Jim bring up a point to consider.

I water my beds less frequently than my lawn. These trees surely have roots that extend out into my lawn area. So, I'm guessing, since their drip line is out there, a good majority of their roots is also there.... especially since there's more water to be had.

Franknjim...Fire & Ice is hard to grow, so it might not have been the trees. Also. ... I've heard that many of these newer heucheras are more prone to dwindle by about 4 years of age... Mine are 3 years old and huge... so, I'll see if there's any truth to that notion.

Here's a pic of those 3 trees. You can see Great Expectations loving her home between those 2 I mentioned.

Your trees are twigs compared to mine...lol! Here's a pic of me standing next to the cut up trunk of the larger tree. The piece to my right is actually bigger than it looks, the angle of the camera makes it look smaller. It's the same size as the one I'm leaning against. And I'm 5'9", to give a better idea as to how big these fellas are.

Karen

I can only imagine the sense of power and control one must feel when cutting down a large tree for a couple of hosta.
Pat

Oh, Karen, I have one to beat that!

Uncidentally, did you count the rings?

When we moved in 4+ years ago, this one had 9 trunks... 2 had already been removed. It's now down to 6 trunks, all fused at the bottom. I know that a couple of the smaller trunks are at least 30 years old. This pic was taken the day it went from 9 trunks to 6.

It is even better to humiliate the tree after you cut it down by replanting it upsidedown in concrete, putting a silly hat on it and giving it an earring. Then you have the last laugh.

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Melissa, no, didn't count, but our neighbor remembers when the trees were planted and when the house was built, back in the fifties, so they are about 60 years old. Your multi-trunked tree with all of the trunks is about how wide the larger tree was with its one trunk, and the roots spread all the way to the garage. We still have several more large maples but those will stay for the shade. They really do help keep our property and house cooler in the summer.

Franknjim, that is so funny! Poor tree, first it gets cut down, then humiliated. But it is so funny! I would never think to do something like that.

Side note, after the guys chipped up the branches, we kept some of the chips to use as mulch. I think I may have enough to do all of my beds, the mound is huge, and we didn't even keep all that was chipped.

Karen

I came across a tree service company removing a large maple a block away. I went over and spoke with them and asked if they would empty their truck on my drive so I could use it as mulch in my backyard becuase I have a pack of giant breed dogs. The mulch works great for keeping the mud down but it is very dirty and full of miscellaneous sized pieces of chips and small twigs that didn't get broken up going through the chipper.

If this kind of green mulch sits too long it becomes full of mold that can cause problems when inhaled while moving it. Mucinex helps. The tree service guy warned me about it when he dropped it off. One truck full was a pile about 8' wide x 5' tall and 20' long. It saved him a trip to the landscape waste dump so he was happy to let me have it.

For what it's worth department: This pic shows Gold Standard and Hyacinthina growing right up against a Red Maple! There are more hostas growing out farther from the trunk not visible in the pic. I have many plants growing there since 2006,so not ALL maples are bad! Just thought I'd stir the pot a little! Lol! Phil

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I've got a ring of undulatas growing at the base of a Norway maple, and they've been growing and spreading there for the last three years, going on four. I water them when we've had a long period of dryness, but that's it. They are, as I like to call them, the weeds of the hosta kingdom. They seem to grow anywhere.

I think, maybe, growing hostas near the base of the tree would be different versus a little further out, where the mat of their feeder roots are, versus the pockets of dirt between the larger roots near the trunk. Some hostas don't seem to care about growing near the maples, I have several doing quite well (Striptease, Guacamole), others just sit and don't do much (Stained Glass, montana Aureomarginata), and yet, others have dwindled, (Tokudama flavocircinalis and aureonebulosa). Perhaps it depends too on the particular hosta.

Karen