Your "landscapers" are sorely misinformed. Pretty much anything can grow under a Japanese maple, as their root system does not have the same aggressive, water-guzzling, nutrient-hogging character that other, native maples display. And a hot, dry summer will require regular periodic irrigation of any JM for it to survive and thrive - these are not drought tolerant trees. My only concern when underplanting a taller growing JM is that you select plants that will not need frequent division to maintain them, as excessive cultivation in the root zone or any significant disturbance can damage the delicate root system, sometimes to fatal results. Selecting something to contrast with the dark red foliage is a good idea, like bboy's suggestion of blue leaved hostas. You could add Japanese painted ferns as well to pick up the coloring of both the hostas and the tree foliage. I like the contrast of gold tones myself, so golden leaved hostas, Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa 'Aureola' or 'All Gold'), Campanula 'Dickson's Gold', spotted London Pride (Saxifraga x urbium 'Aureopunctata) or Lamium 'Anne Greenaway' or 'Aureum' and autumn fern are all suitable choices. Epimediums are an excellent choice as well, as is any moisture preferring, shade tolerant groundcover or part shade perennial that doesn't require frequent division. FWIW, my JM's are planted in the middle of mixed borders with an assortment of a wide variety of part shade shrubs, perennials/grasses and groundcovers surrounding them. So the notion that "nothing" will grow under them is very misplaced.

Lori, Four months of winter sun won't sustain your Neo colour through the eight other months without loss of colour. I have quite harse summers down here which can easily burn greenhouse grown broms in the landscape, I lose colour very quickly on my Neos if I move them to a too heavily shaded location. I have washed out the colour on some magnifiently coloured Neos to stop them burning. Spring is a good time to climatise our Neos to sun, tough leathery leaves take more sun, supple leaves prefer more protection. I like to hedge bets and put some in the shade and some in the sun if I have multiples and see which area works best, another option is to dig in a pot and drop a pot into the pot, moving it to a sunnier/shadier position as required. Morning sun or afternoon sun generally works well for me. Rick

We moved to this house five years ago. There was a huge spruce tree on the property. The first spring, my friend gave me about twenty violets and twenty lily of the valley. By the next summer, the violets completely covered the big area under the tree, the lily of the valley did not do as well. I did not clear the tons of needles or pinecones before planting. I just dug a hole and stuck a plant in. Done. The violets bloom each year in the early summer and remain green until winter. The plants completely disappear in the fall and come back up each spring with no effort on my part. You can't see the ground for the violets. One word of caution, you will have to make sure they do not get into your lawn or flowerbeds. They will spread wherever they can.

There are huge old oak trees in the Central Florida community where I live. A groundcover frequently used under them is aspidistra. Aspidistra comes in both solid green and variegated varieties.- June Here is a link that might be useful: Aspidistra