I grabbed a quick photo while I was over her house today

Thanks,

:)

Dee

Don't overthink it.

Given what has shown up under my red maple, I'm waiting for the plants to get the memo that large maples are hard to grow under. I'd avoid the real waterhogs, like hydrangeas, and things that dislike shade, but aside from that, sky's the limit.

Many shade tolerant plants can grow under maples, but that's a must.

maples are super water competitors... and you will ONLY win.. if you beat them ...

NEVER dig a hole.. and put a plant in it.. and then water only the hole.. guess where the maples will have roots before fall.. in that hole..

same with NEVER fert a planting hole..

and same logic with never use improved soil it eh planting hole...

so/.. if you can get a transplant.. to live long enough.. to put down a good root mas.s.. so as to compete with the maple.. you will succeed ..

and NEVER BUILD A BED THERE.. I promise you.. within what seems like weeks.. the maples will completely fill the raised beds new soil.. with roots.. just a waste of time and effort ...

you will be much more successful... if you ALSO come out. halfway to the property line.. and plant a few small trees like redbud or something.. one tree will block the whole view inside a couple years.. as compared to trying to plant a dozen plants out under the maple.. and in the middle of the yard.. they wont have to compete so directly with the maple..

ken

Hmm, I was hoping for more help/suggestions with this. Considering all the lamentations I've seen about growing under maples, I wasn't expecting to be told it would be so easy lol. I personally don't mind experimenting, but it's not my yard and I don't think my daughter and son-in-law, being non-gardeners, would be quite so patient with trying things out.

Ken, I actually have considered smaller trees here - the maples are really limbed up VERY high (too high for my taste but I'm not a big fan of limbing up trees to begin with) but the issue here is that they need/want the privacy lower down. Not sure if it's apparent in the photo but their property is a bit higher than their neighbors, so they can get away with things that are about 6-7 feet tall. On the other side of them, the neighbors have their small lot completely ringed with very tall arborvitae, and it looks awful. I talked my kids out of that look - convinced them it looked like a green prison and there was no need for 30 feet when 6 would do just fine lol. And certainly no need for a ring/wall of all the same thing when a mixed shrub border would provide privacy AND beauty.

The other concern with coming in farther from the property line is that while their lot is quite large, it's long and narrow and there is not much depth to begin with from their house to the line. Don't know if they'll go for making it even less deep.

Okay, I will plod forward. I guess the good thing is I can tell them we have to try small holes/small plants, so we won't be spending $$$ on bigger plants that may not succeed. And they'll just have to be patient.

Luckily the neighbor's yard is quite lovely (she's a bit of a gardener and more naturalistic, which is my taste if not my kids lol) so I just tell them to enjoy the view and pretend it's their backyard haha. Too bad she has (lovely friendly) dogs and they now bark since they can see the street in front of my daughter's house (since all the trees/shrubs were removed by the flipper), so the neighbor put up that green tarp stuff to keep the dogs from barking. On the bright side, the neighbor is starting to plant things too so that will help.

Thanks!

:)

Dee

I know what I'd recommend in my location but you may need to do some additional research as to how well these plants may do for you. Here, English or cherry laurels (Prunus laurocerasus) and most holly varieties will do very well under the conditions of root competition and semi shade. They will need attention to adequate watering for at least their first season in the ground but once established, should be self-sufficient.

Thanks gardengal! I was considering hollies, but didn't think of the laurel. That may work well. I'm checking on invasiveness (just a matter of routine for me with any plant) and it seems to be okay here in CT. I can only find stuff on it being invasive in Washington state, which is odd that it's confined to one state lol, but since I can't find anything about invasiveness on the entire east coast or the northeast, hopefully it is safe to plant.

Thank you for the suggestions!

:)

Dee

Plants that tend to be invasive here in the PNW are seldom invasive elsewhere and vice versa - location, location, location!! And the laurel is only borderline invasive or on the "monitor" list here in WA state.

Dee are they Norway maples.

Im going to photograog teo gsrden under maples

Ken is correct. It takes diligence during establishment, but it CAN be done. The trick is to grow shrubs that tolerate or prefer part-shade, start with smaller plants because you have to find pockets of soil to plant in if the tree is established, and water the every-lovin' cr*p out of the entire area. After about two years, maybe three, the shrubs should be able to hold their own.

Right now I've got "Blue Shadow" fothergilla, silky dogwood, Koreanspice virbirnum, and Annabelle hydrangea (yes, hydrangea -- refer back to comment above re: diligent watering) growing under a huge maple right off the deck. An oakleaf hydrangea and an amelenchair tree are under the dripline but far enough away that the maple roots aren't growing as densely as they do closer to the tree -- bad, but not as bad.

Here's some pics; still a few bare spots that I'm playing around with but overall not bad for under a maple:

This back side of the bed is the hardest to grow under -- it's the rootiest (is that a word? LOL!):

Shrubs don't seem to get as large as they otherwise would; I assume the dryness keeps them in check. See the silky dogwood on the left in teh above pic? (it's diagonal to the back of the black pot, there is some golden oregano just underneath it). That same shrub in the front of the house with no root competition and access to rainfall is double the height, at least, and they were all planted at the same time.

Thanks mxk. That gives me some hope! I will be planting closer to the tree, so that may slow things down. I'm wondering if I should go for shrubs that would be taller than I need. For instance, if I go for something that grows 12 feet, perhaps I'll get my 6-7 foot shrub sooner lol, than planting one that grows to 6-7 feet.

I think I'll start off trying a holly and viburnum, and perhaps a laurel, and see how these do. Now that the kids are in the house for almost two years and know the neighbor better that need for privacy doesn't feel so urgent to them - and that's a good thing lol, when it comes to trying to grow these shrubs!

Thanks for the input everyone. I feel a bit more confident going forward!

::)

Dee

We have mountain laurels growing happily under maples. Bittersweet and burning bush too, but we won't mention them :-(

Lol rwiegand, yes, that's what I was thinking of when I said I wonder what the shrubs were that were there before, the ones the house-flipper tore out. I'm sure it was likely nothing good!

I might try a mountain laurel. As I mentioned above, I'm not a huge fan of them - well, that me rephrase that. I think the blooms are beautiful, and for some reason this year for the first time I am seeing some lovely HUGE specimens that I've never noticed before along roads I've driven on for decades - where have they been lol? But it seems like so many end up scraggly and sparse... but I have seen them growing out of the sides of cliffs, so they are indeed tough plants.

:)

Dee

I am truly confused about what mountain laurel really likes. The wild ones seem to like full sun, and yes, there are a lot of them growing on limestone cliffs.

I took care of a woman's garden and she had a mountain laurel in a front bed that had about three or four maples. It never really looked "great". It was, for the most part, "okay". I think every year we discussed removing it. The funny thing is, when we thought, alright, this year we're gonna do it, we're gonna get rid of it, it would bloom beautifully! LOL we used to joke it heard us. (And then we left it haha!) But in all honesty, it was kind of scraggly. This was an admittedly difficult bed - dry soil, chock full of maple roots, mostly shade but hot evening sun - but it did get fairly regular water, and I did put down shredded leaf mulch every year so the soil was not horrible.

Then I would drive home from her house down a huge (rather shady) hill with wooded sheer cliffs on one side of the road, and would see some quite nice mountain laurels growing out of a crevice on the side of the cliffs. What the heck lol?

:)

Dee

By some chance fid you go Georges garden where he had hydranges flourishing under a maple.? if i had the time today i could look in my old posts, but out of town family is coming….

in short cardboard box with soil

plant a very small specimen in soil at right depth etc water as yiu would a new planting

Plant will grow, box will decompose, Add more soil if needed.

i saw iy with my own eyes It worjkd.

im pretty sure they were little lamb or little lime?

Gosh, do you all remember when Little Lamb was aThe Thing? who still has it and likes it?

I have a few red osier dogwood shrubs growing under various types of trees and all are thriving, maybe even becoming a bit invasive with their underground runners. But they are fast growing and provide color in winter.

PRN that's interesting. I always thought most dogwood varieties needed consistently moist soil. I will look into them, although the underground runners makes me hesitate a bit lol.

Marie, I do indeed remember George's beautiful garden (and lucky me, I have many bits of it in my own garden!) but I don't specifically recall hydrangeas under maples. I admit to being pretty much completely ignorant of tree varieties and likely admired his hydrangeas without noticing what kind of tree was above them!

I feel like I've just recently (last couple of weeks) seen that recommendation somewhere about using the cardboard box method - lol I thought it was in THIS thread but I just re-read it and it's not here. But maybe I will give it a try. My daughter loves hydrangeas and they seem to have no issues watering the garden (I had to tell my son-in-law that he did not NEED to water every evening!) so they can probably get it through those two first important seasons successfully.

Thanks!

:)

Dee

Just a small update to say that I decided to try the cardboard box method that Marie mentioned. George had a beautiful garden under many trees so why not give it a try? In some ways it was more difficult because the box is bigger than the plant roots, so I had to dig a bigger hole! I'm not sure it will work but what the heck.

I tried this with two plants. A decidedly uninspired and run-of-the-mill choice of a rhodie, and a Pink Chiffon rose of sharon that my daughter loved. We'll see how they do.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their input and suggestions and help in this thread. Due to financial constraints I am putting this border in slowly, but I did make notes and I have some great suggestions above to work with, so thank you all!

:)

Dee