Planting Under Trees - Part 10

Last week, in this series about planting in the dry, rooty conditions under mature deciduous trees, I told you about some plants who are happy and some who are not, growing under an oak (Quercus) and four dogwoods (Cornus florida) in my USDA zone 7 garden.

Please be patient while the photos load; I know it will be slow for some of you.

The West Side

This week, all the plants are happy campers as we move around to the west side of the tree group. While still under the canopy of the oak, this area receives considerable late afternoon sun. Since the soil is still full of tree roots, this means that I need to water these plants regularly when summers are hot and dry.

One of the first woody plants I put in, at the outer fringes of this bed, was the Japanese cutleaf maple, Acer palmatum dissectum 'Inaba Shidare'. The cutleaf Japanese maples are among the most beautiful and graceful of the plant kingdom - and, when purchased in decent size at a nursery, some of the most expensive. I bought this plant mailorder from Greer Gardens back in 1989 as a small child about a foot (30.48 cm) tall. It lived outside in successive pots until I planted it in 1992. It now makes a lovely mound about five feet (1.52 m) or so in diameter and a bit under four feet (1.21 m) tall. It seems pretty happy, although this spot, with afternoon sun, is not ideal for it. It would rather have morning sun or dappled sun, I think. This cultivar holds the deep maroon leaf coloration fairly well. It does show overtones of green as the summer moves on, I think because of the partial shade. As the crisp days and cold nights of fall arrive, it flames up to brilliant red before dropping its leaves.

Once again, I planted this tree high; scooping only a shallow depression in the native soil and setting the rootball mostly out of grade. I then mounded around it with a good mix and extended the mix on all sides so that there were no steep sides for water to roll off of.

View of The West Side

This photo was taken last spring, when Digitalis purpurea (foxglove) had seeded around the maple and grew up through it - you can barely see the maple foliage. Actually, this shot encompasses the area on the west side of the tree. You can see the oak trunk (in heavy shadow) in the background and just in front of it, the unknown Hosta sieboldiana cultivar I talked about last week.

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