Welcome Krewson.

I don't have any personal experience growing under Oak trees, but you can do a Google by typing in "growing under oak trees" and several sites come up. I didn't check them out, but I believe they could be helpful. Also you can check with your local Extension horticulturist for some advice. They will be found under University of Missouri Extension.

Wish I could be more help.

Let us know how things go for you with the landscaping project.

Welcome crewson,
My whole garden is either under or near oak trees. So maybe can help a little. I have a lot of raised beds tho never directly up against a tree,will kill tree, and have other plants just around trees. Native fern does well under oaks and have painted ferns under shade of oaks but not real close. Guess i need to add the oaks are large old oaks.Columbine and Asters does well and Hostas does well in shade of.Common spider worts and periwinkles up close. With the periwinkles be prepared to weedeat around the borders every year as they spread like nothing you ever saw. I love Virginia creeper growing up an oak tree.

I have so many rocks that raised beds turned out to be the best solution and i grow just about everything without problems i just try to match plants with the amt of shade i have which varies from deep shade to mostly sun.
Have fun and goodluck
vickie

Welcome Krewson and congratulations on your new home!

Oak trees are a little friendlier to grow under than most trees so you should be able to make a nice shade garden. A general rule of thumb I read once was, if you can grow weeds or grass there, you can grow ornamental plants as well.
If you are around the Springfield area sometime next spring or summer, there are some nice display shade gardens you might want to visit so you can see what grows under trees in the Ozarks. If you like gardening, I'm sure you would enjoy it.
Hilltop Farm near Ash Grove has a large display garden with LOTS of hostas and other shade plants (mostly hostas). They have a big retail section too with a great variety of plants. Many are specialty plants and kinda pricey. They have a somewhat limited time when you can visit so you might want to call first to see if the display garden is open.
Close Park Gardens is off of Scenic in Springfield and has a hosta garden with some other shade plants mixed in. There are other display gardens there as well and a Japanese Garden at Nathanael Greene Park next door. The Japanese Garden has a $3.00 admission charge but the others are free.

There's a garden center called Myron Royce(?) near Ozark that has both sun and shade display gardens and a retail section. I haven't been there for awhile so someone correct me if I'm wrong on the name.
I think all of those have plants that are labeled with their names so bring a pencil and notebook and make a wish list.

The soil in my shade garden is pretty dry in the summer. I keep saying I'm going to put in some kind of soaker hoses but haven't yet, so I mostly plant things that will do well in dry shade. My favorites for toughness are hellebores, heucheras, and Solomon's seal. Daffodils are easy too, I have some that are mostly white and look great in the shade. I haven't had much luck with ferns myself. I have to water them too often, even more than my hostas, but I don't have oak trees to garden under (wish I did) so you might have better luck than me. I do have some painted ferns with silvery leaves that I pamper because they're one of my favorites.

these are going to help, thankyou very much its nice to hear from you all, if any else has any ideas and/or tips bring em on....im up to all suggestions and info, thankyou again....

I'll second the Columbines, Ferns, & Hostas and add Astilbe, Bleeding Heart, and Liriope. I've got all of these planted in my front yard, which is completely shaded by my 'big daddy oak' who must be upwards of 50 years old.

My tree is an large Walnut. if it will grow there it will definatly grow under an oak. The Walnuts can be toxic. My Dahilias do well, the tree has a very high canopy so I can grow sun plants in the front. Also lillies are going crazy, bleeding hearts, glads, yarrow. The flowers are up front, havn't started planting the back yet but those will need to be shady.

Ilsa - You're so lucky to have a big oak tree. I would know what to look for now if we were to build again. I love shade gardens but don't really have the right kind of trees for it. I just read your member page by the way - it made me laugh. Hope you come around more often.
I tried to grow astilbe once and didn't keep it watered enough I think (it died). I read somewhere that Chinese astilbe is more drought tolerant so I bought one of those. It's hanging on but not quite as pretty as the other. Liriope seems to be very tough though. I have a couple different variegated ones. I wanted to use those as front edging plants if I can get a few going.

Amazon - Glad you found the Ozarks forum! My neighbor has a black walnut with a fairly high canopy and he's planted a ring of yellow mums around the base of the tree and they always look just fine. Walnuts don't cast a heavy shade so a lot of plants do great as long as you stay away from the ones that are sensitive to juglone. Have you seen the hosta garden at Close Park. It's under walnut trees mostly. Of course after that ice storm, it may be literally under the walnut trees.
Vickie - do you know what kind of asters you have?

I was planning on filling up the Walnut bed with hostas. Now I know I will. See I'm learning new stuff already.

Christie, I just have the plain old wild variety of asters that grows everywhere.
Where our old veggie garden was, golden rod completely took over. The yellow field was pretty this fall. I hope it did'nt kill out my chamamile that was there in the spring.

Something i never thought would take heat and drought and will grow in partial shade is Creeping phlox.
vickie

krewson, Are you still working on your oak garden plans? pease keep us up to date.

If you send for a Select Seed catalog, they tell what plants grow in shade or partial shade.
vickie

Here is a link that might be useful: Select Seeds

My neighbor has several large old oak trees in her yard. She has built several slightly raised beds around her trees with azalea, heuchera, hosta, iris and bordered by loriope grass. James

I just bought some more Virginia bluebells. I have some already under my oak in deep shade. They come up in spring, bloom and die back until next spring- ephemerals bloom before the tree leaves shade them. I have them protected by rocks. You can forget where they are and dig into them by mistake. The summer drought did not seem to bother them. My shade is too deep for most blooming plants, but out from the tree a bit I have daylilies. Hostas, varigated lirope are good under the tree. Try a variety of ferns. I had no luck with ferns until a friend gave me some from the east side of her house. I don't know their name but they are tough. Walnut trees are great for hostas because the roots are not so bad about sucking out the surface moisture like elms and maples do.

I bought some Virginia Bluebells last year and was so disappointed that it died. I didn't know they were ephemerals. Have yours already emerged? I'll check today and see if I can find mine. Maybe it's not dead after all.

My front yard is very shady, with oaks, walnuts, dogwoods and redbuds all here when we moved in. I have these shrubs--azaleas,rhododendrons, boxwood, camellias, dwarf holly, hydrangea, nandina, pieris, flowering almond, and a dwarf alberta spruce in a big pot, all of which need to be watered. Forsythia, kerria, spirea, beautyberry, rose of sharon, mockorange, flowering quince,and euoynumus in the ground,which I only water until they are well established. Trees--I have a dwarf japanese maple, a service berry and a fringetree. Bulbs--Lots of daffs, naked ladies, crocus, windflowers, hyacinths, and ipheon. Tulips will bloom, but the gophers eat them. Ferns--the natives do best--woodsia, ebony spleenwort, maiden hair, sword, and cinnamon. All of these will go dormant in the drought and return the next spring. I water the Japanese painted. Astilbe, hosta, trycertis, heuchera all take water. I have liriope and vinca major and minor which I never water. The spring ephemerals--bloodroot, wild phlox, Indian turnip, several kinds of wild violets, dogtooth violet, never get watered. Lily of the valley doesn't get watered. Starry campion, spotted waterleaf, tall bellflower and bluestar amsonia are later blooming wildflowers that don't need water. I think the amsonia would do better with a half day of sun. I also have thousands of tradescantia--natives which I enjoy in the woods away from the house but they selfseed like crazy and I treat them like a weed in the beds. ajuga, hardy begonia, and hardy cyclamen bloom in the shade. I have a row of dayliles under a blackwalnut tree which don't bloom as prolifically as those in more sun but they hold their color better. Virginia creeper is absolutly beautiful climbing up an oak tree, but I finally cut the one out of the tree over my azalea bed as the seedlings came up by the hundreds. Several kinds of sedums as well as creeping phlox bloom well inthe shade. For annuals I plant begonias,including the dragon wing, coleus, Iresine, impatiens, caladiums, elephant ear, and torenia in pots. Pansies planted in pots in Oct bloom great March through May. My house plants also summer in the shade. Peace lily, spider plant, shifflera, a couple begonias with exotic foliage,and a fuschia.