how far up is the maple limbed ... how dark is it under there????

flowering shrubs.. usually need a fair amount of sun ...

and how large is the maple.. it can be hard.. to start new things under one of these monster .. sometimes even to the point.. of not being able to work a shovel in the soil ...

rhodies and azalea.. can cope with shade.. but are heavy water users... and would probably be a struggle under such ....

your name says z4.... but you say z5 ... which is it??? give us a big city name ... for a bit more specificity ....

bottom line.. its not that it cant be done.. but it isnt going to be easy .... under a silver maple ...

ken

IME, both in cultivated and wild areas, not a lot grows under silver maples. (sorry not to have better news, but I am trying to be realistic.) They have really dense root mats that make competition for water and nutrients intense. I grew up with one in the yard, and now live on property with many, many along the river, and though I haven't tried planting shrubs under them, the only plants I see in the wild are ones that spread through rhizomes.

I don't know any flowering shrubs that fit that description, though there are some woody plants that will. Though you will probably need to control spread outside the desired area via mowing or edging, you might try some spreading ornamental grasses or grass-like plants such as sedges, 'Gro-low' Rhus aromatica (fragrant sumac) which has gorgeous fall color, Pachysandra, Vinca, Geranium 'Biokovo'. Shredded bark mulch with a clean edge will help keep the area looking tidy.

If you have a cool but above freezing area for winter storage and a good hand truck, you could try some shade-tolerant flowering shrubs in large pots that you move to shelter in the winter. You would need saucers under the pots to prevent maple roots from growing up into the pots (this is based on my experience growing in pots under maples.) In your cold zone plants in pots will be killed most winters. Ribbon grass has been an exception in my yard in cold zone 5.

There are some root control bags designed for the nursery industry that if you turn the bags inside out will let your plants grow and the copper coating on (the now outside of) the bag will stop the tree roots from growing into the bag. Several of the folks on GW's Hosta forum have mentioned using them successfully. The largest I found in a short search on line was 20 gallons which would only work for smaller shrubs, but you could try that. The same company had rolls of Tex-R® Root Pruning Fabric, so I suppose you could place a sheet of the fabric with upturned edges (held up by rock edging?) and a shallow bed of good acid, organic soil and plant some very hardy rhododendrons or other shade-flowering shrubs. Look at some of the releases from the U of MN such as the Lights series of deciduous azaleas (Rosy Lights, Orchid Lights, Northern Hi-lights, Northern Lights, etc) As long as you only did a few of these I don't think you would harm the trees, but I certainly wouldn't use this idea for more than 10% of the area under the tree.

(I don't know anything about the company linked other than they carry the product.)

Hey Ken...just moved to the Chicago area and didn't change the zone yet. BTW, neighbor behind me has forsythia bushes under the maple. The lowest branches are very high in the air, old huge tree.

Ford, to change the zone, go to Your Houzz in upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and on the left side click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a blank labeled Climate Zone for Garden Forums along with a link to find your zone.

Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing.

There's quite a difference in what you can grow in zone 4 vs. Chicago and it will effect the suggestions you get.