Might be planted too deep. I’ve never used pea gravel so I’ll let others opine on that. In any case it has to do with the roots so you’ll have to dig them up and see.

tj

How is the soil around the tree? Did you amend the soil before planting? How many tree roots did you find when you originally planted?

If you sink pots into the ground around a maple tree, you will have to remember to rotate the pot a couple of times in the season. The roots will find the drainage holes and enter the pot.

please tell me you did not put down landscape fabric under the stone ...

yes.. its the maple ... plus maybe other reasons ... how do you water the hosta ... if you water just them ... dont be surprised how many maple roots you find ... within the hosta clumps ...

sinking pots will work for a season or two.. until the maple fills the pot with roots ... peeps who did this.. usually pop the pots out to sever the maple roots ... many who tried this used pot in pot ... to make it easier to slip it out of the ground ...

anyway.. dig one up.. and lets look at whats going on ... remove all the maple roots .. and go from there... give us some pix ...

you could divide the clumps when you do this ...

ken

Thanks everyone. The soil around the tree is very sandy except for the holes where I planted the hostas. I added compost and some potting soil. They were watered daily for a couple weeks and then I backed off to a couple times a week. The slugs destroyed them last summer and I found them living in the mulch. This year I removed the mulch and added pea stone. Never put down fabric under mulch or stone. Would the tree roots get into the pots if I layered stone on the bottom of the pots before adding soil?

In my experience, Golden Tiarra was one of the few hosta's that could handle the maple roots. They may have been smaller than those grown elsewhere, but they looked nice. I would guess planted to deep.

BTW, I have little experience with pea gravel except the one time I tried it in the cracks of my flagstone walk. It washed out in heavy rains and made a mess.

Would the tree roots get into the pots if I layered stone on the bottom of the pots before adding soil?

==>>> wouldnt make a difference ...

ive had surface pots invaded by maple roots .. given enough time ...

when you replant .... NEVER amend the soil under a tree ... they will invade the improved faster.. than if you used native soil ...

always broadcast water .. if you water just the plants.. guess where the tree will grow roots.. to steal the water ???

and for the same reason.. never fert under an aggressive tree ...

ken

So pretty much dig them up and plant them somewhere else?

Likely. See what you see. Older trees can have feeder roots further out from the trunk and although less likely with maples you might get lucky.

tj

Since the hosta is quite small, why hesitate to remove one to see if there are a lot of roots and whether they look healthy? Did you remove the potting soil before you planted? I have found hosta roots entangled in small peat liner pots that the nurseries use to pot their plants in. When the plant gets bigger, the nursery puts these peat pots into larger pots with some kind of potting soil and out for sale they go. The roots are supposed to grow through the original peat pots, but sometimes the hosta have a hard time doing this.

The picture with the hosta around the tree----I don't see much dappled sunlight getting through to the plants. Even a bit of sunlight helps the plants grow.

Maple tree roots extend passed the canopy of the tree. Also, they often don't extend out evenly in the ground.

Never underestimate maple tree roots. They will always seek out water and nutrients. So, as Ken said, don't just water the hosta (or any other plants) near a maple tree. Water everything along with the tree.

They get about 3 hours of full morning sun and then dappled late afternoon sun. All I did when I planted them was remove them from the container and break up the roots on the sides and the bottoms and planted it in the amended soil. I'll dig one up this weekend and see what's happening or not happening.

So I solved the issue. I dug the smallest one up and found a mess of small feeder roots pretty much killing the hosta. It also looks like it was planted too deep. I took some picture of before I dug it up and after. Also I took one of what the hosta roots look like after getting the maple roots out of the way. Any saving it? If so should the white part at the base be above soil? Either going to move them or put them in pots above the ground I think.

Absolutely!!!! The roots are healthy. Plant it somewhere and do the same with the others. If you plant them in an area where there could be slugs, do what I did this past year:

in fall when you cut them back or they wilt, use a 10% ammonia or vinegar solution and pour it over all your hostas if you have others affected. It kills the slug eggs so they don’t emerge in spring.

but to be most successful ,do the same thing as soon as pips start to emerge. You fill have a far less problem. My garden looked perfect until early July when I noted some getting munched. I did additional treatment to those and others that were hit bad last year. Good luck!

debra

Not the place for this but does anyone have any suggestions on what might grow ok planted under the maple tree? I've done a lot of research tonight and I have come up with some ground covers and Christmas Ferns.

Nothing lasts for more than a couple years. I have Japanese maples and actually got about 10 years out of dwarf mondo grass here in Silicon Valley, CA. Why don't you just have some fun and plant annuals, like impatiens or pansies or coleus. Those would work for you if you are in warm OR cold weather location.

-Babka

Epimedium, Polygonatum (Solomon's Seal) & Geranium macrorrhizum are the top 3 for dry shade. Asarum canadense and Actaea rubra also work well for me between an immense sugar maple and a butternut. You can't get a worse tree combo and the plants have been there for decades.

GT does really well for me when sited in an area w/ high sun exposure. I'm in Indianapolis - 5b/6a and literally grow it in full sun ALL day. It may sulk at first but the next year it ROARS. This may expand your planting options in the yard if you aren't just looking for shady spots.

TJ (hi! ;) ). Question: I've seen to plant the crown just a tad above grade for YEARS and what that resulted in for me was dead crown and dry eyes. I've had much better success fully covering the crown w/ the soil line to where the white stops on the petioles. Curious if different climates/humidity might affect this advice.

Mark - you may want to look also at clausa or clausa var. normalis hostas. They are freaking tough as nails, spread nicely (sometimes crazily) and may just be able to handle the maple.

Not as exciting but there is also good ol' pachysandra for the dry shade areas.

Autumn Bride heuchera. These plants will grow anywhere under all conditions. Seedlings will root in sidewalk cracks. Don’t deadhead and you will have volunteers plants to fill in.

Sherry

I have golden tiara hostess in a couple of places. I find that it doesn't grow well in full shade - needs at least partial shade and I suspect partial sun might even be better.. In fact I am planning on moving mine to sunnier spots when the weather starts to cool down a bit.