I'm just starting an orchard myself here in SE Michigan, 6b. I've been relying heavily on advice from Michael Phillips book, The Holistic Orchard. He recommends daffodils planted in a tight ring around the base of the tree, bulbs planted shoulder to shoulder. Daffodil bulbs are toxic to moles, voles and other burrowing things that might otherwise decimate young tree roots. The daffodils act as a barrier. That's all i got as far as flower plantings go, although i did plant yarrow as a green mulch, tansy, catmint, flowering thyme for their beneficial inset attracting properties. Currents do really well in an orchard setting, and the white and pinks ones especially are quite beautiful when fruiting. One thing to keep in mind is that to have a healthy pollinator population thrive, you do need to have things flowering for as long as possible, through the entire season, unless of course you have other offerings for them elsewhere in the immediate area. Just something to keep in mind. Good luck!

Zone is 5b ish but becoming more 6a

==>>> that is about half the US ... so how about a big city name ... min winter temp is rather useless ...

your dream pic is a tree in a meadow of perhaps wildflowers ... its not the same thing as the plants and visions you have otherwise ...

i dont care what you do ... but i want you to meet your expectations ...

also.. i wouldnt rely on plants to deter vermin ... grape hyacinth produces mostly bulblets .. and is more of a clumper.. unless you start carrying gobs of it around and dropping them.. and spiderwort is the bane of my existence for spreading seed everywhere ...

anyway.. in my MI .. there isnt very much blooming.. when the fruit trees are blooming.. and often .. frosts or freezes can impact not only fruit set.. but the flowers below ...

ken

ps: one other thought ... meadow plants probably dont bloom when the tree blooms .. sooo.. based on your dream pic.. it might be hard to accomplish .. on the other hand.. who wants it all to bloom in very early spring.. all at once.. and be rather drag the rest of summer ... pick your bloom times.. so they cover the whole summer ...

Daffodils are a good choice for orchards - for practical reasons it needs to be something like this that allows for the grass to be kept mowed for months at a time so the trees can be accessed for maintenance procedures and harvesting.

I do have blue eyed grass under one of my in-ground apple trees, doing well there. But I can't really say if it blooms at the same time as the apples (right now the pears and stone fruits are in bloom, but not the apples or the blue eyed grass yet). What about 'snow glories' (Chionodoxa)? They come in blue and pink - oh wait, they are also in full bloom now too. Most of the spring ephemerals are just about done around here.

I doubt that Daffodils will effectively deter voles, voles don't eat them, but the rest...

if you plant them really close the bulbs can't develop or naturalize or multiply but will choke each other

with some space and in a not too poor soil daffs can be really long lived.

just make sure as Emb. pointed out that the undergrowth does not block pruning or some such work.

a friend of mine tends to run late with her pruning and every spring she is yammering that she can't prune because the daffs are sooo lovely right now, and that she can't use the ladder...

if you have a meadow/ prairie which is cut at intervals you have to find some use for the hay,

if there are daffs growing it is not suitable for livestock, the dried material after the first cut.

I have fruit trees in a smallish garden so I just have "colorful" or weedy lawn with some wildflowers around them

You could use red, crimson or alsike clover or sainfoin for the pink. But check that none are invasives in your region. It would be happily mown down and would improve the hay. You say you’re planting one apple. Do you have suitable pollinators nearby?

I am planting one apple tree in my yard and it's mostly for the scent and flowers and decoration. If I get an apple or two fine, but I chose the apple for the flowering and it fits the site, not for apple production. I live just up the road from a lot of orchards. I don't really have the sun space to have my own.

I am thinking about blue eyed grass. One problem is that the tree is going to be mucho small for a while, like maybe 3-5 years, so the spot under it isn't going to be shady. Some phloxy ground covers or geraniums would give me the colors I'm looking for, and for now might be the easiest. It's a bit of a rain garden area so that's why I chose apple but it does limit me somewhat as to how much of a meadow effect I can get. The reason I say "bit" is it doesn't have standing water, my soil luckily is sandy gravely stuff, not clay. I was thinking more of the natural arrangement and colors and form, not so much the meadow effect. It's right next to my house so not gonna look like a meadow. Here's a shot of the tree now. As you can see, I'm dreaming quite a bit. For a while, the "understory" will be the show. BTW, it was dormant for a good long while, I mail ordered it. It's leafed out now . . .