Both of your existing plants are too close to the house. The maple should be at least twice as far from both the house and porch as it is now (if not more). Move it when it is dormant and rethink the bed accordingly including expanding the bed.

tj

the boxwood only gets 2-3 foot wide, and the maple is more than 4 feet from the house.

I have had the Red Dragon maple for more than 7 years. It is a dwarf maple, and has grown very slowly for me. I will get some photos with an actual ruler to show the distance, I think the scale is distorted in the photos though. Does anyone else have any input? I did buy a blue rug juniper today, but could incorporate it somewhere else if anyone else knows of something better.

The maple is exactly 3 feet from the house, and 31 inches from the porch. The boxwood is 21 inches from the house. if it only gets 2-3 feet wide, shouldn't this be adequate?

Red Dragon will get equally wide as tall and often much wider. You may not have as much space as you think before some pruning is required :-) And pruning to size is never recommended with JM's.

And whatever you select to plant along side the maple make sure it is something that will not require transplanting, dividing or any soil cultivation down the road. Japanese maple roots are very sensitive to any disturbance and can react very poorly. Also allows inroads for soil pathogens that can be very harmful or even fatal.

Thanks for the reply. You have given me good maple advice over the years. How far would you personally plant a Red Dragon from the house? I have several different varieties of maples, but the Red Dragon seems to be able to take more sun and stay smaller compared to my other ones. I would not be opposed to extending the bed out further if I needed to. I was thinking about the blue rug juniper bc of the color and it would not disturb the maple roots bc it would fill in the bed where I might would be tempted to add more plants.

here is a different angle. I know plants continually grow, and I would guess this maple is at least a decade old. I have had it since 2013 or 14.

In my climate, these could easily spread to 10-12' so no closer than half that distance..

And the juniper could certainly work. I am just not a big juniper fan unless that was my only choice :-)

Thanks. I also have a Ryusen maple. I believe those can grow taller than wider and could possibly take more sun due to being a green beans leaf. I think all my other maples would be too large or not tolerate as much sun.

But it may be similar width as the red dragon

So I dug up the maple and going to go back to the drawing board.

Yes, it’s good you are planning to move the Red Dragon. From your second picture it appears to be already touching the house. I like the idea of adding blue but like gardengal I’m not fond of the juniper idea. However, I love hostas and and depending on how much sun your bed gets, there are a number of them that are sun tolerant.

debra

I am unsure now what to put in this bed. I had initially thought about a dwarf weeping conifer that doesn't get wide and would stay under 10 feet, and can take some sun. And then this week I came home from work and put the maple in because I am tired of the ugly curb appeal. I know these things shouldn't be rushed. I will keep researching the weeping conifer, bc I think something like that would be perfect for this corner. I also have a Thuja whipcord and a Moseri Scots pine growing in containers that might be appropriate in this bed with the right weeping conifer.

IME, most weeping conifers will eventually develop either too large a size height-wise or too broad a spread. But there are scads of dwarf conifers that could work here if you are willing to tolerate a more erect habit. I lean towards some of the Hinoki cypresses (Chamaecyparis obtusa cvts) for applications like this, as their growth rate is slow, they offer a range of growth habits (including some that are definitely pendulous) and there is a lot of color and texture diversity.

thank you for your help. I am going to research them. I am not sure that we can mention websites on here, but I order most of my maples and stuff like that from a Kingdom that specializes in Conifers. They do have some Hinoki cypresses listed, so I am going to research them and see if one would work for here.

Here is our Red Dragon planted with Jappanese Forest Grass and Witch Hazel.

AC, interesting! I planted mine when my dad passed in 2019. Our kids had nicknamed him dragon slayer when they were younger, so the red dragon seemed appropriate to plant in his memory.

That is awesome!  I really like the idea of doing that in someone's honor, and can only hope someone will do the same for him. There is a local place that will make small stone markers with words engraved. I am thinking about adding one to the plant so it would tell the story when someone saw the tree.

Here is from inside our Red Dragon. The trunk and branches are glowing purple.

Possibly Mt. Airy fothergilla (that's the dwarf one). And I second the hostas. So many color choices. I also LOVE dwarf hemlocks (some are weeping). They might eventually outgrow the space, but they grow slow and honestly, although I love them, I haven't had good luck with them lasting long. Snowmageddon did one of my babies in, and a drought took the other . . . In your zone an azalea would be good, there are small ones and almost evergreen . . . I planted a juniper next to my JM at my last house, they did look wonderful together if you have enough sun to keep it from getting ratty looking . . .