Hello all. After a number of years I finally feel like I have a decent situation for a Japanese maple in the ground (have three in pots which I put in garage in winter). I am in 5a (near 5b) with a fairly sunny, protected south-eastern location off the corner of our front porch that gets nice protection in winter from the house and a large Spruce tree to the north. I got a nice deal on a good-sized b&b Emperor 1 that's about 7 ft tall and am ready to put it in the ground (I'll have to thin out some crazy branching in the lower parts, but I will wait on that).

Anyway - for the underplanting, I want to do as much as possible right away to avoid disturbing the root zone later. Am I wrong to think I need to find some plants that will deal with some sun at first (when the JM is still small) but will accommodate more and more shade over the years as the JM matures??

There is already a 5-year old dwarf blue-globe spruce paired with a nice mini-columnar barberry about 6 to 7 feet from where I am planting the JM, so that is what I am building from.

I have read some old threads, and like the suggestions of hostas, ferns, dwarf rhododendron, dwarf conifers, shade-tolerant grasses, dwarf, hydrangea but some of these (eg - hostas, ferns) will suffer a bit from the sun at first. I know I can wait to underplant if I am willing to limit myself to really small starts or transplants later on.

Ideas, thoughts? I know some of you have way more experience with this than I do. Thanks in advance.