You plant something that can deal with dry, rooty and nutrient poor soil. And usually a fair amount of shade. Pachysandra, lamium, sweet woodruff, vinca, epimediums, Geranium macrorrhizum should all flourish in those conditions but will do even better with an occasional deep soak and regular mulching.

Mulching was not something I was able to do last year because of my hip recovery. I DEFINITELY plan to mulch well this year, soon.

debra

At my last house i had a trio of brandywine maples. I ended up having hostas in pots under those trees.

the area under my maple is much the same. So far I’ve had luck with hellebores, Christmas fern, Wood fern, Solomon’s seal, and lyre-leaf sage and lirope. Boxwood and holly do well also.

Definitely consider pots.

Following for ideas/. The forsythia and mock orange are doing well at the edge of the shade. The poison ivy is doing fantastic, but that is NOT a wanted plant.

Small plants can't compete with mature trees. There are some that do better than others, but you won't likely get a lush garden. I've seen countless people try to grow grass under mature maples. They think the problem is shade, so they put down a shade mix. The grass germinates and looks great in the spring and then by August it's back to square one. I've had my best luck with large woody shrubs that do well in shade. Something that can produce competing roots.

debra, it is my experience that removing these close to surface roots of a water sucking maple tree helps for only a short time and as they regrow quite quickly.

Yea, you gotta grow stuff that can tough it out among the roots....and astilbe and hosta aren't on that list. Although, I have gotten hostas and even hydrangeas to establish and hold their own under maples -- but it takes constant attention until they get to the point where they can do that along with a bit of luck. Lining planting holes with garbage bags with drainage holes, spin-out bags, or large sunken pots can really help (after removing as much surface maple root mass as you can, obviously). Mulch the ever-loving cr*p out of it all, too. But, admittedly, even though I do have some moisture-lovers established under maples, they're not really thriving there...

Stuff that has done well -- dare I say thrived -- in dry shade for me are Solomon's seal, Geranium magnificum, fragaria, Chasmanthium, golden oregano, wild bergamot, Phlox divericata, Japanese anemone and Anemona "Robustissima" (dry soil keeps the typically aggressive spread of the anemone in check), and Dryopteris. But all of these take a few years to get their footing = extra attention to watering; once firmly established, they do fine IME.

Oh, and Mountain Mint -- which I know is supposed to be a full sun plant and probably would flower more in full sun but I have it in bright shade under a mature maple and it does fine and is a lovely dash of silvery foliage.

Have that issue here too. I agree, there is no way to remove the roots, they will come back and so much quicker than you expect. You can't keep up with it. I had a nice patch of Solomon's Seal under my Maple and I was looking at it yesterday. Pathetic. I have a Holly under it, pathetic. I have the same Holly in mostly sun that is amazingly vigorous. They don't look like the same shrub. It's almost died out there. I do have a planting of vinca and eplmedium under another Maple and that always looks great and seems to be indestructible. I also have Leucojum coming up in the spring. Looks great too. Snowdrops and crocus too.

If you do a search on GW for Maple roots, you find lots of threads on the subject with great ideas for how to plant etc. If you really focus on it and keep trying different ideas, you'll come up with something you are happy with.

there are some resilient Epimedium as well

and re mulching: if you just leave the leaves (or most of them) in fall, that is all, that` s needed. Most woodland or woodland edge species do fine with a layer of leaves or even prefer it

I never rake out my leaves except off the lawn and then I add them back in chopped. But really my Maple is in a windy part of the yard and the leaves really don't stay there much. I also use the leaves on the back half of my shrub borders in the back beds and add bark mulch to the front half just because I like the look of it better, but also because by the end of July the leaves are broken down to the point they aren't giving enough cover to keep the moisture in unless it is really thick. And too many leaves in the beds, if you have a lot of perennials, sometimes they smother a lot. I've seen that this year in a few areas. Also my neighbor has a Sycamore right over the fence and those leaves are HUGE and they definitely smother everything.

I forgot, I have dwarf Solomon's Seal under my big Maple and under a Japense Maple. It is very cute. Makes a nice ground cover and spreads. I was looking today, I haven't had it planted there more than a couple of years and it is already spreading.

Prairiemoon, I would love to see a picture of the drawf Solomon’s Seal.

debra

Oy, I told my real estate gal that one thing I do not want is maples on the property. Walked away from couple properties too because of it.

Guess what, my forest is full of buckthorn...lol

We have a forest full of buckthorn, too, and have been slowly trying to remove it. It seems darn near indestructible, though, ugh.

Regarding maple roots, I - unwisely - created a new flower bed about thirty feet from the trunk of an established red maple. The bed is not under the canopy and gets full sun. I moved a few things yesterday and encountered tons of those horrible feeder roots in and around my plants. I wonder just how far away from a maple tree would be safe?

djacob, I will try to get a photo for you. But here's an online photo of it...I'll get you a better photo that shows it in my bed when I can get to it...

Lovemycorgi - I have a lot of beds in tree root areas because there are so many trees around my property. I have bought so many plants and start them off near the tree, when they don't perform I move them away, like to the back of my house which is about 30 ft away from the tree and they do much better. But I just keep trying new ideas and some of them work out okay and some I'm still not happy with.

I am very familiar with maple tree roots and have that endless battle. The plants suggested for planting under maples are good ones. But I suspect Debra, that you probably really want to grow hosta in that area too. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution. My recommendation would be to experiment with planting pots of hosta (pot and all) in that area. The roots will invade the pot eventually though.

Lovemycorgi, roots grow way beyond the canopy of a tree---easily two to three times the canopy. So one has to go pretty far to reach an area without roots (for a mature tree).

Prairiemoon, thanks for the lovely picture and thanks to all who have commented and given ideas.

What type of pot would I use to plant the hosta in the pot,in the ground???? Just cheapy plastic ones?

debra

Let me just also add. Tree roots don't grow evenly out from the trunk. There may be an obstruction on one side, or a slope where water runs off or a depression where water sits. More roots are prone to go where there is more water.

Yes, Debra, use rigid plastic pots, not the flimsy ones, for planting in the ground.

Lamium grows very well near red maples--we have a huge one in the front yard. We have put hostas inside pots and then turned spin out bags inside out, put the pot in the bag and then dug out a giant hole to accomadate the potted hosta. It's a lot of work but mine have lasted 5 years. I know that the maple roots didn't get into the pots since we had a major plumbing project last year and everything had to be moved--the maple roots went around the potted hostas in the spin out bags.