Honestly, long term, not much will do well. I have a pink flowering dogwood just about at the edge of the dripline of my silver maple, it's been there probably almost 40 years and does well. So perhaps some of the more shade-tolerant shrub dogwoods MIGHT work.

Honestly, though, I gave up trying to grow anything near mine in-ground. I do containers around and under the tree. I still have to be sure to move them a few inches 3-4 times a season, or the tree roots will latch onto them through the drainage holes.

You may want to try some large containers. Being in TN, you don't have to worry about winter damage to the roots of containerized plants for the most part. As long as the containers themselves are shatterproof against freezing (terra cotta and ceramic are OUT), it should work out fine.

If you don't want to have to MOVE the containers on a regular basis to prevent maple root incursion, you can set them off the ground an inch or so using brick pavers or something similar.

the peeps in the hosta forum.. will testify.. that nearly NOTHING will grow with vigor under a maple.. [except for frank .. but you arent frank] ...

if you dig a hole.. you will allow the plants some time to grow.. but sooner.. rather than later.. the maple will fill the hole.. and start invading the new plant ...

i agree.. pots are a great idea.. but you will have to turn or move them.. a couple times a year.. BECAUSE THE MAPLE WILL ALSO INVADE THOSE!!!

you have really.. only two options.. garden elsewhere.. or get rid of the maple ... you can not have both in one place ...

ken

I hadn't thought about containers - that's a good idea. It would also give me a little extra height.

I wonder how long it would take for the roots to no longer be a problem if I cut the tree down?

Immediately, Connie. Silver maple is not the kind of tree that readily sprouts from the root system. Once cut down, the roots quickly die off.

The responses above are right on. I had the largest silver maple in my city, in my back yard for 30 years. The tree was there much longer, but for 30 years, I was the fool that tried to grow stuff under them. Probably the only plant in my back yard that seemed able to shrug off the intense competition was lily of the valley!

+oM

A high canopy will help....

The area under a silver maple has got to rate as one of the driest areas in any temperate garden. If the canopy is high, at least the shrubs will get sufficient light.

That said, shrubs native to the scrubby areas in rain shadow of western states tend to do well as do hardy Mediterranean shrubs.

Try Mahonia aquifolium, Ribes sanguineum & ordoratum, Kerria japonica, and Acanthopanax sieboldiana. Hamamelis virginiana & vernalis might also work well.

Come to think of it, Virginia creeper (vine) did just fine under my 90 footer. That thing was raised way up.

+oM

Depends what kind of soil you have. If you have a sandy type soil you are out of luck.

If you have more of a clay base the options open up.

I had Hosta, Hydrangea, Hibiscus and Lilac growing under the canopy. Granted the tree was only 17 years old so not sure how that would change as the tree matures. I'd be curious to see if the Hydrangea and Hosta are still growing under there after 5 years now (its my previous home).

Hostas are completely helpless against a full grown silver. I planted some nice ones, good rich soil, the whole bit...and then watched them manage to get smaller every year thereafter. And like Ken said, you dig a nice big hole, fill it with good stuff, compost, whatever, and the tree's roots have that new spot fully colonized later that same afternoon!

This is not hypothesis but rather, direct experience of both myself and other serious gardeners.

I loved that big tree. We lived with it for 30 years-the tree was probably more like 130 years old-but the safety angle was what eventually got me taking it down. I had numerous leads in excess of 24 inches diameter over my house, my neighbor's house, my other neighbor's house.......you get the picture. This was a truly huge silver maple.

+oM

puke, honeysuckle. Don't plant honeysuckle, it will live and take over.

Nothing grows well under them. I had one in my clay soil and the first year things would survive, but each year either not come back or barely come back. I got tired of trying new things and bit the bullet and had the thing cut down and ground out. That was with keeping it trimmed well every two years, didn't matter it still acted like it was the 40 year old tree it was. Plus like they are known to do, it cracked my driveway and a sidewalk panel, which I just had to replace this year. Wish I had done it years earlier and wish all my neighbors would take the hint and do the same so I am not cleaning up hundreds of thousands of maple leaf seeds each Spring.
Cher

Well, I hate to lose the privacy it affords, but I would really like to plant something there, and there are much better things for that space that would provide year-round privacy. Maybe I do just need to bite the bullet and lose it.

Mahonia is one of my favorites. Hammamelis - hmmm - I've been eyeing a Jelena this spring. :)

We moved to our house 2 years ago and had 3 very large silver maples (I really dislike these trees). All 3 were cut down with the intention planting other things there. We have had battle after battle with those roots. They were cut down 2 years ago and it seems like the roots are still alive.

We removed the roots from a Blue Spruce we had cut down. It was a horrible battle (axes, shuffles chainsaws, anything we could think of) I think we've reached the point of giving up on removing the roots from the silver maples.

I've been digging out spots nearby the the stump or where the stump was but I've given up on trying to plant something in the same spot. I guess my point is to make sure you'll be able to plant what you want to plant in its place before you cut it down.

Personally I don't regret having them cut down.

"We have had battle after battle with those roots. They were cut down 2 years ago and it seems like the roots are still alive."

Did you apply concentrate of Roundup or generic version to the exposed cambium layer just under the bark, to kill it, or did you just cut off what you could get at and hope it died?

Richard.

Springpatch, in what sense does it"seem like the roots are still alive"? That doesn't jibe with my reality! Something from the genus Populus sure, maybe even tree of heaven, but maple?

Now if you simply mean you are struggling with the task of removing the roots with only hand tools and chainsaw, sure, that'd be a lot of work. But that's not the same thing as dealing with a still-living root system.

+oM

PS......I'm not always right. Teach me something new!

The neighbors have 5 on the property line. It's a wet to moist area. The grass grows fast but near the Silver maples, I can barely tell where the grass needs mowed but for a few stray grass blades here and there. I can skip it till next time or longer usually, it's a good bit of area too.

I love Silver maples but their roots are amazing. There is a big 60 year old Silver in the front southwest corner from my house. It has large gnarly surface roots snaking through the yard, which have heaved the sidewalk in two places growing towards the gutter downspout and have invaded the septic tank. When I had the tank pumped two years ago there was a large root encircling the the tank opening. It was unbelievable! Since then I regularly treat the tank with copper sulfate.

Also, my southwest garden is now a "xeric" garden partly due to the Silver maple hogging any water in the vicinity!

There are well-established common Lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) growing under the canopy of my tree, along with Vinca minor and some orange ditch lilies. About 4 years ago I planted 5 grey dogwoods (Cornus racemosa) along the property line with the next door neighbor - along the dripline of the tree about 20 feet away. They are doing pretty well, being more shade and drought-tolerant than most shrub dogwoods. A Forsythia is holding its own in a sunnier spot near the dripline too.

Terrene, your post is an excellent treatise on the very "common" plants that will indeed survive and maybe even thrive under silvers. I love the "orange ditch lilies" comment! My biggie used to have those, Virginia creeper vine, lily of the valley, very poor turf, and yes, an old common lilac under it! But hostas were the dividing line, simply not doing well in this spot.

+oM

About the roots still being alive, my wife was trying to chop out some this March and I looked at one and I swore it was still moist like a living root. I could be wrong but I thought it looked like it was alive.

I've heard people say that when you chop a tree down the roots die and I've heard people say that they do not. Someone even said the best way to kill them (aside from digging them out) is pouring salt on the roots (which will make the ground uninhabitable to virtually all plants for awhile). For this reason I didn't even attempt to kill them with any chemicals.

If anyone would like I could go back and check again to see if they look alive but I distictly remember thinking that they were.

Well it's not for no reason all those plants are very popular Tom! They are hard for the average property owner to kill. :)

I have several large gardens and they are generally densely planted with bulbs, perennials, grasses, and some specimen shrubbery. Because my lot was previously heavily wooded (now it's more of an open woodland) all of the gardens have old tree roots running through them, but you would never know it by looking.

At first I tried to wrestle with the roots, and dig them out, and pine roots are pretty easy, but trying to dig out the 2 large oak stumps or roots in the front garden was a totally futile effort! I ended up covering one oak stump with wood chips and a bird bath, the other with stepping stones.

I generally don't bother trying to dig up roots any more, and just garden around them. Eventually those roots will decompose and start to add organic matter to the soil. I hypothesize that they get soft and act like a sponge to absorb and hold moisture in the soil too - and even become beneficial for the soil critters and the roots of the garden plants.

I'm late to the posting party here but have had success, limited, with gardening under those blasted silver maples. One tool: machete. At least twice per season I root prune around my perennials, at least 20 varieties, to a depth of at least 8 inches. The trees are fine, the plants are happy, and so is the gardener. I have hydrangea and lilac well within the canopy and I score the soil around these shrubs just outside their drip lines. They'll wilt a little in really hot weather here in Chicagoland and I'll water at least weekly. Had I known earlier about the silvers I would have taken them out but they are the only shade/privacy we have on our deck and patio.
Happy New Year!

Since this thread was resurrected, I'll add another suggestion - Blue wood aster (Aster cordifolius) is a lovely native woodland wildflower that grows quite well under the Silver maple. It blooms great in dry shade and holds its amongst the Vinca and orange daylilies.

Also we had a droughty period last July and there was a lot of die back on the Grey dogwoods, so they are probably not the best native shrub to plant under or near a Silver maple. However, no die back on the alternate leaf dogwood and Japanese snowbell growing in the same shrub border.

Great suggestions! I, too, have a silver maple which I LOVE, but has a 15 foot radius of bare soil under it. Well, OK, a couple of struggling coneflowers and hostas. They will be moved to more hospitable places. Good to hear some things may actually thrive!!

"Something from the genus Populus sure, maybe even tree of heaven, but maple? "

tree of heaven, or ghetto palm, will survive being cut down to aqn inch above the soil, no matter the caliber of the tree, and will send dfoouble the sprouts the next year

I have a huge silver in my front yard. I put a ring of pachysandra around it and that has spread. I gave up on grass and where ever I could get a spade in the ground, I amended the soil and planted daffodils. Also oxeye daisies in the sunnier area along with eponymous, butterfly weed volunteered there and Grecian windflowers, wild violets and almost anything that wants to grow there is allowed. I get poison ivy which I eliminate, also get blackberry bushes. I did plant a fragrant sumac that is doing well as well as a nine bark and some dwarf quince. I let the leaves stay and over time it has formed a thin layer of soil. In the spring it is very nice.

50+ year old Silver Maple - only tree in backyard. Winter creeper euonymus :--) Yes, I have that (have to keep it from climbing the maple), and looking for other ideas too so these posts are great and love the photo above. My Stella D'Oro daylily is doing well, and spring native like fleabane. But got fungus on Leucothoe that I watered from above too much to try and keep moist enough to live under the maple. Very interested in shrubs that might not decline.

PS When I say holding their ground, I mean they are surviving. :) But the competition from tree roots has surely slowed their usual expected growth rate. Not necessarily a bad thing, in some cases!

Thanks for the update conniemcghee :).

So lovely to hear an update, it was very helpful. I will try Mahonia, Solomon's Seal and Viburnum under mine for sure!

This is what you get when you plant a Japanese maple under a silver maple. Every year there are less and less leaves/branches. Ill be surprised if it makes it 3 more years. The P. Pungens Bakeri (barely seen) to the left is in poor shape as well. Very shady location. Planted 4 years ago.

This is a great conversation. I have a large possibly 70+ year old silver maple in my front yard. I have only just started planting in my "shade garden". I have been told that both Grey Dogwoods and Maple Leaved Viburnums not only handle shade, but tolerate the root competition of the maple. As I just planted both, I can't report my own experience yet. I also planted a Pagoda Dogwood, but that is nearly at the edge of the canopy so I expect it to do well due to less root competition. My gut tells me if your property extends to at least near the edge of the canopy, your options will open up quite a bit, with a bunch of hardy native bushes being options for you. Dogwoods and Viburnums as probably the best to try.

"but that is nearly at the edge of the canopy so I expect it to do well due to less root competition. "

And that is really pretty much of a fallacy. There is almost no relationship between a tree's canopy spread and the root system. The roots can travel well in excess of the canopy spread, depending on species, as much as 300' in any given direction. The relationship between the canopy spread or dripline that you should be concerned about is that is typically where the fine feeder roots start to proliferate and as they are the roots primarily responsible for accessing and transporting water and nutrients, plants in this area can suffer just as seriously from the tree's root competition as they can being placed directly under the canopy. They just get more light.

I just have to hope for the best then!! I can only say that it was easier to dig there, compared to other spots closer to the trunk. Do you have any advice as to what to plant/avoid?

No shrubs under mine, but perennials hellebore and epimediums have colonized and are seeding around, slowly expanding under my old silver maple. Also having good success with martagon lilies. As others have said, hosta, astilbe, and ferns struggle and die.

I'll report back about my large Astilbe, which I have on the opposite side of the yard 25-30 feet from the trunk. In fact, I'll report back on everything after the Summer. I have

-very young twigletts Maple leaved viburnum

-4 foot bare root grey dogwood

-4 foot pagoda dogwood

-Rhododendron PJM

-Fire Spire Hornbeam

-Big Leaved Aster

-Zig Zag Goldenrod

-Woodland Phlox

-wild red columbine

-small and large bleeding heart

All at various distances from the trunk. The large bleeding heart is 3 years old and is just within the edge of the canopy and is huge, 4 feet and no issues with that. The rest are very new plantings.

Typically dogwoods, redbuds, rhododendrons and azaleas can survive in the understory/shade pretty well.

I haven't posted here since 8 years ago, my least favorite thing about the neighbors Silver Maples are the branches that it drops when we have some wind here that is a bit intense.

They are usually about 6-8 feet long, like small trees and there are many of them and I have to move them before I mow unless they are NOT TOO big. It is usually very wet there and my shoes get muddy sometimes if I have to go and move the large branches, royal pain in the butt.

We moved to our house that had a beautiful silver maple a few years ago. Under it were invasive species (barberry, burning bush), which we got rid of, and lily of the valley and ugly hostas which I am fighting to remove. We left a couple of kind of pathetic looking evergreens because they are too hard to pull out, and at least they are evergreen.

I like to research native plant communities, so I put in what I read naturally occurs in a Silver Maple forest: Spicebush, Arrowwood Viburnum, Gray Dogwood, and Elderberry- all are doing well. So are 2 Pagoda dogwoods, as well as native Packera Aurea and Columbine for groundcover, ferns, False Solomon's seal. This area now attracts way more varieties of bird species, and some of the plants are butterfly hosts. Some bluestem goldenrod, mountain mint, sweet joe pyeweed, wild bergomot, and figwort are also happy and providing pollinators with nectar.

Thank you all so much for these ideas! I have a very difficult situation: a back neighbor’s silver maple’s roots are up behind my retaining wall and that area between my wall and the property line is very narrow, so I’m hoping some of your ideas will help me. My spot is unique in that it’s sunny and not shady...because my other neighbor trimmed their side of the tree branches. So I need drought tolerant full sun tolerant shrubs. I’m trying to hide a neighbor’s ugly pool floats and pump. On the property line is a chain link fence. I’m thinking of just asking them if I can attach one of those bamboo fences just to create a privacy screen. So far I have 3 silky dogwoods that are very very slow growing....I’m assuming they don’t like all the root competition.🙁Picture attached.

I feel for you! We have a lot of ugly stuff on the neighbor's side that I am trying to figure out how to hide... the bamboo fence sounds like a great idea.

We have a silky dogwood in a different part of our yard that is struggling- I think they need perhaps more moisture? and it's a dry spot.

So, in some of the most inhospitable parts of our yard- including sunny dry/ lousy soil- , what seem to do just fine are:

ninebark ( we have "Little Devil"), snowberry, and Northern bush honeysuckle... these might be better than what I suggested before, given the hot/dry conditions. Groundcover could include butterfly weed?, Pennsylvania sedge?

I wonder if black chokecherry might work too, that's also a pretty tough plant.

Hoping the natives I'm naming work for your location; I am in the Northeast.

If nobody mentioned it already some think the white poplar cultivar with lobed leaves is called silver maple. This of course suckers from creeping roots - unlike actual silver maples.

NPO, I think switch grass (Panicum virgatum) would work well to hide that fence, with a small tree or trees providing some screening higher up. The cultivars 'heavy metal' and 'thunder cloud' are large upright switch grass selections. I would try seeding poverty oat grass or another cool season bunch grass to cover the ground between switch grass clumps and get the green living mulch concept going. You could do some other perennial instead of a cool season grass to fill the role too, like yarrow.

I would try blackhaw Viburnum prunifolium, Red bud, or American plum for the small tree.

I have beach plum planted under high limbed silver maple. American holly seedlings, deer tongue grass, frost aster (or similar), blue-eyed grass, rough goldenrod, Canada goldenrod, and white snakeroot grow naturally under them too.

Thank you all so much! All of those are very helpful!🙂

I planted 4 small boxwoods close to the trunk of the Silver Maple and they are doing great. You can see them in the image below at the truck of the tree on the right.

Also have more mature boxwoods a bit farther back doing well. I had to plant them higher and build up dirt around them due to some large roots that I didnt want to cut out.

These silver maples are HUGE. You can see them blocks away. I live in Ohio and we get a ton of rain so I think that helps with all the plants and trees.

Also trying out mirco clover instead of grass in the back garden. Most of it came back so going to put more down in a few weeks.

Also, hostas and sedems do amazing under these two Silver Maples. They come back every year.

Experiment and have fun planting!

I'd like to plant a shrub for screening purposes under my silver maple. I understand it's not ideal and it might not make it.

Due to the high canopy of the maple, the area actually gets an easy 6+ hours of sun, so sun is not an issue, but competition from roots will be.

After doing a lot of research, it seems like the large/medium shrubs that would have the best chance would be a forsythia, a red twigged dogwood, or some type of viburnum. Any recommendations on which of these can compete best?

Anything that is native to your area would be best.

I have a virburnum at the edge of the trees drip line that is doing great. I planted a few more this week actually closer in.

I also have a huge ( 75 ft tall) silver maple in my backyard ( very small urban lot ) zone 6b Missouri. I have lived here 7 years I have hostas , iris , lily of the valley , Japanese Maples , rose bushes, ferns ( autumn ferns do the best ) under the canopy ,all of these plants do very good . The hostas furthest away from the drip line do the best and they are huge hostas . My Japanese Maples are at least 10 -12 feet tall . I forgot to mention tall phlox does well also . It has been very hot and dry this summer and everything is still doing good . Some hostas do better than others , the older plain green hostas do the best like royal standard and elegans .

Do you regularly water those other plants? I ask because not everyone has the same attitude toward supplemental watering, and that could make a big difference.

@drrich2 yes I do water regularly and use pine bark mulch and cotton burr compost . It's lots of effort but worth it to me . I'm a gardener by profession I'm always experimenting and pushing limits lol

I hope no one minds my making a push for native plants, especially under a native tree like Silver Maple.

Very happy under our Silver Maple: Golden Groundsel, False Solomon's Seal, American Spikenard, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Pagoda Dogwood, Spicebush, Bluestem Goldenrod, White Snakeroot, Wood Aster, Sweet Joe Pye Weed, Native Columbine, Royal Ferns, Cardinal Flower, Dwarf Crested Iris. Birds love this area with all the underplantings, and plants that supply lots of caterpillars for their young, and berries later. Also great for bees and butterflies. One trick is putting a bird bath under the tree, and putting some of the plants needing extra moisture, like the Cardinal Flower, near that so they get watered when you hose the bird bath.

I am actually trying to get rid of the lily of the valley that is also there, that was there when we moved in. It is super-poisonous to pets, and looks just awful after it's done blooming. I wish we could totally eradicate it.