19-05-2004, 05:03 PM
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What can you grow under rhododendrons in zone 6
In article ,
(flicker) wrote:
From: paghat@netscapeSPAM-ME-NOT.
This means mainly that you have to insert small
starts of things & not try to plant, say, a gallon-pot of epimediums
amidst roots. But a three-inch pot can be inserted safely, with care, & as
the underplanting grows, the roots will sort themselves out safely.
This is very good advice. I have a red maple under which the ground is like
rock; there's no digging around under there. But I have successfully inserted
tiny bits of hostas at the base of the trunk. Not much to look at at
first, but
now three years later they have filled in nicely. I've done the same
with tiny
fringed bleeding heart seedlings under my rhododendron. They have grown in
nice and full and no more digging around every year shoving annuals anymore.
~flick
L.I. zone 6
I've had he smaller species of bleedinghearts (D. eximia & D. formosa)
self-seed under rhodies & under other shrubs, they're even a little weedy,
but very welcome weeds.
An additional point about planting under rhodies would be never to plant
anything under them that will need someday to be dug up & divided, as this
could only cause great damage to the rhodies roots to be digging around
under there. Cyclamens are good because if they live to be a century old
(and they can) they never need to be moved.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
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