Wow! What a gorgeous impact a flower garden under a tree can make! Make that tree an even more beautiful focal point. This article shares easy 3 Steps to successfully select, design, and grow a sustainable flower garden under a tree, even in its shade.
To achieve a successful flower garden under a tree, follow this easy 3 Step plan:
- Select the right bulbs and plants
- Design for maximum impact
- Implement for success and sustainability
1. Select the right bulbs and plants for life under a tree
Choosing the best plants or bulbs for under a tree can be tricky. Most trees provide a nutrient rich soil underneath them, so that is a big plus. Exceptions are Eucalyptus and Pine that drop their natural astringent chemicals (which is why we like them for cleaning products) onto the ground making a difficult growing environment. But most trees provide great soil. There are two big considerations that must be thought through – shade and tree roots.
Tree shade though does provide some options though. Early blooming flowers under deciduous trees (those that lose their leaves in cold months). Also, consider the location of the tree and what displays may be in the surrounding landscape. Does the tree need to be the focal point all year round, or can it play a seasonal role?
The other consideration is the tree roots. It is important not to damage the tree, so choosing plants that are sustainable and recurring year after year is important. This will keep you from disturbing the tree too often. Similarly, trees are often an important part of an ecosystem of birds, insects and animals. Choosing plants right for your garden’s environment will also ensure you have a beautiful, healthy and flower garden under your tree.
Shade garden vs. early blooming garden, make the best choice for you
Most trees do or will provide shade, at least much of the year, so shade loving plants can obviously be a great choice. Something you may want to also think about is using early blooming flowers under a deciduous tree (one that loses its leaves in the cold months). Early bloomers can capture the sun before your tree regrows its leaves.
It does not need to be a dilemma. You can use both early blooming flowers to get an impressive burst of color early in the growing season and then allow the shade loving plants to take over and give your garden interest through the next season or two.
There are some flowers that love shade, such as hostas. Hostas enjoy shade and give robust foliage through the entire growing season. Many also give lovely, though subtle, flowers for a month or so. There are also some colorful flowered ground covers such as nettles or periwinkles that also thrive in shade. Your choices will be limited if you only look for flowering plants. Color can also come in the form of colorful leaves. There are a bounty of beautiful plants that love shade and can draw the eye with breath-taking color from their leaves. These plants rely more on great soil than photosynthesis, so there is a true win-win synergy with being planted under a tree. These colorful plants can be mixed in with ferns or other plants with interesting texture of leaves, to further enhance a display and make a dramatic color show.
There are limited choices of shade loving plants, which is why it is great to consider adding some early bloomers under deciduous trees. This opens your choices up to many bulbs and flowers that make a big color statement. They also can provide your first burst of color after the cold season and can be a welcome introduction to months of color to come.
Most bulbs are well documented about the time that they bloom. Look for “early” bloomers. Some flower bulbs such as crocus and daffodils are famously early bloomers. There are also varieties of many other bulbs, such as iris, tulips, and hyacinth that are also early blooming varieties. Be careful to choose the right blooming time, and you can have a dramatic display of sun catching plants, even under your tree.
Consider your full landscape for non-stop flowers
A landscape plan can help you maximize the impact of featured plants or parts of your garden for non-stop flowers and color display. Using your tree for an early blooming feature can make real impact. Then a well-crafted landscape may draw the eye to another feature, such as flowering bushes like camellias or azaleas. Follow up with sun loving flowers in another area of your garden for Summer-long blooms. And perhaps your tree becomes the focal point again as the leaves change color at the end of the growing season.
Watch the video to see the front door garden bed and how it has featured interest all year round by clever use of plant choice.
Perennializing and naturalizing for sustainability
Trees are generally hardy, robust plants, but they can be harmed. Part of sustainability is keeping your tree healthy. Avoiding disturbing the tree roots year after year will help your tree remain in a healthy growing state. Therefore choose plants that are also long-term, established plants that come back year after year without the need to dig them up or to replant new plants.
Avoid annuals (flowers that only last one year or season) under a tree, for just this reason. Choose perennials (plants that flourish for multiple years) that will remain and give you displays for years. Some perennials will come back for decades and others for just a few seasons. Choose plants that will remain for 5 years or more to gain the benefit of sustainability and low-maintenance. There are loads of plants that fit this description, and you won’t be sorry you chose them. Low maintenance gardening under your tree will be an added benefit. Even if you love to get your hands in the soil, it lets you focus on other areas of the garden.
In addition to choosing perennializing plants, choose naturalizing plants. Naturalizing plants actually bed into the environment and expand over time. Naturalizing bulbs will grow “baby bulbs” and fill in thicker and thicker each year. Some other naturalizing plants grow their “babies” off shoots from their roots. Naturalizing plants and bulbs can be a great option to not only sustain the beauty but to enhance it over time.
Some naturalizing plants may need some maintenance over the longer term to keep them from over crowding, but normally this falls within 5 to 10 year range. The added benefit is that you can have plants that can be transplanted to other areas of your garden at that time.
For best results though, choose bulbs and plants that are both perennializing and naturalizing for your planting area.
Animals in your area
Plants form the basis for the ecosystem in your neighborhood. Trees and plants provide great homes and food for birds, pollinators, insects and animals. But what a disappointment it is when all your hard labor of planting gets eaten up before you even get to enjoy seeing a flower. If you have deer, rabbits, squirrels, ground hogs, gophers or other locals who like to snack on your garden, you must choose animal resistant plants and bulbs.
Look for animal resistant varieties of bulbs and deer resistant plants. Whole families of bulbs are particularly un-interesting to animals, such as daffodils, alliums, lilies irises and any flowers related to the garlic or onion families. These will give you a wonderful selection of colors, sizes and textures, so don’t be fooled into trying bulbs that are not animal resistant if you have wildlife in your area. Particularly when planting under a tree where it is best not to disturb the tree roots too much, choosing plants that will thrive and grow and that you will be happy with over the long term is critical. So don’t even consider buying plants that are not resistant to animals, if you have them in your area.
Some animals, such as gophers, may like most plants. There are other techniques, such as planting fine mesh chicken wire under your plants or bulbs, to keep them out of your plants, which you may want to consider. This may be more difficult under a tree, so prepare carefully to choose plants that will be appropriate to plant under these conditions.
2. Design for Maximum Impact of your Flower Garden Under a Tree
To make your flower garden under a tree a real focal point, plant groups of flowers of the same flower to get a large color pop. Choose contrasting colors to make your display stand out and get noticed. Design using the aesthetic principles of odd numbers, structure, and drawing the eye, to design the right flower garden for you.
Use 3 key design principles
When designing your flower garden under a tree, consider three key design principles.
- Color Blocking creates eye-catching displays
- Odd numbers are more aesthetically pleasing
- Cascade plant height for maximum impact
Color Blocking creates eye-catching displays
There is no stronger impact than one color en masse. Plant a group of the same flower together, to make a “color block.” When combined with color blocks in complementary colors, dramatic impact is undeniable. Look at what the gardeners of Kadriorg Palace Park in Talinn, Estonia have created a bright formal garden with large blocks of single colors off-set against each other. The impact is strengthened by their color choice of complementary colors such as orange and green. White adds a welcome lift to the border foliage.
There is a great color calculator (by Sessions Design College) online that can help you choose and check colors that are complementary or analogous.
Imagine now the display around your tree. It will be much more eye-catching if the flowers are grouped into blocks and contrasted or brightened through the use of complementary colors, analogous colors or white. Avoid making thin rows that go around the tree or one-off small flowers, as these will tend to get lost under a tree.
Once you have large color blocks, you can use a wonderful thick circle of one flower or color to add structure to your display. Make sure to choose a contrasting color, to make that structure stand out. I found a pre-packaged garden design for under trees from Holland Bulb Farms (I am not sponsored or affiliated, but found these lovely options there and recommend their products). There are great options for bulbs and seed mats of flowers.
Odd numbers are more aesthetically pleasing
Its good to be odd! At least in design. If using differing colors in your color blocks, use odd numbers of each color block. For example, around a tree, consider placing three groups of one plant / color interspersed with three groups of a contrasting plant / color.
In garden design, planting in odd numbers such as 3, 5, 7, is more aesthetically pleasing. This holds true for the number of individual plants, for example planting a 3 rose bushes within a garden. It also holds true for color blocks, such as having five spots of vibrant ground cover radiating from around a tree.
Cascade plant height for maximum impact of your flower garden under a tree
Important for under a tree, is considering the layers of color you can plant. This will give you the option for a larger display. It is certainly beautiful to have a lovely display of one plant around a tree to draw the eye. Perhaps even more spectacular is when there are two, three or even more heights of flowers giving depth and perspective to the color display.
Below is a good example of flowers grown with tallest in the back and cascading by height to the shortest plants up front. Design your flower garden under your tree in this way and you won’t be sorry.
3. Implement for success and sustainability of a flower garden under a tree
Implement well and you will be rewarded with a healthy, low-maintenance, sustainable flower garden under a tree. Critical things to take care to do are making sure to keep the health of the existing tree and new plants in mind. Give them a little extra care at the time of planting, so they bed in for the long-term.
Take care to not damage the tree
Perhaps one of the most difficult things to do as part of doing the physical planting of the new plants or bulbs under a tree, is navigating around the roots. It is extremely important that care be taken to not damage the large roots. Your tree will be able to recover from removal of smaller roots, but take good care to not damage the larger ones.
First consider what tool to use to dig the soil. Use a tool that will be least disruptive to the roots yet get down deep enough to make the proper home for your new plants or bulbs. A good choice for bulbs can be a single bulb planter. That said, for large displays, that may be impractical. Consider using a shovel where you can feel the roots. Try to dig out between the largest roots and leave any medium sized roots intact as you come across them.
Another good choice for planting under a tree can be a seed mat. This can be laid on top of the soil with additional soil piled on top. This will not be disruptive at all to the tree.
Enriched soil and/or fertilizer
Critical to success are the nutrients that feed your flowers. Using your own compost is ideal, and buying garden soil, flower soil, bulb soil or potting soil are great options. All soil can be further enhanced by a bit of fertilizer added at the time of planting, under the roots. For bulbs, I prefer to use Bulb Fertilizer or Kelp Meal. Your tree will love it to.
Longer term, allowing the leaves to fall and return the nutrients to the soil can provide the most sustainable fertilizer. In lieu of that, the only real maintenance each year should be adding fertilizer once per year to give your flowers an extra boost.
Healthy bulbs and/or plants
And most importantly, to have healthy bulbs and plants, get them settled into the ground well.
When planting bulbs, plant them at the depth directed (normally about 3 times the height of the bulb of soil placed above the bulb). Add soil under the bulb. Place it pointed end up. And plant at the right distance apart, usually about double the height of the bulb apart from each other. This gives room for expansion, especially if they are naturalizing bulbs. The instructions for the distance apart given, work well for outdoor beds.
For plants that are germinated already. Ideally dig a hole double the size of the pot they grew up in. That ensures the soil is loosened around the plant, giving the roots ideal conditions to spread into your soil. Enrich the loosened soil with fertilizer, and make sure to loosen root ball so the end of the roots point toward the new soil. If you are dealing with a potted plant that has its roots impacted and wrapping around itself, take extra care at this time to pry roots apart and get them into your soil. If you don’t do this, normally the roots will just continue to circle in on themselves and never truly bed in and gain the benefit of being in your soil.
Once planted and covered over with soil. Pack the soil down to eliminate air pockets, then water generously. The water will help to distribute the soil around the plant and get it settled into place. The coming week or two, take extra care to water and look after your plants. They will do their settling in during that time and then start to get into a more regular pattern of growth. For the first year, paying a little more attention to them will be beneficial for years to come. Make sure they have the water and nutrients you need, and they will establish themselves right. Don’t panic if the flowers aren’t great the first year, as this is common for some types of plants. The real dividends of your work will be in the many years of low-maintenance beauty to admire.
Enjoy your flower garden design under a tree! Just remember to:
- Select the right bulbs and plants
- Design for maximum impact
- Implement for success and sustainability
What’s Next?
Learn more about sustainable gardening for glorious environments and landscapes, go to readyandthriving.com. Ready and Thriving is designed to support you to Prepare Well and Live Well – every day and in any situation. Everyday living can be enhanced by having everything at hand, organized and sustainable. Life is to be lived and experienced, so prepare yourself for a life of enriching activities, delicious food, and beautiful environments. And when those emergencies hit, whether big or small, you will also feel completely confident that you have all you need to not only survive, but to thrive.
