Need help with Acid loving plants.

[MJK]

I need to make a small design for a home owner who has some pine trees in a bedding in between there house and neighbors house for privacy. They want me trim the Pines up 4-5 feet and plant some plantings all over the bed for some privacy. I need some help with plants that can be planted under, behind and in front of pine trees without dieing. Thanks for the help.

Marc

[AGLA]

Broadleaf evergreens like rhododendrons, hollies, mountain laurel, cherry laurel, euonymus, japanese andromeda ...

[jwingfield2k]

depending on the ph... most plants will work. most plants love ph from 6.5 to slighty under 7. but like agla said, rhodies and azaleas will looks great since we can get away with them. hyndrangeas as well

[STRINGALATION]

question. wouldn't a lack of sun be an issue with the azaleas since he said between houses. i thought blooming plants usually need sun?

[NNL&LS]

Try arborvitae, or cedar. mix with rhododendron, hydrangea, and hosta.

[jwingfield2k]

you need shade in texas, i dont know about the solar radiation in Michigan though.

[gene gls]

question. wouldn't a lack of sun be an issue with the azaleas since he said between houses. i thought blooming plants usually need sun?

You will have a bigger problem of not enough moisture in the ground around large trees to support good growth.

[AGLA]

Broadleaf evergreens, like azaleas, grow well in the shade. They tend to be slightly thinner and bllom less than in full sun, but they do well.

Arborvitaes will not do well in the shade. They will thin out.

Needle leaf evergreens will deteriorate quickly and die.

[MJK]

are they ok with all the acid from the pines?

[jwingfield2k]

yes on azaleas, they dont do high ph at all. acid soil is best.

[treedoc1]

I lived in Troy for many years

Get to Wiegands ask some questions in the wholesale yard. See just how many rhodys and azaleas are there and how they don't really hold up well in the clay soils all around your subdivisions.

Those pine needles are not making the soil acid enough from what it is originally to be concerned what so ever. A lilac planted near the pines won't even be phased by the needles.

Depending on the size of the pines, you will have more of a problem placing plants between the roots of the trees and not damaging them. Kill the urge to fill over the roots with soil or say goodbye to the pines.

Think about some multi stem serviceberry, ilex verticillata, oakleaf hydrangea, china girl holly, inkberry as backdrops, and plant shade tolerant perennials in the foreground.

Plant rhodys, pieris, and azaleas in the clay and watch them die as the winds whistle across them all winter with little to no snow cover.