# planting around spruce



## BCbound (Jun 12, 2010)

Hey guys, I have a client that wants some planting of trees/shrubs in her yard. The yard is very thick with spruce and heavily shaded. I'm in zone 3. Any suggestions. Easy to maintain as well.


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## S Mc (Jun 18, 2010)

The "heavily shaded" is probably more of a problem than the zone 3. All I can come up with "off the cuff" would be a mountain ash (for a shade tolerant understory tree), and some viburnum species possibly (for the shrubs).

Is your client planning a make over? or just a diversity planting? Can you give us more of an idea of what the goals are here?

Sylvia


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## StihlyinEly (Jun 21, 2010)

Zone 3 options for shade include a bunch of shrubs and perennials. Here are just a handful: Yew, Goatsbeard, Currants/Gooseberry, Astilbe, Bleeding Heart, Hosta, Aconitum, Fern, Ligularias. Pagoda dogwood is a nice tree-form dogwood that stays fairly short (like 20 feet), and generally winters well in Zone 3b, less so in 3a. It does OK in shady areas. Otherwise, if there are enough mature spruce on the property to cause widespread full shade, it's unlikely you'll find more than a couple options for smaller trees.


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## S Mc (Jun 21, 2010)

What about snowberry also? Depending on the cultivar, it would do well in the shade at Zone 3. I was thinking the Ribes spp (gooseberry/currants) would get pretty leggy, though.

_Rhamnus purshiana_, Cascara takes dense shade and is listed for zone 3 and is a native of Canada. It can get 20 to 40 ft tall and 10 to 30 ft wide. 

Sylvia


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## StihlyinEly (Jun 22, 2010)

S Mc said:


> What about snowberry also? Depending on the cultivar, it would do well in the shade at Zone 3. *I was thinking the Ribes spp (gooseberry/currants) would get pretty leggy, though.*
> 
> _Rhamnus purshiana_, Cascara takes dense shade and is listed for zone 3 and is a native of Canada. It can get 20 to 40 ft tall and 10 to 30 ft wide.
> 
> Sylvia



I'd have thought the same thing, for sure, as that tends to be true of most shade tolerant plants. But we've got a bunch of currant in full shade, and they are well leafed and compact as those that get some sun.


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## BCbound (Jun 24, 2010)

Thanks Guys, Great options. I'm putting a picture list together for my client and will add some of these.


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## benibenzamin (Jul 16, 2010)

I think bonsai plants will be good in my view


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## Treeshaveneeds (Jul 31, 2010)

BCbound said:


> Hey guys, I have a client that wants some planting of trees/shrubs in her yard. The yard is very thick with spruce and heavily shaded. I'm in zone 3. Any suggestions. Easy to maintain as well.



Rhamnus and currants will take shade, but spruce shade - esp if dense - usually stops almost any plants from growing underneath. What kind of spruce, and what is the height of the lowest branches?


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## BCbound (Aug 1, 2010)

White spruce. We decided to hold off on the planting for the HO as she is plannning on some landscaping in the area. Dogwood, mugos and juniper are what she has decided on. All the spruce branches have been raised to about 6 feet as they were all dead branches.


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## Treeshaveneeds (Aug 3, 2010)

White spruce is not as dense as say Norway or Colorado, but 6 ft of clearance will still mean heavy shade. I doubt dogwood can take that shade, pine and juniper definitely cannot. Even hostas have trouble. THe biggest problem after dense shade, is the natural shedding of water by the crown. So you need something that tolerates deep shade and dry soil - *very few* plants have that capability. Nightshade (poisonous) tolerates drought very well, but not shade; some hostas can tolerate a lot of shade, but not drought.


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