Landscaping with plants, ferns, and grasses is one of the most artistic ways to utilize any open area under pine trees in your garden. Instead of using stones, bricks, or rubber mulch, you can add some vibrancy to the place with flowering plants and shrubs that improve the entire surrounding.
Select plants and grasses that grow well in:
1) Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis)
These shrubs can root rapidly under the dense shades of deciduous pine trees. Moreover, they are deer-resistant coming up in lovely pristine funnel-shaped white-colored blossoms somewhat arching towards the stems. The leaves are green oblong-shaped, coming up in pairs. Flowering time is from mid to late spring season. Height/Width (cm): 15-30/22-30 USDA Zones: 2-7 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta | 2) Spotted Cranesbill (Geranium Maculatum) These sturdy drought-tolerant geranium shrubs flock with flowers proliferating to provide evergreen foliages. They grow well withstanding extreme temperature conditions. The flowers are faded pink-lavender, disc-shaped forming in clusters. The blossoming season is from late spring to early summer. Height/Width (cm): 30-60/30-60 USDA Zones: 3-8 Companion Plant: Wild Blue Phlox |
3) Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum) These plants form a dense carpet-like ground cover, requiring quite little maintenance. Resistant to deer and rabbits, it produces tiny-sepaled fragrant white blooms, with lovely scented star-forming lime-green leaves. The flowering season starts from late spring and ends in the early summer months. Height/Width (cm): 12-15/25-30 USDA Zones: 4-8 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta | 4) American Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) These creeping plants require a continuous flow of moisture, so you should give them water at least once a week. The flowers are shiny funnel-shaped and white, while the leaves are rubbery textured oval-shaped deep green, turning into tones of magenta in the autumn season. Blossoming time starts from late spring and continues till early summer. Height/Width (cm): 10-15/15-30 USDA Zones: 3-9 Companion Plant: Rhododendron |
5) Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata) It is one of the most colorful varieties of plants, adding vivid colors to the landscape. Many hybrids available, its vibrant blooms come up in shades of pink, lavender, violet, red, and white in clusters, forming a mat-like appearance. The flowering season is from mid to late spring. Height/Width (cm): 10-15/30-60 USDA Zones: 3-9 Companion Plant: Bugleweed | 6) Carpet Bugle (Ajuga reptans) Also known as Bugleweed, this plant grows into a low carpet-like appearance. These plants can defy the dry soil conditions. Besides, the blossoms spiral up in tiny white flowers, apart from lavender to magenta and pink shades. The flowering season is from mid to late spring. Height/Width (cm): 10-20/15-60 USDA Zones: 3-10 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta |
7) Red Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) These plants produce flowers in light pink to cherry, and the stamens are in yellow to red colors. The flowers come up from attractive fern-type foliages. The blooming season starts from late spring and early summer months. Height/Width (cm): 60-90/30-60 USDA Zones: 3-8 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta | 8) Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum) This plant is also known as Greek valerian and is an upright herb generating fuzzy fern-kind of green foliage. Clumps of bell-shaped cobalt-blue blossoms appear from early spring to summer. The plant requires sandy to loamy to clay type, moist soil. Height/Width (cm): 30-60/30-60 USDA Zones: 4-9 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta |
9) Japanese Pieris ‘Prelude’ (Pieris japonica ‘Prelude’) These evergreen deer-resistant plants can be grown in areas surrounding pines for creating a contrasting landscape almost all year-round. The low-maintenance shrub showcases the landscape in small heaped-shaped, producing clusters of white bell-shaped blooms. Height/Width (cm): 45-60/60-90 USDA Zones: 4-9 Companion Plant: Mophead Hydrangea ‘Altona’ | 10) Barrenwor (Epimedium leptorrhizum) These plants produce big scarlet-pink drooping flowers among veinlike leaves. The blossoming season starts from mid-spring, continuing to summer and ending in the autumn season. Grows well in sandy to loamy to clay-type moist soils. Height/Width (cm): 15-30/15-30 USDA Zones: 5-8 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta |
11) Common Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) These are creeping shrubs with glossy, elliptical deep green leaves. Blossoms form in attractive clusters on torch-shaped white-shaded pink colors from small red stalks. Flowering season is from early spring, continuing through summer and autumn, and ending in the winter months. Soil preferred by the plant is sandy to loamy to rocky type. Height/Width (cm): 15-30/90-180 USDA Zones: 2-6 Companion Plant: Sweet Woodruff | 12) Sweet Azalea (Rhododendron arborescens) The plant produces highly fragrant blossoms in bell-shaped milky-white flowers with pink colored stamens. The flowers are formed in small attractive clumps of 3 to 7 in number. Besides, the ovate-shaped leaves are shiny green in color, turning into crimson to lilac in the autumn season. Soil preferred by this plant is sandy to loamy and moist type. Height/Width (cm): 150-180/150-180 USDA Zones: 5-9 Companion Plant: Mophead Hydrangea ‘Altona’ |
13) Patriot Hosta (Hosta ‘Patriot’) Height/Width (cm): 30-60/120-150 USDA Zones: 3-8 Companion Plant: Mophead Hydrangea ‘Altona’ | 14) Mophead Hydrangea ‘Altona’ (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Altona’) Height/Width (cm): 120-150/120-150 USDA Zones: 6-9 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta |
1. Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) It is a deciduous fern producing broad leaves that turns into brown from yellow in the autumn season. Blossoms rise from hairy stalks with tarnished brown color in arching bulbs, and hence it is also known as the Flowering Fern. The blooming season starts from mid-spring and continuous through summer and ending in the autumn. Soil requirements are sandy to loamy to clay-type and moist variety. Height/Width (cm): 60-180/60-90 USDA Zones: 3-9 Companion Plant: Sweet Azalea | 2. Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina) These leaves are delicate and pointed-shaped, with green in color. They are a fast-growing variety acting as fillers in between shrubs. The season for its growth in mid to late spring, early to end of summer, and the autumn time. Height/Width (cm): 30-90/30-90 USDA Zones: 4-9 Companion Plant: Ivory Sedge |
3. Hay-Scented Fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula) These are deciduous ferns having compound leaves in deep green color converting into yellowish-green in the autumn. The leaves are conical-oval shaped with each compound leaves having 15 to 30 pairs of leaflets. Besides, the leaves have a soft fuzzy like texture. A sweet fragrance can be felt when the leaves are broken down in between fingers. Height/Width (cm): 45-60/60-90 USDA Zones: 3-9 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta | 4. Marginal Wood Fern (Dryopteris marginalis) This fern is a typical upright non-spreading variety, forming pitcher-shaped clusters. The leaf is glossy bluish to dusky-green in color situated at the margins or fringes of the entire compound leaves. The plant prefers moist, rocky compost-enriched soil. Height/Width (cm): 45-60/45-60 USDA Zones: 5-7 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta |
1. Ivory Sedge (Carex eburnea) Also known as bristle-leaved sedge, it is one of the shortest grasses to plant in the surrounding area of the pine trees, creating a smooth and soft landscape. This grass produces filamentous green leaves in globular-shaped spine-like clusters. In the spring season, greenish-white flowers appear on the spikes. The fern loves to be in a sandy and moist soil. Height/Width (cm): 2-20/0.02-0.09 USDA Zones: 8-9 Companion Plant: Wild Blue Phlox | 2. Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) It is a robust spreading clustered, erect, and decorative grass. This grass is known for its drooping seed heads hanging in lightly arched stalks flapping with the slightest touch. The seed heads appear to be green but turn into purple to copper color by the late summer season. While the vibrant green leaves convert into bronze to deep brown color by the winter season. Height/Width (cm): 60-150/30-60 USDA Zones: 3-8 Companion Plant: ‘Patriot’ Hosta |
1. Soil
Firstly, contrary to the general belief, fresh pine needles do not drastically change the acidity of the ground. As the falling needles are only slightly acidic, possessing a pH of 3.2 to 3.8, they change the soil, pH only slightly, without proving to be harmful to any surrounding plants. So, it is better to test the soil acidity levels first. Then you may need to consider the following:
2. Sunlight
As pine’s thick foliage covers the entire area below, it is often quite shaded and damp under pines. Cutting the lower branches of the pine tree allows sunlight to filter down to the adjacent soil, making it more suitable for plant growth. Once you do start growing other plants, it helps them to get enough light.
3. Water
Being evergreen, pine trees absorb a lot of water. It can pose a problem for plants, ferns, and grasses growing beneath, as there is often not enough water left for them to absorb and sustain themselves. Here’s what may be done:
Always keep an eye out for any sign of distress on the plants, even after they get well-established. You may also choose to grow some container plants under the pine tree, so it becomes relatively more comfortable for you to take proper care of them while maintaining an aesthetic landscape instead of leaving the area bare.
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