Ideas needed for paperbark maple companion plants

I just put in a paperbark maple and I'm trying to find some great companions to plant underneath it- what do you have planted under yours or what are some ideas you have seen? I was thinking pheasant tail grass and arctic sun dogwood (- but perhaps the red/ yellow dogwood stems would draw attention from the cool paperbark maple rather than compliment it.) I'd love your input & ideas!

I think the Paperbark Maple is more of a solitary display and I wouldn't plant anything too tall. If it was me, I'd have a good set of Daffs planted around the trunk, some short perennials that have good colour for summer, maybe Crocosmia to play off the orange/sand colour. What I'd do, if it was me, is probably a good round of 'Tete-a-Tete' daffs with Black Mondo grass. Try and keep it very simple and clean and not detract from the trunk.

Yes - no Purpleleaf Plums nearby either....

A big white-flowered Hosta would work as bedding, or a handsome neat sedge. A yellow to bronze to tan fall/winter coloration would be a decent counterpart. Oranges would probably be a bit too much.

i have daff's undermine for some spring color and the small ever blooming bleeding hearts, white and red. I like the hosta suggestion, maybe a variegated yellow/green would work.

Hi Swedishchef- I agree low stuff is a good idea. My sister has one and it looks nice with low groundcovery plants. I think the tallest one is about 18". If "a handsome neat sedge" seems like a good idea, I can give you some small divisions of my Carex 'Ice Dance". With a name like that, it sounds like it would be a cool white color, but in fact it seems yellow from a distance. I planted it in some dry shade, ignored it, and it has been slowly spreading. I have no idea if in 10 years I will be cursing the stuff so I offer it with no warranty! Also perhaps you noticed- it would not need to be mailed (however if you came to get it you would have to promise not to notice all my weeds and unfinished projects-on DG we don't have to post photos of our tendency-to-bite-off-more-than-we-can-chew...). Maybe you are my neighbor-your fence looks like my fence!

Lol. IMHO - 'Ice Dance' would be perfect! Might even consider some Brunnera for the blooms.

Brunnera is Slug Bait for me here in Lake Stevens. It is so pretty but I have tried 3 times. Each time at some point I forget to bait and it goes down. Sad. My sister who lives more in the foothills, where it freezes in the winter, grows nice Brunnera. Primula are like that too.

LOL Mlmlakestevens! I know the feeling! I would love to get some divisions of 'ice dance' from you! I have some small stuff to trade if you are interested- I just started gardening here 4 years ago so divisions and layering things are just coming. :). I have cuttings of dappled willow, divisions of a red oriental poppy, foxglove seedlings, yellow welsh poppies, chocolate sweet William, lots of burgundy glow ajuga & blue forget me nots. So nice to know another local gardener- I live in south Lake stevens just off Williams road. I'm a member of the Snohomish garden club- we meet every 2nd Monday of the month at 7pm if you want to come! Let me know where/ when a good time to meet is- email me.

Great idea with the daffs growin- I love tete-a-tete ...I might try the white ones they have out now. Strangely I'm not one for lots of sunny yellow in the garden even in early spring! The pheasant tail grass and arctic sun dogwoods get a max of only 3 feet tall and grass is sort of whispy looking in the summer- good texture contrast ...I might lay it out and see what it looks like on my instacollage app on my iPhone- so handy for trying different combos! Thanks for the tips everyone!

Ok- here's the fall color combo preview with arctic sun dogwood and pheasant tail grass. The paperbark I understand will have some red for fall color- picked up by parts of the grass color and tips of dogwood stems. A rough estimate but gives some idea anyway.

I think it needs a hard contrast colour. Blue, Deep Purple, Violet - Something that is very pronounced. Maybe Actaea (Cimicifuga) - the dark leafed forms.

swedishchef-
1- we live less than 2 miles apart! I will d-mail you.
2- growin may be right about something stronger colored too. I have just decided on Geranium phaeum 'Samobor' for a part-sun garden under a limbed-up pine tree. Maybe it would be nice-the leaves have dark spots, and flowers are purple or maroon. I stole this picture off the internet.

How about some low-growing azaleas? Great to have bulbs peeking out from them. Then you could plant some of those great new Ageratums in blue...and I'd plant some fall-flowering bulbs too. Then again, why not put in some Lenten Roses for winter?

A field of hakonechloa All Gold. A simple beautiful contrast of colors & textures...

Weerobin, ah - that would be nice but it might burn. I notice they burn here in sun in mid to late summer here due to draught. 'Aureola' is a bit more sun tolerant. A circle of Geranium 'Rozanne' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57636/ around the trunk with the Hakonechloa a foot from the trunk would be a beautiful display!

Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' @ The Space Needle

I've found All Gold to be much more sun tolerant than Aureola.
I have both, and All Gold thrives in very sun-exposed positions.
Here is a patch of All Gold in my yard in a mostly-sunny position (late afternoon shade only).
It has really done great despite our intense summer heat.
I have several patches of Aureola not thriving as well.

Imaginine a beautiful paper bark underplanted with the luscious foliage of All Gold.
I still think it would be spectacular.

I think that's just a superb idea. Isn't that weird, though. The cultivars behave opposite between my location and yours. Even in the greenhouses at the nursery I worked at, if they didn't have shade cloth the All Gold was always burned but the Aureola looked good no matter which greenhouse or field grown exposure. Go figure.

Provenance, provenance, provenance.

Maybe. Could be the tissue-culture for the All Gold was degraded.

I can't speak to propagation quality, but the provenance of each of the selections - where in their natural geographic distribution - may have something to do with their ability to tolerate drought or extended sun exposure.

When it's a cultivar, provenance doesn't really count. "Selecting-out" does, as well as propagation technique. Tissue-culture is great in the first few rounds but deteriorates as it goes along from the original plant piece.

I disagree.

If you select a variegated clone of a plant from a northernmost genetic source of a species, it is going to have a whole set of characteristics different from a selection from a southern genetic source. Same would correspond to a selection from a xeric outpost of a species compared to one from a mesic or wetter source.

Compare behavior of Sugar Maple from Caddo County in Oklahoma to the same species from New Hampshire, or similarly Live Oak from central Texas to ones from coastal Louisiana or Florida. Better - try to grow many of the named selections of Flowering Dogwood in some of the northerly haunts of that species, like Michigan or upstate New York.

I do not disagree that tissue culture propagation can be fraught with difficulties, but that doesn't necessarily account for drought tolerance or not.

I don't have the first clue where any of the Hakonechloa selections hail from, nor the distribution of the species, but I don't think you can discount that influence out of hand. Provenance and its genetic characteristics don't disappear simply because a leaf changes color.

hmmm. An interesting discussion we might want to continue in a different thread.

swedishchef, hopefully some of the suggestions work for you.

Thank you growin! I'm pretty new to this forum thing and I can see we have some pretty heavy duty gardeners on this site. I really like your suggestion of adding some Rosanne geranium for flower color- I picked up a pot of it last month at a Molbaks clearance sale and I think I just found where to put it! That will give me some great fall color too! I'm also throwing in some daffs or narcissus around the base but I might wait until I can get bulbs this fall- more choice and cheaper....potted up bulbs are expensive!! For the rest I'm going to stick with my combo of artic fire dogwood in back of the paperbark and pheasant tail grass in front of it- sometimes an idea just sticks with you and won't let go. Who knows in 4 years or so it may not work and I'll replant with something else... this tree is a focal point but not the entire gardens focal point so I feel some freedom to play a bit. Thanks to all for your suggestions!

Here is the look in summer- the geranium definitely adds a needed color pop!

swedishchef, if you like the daff idea and Tete-a-tete sounds good, shops often throw them out when they are finished blooming. Get in contact with a few places ie. Molbaks, Safeway, etc and just see if you could buy or have the finished potted daffs. It'll save you some money and save a few daffs from the landfill.

Hi Growin and VV-
I was looking up something in an old 'The American Gardener" magazine from Sept/Oct 2011. There was a little article about research on the provenance issue, although they never mentioned the term. It even goes further than merely the source of Sugar Maple trees. A study out of university of Toronto about clone history of hybrid Poplar trees. So I got on the web and looked at it. They had three clones, one from a hundred years ago, one from 60 years ago, and one 25 years old. They got samples of each from 2 nurseries, with different drought histories. Then they grew stem cuttings of them all, then stressed them by drought. The newest cultivar showed no difference in drought tolerance due to location the source had been growing at, the old one showed differences ( the one from the droughty nursery was more drought tolerant), and the intermediate was intermediate. How interesting. So it is possible that a perennial or grass cultivar could have provenance issues, despite vegetative propagation.
What does everyone think about this?
VV you might be right this should go in it's own thread. Can it be moved?
PS- the "Search" function is great-it got me directly to this thread using "provenance".

I wasn't intending to cause a ruckus by broaching the provenance subject. I apologize if I disturbed anyone.

mlmlakestevens:

You could start a new thread with a unique title, and link the information here to that by cutting/pasting. You can link the whole thread, or any individual post - by using the little blue post # link associated with each person's contribution.

I have hardy plumbago, with a dark leaf ajuga as a ground cover under mine. Slowly the ajuga is being out competed. Also heuchera, a sword leafed green and gold hosta, frittilaria and daffodils. The tree is extremely slow growing for me.