What to plant under a big tree: native shrubs for shade

Why little grows under maples and beech, how to plant beneath a tree without harming its roots, and which native shrubs still flower in dry or moist shade.

What grows under a big tree is what grows under big trees in the wild: the shrubs and small trees of the forest understory, set out small. Two things stop most other plants there. The canopy takes most of the light. The tree’s roots, which lie mostly in the top 18 inches of soil, take most of the water that gets through. Dry shade under a maple or a beech is the hardest ground of all. Plant by hand between the roots, add no more than 2 inches of soil, and keep the leaves the tree drops.

Witch hazel in golden fall leaf between tall tree trunks, over a forest floor of rust-brown ferns — Witch hazel in fall color beneath taller trees in Moshannon State Forest, Pennsylvania, on October 6, 2012. It takes shade, and it flowers best with more sun. Photo: Nicholas A. Tonelli, CC BY 2.0 (source)

Why so little grows under a big tree

A hardwood in full leaf can block nearly 95 percent of the summer sun, and about half in winter, when its branches are bare. Plants of the forest floor grow shade leaves built for that light. Water is the harder limit. The ground under a dense crown stays dry through the first minutes of every rain:

“As the leaves and stems slowly become saturated, some rain drips through the canopy, but trees with a dense canopy structure can intercept an amazing amount of rainfall, leaving the roots beneath with little moisture.” (University of Illinois Extension, Clearing misconceptions around tree roots)

What does get through meets the tree’s fine roots, which fill the top 18 to 20 inches of soil and run on past the branch tips. A young shrub roots in that same layer, and the tree wins the water. So dry shade is the harder half. Where the soil stays moist, on a creek bottom or a north slope, most shade plants do well. Under a thirsty tree on dry ground, plants chosen for dry shade cut the watering but do not end it. The tree finder lists the shrubs we grow for dry shade.

Which big trees are hardest to plant under

The crown sets the light and the roots set the water, so the common big trees sort roughly from hardest to easiest:

Maples and beech. Dense crowns over roots that crowd the surface. Silver maple has a shallow, fibrous root system, and sugar maple sends roots upward into the humus. American beech roots shallower than sugar maple, in a dense mat that makes even grass hard to grow.
Willows and poplars. Shallow roots that compete hard for water. With silver maple, they are the likeliest to lift roots above the lawn.
Oaks. Summer shade as deep as a maple’s, but white oak stays deep-rooted from youth to maturity. The five plants of the Shade Understory Pack are the understory of an eastern oak woods.
Pines and birches. A more open shade than maples or oaks, so more light reaches the ground.

Even under beech and maple something grows: mapleleaf viburnum is often the main shrub there in the wild. A black walnut adds a poison of its own, juglone, and what to plant under a black walnut sorts the plants by it.

How to plant under a tree without hurting it

Some trees take digging better than others. Penn State Extension lists oaks, beech, sugar maple, linden and dogwoods among the trees sensitive to root disturbance. Hickories, hornbeams and red maple tolerate some. Under any of them the method is the same:

Start small. Seedlings and small plants have small root masses that tuck in between the tree’s roots.
Clear the grass by hand. Lift the sod with a hand trowel, since a spade can nick roots and bark. Keep the tiller and the weedkiller away.
Dig small pockets between the roots. Start about a foot out from the trunk, and farther for a shrub that needs room to spread. Fine roots grow back, but a hole that meets a root 2 inches thick is filled and moved.
Put the same soil back. Add no more than 2 inches of soil or compost, none within a foot of the trunk, and never a raised bed.
Water deeply once a week through the first summer or two, rather than in sprinkles. After that, give a dry-shade bed a soaking 3 to 4 inches deep in a drought.
Keep the leaves. Let them lie as the mulch, as leaf litter under the canopy sets out, and rake a few off only where they bury a small plant.

The soil rule protects the tree itself, because roots need air as much as water:

“Preserve the root flare on your tree. Adding a large volume of soil or compost atop the roots compacts the soil and prevents the essential gas exchange by root hairs.” (Penn State Extension, Underplanting Trees - Respect the Roots)

Native shrubs and small trees for shade

Every plant below grows wild in the understory of eastern woods and takes shade. Spicebush and leatherwood bloom in early spring, while the trees above are still bare, and witch hazel blooms in late fall.

Small yellow spicebush flowers on bare twigs, with more blooming shrubs on a leafless wooded slope behind — Spicebush in bloom under still-bare trees at the Skaneateles Conservation Area, New York, on April 30, 2011. Leafless hardwoods let through about half the sun. Photo: R. A. Nonenmacher, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)

For dry shade

These five take dry soil as well as shade:

Plant	Shade	In shade	Zones	Height, feet
Arrowwood viburnum	Deeper shade	A thinner crop of berries	2–8	5–10
Blackhaw	Fairly deep	Grows, but rarely blooms without sun	3–9	12–15
Common hoptree	Deep, under tall trees	An open small tree, not a dense bush	4–9	10–20
Hop hornbeam	Deep	Fills out under an existing canopy	3–9	25–40
Mapleleaf viburnum	Shade, best in part shade	Fewer berries in deep shade	3–8	3–6

For shade over average or moist soil

These want average to moist soil rather than dry:

Plant	Shade	In shade	Zones	Height, feet
American hornbeam	Deep	Thrives; fall color strongest in sun	3–9	20–35
Eastern leatherwood	Under a high canopy	Blooms in early spring; sun scorches its leaves	4–9	3–6
Flowering dogwood	High shade	1,417 fruits an acre in oak-hickory woods, up to 27,530 in openings	5–9	15–30
Mountain laurel	Deep	Blooms most heavily in open stands	4–9	5–12
Pawpaw	Shade when young	Fruits best in sun	5–9	15–30
Rosebay rhododendron	Needs shade	Few blooms in very dense shade	3–7	10–15
Spicebush	Deep	Looser; berries on female plants only	4–9	6–12
Sweet pepperbush	Fairly deep	Blooms in late summer, most in sun	4–9	4–8
Witch hazel	Deep	Blooms in fall, heavier with more sun	3–8	12–20

Several need company to fruit. Pawpaw and witch hazel need a second plant from different parents. In spicebush and hoptree, male and female plants are separate, so plant three to five of each for berries or wafers. The pollination planner checks a planting of three spicebush, two pawpaws and two witch hazels.

Deer in the understory

A white-tailed deer reaches only forage below about 5 feet, and every shrub newly planted under a tree sits inside that layer. Heavy browsing leaves an understory with less cover and fewer kinds of plants. Deer mostly pass by pawpaw, spicebush, eastern leatherwood and common hoptree. Sweet pepperbush is browsed lightly.

Deer browse witch hazel, blackhaw, arrowwood and mapleleaf viburnum. They browse rosebay in fall and winter, and mountain laurel in a hard winter. They damage young American hornbeam and rub the young stems of hop hornbeam and flowering dogwood. Cage those for their first two or three winters, until the tops are past the deer’s reach. Which natives deer usually leave alone, and why the lists disagree, has a guide of its own.

Wire deer fence in a forest, dense undergrowth on one side and ferns and grass along a path on the other — A deer fence in Pinchot State Forest, Pennsylvania, on August 4, 2013, with thick undergrowth inside and mostly ferns outside. Heavy browsing thins an understory. Photo: Nicholas A. Tonelli, CC BY 2.0 (source)

A plan for the ground under your tree

Blue Whale Trees puts the five plants of an oak woods understory together as a set, at the sizes on hand, on request. Start from the soil under your tree:

Moist shade: the Shade Understory Pack of spicebush, witch hazel, pawpaw, American hornbeam and eastern leatherwood. Plant three to five spicebush and at least two pawpaws. Set hornbeam and pawpaw at the back and leatherwood in front.
Dry shade: hop hornbeam or common hoptree for height, blackhaw and arrowwood viburnum as the shrubs, and mapleleaf viburnum at the front.
Your own tree: the companion species tool starts from any plant we grow. From a big tree it lists the shrubs and small trees that take its shade, and from spicebush the natives that share its ground.
Every shade shrub in the shop: the shop’s shrubs for shade, with zones and heights side by side.

Common questions

What can I plant under a maple tree?

Mapleleaf viburnum is often the main shrub under beech and maple in the wild, and witch hazel makes an understory screen under maples. Water them through dry spells, since maple roots take the water at the surface.

What grows well under oak trees?

The five plants of the Shade Understory Pack are the understory of an eastern oak woods, and hop hornbeam and mountain laurel grow under oaks on drier, well-drained ground. Dig gently, since oaks are sensitive to root disturbance.

Can I put a raised bed around a tree?

No: soil piled over the roots packs down and shuts off the air the fine roots need, which can kill the tree. Add no more than 2 inches, and none within a foot of the trunk.

How close to a tree trunk can I plant?

About a foot away for small plants set in by hand, with no new soil in that foot. A shrub needs room for its full spread, and a hole that meets a root 2 inches thick is filled and moved.

Sources

Underplanting Trees - Respect the Roots: Penn State Extension (Elise Ford, Master Gardener, updated 2025): small plants and seedlings with small root masses, sod lifted with a hand trowel and no herbicide, planting about a foot from the trunk, roots 2 inches thick left alone, no more than 2 inches of soil or compost and none within a foot of the trunk, no raised bed, the quotation on soil over roots, tree roots that always win the water, weekly deep watering for a year or two, leaves left as mulch, and the trees sensitive or tolerant to root disturbance.
Gardening in the shade: University of Minnesota Extension: dry shade from tree canopies as one of the most limiting sites, feeder roots in the top 18 to 20 inches competing for water, most shade plants growing well in moist soil, plants for dry shade reducing but not ending watering, and soaking the top 3 to 4 inches when dry.
Selecting and Managing Lawn Grasses for Shade: NC State Extension (Grady Miller, Ray McCauley and Charles Peacock, AG-421, 2021): hardwoods blocking nearly 95 percent of summer sun and about half in winter, the dense canopies of maples, oaks and beeches, the more open shade of pines and birches, shallow-rooted willows, maples and beeches competing strongly, and root competition past the drip line.
Clearing misconceptions around tree roots: University of Illinois Extension, The Garden Scoop (Ryan Pankau, 2024): most root mass in the top 18 inches, the ground under a tree dry through the first minutes of rain, and the quotation on rain caught by a dense canopy.
How to Deal with Surface Tree Roots: University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Wisconsin Horticulture (Diana Alfuth, 2024): silver maple, willow and poplar as the likeliest to raise surface roots, no rototiller, and small planting pockets dug by hand between the roots.
American Beech: USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, the pages for American beech, sugar maple, silver maple and white oak: beech’s shallow root system and dense mat of fine roots, shallower than sugar maple’s, sugar maple roots growing upward into the humus, silver maple’s shallow, fibrous roots, and white oak deep-rooted from youth to maturity.
Viburnum prunifolium: NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, the pages for blackhaw, sweet pepperbush, witch hazel and pawpaw: blackhaw growing in deep shade but rarely blooming without sun, sweet pepperbush blooming in shade in late summer, witch hazel flowering best in full sun, and pawpaw most fruitful in full sun.
Kalmia latifolia: USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System, the reviews of mountain laurel, rosebay rhododendron, flowering dogwood, American witchhazel and coastal sweetpepperbush: mountain laurel flowering most in open stands, rosebay’s few blooms in extremely dense shade, dogwood fruit per acre in oak-hickory stands and in openings, and witch hazel and sweet pepperbush as shade-tolerant understory plants.
Odocoileus virginianus: USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: white-tailed deer reaching only forage under 5 feet, and heavy browsing reducing the cover and diversity of the understory.

What to plant under a big tree: native shrubs for shade, and how to plant without hurting the tree