Shade Understory Pack

Why these five go together

This is the understory of an eastern oak woods, sold as a set. Spicebush opens the year with yellow flowers in March, leatherwood follows in the first week of spring, pawpaw and hornbeam fill the middle layer through summer, and witch hazel closes it with ribbon flowers in November as its leaves turn gold. Every one of them is at home in shade.

Two of them are host plants that a butterfly cannot do without: spicebush for the spicebush swallowtail and pawpaw for the zebra swallowtail. Spicebush berries, high in fat, feed thrushes on their way south, and pawpaw carries the largest native fruit in North America.

Where it fits

The set wants the dappled or high shade under tall trees, in ordinary to moist soil; spicebush, pawpaw, hornbeam and leatherwood all take ground that stays wet, and witch hazel is content with average moisture. Together they are hardy in zones 5 through 8 (witch hazel and hornbeam alone go to zone 3, spicebush and leatherwood to zone 4, pawpaw to zone 9).

Heights run in steps: leatherwood 3 to 6 feet, spicebush 6 to 12, witch hazel 12 to 20, pawpaw 15 to 30 and hornbeam 20 to 35, so the pack layers naturally, with hornbeam and pawpaw toward the back and leatherwood at the front of the view.

Planting the pack

Plant dormant, in holes no deeper than the roots, under a mulch of the leaves that fall from the canopy above rather than wood chips. Pawpaw fruits only when two unrelated trees stand within reach of each other, and only female spicebush carries berries, so plant three to five spicebush seedlings and at least two pawpaws.

Hornbeam and leatherwood are slow and never need pruning. Leave the swallowtail caterpillars that roll spicebush and pawpaw leaves in summer; they are the point of the planting.