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jec00702 McKinney, TX Jun 27, 2011

I live in McKinney Texas and I have a dissected Japanese maple I have just built a planter box for. I have several herbs I would like to plant in the box with the maple, but I don't want to harm my tree. Could you give me some idea as to which herbs would be ok and which would not. The herbs I currently have are mint, sweet basil, coriander, rosemary, German thyme, Italian parsley. And if none are could you suggest some flowering perinnieal plants that would work well.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jun 27, 2011

The herbs need full sun and not too much water, and in your climate Japanese maples are definitely going to need shade in the afternoon and they're not as drought tolerant as the herbs, so I wouldn't recommend planting them together. I'd look for things with average watering requirements that likes morning sun/afternoon shade. One that comes to mind for me that would look really nice with the maple is the grass Hakonechloa macra...'Aureola' is a favorite of mine. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54890/

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Jun 28, 2011

I would keep the herb (mint) in a pot and plant the pot into the soil beside the other herbs, mint has the kind of growing system where it sends out new roots to any part that touches the soil or runners from the roots under ground, once you have mint growing in your garden, believe me, it will take you a lifetime to try get rid, you never will, every time you break a bit of root, or dig a bit up, it stands up and laughs at you while regrowing at the rate of naughts.
I Don't know the name of your Maple therefore don't even know if the leaves are green or red, but for green leaf a planting of similar colours low growing leafy plants will be nice, different textured leaf, same with red leaves, there are several low growing ground cover plants that would also suit this large container. Have a look at pictures for container gardening to give you the right ideas,
Also as Ecrane has mentioned, you need to take into account that things like herbs need totally different conditions to a Maple trees needs and soil type, My maples like acidic soil and herbs don't like that at all. so check what your trying to grow beside your Maple, also as the Maple grows, it will cause shade etc, uptake a good amount of water from the soil in the container and it may well be that your best bet would be to use another type of decorated ground cover around the soil, maybe things like slate chippings, rocks / stones etc that will also act as a mulch to help keep moisture into the soil, containers dry out much faster than most people think so research first.
Good luck. WeeNel.

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