Planting under pine trees

I have a line of pine trees in my back yard. I pruned the limbs up a couple of years ago so the lowest limbs are about 6 ft. from the ground. The area underneath gets some morning sun and some dappled light the rest of the day. What would be good low maintenance plants for the area. It is totally bare now except for the needles, pine cones and weeds. I want something that comes back every year.

i hope someone has some ideas, because we have this problem too. nothing grows under our pines at all, but i'll admit we haven't given it much effort and instead focus on the flower beds and the garden that we have. i'll be checking back here to see what ideas are posted! :D

I learned from what grows under pines in the wild at our family cottage. Several kinds of fern come to mind, notably the maidenhair (adiantum pedantum) and the Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides). Both are listed in PlantFiles. The more common bracken fern also thrives in our pine forest.

For ground cover, I have Creeping Jenny growing like mad in some spots. I rip most of it up every fall to keep it under control, and it grows back nicely each year. Wild aguilegia (columbine) do well, blooming orange and yellow each spring (see photo).

For shrubs, I have cedars and juniper growing beneath the pines, where there is enough light. Honeysuckle doesn't seem to mind the acidity, but I throw some dolomite lime around them every few years just to be on the safe side. I've also got a large planting of sorbaria which stays lush and green all summer. And several wild serviceberry bushes do well every year, and the birds love the fruit!

Good luck.

I have azaleas, snapdragons, gaillardia,chrysanthemums, asters under mine. I just moved the impatiens, begonias caladiums and an elephant ear from under the pines up to the patio. ( It's been too hot for me to venture to that part of the backyard to enjoy and water them otherwise!)

hydrangeas should do well with that kind of lighting....and the blue kind will be blue under the pines!

i've always heard that nothing grows under pines because the pine trees suck up all the water. i don't know if that's true or just a rumor. probably depends if your weather is cool and moist or hot and dry.

Hydrangeas have a hard time under trees, they need a fair amount of water and the trees tend to take a lot of it, which makes the hydrangeas wilt a lot. You're better off looking for things that enjoy dry shade, that way if the tree takes a lot of the moisture it won't matter.

I have several mature pines in my back yard [probably 40-50 years old]. The previous owners of the house have planted pachysandras and junipers. They have grown around the pines and other mature trees in the back yard.
But I find too much is no good, because we find there are mice and of course snakes [garter snakes] to go along with this, under the thick foliage of this ground cover.
So we are trying to clear these out at this time.
Hope it helps.

Len, you're right about the pines taking up lots of moisture. They have very shallow root systems for such tall trees, as I discovered when one was blown over in very high winds. The seventy-foot tree had a root system only 3-4 ft deep, about 6 ft in diameter, very dense. I expect there were some tap-roots that went down further but were snapped off. Being so close to the surface, the mass of roots would really suck up the moisture. Our spot is on a point of land on a lake, so I guess they tap into that source in the ground. The native plants I mentioned grow only in the places closest to the lakeshore, especially in the low areas that are quite swampy in the spring.

We live in East Texas and almost every yard I see if they've put things around pine trees, it's always Azaleas and they are beautiful Myself however, have never gotten them to grow there. I wonder what their secret is, but I've seen Azaleas as much as 5 ft tall around them.

I plant columbines, they grow wonderfully under the pine trees. They grow naturally in the Uintah mountains close to here.
One of my favorite flowers - foliage is nice too!

Do all columbines do well in the shade, or do they have to be a certain kind? I had planted some from seed last year. The packet said they needed full sun. I'd love to have them in my shade garden too though.

I have some in total shade, some part sun and full sun. They seem to do well anywhere.

The hybrid columbines are a little more fussy, and don't seem to last long (4-5 seasons at my place), but the wild ones seem to adapt. They come back every year with no attention from me, gotta love a plant like that!