AboutMarc Chapelle, ASLA Expertise As a licensed Landscape Architect, I can answer general questions about style and design, ideas and suggestions for site amenities, larger site-planning issues, or recreation and park design.
IF YOU JUST WANT A PLANT SUGGESTION GO HERE: http://www.growit.com/PlantInfo/LandScape.htm
I prefer you ask somebody else why your petunias are not as perky as they should be...I'd LOVE to tell you how can use those petunias to increase your home's value!
Experience Member, American Society of Landscape Architects (ALSA.org); Past clients have been mostly contractors, developers and local civil engineering/architecture firms, plus the occasional homeowner. Currently, I design recreational facilities for the National Park Service (DOI).
I am located in the dry Great Basin area (Greater Nevada/Utah), so the use of landscape materials OTHER than plants is emphasized. As a licensed Landscape Architect on the East and West Coasts, I have been in practice over 20 years.
Organizations ASLA (ASLA.org)
Education/Credentials BSLA in Landscape Architecture, 1989
Many additional seminars, educational venues, and classes (both taught & attended)
Awards and Honors Best Multifamily project, 1993
Best Model Home Landscaping, 1993
Question I live in Indianapolis, In. We have a Bradford Pear tree in our front yard and love it. But the last couple of years we have noticed that springing up from under the tree are lots of new saplings. Consequently we can't plant any flowers in the little bed we've made under it because the roots are protruding. How do we stop this from happening, or can we? It is very unsightly.
Answer Suckers usually come up from the grafted stock, and in older trees may indicate that the tree is in declining health.
Yes, it is unsightly, but there is a cure. There are two methods - one is to trim these "suckers" manually, and the other is to apply a sprout inhibitor. I recommend BOTH methods for year-to-year reduction of this problem. Once it starts, it can be controlled, but will have to be done for the life of the tree.
Planting under the tree, even with the presence of roots, shouldn't be a problem. If the tree is big enough, a few snipped roots or the ocassional annual shouldn't cause problems. Just don't add soil to the base of the tree, and adding an extra level of soil to "cover" the suckering roots may actually cause the tree to decline in health.
Here is some discussion of the two methods, and other issues relating to your Pear tree:
