AboutMarc Chapelle, ASLA Expertise As a licensed Landscape Architect, I am available to answer general questions about style and design, ideas and suggestions for site amenities, larger site-planning issues, or recreational and park design. 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); My clients are mostly contractors, developers and local civil engineering/architecture firms, plus the occasional homeowner. I am currently located in the dry Great Basin area (Reno/Sparks), so 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 18 years. My website: DesertLA.com
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:
