By Victoria Torley 

I love my trees. They are a great focal point for any yard.

As for me, well, with eleven acres of land, perhaps half of it in uncut jungle, I have enough trees to last me for a while. That is not to say I don’t plant more trees because I do. A Guanacaste tree (that is constantly being attacked by leaf cutter ants), an ylang-ylang (that finally died after being attacked repeatedly by leaf cutter ants), a frangipani for which I have hopes, and now two Costa Rican chestnuts which have fuzzy leaves. No worries about ants for those trees. 

Obviously, I don’t have to worry about what to plant under the jungle trees. They have their own undergrowth and share it with all my other trees, but you may have a smaller ‘yard’ where you have planted trees as focal points and want something to plant around or under them.  

First, decide whether your tree has open branching, allowing sunlight to penetrate the foliage, or if there is dense shade under the tree. Dense shade will limit what you plant near the trunk, but you can still brighten the area by planting farther from it.

Joyweed, Alternanthera tenella, is a wonderful plant for lightening an area. It has variegated foliage in green with white, yellow, or red variegation. Since it only grows about a foot tall (32cm) it is an excellent choice if you want something low growing. If you prefer something taller, liriope, Liriope muscari, also called monkey grass, mondo grass or lilyturf, will grow in dense clumps and about eighteen inches tall (40cm). It is variegated in green with white or yellow variations.

The Pilea genus offers a variety of shade loving plants. Pilea serpyllacea, the artillery plant, is a succulent that grows to 10 inches (25cm) and makes a thick ground cover of green. A relative, Pilea involucrate, is brighter, with variegated foliage and pink flowers. It will grow from six to 12 inches.