When my arborvitae shrubs were smaller, the bunnies loved to chomp on the lower branches causing bare bottoms that take forever to fill in again. For years now I’ve grown yellow corydalis plants under my arborvitaes to cover up that space. The ferny, delicate-looking plants self-seed, so while I originally planted 4 or 5 plants a decade ago I probably have 30 or 40 now—all volunteers.
The little yellow flowers have a wonderful scent and appear on the plants for most of the summer.
The seedlings that pop up are very easy to control and they transplant like champs. The plants are hardy in Zones 3-8 and they prefer moist soil in full sun to full shade.
This year a seedling came up next to one of my astilbes and I let it grow. The plants have merged into one fast-growing superplant:
This is the same clump 6 days later:
I’m guessing that the astilbe is not particularly happy about sharing space with another plant, but so far they are both doing well so I’m going to let them grow together and see what happens throughout the summer.