What plants will grow well under pine trees?  The space is quite shady and has pine needles pretty much covering it. The soil is fairly dry.

Although it can be challenging, it’s a myth that nothing will grow under large pine or spruce trees. The reason many plants don’t thrive under evergreens is dense shade and extreme dryness. The trees have dense root systems and are strong competitors for soil nutrients and moisture.

The cure: If you plant perennials where they face dry shade conditions, give your shade garden plants the best possible chance by watering deeply and fertilizing more often than you normally would, and put a layer of mulch down. To let more light into your shade garden, consider elevating trees by cutting off some of the bottom branches. This works with deciduous trees, pine trees or thin older spruces, but don’t do this if your evergreen is a perfect Christmas tree shape with branches down to ground level. In that case, I would just mulch under the tree rather than disfigure it. The following is a list of some “survivor perennials” for dry shade you might want to try:

• Barren strawberry (Waldsteinia): A low-growing, dense mat of leaves that slightly resemble those of strawberries.

• Big-root geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum): Attractive and aromatic leaves, flowers in late spring in colors ranging from white to pink and magenta, depending on cultivar. Not to be confused with the common annual geraniums of the genus Pelargonium.

• Barrenwort (Epimedium x versicolor): Attractive heart-shaped leaves. With its delicate yellow flowers, ‘Sulphureum’ is the most popular cultivar.

• Dead nettle (Lamium maculatum): Look for cultivars such as ‘Beacon Silver’ with rosy pink flowers and silver leaves edged in green or the white-blooming ‘White Nancy.’

• Heart-leaved bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia): Large, leathery leaves and rose-pink flowers in early spring. Looks great in a big grouping.

• Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum): Finely textured leaves and white flowers in spring. This is a top-flight groundcover in the dry shade garden. Note that it can be invasive.

• Groundcover plants: To make it really easy, consider the big three ground covers: ivy, pachysandra, and periwinkle, which are all tough evergreen perennial plants, perfect for the shade garden.

I have several plantings of the narrow arborvitae ‘Emerald.’ During this past winter and especially with the late spring snow fall, they have become bent over about midway up, even though we shook off the snow-laden branches. Is there anything I can do now to help them return to their straight, upright growth habit?

Due to their multi-stemmed nature, arborvitae and junipers are especially susceptible to having their limbs distorted from heavy snow loads. These loads cause the branches to bend and separate from the center of the plant. If the snow load is heavy enough, the branch can break.

Snow should be removed as soon as the storm stops by either using a broom to jostle the branches, gently shaking the tree so as not to damage the bark or by sweeping upwards. In case the weight of the snow has severely bent an individual branch, try re-positioning it by tying it to other branches within the shrub.

In more severe cases, like with yours, you can attempt to straighten them by tying a soft rope (their bark is thin), even old panty hose or stockings will do, around the trunk. You will need to tie above and below where it’s bent. Attach a rope to that and pull the tree straight. You will have to anchor the rope and leave it on for at least 6 months if they have been bent for a while. There is no guarantee that they will straighten, but it’s worth a try.

Evergreens can be protected from snow breakage by tying the branches together with strong rope or twine before winter snows are expected, but after the first severe frost. Fasten it near the tip of the tallest branch and then spiral down around the entire tree and tie it off to the base. You do have to remove it at the first sign of spring.