I have good luck with ferns and caladiums...

I have great success with hostas under my Norway Maple (a very large, moisture eater) and epimedium do just as well (after it's established). Try Tirella and of course the ever agressive ivy (especially Boston Ivy- likes dry conditions). Look for anything that likes dry conditions.
Lilly

I've had very good success with hostas under my massive oak trees, as well as Bishop's Grout. Two suggestions - the first is try getting free plants or transplant some you already have. [Don't pour money down the drain experimenting.] Second, I added lots of organic material to the area and continue to every year. It's bad enough the trees drink heavily; they probably also got most of the good soil nutrients. Good luck.

I shudder to suggest this plant, but here goes, varigated goutweed! I think this stuff would grow out of the ashes in my wood stove it I planted it there.

I have a healthy and happy garden under a white oak that is at least 100 years old. Hostas, Ferns, Pulmonaria, Alchemilla Mollis and A.Erythropoda, Anemone Japonica, Carex, Aruncus, Filipendula (yes they take some shade), Astilbe, Cimicifuga colonizing well in one spot, Thalictrum, Campanula Takesimana, Hardy geraniums, Rodgersia, Selaginella uncinata, Ligularia, the ground cover plumbago, Astilboides tabularis, (not entirely happy as it's a little dry),even some grasses on the edges have established well. Amend the soil!!! Limb up the trees to add some light, feed with compost twice a year, mulch in fall, and run soaker hoses in there to water slowly for half a day on Saturday's until all is settled in.

have you thought about raising up a bed there? I did with a big beech, ringed it with the flat shale slabs that are EVERYWHERE on or property, dumped dirt in there, planted hostas, dumped more dirt on the roots, and mulched the whole thing...three years later, they get watered once a month, and I keep the mulch fairly thick.

I have tons of vinca and ivy growing wild under the oaks. They cover well but the ivy needs to be pruned every 6 months (climbs the oaks).

Hou about plants in containers?

Whatever you do, DO NOT change the soil level over the root zone of the oaks! It will usually damage them, often kills them.

I agree with lazygardens on that last point. A raised bed under any tree will slowly kill the tree. Adding leaf mold and compost a few inches at a time will improve the soil over 3 or 4 years and create a more hospitable environment for shade plants without damaging the shade tree.

I have a huge oak in my side yard where nothing (including grass) has ever grown - just dirt. I never worried too much about it, but last year, as an experiment, I decided to try to "lasagne" it, in preparation for making a little woodland garden there, and I am most pleased with the results, though it's far from finished. I actually skipped the newspaper part since there wasn't any grass to speak of, but just gradualy started with thin layers of grass clippings and leaves and whatever else I could think of that I had random bags of in the garage (blood meal, manure....). I started the layering in June. I put in hostas and bulbs (narcissus and muscari) in the fall, and have started to add some sweet woodruff as filler. I just ordered some myosotis alpestris from the Bluestone 50% off sale which I think will also do well there, and may move some phlox divaricata there. It's already so easy to plant things in - a pleasure, really. The soil improvement has really been the key. It's not the shade or the roots that are the problem - as usual, it's the SOIL.

We have a number of old oak trees that we love and want to protect-especially from over-watering. I have 2 specific problem areas-both have an oak tree, one is fenced and (therefore protected from the deer) the other is not. Both have many roots which makes it very hard to plant-if I could figure out what to plant! I'd like to make the shady areas under the trees look nicer-would hostas, Brumnera, Heuchera, cyclamen, primroses, etc need more water than the oaks should get? How much water is too much for an oak? I was intrigued by an earlier post that suggested creating a "raised bed". Would that be ok for the oaks as long as their crowns don't get covered? Plant suggestions-especially deer resistant?