The hosta may be the easiest, most productive, and most adaptable garden plant there is. It comes in a huge variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and textures and is offered in hundreds of different variations. Despite the fact that many hosta species can withstand full sun, it’s one of the most popular options for gardens in shadow. It should come as no surprise that many gardeners use many hostas in their landscapes, and creating an entire hosta garden is a common design choice.
There are a few restrictions for picking and cultivating hostas, though. Unfortunately, if deer like to wander around your yard, they will probably consume your hostas before you get to enjoy them. Hostas are vulnerable to damage from caterpillars and slugs. Hostas may become sun or heat damaged during unusually hot summers. Divide your hostas in the fall, just before they go dormant, to keep them at a manageable size and to maintain the health of the root systems.
Hostas have a few qualities that you should take into account when designing a shade garden with them, including size, shape, texture, color, flowers, and form, as well as companion plants. Below, we’ll go through each of these in detail and offer some hosta variety recommendations.
Go for Giant Hostas
Some of the largest and most impressive hostas can reach heights of up to four feet—or even higher when the flower stems are included. You should give these giants plenty of room to expand and display their majesty in your garden.
Try Smaller Varieties
Numerous small hosta species—often referred to as “miniature” hostas—can create charming focal points to your hosta garden. To ensure that they are seen, place flowers near the front of your bed or border.
The following common types are excellent for a fairy garden: Blue Mouse Ears (shown), Sun Mouse, Stiletto, Little Caesar, Mini Skirt, and Tiny Tears.
Get a Cohesive Look With Solid Colors
The variety of colors in hosta leaf is amazing. Light to dark greens, blue, yellow-green, gold, and even white-leafed species are examples of solid colors. Observe how the ‘Dancing Dragons’ hosta’s cool blue color harmonizes with the garden’s yellow-green foliage hues, not to mention how its striking teardrop-shaped leaves seem.
Red stems can be found on some gold cultivars, such as Lipstick Blonde and Fire Island. Hosta blooms can also come in a variety of vibrant hues: Large, fragrant double white flowers grow on Aphrodite.
Vary Colors With Variegated Leaves
In the shade garden, hosta variegation enables almost limitless color variants, including blue leaves with gold edges, light green leaves with dark green edges, white leaves with dark green edges, and so versa.
The amount of sun a hosta receives can have an impact on its color. Some blues and dark greens thrive in full or partial shade, and a gold edge may turn white if it receives too much sun. Pictured here are Wide Brim in the back right and Cool as a Cucumber in front of Frances Williams (with Jack Frost brunnera on right). Try Liberty, Patriot, or Amazone if you want huge swaths of creamy white coloring.
Try a Range of Leaves
Hosta leaves come in a variety of shapes, including curly, lance-shaped, heart-shaped, teardrop-shaped, and more. The big, pale blue heart-shaped leaves of the Prairie Sky are an example of how these shapes can contribute enticing visual appeal. With its light blue heart-shaped leaves, the hosta Prairie Sky creates a striking focal point in this garden border. It blends well with the adjacent ferns, perennial geraniums, and alliums’ shapes and textures.
A variety of leaf forms lends unique visual richness to a large hosta planter. Try Wiggles and Squiggles or Neptune for leaf edges with ripples.
The shape of the entire plant, as opposed to just the leaves, is referred to as the silhouette or form of a hosta. A spherical silhouette is produced by some hostas, while others scramble low to the ground or rise erect in the style of a vase. There are short and long stems.
Try Different Textures
Hosta leaves come in many different textures. Some are glossy and smooth, some look matte, some have deep grooves, and some have a surface that is puckered or corrugated. This texture has an impact on the hosta’s ability to reflect sunlight (or moonlight! ), as well as how it appears after a rainstorm. When planted together, even closely related-colored hostas can create an exciting pattern if different-textured plants are used.
When referring to hosta types that have somewhat thicker leaves than others, the word “substance” is frequently employed. Smooth or corrugated leaves have this thickness, which offers slug resistance. Neptune, Sum and Substance, Whirlwind, June, Maui Buttercups, or Empress Wu are some cultivars recognized for their heavy substance.
Add Companion Plants
Alongside hostas, companion plants can offer gorgeous hues and textures. Hostas go nicely with ferns, dicentra, heuchera, pulmonaria, astilbes, and perennial geraniums, among other shade perennials. Impatiens, dusty miller, and strawberry begonias are good choices for annuals.
Achieve Balanced Design
It can be challenging to quit once you start growing hostas! Your hosta-loving friends can be an excellent source of divisions for planting because, fortunately, gardeners love to share.
You will become more skilled at designing with them as you become more familiar with various species and their development tendencies. The shade garden shown above has a very harmonious layout with a dynamic color palette (a purple heuchera for contrast is included), as well as a variety of leaf types that range from solid to variegated.