Tips for Designing a Hosta Garden

Some of the most beautiful gardens are made up entirely of Hosta plants, and most gardens everywhere include at least one variety of Hosta plant. I recently became more acquainted with using just Hosta plants to design entire garden beds because of their versatility, ability to grow in just about any condition and the budget wonder that they are through dividing. Hosta gardens are ideal for several trouble spots in your landscaping, or just a beautiful display for those that love long-lasting foliage.

Hosta plants are mainly grown for their foliage, characterized by broad leaves that range in color from all green to bands of white or completely white, gold and a deep blue or red. Most varieties flower, again the flowers can include pink, white and purple varieties, on long tall spikes that shoot out of the center of each bushy plant. They grow well in the sun or the shade, in rich or poor soil and alone or in large clusters with other plants. Also, hosta plants are great as a border or edging option, a mid level or even in the foreground of a garden.

If you would like to add these versatile plants to your garden, or even create an entire hosta garden, here are a few tips to help you get started.

Tips for Creating an Entire Hosta Garden
The way you plant these leafy flowers will depend a lot on the area and soil where you will be planting them. If your garden spot is entirely in the shade it is important to group the plants as closely as a foot between them. The shade will prevent the hosta from becoming as large as those planted in full sun, so while they will still flourish here, you do not want to leave a lot of room between them for weeds to grow. In areas that receive a lot of sun, space the hosta plants about a foot and a half apart, which will be enough for the leaves from neighboring plants to grow and fill in an entire area.

Plant any variety of hosta plants in clusters of three, unless you are creating the border of a garden bed. It is fine to mix hosta varieties for planting, and makes the bed more interesting to look at. Plant groups of three hosta until the entire bed is filled and then there is very little maintenance that you will need to do.

Tips for Adding Hosta to Flower Beds
Hosta plants are great as a border to flower beds and mixed into the beds along with other plants. If you decide to use them along the border, it is important that you keep them at least a foot to half a foot away from the edge of the bed, because their leaves will extend all the way to the edge. It is easy to create curves or straight lines by simply planting them as needed. If you do not want to use the hosta plant as a flower bed edger, you can add them to the bed as well. When mixing with taller flowers and shrubs, keep the hosta plants in the midground, where they can be seen and will not be blocked out and in the shade.

Other flowers that look and grow well with hosta are periwinkle, lily of the valley, snow in summer, ferns and most bulbs.

Tips for Planting
Hosta roots are in a tight clump, so they require plenty of room to spread out in. Make sure the the hole you dig is about twice as large as your clump, add loose dirt under the clump and make sure that the crown of the plant is level with the surrounding soil. Press the dirt and hosta plant firmly in place and water thoroughly after planting. Hosta do require regular watering in order to really flourish and flower, though they will manage when there is a drought.

Best Varieties for Color and Interest
My favorites are the new whiter variety of hosta plant because of the way they look during the day and stand out at night. Loyalist Hosta are broad white leaves with green edges and lavender blooms from June to July, even more stunning is that all white, White Feather Hosta. Blue hosta plants are also a nice change from an all green foliage garden, and come in all blue to green and blue varieties. The Halcyon variety is one of the deepest blue varieties available and the best option for a shade garden where slugs are a problem, the thick leaves keep it safe from the voracious eaters. Blue angel is a well balanced blue-green variety with uncharacteristically large spear leaves. For fans of the color yellow, Paul's Glory is a dominant hosta variety with all yellow leaves and a thin green edge.