The Hosta – A Shade Loving Perennial
By Bonnie Carrier 

My first introductions to Hostas were four small green and white clumps edging a small section of my mother- in- laws driveway.

I was not terribly impressed, they looked more like scraggly lettuce plants with a few sticks growing out of the middle plus their size never seemed to change from year to year.

Fast forward a few years, I now had my own home with visions of gorgeous gardens blooming in my head. The property was surrounded by trees, which we loved not only for the privacy but the house was kept quite cool during the hot summer months.

I soon discovered that all that shade may have been good for keeping our home and family cool it wasn’t great for growing certain perennials as most I’d looked at all said full sun.

During trips to local nurseries looking for shade loving plants I kept noticing Hostas, thinking “Oh, great spindly lettuce” I went ahead and purchased two plants, I was desperate to plant something along the perimeter of those wonderful trees.

The two green plants with white stripes found a home next to a simple concrete birdbath, one on either side. During the summer I weeded around them, watered and feed them every two weeks but didn’t really hold much hope that they would turn into anything special.

The following Spring during winter clean up I noticed small green shoots popping up beside the birdbath but again didn’t get to excited. Well, by mid summer those two had tripled in size were very full and looked absolutely beautiful.

I began to rethink my first impression of Hostas and after doing some research discovered there are hundreds – actually more then 2600- of varieties available. Leaf colors include green, blue, gold and white. The leaves can either be a solid color or variegated with a second color mixed in the center or along the edges.

Several plants in various shades can really dress up a shady corner. By mixing several of the brighter hues along with darker shades can be quite dramatic.

Another way to use Hostas is by mixing them with other shade plants, which can include Perennials such as Astilbe, Bleeding Heart and Japanese Painted Ferns also, Shrubs like Azalea, Hydrangea or Sweet Pepperbush. You’re not limited to using shade plants just within wooded areas or around trees. For instance, a partly shaded walk way along side your home would make a perfect candidate for this combination, plant the shrubs or tall perennials along the back next to the house with the Hostas placed in front can look quite stunning.

A large shade tree in our front yard looked like a good candidate for dressing up and because of the success of the birdbath Hostas of course I decided to try more around the tree. Using a tiller we formed a circle around the base and mixed good topsoil into the existing dirt, edged the circle with bricks, all that was need now were the plants.

I spent several days’ scouring local nurseries looking for Hostas in different colors and leaf textures. Armed with six new plants of moderate size – I’m one of those impatient gardeners – I staggered them around the tree, put down a thick layer of cedar mulch then for decorative accent added several groups of unusual looking rocks found in the woods, a family of resin squirrels also found a home sitting around the plants.

It really looked great and I just knew by the following year with regular watering and feeding those six plants would be larger, fuller and gorgeous.

Several days later while doing my daily walk around to look for anything new, I noticed something strange around the tree in the front yard. Getting closer things really looked funny.

It took a moment to realize there were no longer leafy plants growing there, just a bunch of green stems. This was how I learned that Hostas happen to be a favorite before dinner snack for deer.

Therefore my advice is if you live in an area populated with those brown eyed beauties and your going to give Hosta growing a go make sure to spray them with a safe repellant periodically from their emergence in the spring until the first frost in the fall.

So for those shady areas think about planting Hostas, after all they are a whole lot more than scraggly looking lettuce.

This is a share ware article. Give this article away for free on your site, or include it as part of any paid package as long as the entire article is left intact including this notice. Copyright © 2005 bonnie carrier.

Bonnie P. Carrier is the creator of Savvy Home Decorating & Savvy Outdoor Decorating. She is the mother to two grown daughters and a very spoiled 4yr old Blue Merle Sheltie named Toby. Stop by for information and ideas for both inside and outside your home.

Starting a Shade Garden...
By Gordon Goh 

The shade garden can be exploding with color and texture. No matter how much shade is in your landscape, the right flowers, plants, bushes and bulbs will grow in this area when given a chance. As there are various types of shade, you will need to choose the plants that are 'right' for the type of shade you have: partial, dense, full, or filtered shade. In starting a shade garden, one of the easiest shade gardens will be the filtered shade garden. What you need to do first is look at the trees or bushes that are making this area a filtered shade garden. Pruning off the lower branches on taller bushes and on the tree will allow additional light into your garden. Because you are planning a filtered shade garden, you do want some amount of sunlight in that garden below the tree.

Thinning out the bottom saplings that are trying to grow from the tree is needed at this time to ensure they do not grow up in your garden. Underbrush and thorny bushes should be cut down and dug up at this time before starting your shade garden.

Now you can work on the soil that is in the area that you want to create that new garden. Adding organic materials, more soil, compost, manure or other types of nutrients to the soil will prepare the fine garden bed that will hold your shade plants.

When possible, do not disturb the roots of the tree that will be in or around the garden area. Cutting or disturbing the roots of a tree can cause damage or death to the tree over time. Working with the soil and adding the needed materials to make your garden about six inches deep is going to be the ultimate situation for your new plants.

After planting your first shade plants in the garden continue to water them every few days until the roots begin to 'take hold' and support the plants. When placing your plants in the soil of your new garden, mulching around the plants will hold the water in the soil for your plants to thrive best.

Shade Garden Plants

Do you have a landscape that involves trees, shrubs, and bushes? When your landscape is filled with shade during certain times of the day, you can still have wonderful plants, flowers and color using the shade garden plants. You might find it most interesting that within the shade garden plants, there are additional types of shade needs. Shade gardening does give you various opportunities to change your landscape and to enhance the tree line of your yard. Shade gardens give many gardeners a more relaxing feel, as a place where you can stroll and be calming in the shade. The sun areas of your garden and landscape are lively and energetic.

To discover more about the different shade areas of a garden, take a walk through this area, or walk through the woods. Taking a walk through the woods you will find that sunlight does still hit some areas and some soil is in the shade all the time.

Filtered shade is an area where the sun will lightly hit. This indirect sunlight filters to the ground between leaves, branches, and other bushes. An example of where filtered shade is - this the soil at the bottom of a very tall tree that has branches that have been thinned out. The thinning of the tree allows sun to still fall on the ground below but in an indirect manner.

Partially shaded areas of your garden are different from the filtered shade areas. The portions of your landscape or gardens that does get sun four or five hours a day, but then remains in the shade of a tree or house the remaining portion of the day is a partially shaded area. The plants that are sensitive to the high temperatures of the full sun in the afternoon are plants that you will grow in this area.

Full shade areas of your garden are the areas of your garden that remain in the dark for most of the day. Sunlight may shine in this area of the landscape when trees loose their leaves or for less than an hour each day. Choice plants that mature in the spring or produce flowers in the fall are the plants that grow in this portion of your landscape.

Dense shade is yet another area of your landscape where the sun never shines and the area never do receive partial shade. Dense shade areas of your landscape include those that are beside fences, houses, in the thick of the wooded area or similar type areas.

Read the information that is available when purchasing plants that you want to place in shade gardens. Some shade plants still require some amount of sun as described above for the best results.