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Garden Design Ideas with Hostas and Perennials

Sometimes it can be difficult to know which plants look good next to each other. Get some garden design ideas using both hostas and perennials.

I thought I would share with you some recent photos of some of my perennial beds and how I have worked with different types of plants together.  Some by design and some by chance.

And, I have realized that it is a whole lot easier to make a perennial bed larger than it is to make is smaller!

Why Change The Design Of Your Flower Beds?

In my settings, it seems that there are two main things that happen that make me either need or want to change the design or shape of a particular bed.

The first one is winter and how harsh it has been.  Some plants just don’t come through really well some years and either they die or are so weak that I take them out.

The other reason is that a plant or two (Hostas) do really well, and get way too large and shade others in the bed.

This means I either have to move the smaller ones that looked great the past year or divide the larger plant.  And so I can either put the division in another bed where the dead plant was, if conditions are right for it, or I can give it to a friend.

Or, heavens, start another bed!  At any rate, each year most of my beds change a little.  Some do a lot.

Garden Design Ideas With Hostas and Perennials

Last fall with the wonderful cool fall weather in late August and September, I dug many White Swan Echinacea out of one of the beds where they had been there for maybe 10 years and did well until the crab apple tree in that bed got too large and too much shade for them.  So, most of them were potted up and stored in the cold garage over winter and sold at our plant sale this spring for Bangor Garden Club.

I was then able to divide some Hostas in that bed and move 3 other larger clumps to that bed with the nice shady conditions now for Hosta.  I like the look of the bed a lot better now too.  And, when you are using large clumps, you have a nice look the first year!

Move Plants To Protect The Trees In Your Flower Beds

In another long oval bed, I had dug out plants on the one end a couple of years ago and planted grass in about 15 feet of the end because the tree in that bed is a Gingko and I don’t want any digging by the roots as it gets older.

Make Room For The Hostas

Then last fall, (still had energy to do more in the cooler weather) I dug some of the Hardy Lily bulbs that were in the previous bed to make room for the Hostas, and moved them to the long oval bed adding to the ones that were already there as that is a sunnier spot.

It is just small things like this that each year needs to be done with perennial beds to keep them interesting and why they are always changing.

Buying Plants Without Knowing Where They Will Go

I also have a habit of buying plants without knowing where I will place them. Even though with 20 plus years of Garden Club Speakers, Master Gardener lessons and speakers, magazine articles, and gardening books being listened to and read, I still keep doing it!

So, many times I need to plant things to get them in the ground and then decide later where they should go permanently.  Sometimes I choose the right place and sometimes the plant gets moved more than once.

I have a Clematis called Mrs. Robert Bryden that is a bush clematis that I always thought would look great on the southeast side of our house on a small hill.

So, when we built on a garage 4 years ago on the house and plants had to be moved, that is where I put it.

Well, it does look just great for 2-3 weeks in late August when it blooms bluish-white blossoms, but it is rather a bit too overbearing the rest of the summer.

It may have to find a different spot later this fall and I think I know just where!

Well, here are a few more garden design ideas with Hostas and perennials to consider.

Happy Gardening!