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Design Ideas for Hosta Gardens

Create stunning Hosta gardens with easy to care for shade loving plants. Learn how to choose Hosta varieties that complement each other with a variety of shapes, colors, and textures.

Below are some pictures of my shade garden taken recently, so I invite you to come with me and take a virtual tour of a few of my perennial beds.

Over the years each of the beds have changed as I have moved plants around and gotten a better idea of how large and tall some of the Hosta varieties can become.

Design Ideas For Hosta Gardens

Click on each of the photos for larger images.

The first photo shows a border of Tiny Tears Hosta. Far left front is Golden Scepter. Then the geese, Francee, and Green Wedge, and Christmas Tree. Surrounding the tree is Valentine Lace.

This is the same bed as the picture above, from a different angle. The front border is Tiny Tears. Front center is Christmas Tree. On the left is Green Wedge and the back right is Francee.

This is an early spring picture of the planting area right outside our house. When I look out the door each morning, I feel a sense of relaxation and even on a hot day the Hostas look cool.

There is so much you can do with just one type of perennial such as a Hosta.

There is a major variety of Colors and Textures with all of these different Hosta and then interplanted with white or pink Vista Petunias and white impatiens in pots.Or, for quite a different look, Hardy Lilies such as Siberia or Star Gazer for a bright burst of color in late July.

I have put a “Raspberry Blast” Wave Petunias in one of the large containers as well now I use Vista Bubblegum Pink Petunias in some of the large pots for something different, but mostly I use white as they practically glow and light up the evening.

In this hosta garden left to right are Regal Splendor, Abiqua Drinking Gourd, Montana ‘Aureomarginata’, and a border of Stiletto. Hostas add Elegance to any plantings.

The Regal Splendor Hosta I moved from another area this spring, that was getting overgrown and it is in a better place here by the gazebo. But, every time you move a Hosta plant it sets the growth back for a year as it has to acclimate itself to the new growing area and conditions and so by next spring, it will be 4 to 6 inches taller than it is now.

The large Montana ’Aureomarginata’ looks pristine with the old wagon wheel backdrop.

The Abiqua Drinking Gourd looks a bit lost in the picture, but seeing it here you can see the heavily corrugated and cupped leaves.

The Stiletto just keep growing wider each year and next year need a hair cut or they will take over the narrow parts of the bed. I will then continue on with the border around the back of the planting area around the gazebo.

This is another Hosta garden planting area on the back steps of our house that has a steep slope. The Hosta on the left is Krossa Regal and the light green is a border of Kabitan.

I first saw Kabitan used as a border in a Paul Aden Book a long time ago. I knew I wanted it from the start, but that was almost before they were for sale. So, I was patient and when I did purchase one, I had to wait for it to multiply. This little Hosta too has stoloniferous roots that spread underground and so makes for many plants once it gets established.

It is a lightly substanced leaf on it and so is an attraction for slugs. They stay bright throughout the summer, but fade from these brilliant chartreuse colors later in the summer.

I have changed the direction of the “border” in the past couple of years so that it isn’t in one long line, but in a few different sections, but still the repetitive plants and bright spots in this planting area.