The hostas went in first. Alas, having never grown hostas before, I planted them way too close together. So much so that two years ago I had to declare it Hosta Moving Day and invited some friends to come help dig up, divide, and move hostas, and of course take some home for themselves. Hostas do very well being divided and are after all, known as the friendship plant for just this reason.
My all time favorite hosta is the tokudama flavocircinalis (big name, big plant) whose leaves have stunning deep blue-green centers with chartreuse to gold outside edges. It is also slug resistant which is a huge plus. Other nice varieties are Patriot (green and white), Gold Standard (mostly gold with a little green), and Guacamole (golden green centers with lime green edges).
Once I had the hostas in place as the anchor for my shade garden, I experimented with various shapes and sizes of ferns. The smaller fancy ferns while exotic and wonderful on their own, were completely dwarfed by the giant hosta leaves. Plus they were very temperamental, so I kept it simple with larger, more common ferns like Lady ferns and Hardy Ostrich ferns. They are dependable year after year, get at least 2 feet tall and are wonderfully fluffy. Lady ferns spread so they will fill in holes in your planting all by themselves.
The last step was to add a few pops of color with evocatively named heucheras like Lime Rickey, Peach Flambe, Creme Brulee, and Bressingham Bronze along the front edge of the bed. These little guys positively glow in the late afternoon sunlight. Small splashes of colorful plants like the heuchera help to keep the eye engaged, and provide further depth and balance to your new forest glade.
Now each spring when the hostas poke their spears and the ferns unfurl their fronds up through the soil it's like having beloved friends return after a long vacation. Then as the heuchera begin to add their deep reds, bronzes and purples to the mix I breathe a sigh of contentment.
Cheers!
Judy
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