As you probably know, hostas come in various sizes...mini, small, medium, large and huge...so you should probably put the small to medium sized hostas in front. For example, Fire and Ice wont usually grow bigger than 3 feet in diameter....Stiletto should grow to a max. size of about 2 feet wide...etc.
It's a matter of choosing the right size to suit your purpose.
You may have to transplant some of your hostas....

Papou

height is determined by genetics... how long it takes to get there is a question of your gardening abilities ...

width is a function of age .... they never really need to be divided .... so they can get wider and wider ...

if a hosta doenst fit .. move it.. or get rid of it.. unless you just need the exercise of digging it up and bonsai'ing it every few years ....

no where is it written .. than planning will allow you to plant a garden to perfection and never move stuff ... you plant.. you screw up.. you move things... that is the definition of gardening ...

learning heritage.. and understanding sizes .. allows you to predict ultimate potential size .. if both parents have beachball sized leaves and stand 3 to 4 feet tall ... odds are... 99% of the progeny will be HUGE .... same on the opposite side of the spectrum ... plant these in back ... the opposite in front ... and when you have learned everything.. and still made the wrong decision ... move them ... but dont go out there and keep digging them up just to make work

ken

See I have read all this before yet, it doesn't match what I see. Ken says they will continue to get wider... so the "Stilletto should grow to a max..." is not quite accurate? My garden says Ken is right they keep getting wider and wider and wider, which I didn't figure on when I placed them. They all grow at different rates even though they all get very similar treatment. This I knew but I thought if I put a "small one in front" it would stay smaller, but mien grow so much faster than the larger ones they are equal in total mass. I also have found, even though it has been refuted here, some grow faster AFTER being divided than they did before..My Fire and Ice sat for four years did almost nothing, I finally felt like I could divide it and now the divisions are all growing like crazy. None of mine HAVE to be divided for any reason. NO fairy rings, no crowding. For the past 10 years I have been doing what Ken hates, dividing and filling two acres on a budget. I will no longer divide. I may remove and transplant an entire plant but dividing is not necessary, in my garden if I have one I have five. I love my gardens and I have all I want. Someday I can see doing as Ken suggests start replacing the common and doubles with classier varieties. For now I am interested more in how the entire garden looks versus admiring a specific specimen. I am trying to do my heavy moving while I am still able bodied enough so in my old age I don't have issues and can just weed a bit and enjoy...

You most certainly can excise eyes on the outer edges of a hosta to control size of a clump, the leaf size, height are genetic.

You've stumbled into a group obsessive-compulsive collectors that cut down old trees to accommodate hosta. I take from your post that you only "like" hosta in your landscape?
Someone mentioned that hosta come in various approximate sizes so you can use them to accomplish many space requirements but the clump will tend to increase on the outer edge by making new eyes.

Do you have photos to help us understand better your particular condition then say what you want to accomplish and we can advise varieties to fit your taste.

I once heard the term"monoculture ghetto". I'm not sure who said it,but I try to avoid it,by planting other plants,besides hosta,in my garden. My garden is a garden,not just a collection of hosta. I know,I know a lot of you would disagree,saying hosta is the only plant,but not for me. I have Heucheras,ferns,both native,and bought,and Trilliums,in season,and Solomon's Seal,both real and false types,and I think it is more pleasing than just endless rows of hostas. Just MHO! Phil

"monoculture ghetto"
Phil

There is much work in the plant world to suggest that monoculture's are not good for the plant in question. University of Ill did some work indicating that a healthy system had at least 7 varieties of plants not 7 hosta cultivars.

I'm with you, Phil - love my hostas, but love too my peonies, and ferns, and goatsbeard, and heuchera, and diablo physocarpus, and dogwoods, and, and, and, and

Have to constantly fight my collector issues or I would have one of every perennial and shrub and tree - not a good look in the garden.

If it grows and interests me, I want it in my yard.

As for moving stuff - I find it takes at least three moves til most stuff finds its permanent home. Sometimes, only sometimes, I get it right the first time...

"As for moving stuff - I find it takes at least three moves til most stuff finds its permanent home. Sometimes, only sometimes, I get it right the first time."

inlimbo, that sentence describes what happens here too.
I'll planted something, only to realize it would look better over there, even if it's only a foot away, lol.

Re the "ghetto"...I have a gardening friend ( sadly, "had" is more to the point as he has Alzheimers and is no longer able to volunteer at the Arboretum nor to grow perennials from seed to share) who "grew roses"....fabulous, lovely perfect specimines, grown in rows protected by chicken wire. He called himself a "gardener" but he didn't make a garden he grew plants.
I try very hard to remember what I am trying to create...
Linda C

After my last post I thought I would just move on to Shade gardening and stay there. I have a rather large shade garden, if it grows in the shade and is hardy to MN zn 3/4 I have at least two varieties of it. Hosta are certainly the MAIN event, but not all there is for me. Phil,inlimbo,I am glad to hear not everyone here are exclusively hosta growers.
Esther I planted a ginko then a small heart shaped leafed hosta one after the other along a boarder. I have Fringe Benefit, Fire and Ice and Golden tiara behind them in a row, spaced several yards apart for growth. I expected the back row would remain larger than the front row. The ginko and unnamed hosta were very small, one-three eyes when I planted the border. I expected the ginko and the green hosta to grow at similar rates. The un-named green one grows like crazy. I could divide it every year and it still surpasses the ginko. As I think about it its leaf is the same shape/size Golden Tiara is...
Anyway I was wondering if there is a way now that I have the colors all spread about as I want them (if I have planted and moved a hosta once I have moved it TEN times...) if there is a way to keep them balanced size wise larger to the back etc. I read all of Ken and your posts, I thought I had the size deal figured out but my hosta keep growing and growing and it feels like one day SOON they will all be the same size. I know I need to post pictures. After what happened to Ken I need to TAKE pictures so I have them at least....

Keep in mind the ultimate size of the plant....no way will a golden edger ever EVER equal an Elegans or Regal Splendor in size.
It may grow faster, but in the end, the elegans will eat it for breakfast.
Also...if there is a hosta that is too big for the spot you have it....prune it. Just cut some leaves off the outside edge...makes it a smaller plant.
Many times I have cut leaves off of an overly large hosta...but in the interests of not spending a lot of time whacking back hosta, you need to divide it or move it the next spring.
Linda C

Try hostalibrary.org that I think has a cultivar size reference, it won't be as accurate as it might because often plants are registered before they have been vetted in enough gardens to have consensus on size but that will help then come and ask more specific questions about plants you think you want.

And left to their own they will keep dividing making ever larger circles with the same height. No real answer to that question.

Yeah,and another thing about hosta sizes. I have 2 Kiwi Full Monties,and they are supposed to be medium sized plants. Well,this year,they maybe on their way to being larges. If we get more rain,they may be the monster that ate the Rich Uncle hosta planted just a little farther downhill from them! I have some hostas,such as Striptease,that are still,almost a small. I think it depends on where they are planted,and water,and climate. Too many variables! Phil