Do a landscape plot using grafting paper and see what sizes fit where also locate the type and duration of shade in any one given spot. Take into account the average rate of growth and there you go. A shadier garden will look better with lighter colored hostas, but you may want to invest in a good book like, well I'll let someone else call that one. Some hostas do better then other in your climate plus there are many new exciting cultivar out there; you may want to cover your bases before you cover your little yard.

I was never good with planning... my garden is stuffed with perennials, many of them grown in same spot- like first columbines and then they give space to anemones...
I have only few mature clumps of hostas, most common ones like Elegans, September Sun, Francis Williams, Francee, Halcyon, Blue Cadet, Tokudama aureonebulosa and flavocarcinalis- I love all of them... I think well developed specimen of almost any hosta is great...
I am with you, Janet, how do we choose? At this point I do not choose... I get what I can for reasonable price or price I think reasonable ;)
Get little of everything if you can- blue, green, yellows, pointed leaves and round ones, piecrusted and variegated- plant them and let them grow- time will tell and that is why we have shovels ;)

hey janet...

WHERE did you go??

jill....also in wi

Jeez, Deshima, you've got self control! My motto has always been "When in doubt, buy both" (or more). I've never been sorry buying more, but I have had regrets if I've tried to exert self control and left something behind. Doesn't matter whether it's a hosta, daylily, antique, etc. From reading the posts on this forum, it seems the next step when you run out of ground space is to move to pots. I asked my daughter to send pictures of private gardens she encountered while traveling in Europe. Apparently many people have small courtyards and go vertical. They have fabulous pottery filled with plants all over their stone walls.
I've tried taking a set amount of cash into garden shows. But I always have my debit card, and ATM machines are available everywhere to enable garden junkies like me.

Janet~
Your hosta lady can surely tell you about eventual size, and your eyes can tell you which look the best to you. Good luck trying to keep your purchases limited. The hosta forum might as well be called the Hosta Addicts Forum.
~Bunnycat

Enquire about late emergence; the ones that come up early are a pain. When you start asking the large ones will get the most hits yet without some small or medium they will make a small space look smaller. Many avoid tokudama's because they are slow but they come up late and look good for a long time.

Ask what they like best not what is the latest and greatest.
H.ÂPauls Glory and H.ÂOn Stage are pretty big but late and grand.
H.ÂJune super must for everyone.
HÂÂWide Brim old never mentioned dependable performer.
HÂÂStriptease and all of its sports, fast growers.
H.ÂSultana another old one no one mentions, a little bright spot in the garden.
H.ÂJosephine great shiny leaved hosta.
H.ÂWhirlwind special early and fades to plain but it is so nice early.
H.ÂPatriot and any of its sports.
H.ÂGreat Expectations everyone will cry foul, get one or more and be satisfied with the size that plant grows.
H. Tokudama Aureonebulosa great old tok.
This is not a complete list of course, some blues and golds.
Remember what is their favorite, not what is their latest acquisition
Now when you have the known best and compulsion sets in you can remove H.ÂPauls Glory to make space.

PS, the space question. All medium or less and create a minature garden to scale. Like model trains, would you put a full sized engine in your yard because you like trains.

My list had to many large plants for a small garden.

Planning and organization are great for people who have that natural capacity. But I don't. Everything in me rebels against both. I get what I like. A recent spin through my garden has revealed to me that all plants with yellow leaves appeal so me, so you'll see lots of the yellow leaved varieties of hosta among the yellow ground cover, shaded by the big yellow arborvitae punctuated by violet campanula. Of course I have favorites among the greens and blues, and seem to really like the greens with yellow blazes down the leaves such as Thunderbolt and Dream Weaver.

The truth is, since they are hosta, and are all beautiful, they all look great no matter what's growing next to them. I do have enough sense to plant the tall ones in the back, so everything comes out okay. My point is, a lot of planning is not an absolute requirement. As Ken says, "They are hosta. Relax and enjoy them."

Lainey

Jill, I went to Woodland Gardens in Crivitz. Unfortunately, this is her last year that she is open daily. Next year she will open for a couple of days only. Another fantastic place is Foxfire Gardens in Marshfield. You've been there, right? If not, it should be on your must see places to visit. Stunning gardens, and over 500 varieties for sale.

EO, I appreciate the short list; less overwhelming than having a page full of names and sizes. I just purchased June because I knew I would always want that one. I already have Wide Brim, love it too. Funny you should mention ditching Paul's Glory when I run out of space. I almost like my plain old green one better than Paul's Glory, which hasn't colored up properly. I said it before - St. Paul is far far superior to Paul's Glory

Oh, and I do have plans to make a mini hosta garden. I've been obsessing about it daily.

I have a list too, but many times I've gone to a nursery and bought something not on my list.
Either because I didn't like how any of the plants from my list looked at that time, or came across something that I didn't know about before and liked it.

My list consists of plants I've seen pictures of, either on here or in a Hosta book, and ones that I've heard are good performers. I try to stay away from ones that have negative traits or have been known to be problematic....except Great Expectations, I just really like that one and even though my first one came back smaller this year, I bought another one and am trying it in a different place....time will tell.

I also don't have room for any of the LARGE ones, so I focus on the medium or small ones.

Janet

"I do have enough sense to plant the tall ones in the back, so everything comes out okay."
Lainey

If you want to create an allusion of distance then plant large close and small far away. You may not understand this but if you plant small 1st in the middle and large 1st on each side it will make a big hosta "W".

Why you ask as you should! When planes fly over the Captain will ask "why is there a big hosta "W" in that yard" and the Co-Pilot will respond; "it stands for wake up and smell the coffee, they're just hosta".

This is bringing out the compulsives, take you pills and quit canceling your appointments with the therapist.

"I also don't have room for any of the LARGE ones, so I focus on the medium or small ones."
Janet

Please send pictures I love small gardens?

I have 20 acres, 12 unplanted. I keep trying to do a small area and mess it up every time or something overgrows it. I do have one but it isn't anything special. I have a picture in my mind of an area surrounded by monster hosta with an entrance to a miniature garden something like Alice in Wonderland.

Let's get a designated driver and go split a six-pack of hosta.

yea limited space is a very biiig prob for me as well. I have a small garden brob on 15 feet long 8 foot wide . n its full a hostas. to make things worse I'm jus renting. which is good excuse to act to buy more. I keep teeling myself its ok before they get to big ur own ur own home go ahead buy 6 more this fr. dear lord help me. I've know started doin pots on the patio but that didn't las long within a week I had 8 lol oh well.

Janet, keeping a want list was my way of avoiding the negative ones as well, but I realized last weekend that it would have been much easier to keep a list of hostas to avoid. lol

There is so much good information on this forum to compile a list of bad hosta. This weekend it's going to get hot and humid. Maybe I'll find the time to put it together and will post my findings.

lmao@ the six pack...you're on, EO!!!!

Lainey...I'm with you - I can't draw up a garden plan to save my life! I tried to do one about 3 months ago while waiting for my hostas to emerge. My friend had graph paper and we were in Barnes and Noble.

I look over about 15 minutes later and she has half of a full-scale plan all mapped out - house drawn in...the whole deal. I was still staring at the blank paper!

Finally I dug around in HER purse (nice, eh? lol) and found a Hershey's chocolate thing called "Treasures". I plopped it down approx. where my garden shed would be in the yard and THEN I could finally start drawing something. LOL! Otherwise, no clue w/o some sort of reference point on that paper!

I definitely am hands-on and not one who can transfer from paper to soil.

Truly, some should get professional help if they want a pleasing design. I try to copy things I've seen since I have no artistic ability, not that I do that well but it's better. Here is a little thing stolen from a Japanese garden book. It can be repeated with hosta or any plant over and over, still looks good to me.

The flat rock in the front is the kneeling stone with 2 sentries on either side and the temple rock in the rear.

Now, IÂve copied or echoed this with the low procumbins juniper in the front, Dwarf Alberta Spruce as sentries then weeping Norway Spruce in the rear. Note the dwarf weeping Hemlock that just adds more sentries or people or whatever you see. You can see the little rock thing on the right. The mouth rock is a small waterfall that is not running.

Janet, I always go to Woodland Gardens with a list, and by the time I leave I usually leave with only one from my list and 5 others I didn't plan on buying.

I usually end up planning my garden once I already have 20 hostas waiting to go in the ground. So probably not the best advice!

wit my experience nothing goes as planned I go into a place wit 2 hostas on my list. walk out wit 4 completely diff hostas. hmmmmmmm. yea I got a prob.

Hey EO, I DO like the "W" idea. I think I should do it with only hostas that start with the letter W. Let me see...

Whirlwind
White Christmas
Wolly Mammoth (there's the big one)
Wintergreen

gotta have War Paint and Warwick Ballerina
gotta have Wagon Wheels
and Wiggle Worms
love that Witches' Brew

gosh my W is going to be bigger that the prez
it will be viewable from Air Force One!

Now for the itty bitty one to put in the distance...

Is there a little one that starts with W?
maybe Whippersnapper?

Suggestions embraced.

Lainey

I agree with bunnycat...DO BOTH. Last weekend I went to a hosta event armed with my must have list of 98 plants. 98 plants -- that should be enough to stick to the list, right? However, there is always room to add to the list when you see an amazing grown specimen...or two...or three. At the end of the weekend I was patting myself on the back for purchasing 8 hosta from my "must have" list. I also purchased 11 hosta - new just gotta haves that were amazing! Both is fun!

Hosta are so variable that one can find more ways to use more of them than most budgets and space will accommodate.

When I go to a nursery,I usually have a couple of hostas in mind,and try to get them first. Then,I look for ones that catch my eye! Even though I have quite a few hostas,I always know if I see a new one I don't have. Basically that's it! A lot of the ones I've seen pics of,don't look that good to me when I see them is person,so I pass on them. Phil

I tend to buy everything that catches my eye, and worry about where to put it when I get home :-) I, too, have lists of hostas that I want to add, but they never seem to keep me from buying OTHER hostas as well. I do have to admit to slowing down this year, as space gets tighter. I'm making more of an effort to only buy those that are not too similar in looks to others that are already in my garden.