top left corner.. probably liberty ...

this is a nice planting for today ... but liberty can get 3 to 5 feet across .... over time..

even without a scale i can tell .. if that is liberty ...is the three blues around it.. are too close ... which means.. pretty soon.. 1 or 3 are going to have to be moved... nbd ...

that is not really a problem for someone who has space to fill with minimal number of hosta ... but the large ones can take 3 to 5 years to start getting large ... point is.. if i have one ... yo may not need as many hosta as you think ... if you have the patience to wait for them .. as compared to the budget to simply fill it up soon ...

and finally.. there are tons of look alikes... i wouldnt get to tied up in having exactly those in that pic ... we can probably name substitutes which absolutely no one will ever know is different ...

welcome to the hosta forum ... check out the prior alphabet posts for guidance and wisdom .. lol ...

ken

The bottom dark green center with wide light green/yellow edges could be Goodness Gracious or Afterglow. I'd go with Goodness Gracious if you have a choice (its smaller with better ruffles). Or Luna Moth for an even smaller plant and less yellow edge. Also June is a must have and could replace any blue if its very shady or blue with yellow center if its not shady. Not that it is entirely blue in the shade, just less yellow in the center. Also Touch of Class for a narrower yellow center. Check out Ben Vernooij (or Autumn Frost or First Frost or Firn Line) for the blue with bright yellow (to cream) edge.

Agree with Ken, top left is Liberty, a must have. Gets big tho. Next to the yellow bush, could be Fragrant Blue. Down to the right could be Luna Moth. The small one in the middle, green leaf with bright yellow margin looks like Autumn Frost. The little squiggly yellow one, could be Wiggles and Squiggles. BUT—like Ken and Steve say, there are literally thousands of hostas and some hard to tell the difference between. Right now we are just ending the Hosta ABCs, something we do for fun during the non-hosta season. As you can see from the home posting page, there are posts that say “Hosta W, Hosta, Q” and scrolling back to December 26, where we begin with Hosta A. As Ken suggested, going through these posts can help you decide what you want. Keep in mind that a 4.5 inch container is very small. The picture above is not a 4.5 inch sized plant, in my opinion. A hosta will take 3-5 years to grow to it’s full size. You can buy quart and gallon sized hostas at some vendors, they are more expensive but it’s a trade off. A vendor that sends nice sized plants compared to others, I think, is Hornbakers. Good prices and good sized plants. There are many great vendors, there is a post about vendors further down the page. Check it out! Welcome to the hosta forum! We are addicts and great enablers! (Especially Steve.....lol) Ken has a great deal of knowledge about hostas as well as many others on this forum. Have fun! Btw, now is the time to buy....and tell us what you do buy!

debra

This is really a “local” question...climate . ...exposure...weather...after years of loving and growing hostas i have never found them to be forever plantings...plus most of them like just the right amount of partial shade ...for me they do better in pots than in the ground...and they always do better if you buy pots with bigger plants to start with...which can be pretty costly and only really available in local nurseries....where there are usually only a few varieties...thus the opinion of the previous poster that your pic was just new plants spaced and placed

Green Mountain has good sized hosta for good prices. They don't necessarily have the latest introductions, but have a lot of nice hosta. You need to order early as they sell out before you know it.

You might look at Lakeside Hostas on the Hosta Library. They were bred in Tennessee for the climate there. Of course, not all of them are widely available, but many are. All are named Lakeside "hosta name", so when you see them, they are easily recognized by the Lakeside name. My favorite is Lakeside Shoremaster.

Land of the Giants Hosta Farm has really nice large hosta and has some of the latest introductions. They have some really nice large specimens for large prices if that is in your budget.

Look at your photo. See how the plants are varied with color and texture. You don't need those particular plants to achieve that look. It's the variety and the placement that makes it so attractive. Even if you bought that exact variety of plants, your look would not be the same., as they would grow at a different rate than the one displayed.

Find hosta you like and then find companion plants for them. It's a great hobby/interest.

bkay

Thank you so much for all of the advice and suggestions! I really appreciate it.

I completely understand it’s impossible to identify the exact variety just by the picture. That’s actually not what I was trying to get. I was just hoping for some similar names to get me started. Sorry if I didn’t explain my question well. It’s so hard to judge sizes of the plants from their catalog pictures so I was hoping all of you with experience might know some similar varities that were the correct size. Thank you so much!

Hmm... I hadn’t even considered that the picture might be staged but now that you mention it you do have a very good point. A bit too perfect for a real garden!

Thank you for the help! I’ll be looking up the names you mentioned tomorrow. And I’ll check out the A-Z Hosta posts. I really appreciate the advice!

When you find one you like, look it up on the hostalibrary.org. it will show you multiple shots of the same hosta. (Be aware as Ken says, "don't shop in the hosta library". Many of the varieties in the hosta library are not available any longer, or maybe never were "in the trade".)

On the upper left side of the first photo of that variety in the hostalibrary.org is a link to a description of that plant in myhostas.be. It will tell you the size of that hosta and includes comments by hosta professionals about that particular plant.

Here's another resource for you: Hostas of the year. For the last 25 years, the hosta growers of the year select a hosta that will do well in all environments. The first one was So Sweet, my all time favorite hosta. It's been through heat waves, diseases, hail storms and neglect and it's still a great hosta. All the hosta of the year since then have been great, long lasting varieties.

Good Luck.

bkay

Definitely staged to look like that. I don't know about your space and how quickly you want the hostas to grow but keep in mind that some are fast growers and others take a while to get going. Everyone here has great suggestions. June is a definite must have hosta since everyone who sees it simply loves it. I have 2 one which is much bluer in the shade and one in much more sun. My first hosta was Frances Williams, bought at a local nursery. It was not a good first plant since it is notoriously plagued by burned looking leaves, yes even in the shade. It has finally settled into a nice spot with lots of overhanging branches to shield it. Needless to say, its problems kept me from buying hostas for a long time since who wants a plant that never looks that great. Also keep in mind that the pictures in the Hosta Library are often taken by the people who either originated the hosta or really like it, they are often the hosta at its peak performance not just random pictures. I would also add Sebright Gardens as a great source for extremely healthy large plants. Their shipping is the best I've ever had--each plant is carefully wrapped and the they always have healthy root systems. Good luck and welcome to the forum!

In the spring ...Walmart is by far the cheapest resource...as much as half the price of nurseries...

Walmart and other big box stores do not necessarily have hosta that will do well in your environment. Around here every big box store has Frances Williams in the spring. It doesn't do well anywhere, but it's particularly bad here as it has burned spots by May. They also have undulata albomarginata, which is a slug magnet. I looked at hosta at Lowe's last year. Their hosta were small and not cheap for what lousy, common varieties they had.

Of course, I'm in Texas, and hosta are not common here. In other environments, the choices might be better.

bkay

instead.. you should ask.. what is it about the siting of each plant .... that is so cool ...

==>> anyone going to take a stab at answering this query ???

why is the overall group stunning ...

btw.. it doesnt help the pic is way up there now ...

ill give you a clue.. what is the purpose of the blues ...

ken

ps: and the bonus question ... why only one green??? .. or more precisely.. why that green one ... and i would also have to guess at this part of the question ...

Walmart is the only place to get cheap hostas and they will only have them for a short time....all of the above problems are found with poor placement and erratic care...they prefer cooler damper climates ...partial shade...and a not too hot climate...they should be treated as annuals if your climate is different...in an attempt to expand varieties i have purchased from expensive nurseries and have not found them to be superior in quality to equal the higher price...the best reason to keep them in pots is that you can move them if they are not flourishing where they are....

Potted plants can be moved to better shelter in the winter also...in these cases choosing lightweight pots...a good idea

I avoid big box stores since their plants can have diseases and aren't well taken care of. For example, the Home Depot near me has the plants baking in the sun on concrete. I always liked going to nurseries that actually grow the plants. The big box stores don't water plants often and the longer the plants are there, the worse they get. It helps that i'm near a nursery that has a lot of hostas grown in pots under the trees and for daylilies I'm actually near the hybridizer. As stated above, avoid Frances Williams, it took years for mine to grow well and avoid burnt leaves--don't ask me how this happened but suddenly it wasn't burnt out by mid-June.

I also have learned my lesson about big box stores........ how many times have I seen the name tag missing??? Also agree with miles that these plants are far more likely to carry diseases which can spread to other hostas. Also, buying from a vendor, the ones mentioned here on a previous post as well as the ones on HL front page, you are sure to get the actual hosta you want and in good health. Most back their plants as well. I bought so many hostas from box stores and local nurseries that were mislabeled . Only found out from this forum that they were a different hosta completely!!

debra

Now commenting on ken’s questions....... to me the purpose of the blues elongates the bed......keeps the eye moving. Also the blues make the variegated hostas pop. Now of course this is looking down from above, ken’s fav shot, hard to say standing next to if it would do the same....but I think so. Now the green, much more difficult.......that green one is lighter than the bushes and grass. If it was darker, would it not stand out as much?

debra

I definitely agree with djacobz, the blues set in a zig zag pattern draw your attention back to the large variegated hosta I will call Liberty. The evergreens are a “neutral” background against which the hostas pop. The chartreuse shrub really makes the blue hosta seem bluer. The green seems to draw out the green color in the variegated hostas that have green in them. I’d love to have this “perfect” bed in my yard.

Debra, thank you for jumping in on Ken’s question! I was completely stumped. See this is why I hunt for a picture to replicate instead of coming up with a flower bed on my own 😉 I don’t have an eye for placement whatsoever...

But now that you and miles10612 mention it I think your right! The blues definitely make the other colors, especially the varigaeted, pop!

Btw I decided on purchasing:

-Luna Moth, June, & Afterglow (I just love the blue variegated! Couldn’t choose between them 😀)

-Blue Angel

-Liberty

-Antique Drinking Gourd

-August Moon

-Touch of Class

-Fragrant Blue

I’m probably way off on some of my choices 😉, but I took your advice and picked some of the ones you all suggested and then just tried to pick similar ones for the rest....If anyone is curious, here is what I settled on to get me started

Thank you so much for the phenomenal advice and for encouraging me to just dive in!

I never buy hostas at Lowe’s or Walmart or Menards etc. Diseases. Plus they are often mislabeled.

Use Google to search for a medium size green hosta, or a large blue hosta, or a medium variegated green and white hosta. Etc etc etc.

Great choices, I have all but Afterglow and Luna Moth..... whether they match exactly the photo hostas, with those choices I think you have a great start! Remember to post your hostas on the forum.

debra

Great purchase! All are great hostas and you should enjoy them in your yard. Always keep in mind that plants differ and so do yards. For example, I have 2 Junes one in morning sun and the other in dappled morning sun. The one in the dappled sun is much bluer than the other. Same thing happened with Linda Sue which grew in afternoon sun at the growers place and needs lots of shade in my yard. Even if you saw both of them in person at a nursery that's no guarantee that they will be exactly the same color in your yard. Relax and enjoy your plants--keep us updated on how they look in your yard.