Lovely hydrangeas and a fat and sassy squirrel too! We have been overrun by grey squirrels in my area which have driven out the reddish brown squirrels that we always had. Yours looks quite content surveying the area. It must meet with his/her approval lol

miles..that squirrel is tame..see how when I was taking the picture he looked at me like "oh Hi"..it's our fault..we buy dry roasted unsalted peanuts for the birds..but the squirrels eat most of them..the squirrels are a nuisance in the summer digging in my pots..the nut buffet will be closing in 2 months..

I can't believe I forgot about B. Jack Frost. They are so wonderful.

Shadow we were posting at the same time. Lovely Lilies!

sandyslopes I adore Rodgersia for their foliage & flowers. Which one(s) did you get? My Trollius did really well for a couple of years then last year it was pitiful. I hope it recovers because I would not like to be without it.

mbug I am so excited to get Bartzella planted, especially after seeing yours.

old_dirt gorgeous! utog & old-dirt the Rhodos & Azaleas are so beautiful. I grew Bletilla in a pot once I should again!

Debra nice, especially the Clematis & Lilies! Debra & Shadow do you not have issues with the Lily beetle? I was having issues and then the chipmunks ate all the buds on a drought year. They enjoyed the buds so much they went for the bulbs and pretty much wiped most out completely.

oursteelers as well we should. The bright blue with the gold is so striking!

nw your garden is so special. You needed a namesake! Now you will need to get Hosta Ann Kulpa. There is H. Anne, Pity it is not spelled Ann!

peren..thanks for the compliment 🙂..I prefer spelling Ann with an e but Ann is my aunt's middle name so my mother spelled it the same..Ann Kulpa would be a nice addition..some of my arborescens hydrangeas are Annabelles..they're an important plant to my garden..I've always enjoyed their name!..

Nicholsworth, we keep the peanut feeder filled year round, we don't have problems with squirrels digging in pots. Yours must be well mannered to eat out of a jar. We buy 80 pound bags of shelled peanuts from the wild bird food store and fill up tube dispensers that are meant for squirrels. Problem is, the store doesn't sell the tubes anymore and the squirrels have bitten through the wire on the peanut feeder. I don't want a feeder that is a house or a wooden box I just want a tube made from tough chicken wire with a top and bottom.

miles..we're trying to come up with the perfect set up but it's tough..I've looked at birdfeeders but haven't found the perfect one..the one I have was a gift..nice but not squirrel proof..I'd like to give the squirrels a few but not as many as they get now..we secured the feeder to a plant stand my husband made from scrap wood..

It may take me a few days but I will attach a picture of the squirrel feeders that I got in the past from the Wild Bird stores. For some reason they don't sell them anymore and just sell "houses" made from a resin compound which I don't want.

Never had a lily beetle...... never heard of them. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Love the inspiration I get from all of you in this alphabet category. Trollius was on my list at some point but I guess I forgot about it... it’s back in the list.

I failed to get a pic of my Max Frei hardy geranium - it’s one of my favorite companions, and the rabbits leave it alone.

Those of you who grow vinca - does it smother the hostas? I didn’t plant it, it comes in through/under the fence from the neighbors yard. I keep yanking it out but it’s hard to keep up with along the very long property line.

A little late on this one. Loved seeing everyone's companion plants nice to get ideas on what to complement the hostas. Here are a couple of mine

Aralia - Sun King in the back/right

Bleeding Heart - Gold Heart

Fern - Lady Ghost

Coral Bells - Palace Purple

Heucherella - Pink Fizz also a small clump of Lamium

Beth, the lamium I had went wild in a bed and had to be removed. Yours looks controlled. I really like the Palace Purple heuchera. It's a good plant to have among the hostas. A couple in our hosta club has masses of it among their hostas and its gorgeous.

Miles daylilies are up and starting to out on growth here.

I can’t remember who asked about vinca but it’s a smotherer here!

Daylilies are up. Great news. Our snow is melting, it was 52 here yesterday and in the mid 30's but sunny today. I will have to check when I go home this evening and see what mine are doing. I haven't been out in the backyard to see if the hellebores are blooming. March can be brutal here so I don't want too much to come up and get hit with a polar blast.

windymess..I cropped a picture to show you some vinca near hostas..vinca needs maintenance..it does crowd my hostas and grows into the path..

It's really nice to see all the plants that compliment our hostas.

peren.all/Laurie, my Rodgersia is labeled 'Chocolate Wing'. It comes up copper but quickly goes green. I'll see if it keeps the copper color longer now that I moved it into more sun, and it would be nice if it made more flowers. Yours is covered in them! But the sun is intense here, so the trade off could be that the leaves will burn in summer. I'll have to see how it does this coming season.

djacobz/debra, I probably have a number of plants that would be poisonous if a cat or dog munched on them, as you pointed out, the Foxglove (Digitalis), and I have Monkshood, and I'm sure others. But since they don't seem to eat them, I worry more about the lilies. The pollen on lilies (not daylilies) is very harmful if any gets on a cat, and they lick it. After I learned this, I tried to move mine where they wouldn't be walking, but where a cat goes is hard to predict. It has kept me from getting any more lilies when I do like them.

windymess - You asked about Vinca, would it smother hostas. I finally found an old picture. This path was once lined with hostas on one side and ferns on the other. I inter planted vinca minor and within 4 or 5 years the vinca totally smothered both.

old_dirt..it looks nice but it sure wiped out everything in it's path didn't it?..

nicholsworth - yes it does, on the far end I have to constantly pull and cut it to prevent it from invading the bleeding hearts and hostas.

old_dirt..a gardener's work is never done..if this isn't a saying it should be!..look at this lamium..I have the same issue..I did rip some out and cut it back last year..

I forgot to add Actaea as a companion. Any Actaea (Cimicifuga - Bugbane) especially dark forms like Brunette or Hillside Black Beauty. Will have to see if Pink Spike actually turns out to be true to name. I also like A. japonica 'Cheju-Do' & 'Silver Dance'. A. rubra is a favorite native.

It appears that ground covers take over wherever they are planted. The beautiful pictures of gardens with plants surrounded by ground covers are just pictures. The reality is they usually choke out the plants. I've given up and have ripped out lamium, vinca, wild violets and other stuff. Now I just mulch around the plants.

So far these haven't taken over (yet). They are planted in the desert underneath Maple trees where other plants fear to tread. The Hostas are planted in spin out bags so I'm sure that helps. I planted the Purple Dragon Lamium and Black Scallop Ajuga but the other Lamium was there when we moved in 5 years ago.

I did move the Wolverine behind the right Heron in favor of a taller City Lights (in the back between the two Herons) whose spin out bag was invaded by Maple tree roots.
Now I'm glad I ripped out the Vinca and planted some wild ferns in another part of the garden.

Omigosh! I’ll just keep yanking it out. Haven’t found any other way, since it’s not actually my planting. DH has sprayed it without success. If it were mine, I’d try to properly remove it (I’ve done that before and it’s a tough job). But that neighbor isn’t friendly either, so I can’t even talk to her about it.

miles..true..my groundcovers grow endlessly in every direction..the name "groundcover" says it all..I think it's prettier than weeds but it's a battle to control it..

steve..the lamium with purple flowers might be less aggressive than mine with yellow flowers..my neighbor's purple flowered variety seems to be slower growing..or maybe she actually keeps up with garden chores!..

I like your herons..I've seen some but I was too cheap to buy them..Lol

nw/Ann the Lamium you have is Lamium (Lamiastrum) galeobdolon. It is sooooo much more aggressive than any other. Gee ask me how I know lol!

I ripped out bags upon bags of Ajuga surrounding Hosta. I was really tired of having to cull it back 3 times a year.

I have Vinca under a massive maple. It took years to establish but now I am having to curtail it on one side.

windymess what a shame you have a non friendly neighbour. If you sink a physical barrier like garden edging at the back of your fence that would help a lot. The roots aren't terribly deep.

peren..yep lamium galeobdolon spreads like wildfire..in my garden I think it's faster than vinca, ivy, wild ginger, creeping jenny, ajuga, pachysandra or Clausa Lol..

since this garden is "informal" (a nice way to say wild) it's not as much of a nuisance to me as it would be to some gardeners..

the good news is it's only in the back..

Learned something here today, what i have is evidently lamium of some sort, never knew what it was. I've had this little circle for several years after it spilled out of a hanging basket. I trim the inside and out several times a year and plant something different in the center every few years.

old_dirt..yes you have lamium galeobdolon just like mine..I obviously haven't been trimming mine several times a year Lol..

Looks like I'm lucky my lamium all died off in a cold spring freeze/ thaw cycle. I also have a hard time keeping Ajuga around.

If we're talking about nuisance companion plants, has anyone had a problem with Sweet Woodruff? It's not as aggressive as some, but I'm finding that besides popping up everywhere, it will choke out the hostas. I like it and am not out to eradicate it, but I've learned to be ruthless when it gets too near other plants, especially my hostas! ....(Ignore the grass.. whole other problem)

sandyslopes..my sweet woodruff isn't as agressive as most of my other groundcovers..

I’ve had Sweet Woodruff struggle at first in a very shady area with oak trees it finally took off and spread a lot but then it ran into wild violets and the resulting mess is what I tear out and fill multiple trash cans with each summer. Needless to say all hostas that were that area got run over by the competing ground covers. The area is at the back of my lot and is the last bed I work on each summer. Sandyslopes yours looks much more under control.

Miles, Lamium does spread in my garden but I find it is easily controlled with pulling out the excessive growth. It seams the roots pull up easy too. I have it in a pretty shady spot.

I planted several lamium Pink Pewter last spring... they started to really take off... then the rabbits got them and sheared them down to the ground. Every time they tried to grow back, the rabbits sheared them down again. By the end of the season there was almost no sign of them. I’m anxious to see if they come back this spring. Maybe the roots/crowns survived?

I love all the ginger that so many of you have, but I never see it offered for sale in any of the nurseries around here.

Does anyone grow “green-and-gold” - chrysogonum virginianum? I’ve seen it in a garden and admired it... but also never see it in the nurseries.

Well, this has turned out to be such a wonderful thread with such beautiful companion plants!

Sandyslopes, I've got Sweet Woodruff. I don't have a problem with it. It's growing very slowly in a section of my garden that is filled with tree roots. It is kept in control that way. It is an invasive plant in some areas. So if it gets the right conditions, it grows quickly. So I use it in the most difficult to grow areas in my garden, and that keeps it in check. I actually love it. It's compact and pretty.

If it gets too wide, I just chop off a section of it. But I usually don't even have to do that.

Someone suggested to me to use vinca as a "spiller" in a container so I bought some. I didn't realize that vinca minor is considered invasive in Ontario while vinca major (variegated) is not. I planted it in a container. In fall I took some of it and planted it in the garden for overwintering. Since it's a tough plant, I am doing an experiment and left some in a container outside. I did do that experiment with creeping jenny last year. All was well until spring. The pot was in the sun and I usually had it covered. So mostly because of the heat of the sun and being covered, the plants eventually died. This time the vinca are in a pot in a more shady location and covered. We'll see what happens this time. But I won't be buying vinca minor anymore. I suspect the variegated one grows much slower and that's why it's not considered invasive. The vinca minor does look pretty when it is controlled in the garden though.

I usually plant my hostas to be part of a larger combination or view so companion plants are extremely important.

Here’s Jimmy Crack Corn and fortunei Aureomarginata with hakonechloa, astilbes and Aralia cordata Sun King as back drop.

Several hostas with green hakonechloa (hakone grass), epimedium, aging Allium balls, verbena bonariensis...

Inniswood with conifer and sedum

Dream Queen with lamium and pulmonaria

Mourning Dove with white astilbes

Aralia cordata, heucheras, arbovitae, daylily, hakone grass...

Montana Aureomarginata with hydrangea and perennial foxglove

Empress Wu and Dragon Tails in front in combination with siberian irises, daylily leaves, climbing hydrangea and red currant

My post got wiped out. I posted too many pictures. Darn!

So I don't think anyone mentioned the corydalis plant. I really amazed me in that ur seemed to have a really long blooming season and was a lot tougher than it looked. Slugs didn't seem to particularly like it. It self seeded itself so I just thinned out the plantlets. Looking forward to seeing it this season. Hope to have some to pass on to others. Seen here center:

I love the maidenhair fern too (top center). There's a small hakonechloa macra grass on the right and another grass at the bottom that is of unknown variety.

Corydalis in bloom:

Then there is Jacob's Ladder. I have two.

I don't remember the variegated one flowering nor the color, but the green one has nice blue flowers.

My favorite epimedium so far is rubrum. Here it is:

And the flowers look like this:

And what about some hens and chicks? I have a bit of a slope and planted a small cluster of hens and chicks. I couldn't believe that they flowered so beautifully. I am mad that I didn't get a better closeup of the flower. So pretty. I hope it blooms next year.

newhostalady..when I moved here 16 years ago there was vinca major..I was surprised because I thought it was an annual..I left it and over time it's grown into my path..I intended to move it..this is an ongoing problem for me! Lol..I'm behind on my "to move" list..

I took these pics for you today..keep in mind this vinca was covered in snow until a few days ago..I think the sage green color is pretty..I do think it's slower growing than some of my others..

that's a loose dried Annabelle hydrangea bloom laying on top..

Wow, so it's a good grower too! Thanks for the photos!

Note: I happen to be a member of that slow "to move" list too!

Wow Laura, your plants seem so tall. I'm a fan of the very full, nearly wild look of your garden.

I will be adding some Corydalis to the Hosta beds this year.

Laura - I agree w/Steve... your garden is very artfully arranged. It looks like photos from a magazine... just beautiful, and peaceful/inviting looking.

Steve I just saw your post about black scallop ajuga ===>>> tear it out before it takes and beliege me it will.....I know it’s beautiful in bloom but it will choke out your hostas and hide the slugs. This is the exact ground cover that took over my yard!

debra

Debra- I’ve had the opposite experience with Black Scallop ajuga... I‘ve lost it in most places it was planted. There are only a few plants here and there remaining. I would say that it seems to be susceptible to wet soil in winter, except there are places it survived that are probably pretty wet through the winter. I have one small awkward area at the bottom of the deck stairs and had hoped it would fill in there... but it disappeared. I replaced it with ajuga Chocolate Chip... and that seems to be doing better - so far.

So, either way, success or failure- I also wouldn’t recommend Black Scallop, cute as it is.

It's been there two or three years now. It's a tough place to grow things under the maple trees. When the summer gets dry, it tends to die back so far. I grew it in California and I love the look and it remained tame. Perhaps I have some cultivar that isn't as aggressive. I really don't remember. Has anyone noticed In The Country is selling a large variety of Ajuga this year? I wonder how aggressive they are.

Steve and windymess, thank you so much for your flattering words, I’m honored!❤️

Laura..I agree with steve and windymess..your garden is gorgeous..great combinations and well tended..loved your photos 💕..