Straggling plants

Beautiful billows

I want to use lots of asters, but I don't want it to look like regimented clumps so many feet apart. I want the clump placement to look natural.

No, my vision is a naturalistic garden, full of stuff. I've been planting the tiarella, but I tend to start small, because not everything works well for me. I need to transplant more volunteer ferns from elsewhere in the garden. My goal is to have the edges better defined.

I'm not that fond of hosta, but it's there and it obviously does just fine in deep, very dry shade.

I meant to include ferns in my post above. I think once established they may do well in dry shade, and IMO would work well in a naturalistic garden. Of course anything you plant will need supplemental water until established.

Again, I do think some kind of definition of the bed will help you visualize how you want to place your plantings. At least, lol, it would help me!

As a hosta lover, I have to ask - have you seen some of the gorgeous hostas out there? I ask because so many people think hostas are just plain boring green, and are surprised when they see the variety of shapes, colors and sizes they come in!

:)

Dee

Here are a few suggestions:

I have seen all sorts of hostas. My BIL has a hosta bed. I didn't like them as a kid --- I wanted my mother to grow roses and she grew hostas. (She had dry shade, too).

So, while I have a lot of the plain hostas, I haven't been that interested in buying new ones. I'm also hoping to be mostly native.

My dry shade is served well by Geranium macrorrhizum (what a stellar plant for dry shade), and Christmas fern, both native. Christmas ferns create a very naturalistic environment and the great thing is they contrast wonderfully in leaf form and height with the Geranium.

I find that lamium and Autumn Joy sedum also do OK in shade. I use the big root geraniums too.  The lamium and geraniums spread and make a nice filler in between taller plants.